Forgotten Sea

He wanted to believe her. Her hand on his chest, her mouth on his mouth, her breath in his lungs . . .

“Prove it,” he said. “Help me now.”

Her fingers twisted together. “I can’t. I’ve been forbidden to see you. To speak with you. To have any contact with you at al .”

“What are they going to do, give you detention?”

“You don’t understand. I am sworn to obedience.”

She sounded like a cop. Or a nun.

“Shut up and do as you’re told?” he drawled.

8 8

V i r g i n i a K a n t r a

Her eyes darkened. Something there, he thought. A shadow of hurt, a flicker of doubt. “Not always,” she said.

“Then come with me,” he said, surprising himself.

Until the words came out of his mouth, he had no idea he was going to say them. He wasn’t looking to get tangled up in a relationship. No ties, no strings. But there was something between them. A connection. He didn’t understand it, but there it was. He didn’t like the thought of leaving her here with psycho Axton and his hex-happy henchman.

“I can’t,” she said. “I can’t leave Rockhaven.”

He should be relieved. He couldn’t rescue her if she didn’t want rescue. But . . . “They’re not keeping you here, are they? Against your wil ?”

She shook her head. “This is my home. I am bound here by the Rule.”

“Rules are made to be broken.”

“Not this Rule.” Her voice was earnest. “It’s our way of thinking. Our way of life. It’s what sets us apart from the rest of the world and binds us together as a community.

Without it, we cannot attain perfection.”

Some perfection. It sounded like a cult to him.

“You don’t belong here,” he said. “You’re not like the rest of them.”

“I am,” she insisted. “I’m with my own kind here. My family.”

He didn’t know enough about families to argue with her.

“Al I need is a ride,” he said. “I’d cal a cab, but I don’t know where the hel we are.”

Or where he was going. North, maybe.

“Pennsylvania. Bucks County,” she said.

He didn’t know Bucks County, Pennsylvania, from Bumfuck, USA, but he had a working sailor’s knowledge of the East Coast. “How far from the Port Authority?

F o r g o t t e n s e a 89

Newark,” he added when she just blinked those lovely eyes at him.

“I don’t . . . Two hours?”

“That’s good.” Damn good. “I can go anywhere in the world from there.”

North, he thought again. He was almost sure of it.

“You’l be home before breakfast,” he said.

“Fine.” She stood.

He should have been happy with his victory. He was getting the hel out of here. He watched her cross to the dresser and open a drawer. Unease tickled his spine. “You can come back, right? They won’t kick you out for giving me a ride?”

“Oh, yes.” He tried not to be distracted by the tumble of her hair, the curve of her butt. “They’l take me back.” Her tone was flat.

“But . . .”

She glanced at him over her shoulder. “There are always consequences for disobedience.”

“Right.” His mind weighed, calculated, decided. “Then you can’t come with me.”

“But you just said . . .” She turned, scowling, her clothes clutched to her chest. “You need me.”

“I should have said, you can’t come with me wil ingly.

You can’t help me without getting into trouble.”

“So?”

He grinned, suddenly cheerful despite his splitting head.

“So I’l have to kidnap you.”

*

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