* * * *
“You’ve been avoiding me. Now why, I wonder?”
Amaryllis had just settled against a broad column in a quiet corner of the rec room where she’d hoped to escape notice. She jumped at the voice near her ear and glanced up at Cain in surprise. She reddened guiltily. “I haven’t been.”
“You don’t lie very well,” he said wryly.
She sighed. “I thought it best to avoid … trouble.”
He grinned, arching a dark brow. “Now I’m trouble?”
“Violet.”
The teasing amusement vanished. His lips thinned. He glanced away from her, studying a group of hunters that were engaged in a game of pool at one of the tables across the room. “I thought as much. You believed her, then?”
Her gaze flickered over his handsome face searchingly. “I don’t think you’re like that … but you could be.”
He glanced at her questioningly and she smiled faintly.
“You are very … persuasive.”
“Am I?”
His grin was infectious. Amaryllis felt her own lips trembling on the verge of a smile. She nodded. “And I couldn’t help but wonder….”
“Don’t,” he said implacably, then scrubbed a hand over his face. “This isn’t a game to me, Amaryllis.” He moved imperceptibly closer, until barely a foot separated them. “I’m in deadly earnest. If we didn’t have cyborgs swarming all over us I’d show you just how serious I am.”
His words as well as the promise in his eyes were as tangible as a caress and Amaryllis’ breath left her in a rush. Sensation prickled along her skin. Heat pooled in her belly.
“If you keep looking at me like that I’m liable to do something really stupid,” he growled warningly.
It scared her that she wanted him to. She swallowed with an effort and dragged her gaze away. It was more difficult to banish the images that rose in her mind. She cleared her throat. “I’m having a lot of trouble adjusting to … all of this. I don’t know how I feel about anything except … it has helped more than I can say just to have someone to talk to.” Not to feel so terribly alone and isolated.
He smiled wryly and shrugged. “I can live with that …for now.”
She shook her head. “I’m not so sure this would be a good thing—for either of us. I don’t want to cause you any trouble.”
She didn’t mention Violet, but they both knew Violet wasn’t going to stop. Maybe she realized her interest in Cain was a lost cause, and maybe not, but even if she did she’d made it clear that she wasn’t simply going to go away.
Reese had indicated that she was here because he’d seen to it that she was and, she suspected, he considered he had a prior claim on her. Beyond the fact that both Reese and Dante had the ability to drive her over the edge of reason with passion, she didn’t know how she felt about either one of them, but she had a feeling neither of them would consider that they’d finished what they’d started. Once they arrived on the new world and were no longer segregated they might take violent exception to Cain, particularly if they decided that Cain was taunting them by taking advantage of the situation.
It wasn’t that she suffered any doubts that Cain could hold his own. She simply didn’t want him to have to.
For that matter, she didn’t want to think that Reese or Dante might be hurt because of her.
“Is this to protect me, or them?”
Amaryllis reddened. “Maybe it’s to protect me.”
He studied her a moment and shook his head. “I’ll give you my word I won’t provoke a confrontation, but I’m not going to back down from one either. But if you think you can avoid it by refusing to have anything to do with me, you’re wrong. They’ve been watching us together since I approached you and neither of them look the least pleased about it.”
Amaryllis glanced up guiltily at that comment, more than half suspecting that Cain had only said it to gauge her reaction. She saw, however, that he’d stated nothing but the truth. Reese was standing at the observation window directly above them with murder in his eyes. Dante, standing slightly to one side of Reese, looked more angry, if possible.
A shiver of uneasiness went through her with the realization that she’d instigated just the sort of thing she was hoping to avoid. She glanced at Cain angrily. “You knew they were there!” she said accusingly.
He gave her an assessing look. “I told you I did,” he said coolly.
“I mean when you stopped, when you … acted as if you were going to kiss me.”
