Brow knotting, she shrug-nodded.
Canyon had warned him to tread carefully and he hadn’t listened. But he was now. “Kasra, sex …”
How did he say this? He couldn’t say it and make her shoulder the whole thing. This was on him, too. “God created intimacy to be between a husband and wife. It’s good. But that’s not all that love is.” What the heck? Never thought when he went into Roud that he’d be here three weeks later talking about love. “If you ever … give yourself to me, I want it to be because you love me—really love me. Know me. Have chosen to be my wife.”
Hold the heck up there, cowboy …
She swallowed, staring at him.
“I don’t want you to have sex with me just to say you like me.” He nodded. “Understand?”
Uncertainty blanketed her pretty face and it broke his heart.
“You asked me what I was thinking on the upper deck … it was about this very thing: about letting go of the grudge with Canyon. He and Dani got it backwards—sex first. Then he had to build a relationship with her.” Peering into her brown-green eyes told him understanding was fighting its way past years of abuse. “I’m not making that mistake.” His heart thundered around the next words he felt on his lips. Words that included ‘falling in love.’
“I see.”
Range drew back at the edge to her words. “I haven’t finished—”
She pushed up, forcing him to leap backward. “You have said more than enough.”
“Kasra, please let me finish—”
“Forget it.”
Bang! Bang!
“Metcalfe!”
Range jerked and looked over his shoulder.
“Open up!”
Not now. He had to tell her. But it sounded like Renner was going to come through that hatch. He yanked the door open. “What?”
“You’ve got trouble.”
He braced himself. “What?”
“Jaeger just got notified by a buddy at the port authority in the Emirates. Seems there’s a pretty stiff welcome wagon waiting for us to dock.”
“How the heck do they know where we are?” He turned to tell Kasra, but saw her already kneeling at her satchel.
“Unknown.” He shrugged. “You and the missus need to bail. We’ve got a Zodiac you can take, but you have to go now. If you aren’t past the harbor by sun-up, they’ll see you and interdict.”
In a matter of minutes, they’d shouldered their gear and followed Renner down to the main deck where they met Wire and another guy halfway down. Wire nodded a greeting then took their gear. Stuffed it in a Zodiac and tied it down.
“Anything else on you that shouldn’t go in the water?”
“Negative,” Range said, taking the lifejacket he offered and passing it to Kasra.
Her lips parted as she stared at him. “Wha … You know I can’t swim.”
“With that, you don’t have to. You drop in, relax, let it bring you back to the surface. Just kick your feet.”
She faltered, and he knew her anger from their conversation was getting in the way of her hearing him … again. “No.” She shoved it back at him.
“Kas—”
