charm-'
'You certainly seem to.'
'-so it's likely worth a try.'
I contemplated her expression. Inscrutable. 'Well?'
Del's mouth twisted briefly. 'I saw you looking at her. I think you would not be opposed to undertaking this option.'
I opened my mouth, shut it. Began again. 'If she were ugly, she wouldn't believe it.'
'An attractive woman is more accustomed to such things, and therefore is prepared for unwanted advances. And defeats them.'
I knew a little about that myself. 'But if the woman carries a sword, knife, and whatever else she might have hidden on that body, a lot of men wouldn't consider making any advances at all.' Not if he wanted to keep his gehetties.
'Which means it is left to the woman,' Del said. 'As it was left to me.'
I jerked upright. 'What?'
'It was.'
Bruises, stiff muscles, and various scrapes protested my too-hasty motion. 'Gods of valhail, woman, you were cold as a Northern lake when we met!'
'When we met, I wanted only a guide.'
'That's what I mean. Ice cold. That was you.'
'Arrogant,' she said. 'A braggart. A man who believed women belonged only in his bed.'
I relaxed again, leaned against elbows propped on rope and stretched out reef-scoured legs. 'All I ever claimed was to be the best sword-dancer in the South. Being honest isn't arrogant, and mentioning it from time to time serves a purpose in the right company. As for believing women belong only in my bed, well …' I cleared my throat. 'I think it's fair to say there are indeed times when a woman in my bed is a worthwhile, um, goal.' I waggled eyebrows at her suggestively. 'Wouldn't you agree?'
'Which is why it was I who had to convince you to get into mine.'
'You did not –'
'Oh, you put on a good show, all that bragging you did about being the infamous Sandtiger, feared by men and beloved by women-'
'Hey!'
'-but when it came right down to it, when it came to the doing, you were reluctant.'
'Was not.'
'Were so.'
I considered mentioning ten or twenty names I could rattle off without stopping to think about it, just from the year before Del showed up, but decided even as I opened my mouth that names of women were not truly the issue, and if I named them, I might get myself in trouble. 'If I was reluctant-and that's not an admission I was, mind you-it was because you'd been very clear about wanting only a guide.' I sniffed. 'For a woman who rarely explains anything, you were definitely clear on that point.'
'That is my point,' she said. 'When I let you know there could be more between us, you ran the other way.'
'Did not.'
'Did so.'
Impasse. Finally I asked, 'What does any of this have to do with getting off this boat? In one piece?'
'Your plan seems to entail seduction.'
'I said it was an option, yes. And it is. One of the oldest in whatever book you care to read.' Which meant it might not work; then again, it had been used with success enough times to end up in the book.
Del's turn to sniff. 'You were quick enough to volunteer me for the option-except the captain isn't a man, so that won't work.'
'It was you who said I was looking at her!'
'You were.'
'So were you.'
'Tiger, I do have some acquaintance with the look in a man's eyes when he notes an attractive woman.'
She would. 'It doesn't hurt anything to look.'
'Of course not.'
That sounded suspiciously like she was pulling my leg-or else saw my point. Which raised another issue. 'Do you look?'
'Of course I look.'
'At other men?'
'A woman looks at other men the way a man looks at other women.'
'She does?'
'Of course she does.'
I had never considered that. It was new territory. Negotiating carefully, I said, 'You mean women who aren't married.'
'I mean any woman, Tiger. If she sees a man she considers attractive-or thinks he might be attractive, but needs additional study-she looks.'
'Even if she's married.' I paused. 'Or sharing another man's bed. For three years.'
Del smiled. 'Yes,' she said gently, 'I look.'
'How often?'
She was laughing at me. 'Ask yourself the same question.'
'That often?'
She crossed to the coil of rope, sat down beside me. Leaned her shoulder into mine. 'You look. I look. Looking is not leaping.'
'And is there any man here you might look at? Without leaping?'
'Oh, I might look at the first mate.'
'Him? He's bald!'
'He shaves his head; I've seen the shadow. And the shape of his skull is good.'
'He's got those blue tattoos all over it!'
'They are beautiful designs, too, so intricate and fluid.'
'He has rings in his eyebrows!' And, for all I knew, elsewhere.
'That, I admit, is not so attractive. But-different.' She shrugged. 'He's interesting looking.'
'Anything else?'
Del nodded, then tipped her head into mine. Softly she said, 'He has your eyes.'
'My eyes? '
'Green,' she said. 'And while one can see the competence in them, the confidence and willingness to risk himself, one can also see the laughter.'
I digested that. 'I don't see that there's much to laugh about, in our present situation.'
'He does.'
'He should!'
'Then it's up to us to find a way to stop the laughter in his eyes, and put it back in yours.'
I twisted my mouth. 'Which brings us around to the captain again.'
'So it does.'
'And if she's as smart as you believe she is, it might take a while. This-seduction.'
'It might.'
I scowled into sea spray. 'You don't sound all that upset about it, bascha.'
'Because I will have my own task to do.'
'What's that?' I asked suspiciously.
'Seducing the first mate.'
'De-li-lah! '
