A Thousand Kisses Deep (29 page)

"Yes. Simon Parish's, too. When did you finally remember?"

"That the Chameleon wasn't my real father? I suppose deep in my subconscious somewhere I always knew. That's what Dr. Fielding would say. My father was never the same person after my mother died because he, in fact, wasn't that person. My papa died that night."

"So it was just a hunch you were playing when you called
Merrick
?"

She had hoped he had come to see her, but he'd come to tie up the loose ends. That was all.

Eva settled back on the seat cushion and raised her chin. "Since I was a little girl I felt something wasn't right, but how could I dispute what was staring me in the face? He looked like my papa. Had the missing index finger on his right hand. The scar on his chin. He even carried the silver lighter my mother had given him. Still, I couldn't believe that my papa would abandon me like he did. We were so close when I was little."

"Because you believed he loved you."

"He did love me. The Chameleon admitted that to me at the compound. When you started calling me Evy, I didn't know why I liked hearing it so much. But later I remembered my papa used to call me that. I'd forgotten that, just like I had forgotten that I called him Papa, not Father. The Chameleon always said to me, 'You are your father's daughter.' Not, you're Papa's little Evy. That's what Papa used to say. I didn't remember that until
Merrick
brought me the sucker. The Chameleon gave me this ring." Eva raised her hand. "It's my mother's wedding ring. He must have taken it from her before he killed her because after the fire started he was too busy getting out of the burning house and taking me with him. At the Chameleon's compound he told me about that night in
Atlanta
. He helped me remember why I was so frightened, and confused. I saw him and my father together in the hall, and they had the same face, only one of the faces was—"

"Laughing. I remember you telling me that after you read the file the night you left."

"You let me leave so you could follow me."

"Yes. And you left knowing I would follow."

Eva nodded. "Yes. My father told me to run that night in
Atlanta
, and I did try to get away. That's when I fell down the stairs. I think when I came to I wiped out everything because it was too bizarre and frightening to believe."

"So you've been here all this time putting all these pieces together while sitting in the sun. Is that right?"

Eva sucked on her lower lip. "That's about it."

"Really?"

She could no longer look at him and so she sent her gaze over the water not knowing what to say. She sucked in a breath, hoped he hadn't heard her below deck crying.

Finally, she said, "I'm free now, and it feels good. I can go anywhere I want."

"Yes, you can."

"I can be a vagabond, if I like."

"Come here, Evy."

That
name on his lips sent a shiver down her spine and she wrapped her arms around her legs. Shook her head, still not wanting to look at him. "I don't think—
Merrick
told me you two had talked. He said—"

"Come here."

She didn't know if it was the need she heard in his voice that made her look, or her own need to fill her senses with the sight of him. But she did look, and when she saw his hand outstretched to her, she let out a strangled cry, and came off the leather seat in a solid, fluid motion. She raced to him and he scooped her up in his arms and pulled her close, burying his face against her neck.

"I've missed you," he whispered into her hair.

They were the simplest of words, and yet they sent tears flowing down Eva's cheeks. "I thought you weren't coming," she confessed on a sob.

He squeezed her tight and she rejoiced in the feel of his arms so strong around her. She raised her face and searched out his lips. They kissed, a long, heartfelt kiss full of warmth and sweet desire.

Suddenly remembering his recent surgery, she pulled back and asked, "What about your back and shoulder?" She checked him out, studied the vivid scars.

"I'm fine. Scratches, is all."

"Scratches that required six hours of surgery."

"You were there?"

"Yes."

"I didn't know.
Merrick
never told me."

"He doesn't like me."

"I'd say he likes you a lot. So much he's appointed himself your parental protector."

"I don't want to be protected from you." Eva wrapped her arms around Sly's neck and kissed him again, then again.

He carried her to the seat and sat with her in his lap. "So where should we sail?"

"You want to go somewhere with me? But I thought…
Merrick
told me you were going back to work as soon as you were well enough. What about Onyxx?"

"I'm on a sabbatical."

"I thought you said you were feeling fine."

"I am. You complaining?"

No, she wasn't. She just wanted to know where things stood. "How much time?"

He drew back and studied her face, brushed a tear from her cheek. "Can't say. I suppose I'll go back when you get sick and tired of me and kick my sorry ass off your boat."

Eva sucked in her breath. "What are you saying, Sly?"

"I'm saying I'm in love with you, Evy."

Sly watched her open her mouth, but unsure what was going to come out, he quickly added, "You don't have to say anything. I know what you think about that word, and that's okay. I just wanted you to know that I don't usually seduce beautiful women out of their panties during a mission."

She was sitting very still, and he wondered what she was thinking.

She said, "So you liked me from the beginning. Is that it?"

"From the first time I heard your voice," he agreed.

She touched his cheek, brushed her fingers over his lips. "I was wrong.
Love
is a beautiful word, and the most wonderful feeling in the world. To love and be loved. To need someone, and have that person need you, too. You need me, right?"

"I need you, Evy."

"What happens after I say, I love you, too, Slayton?"

Sly hadn't let himself hope that she might feel the same way he did. He'd told himself on the entire fight from D.C. to
Athens
not to expect too much. That he could have read her wrong those times they had been intimate.

What would a beautiful woman like Eva Creon see in a man like him, anyway—a rat fighter with a past as black as the
Mississippi
mud where he'd been born?

God, he loved her. Had missed her. He'd been so damned relieved when he'd seen the
Hector
in the cove. He'd almost kissed that grinning fisherman.

He had told
Merrick
he knew where she'd be, but it had been a bold statement. The truth was, he'd given her the
Hector
in hopes that this place had meant as much to her as it had to him. Hoped, no prayed, that she'd want to return.

"You meant for me to meet you here, right? I didn't read you wrong, did I?"

Sly grinned. "You didn't read me wrong. But the mop-up at
Paros
took longer than I'd planned, and then I had to go back to D.C. for a few days to file my reports."

He drew her to him and kissed her, then glanced over her head to the sandy beach where they had first made love weeks ago. Heart-stopping, blood-pumping, all-or-nothing love.

"That stretch of sand over there looks lonely. What do you say we go keep it company for a while?"

She followed his gaze, and when she looked back at him he saw mischief in her eyes.

"I had another dream," she confessed.

He ran his fingers through her hair, slid them down her back. His gaze lowered to her parted red lips, then to her sun-kissed cleavage straining her black bikini. "So damn beautiful," he muttered.

She blushed. "You really like me … love me."

"Every inch," he promised.

He could hardly believe she'd waited here for him for three damn weeks. Twenty-one days.

"You really like me," he mimicked.

"Love you with all my heart."

Feeling oddly emotional, he said, "You want to tell me about the dream, or show me?"

She pulled him close and kissed him. Against his lips, she whispered, "We were
doing it
underwater along the reef."

He raised a black eyebrow. "Doing what?"

Her smile opened up. "Stop teasing. Have you ever made love in the deep, Sly?"

"No," was his answer, but it looked like that was about to change. Whatever time they were given, he intended to use it wisely.

He slid her off his lap so she was standing between his legs. The little strings that kept her bikini clinging to her trim hips were easy to untie, and so he did.

"Let's make a memory, Evy." He lifted her into his arms and kissed her with all the passion and care of a man who knew just how lucky he was. Then, he tossed himself over the side of the
Hector,
plunging into the azure water with Eva's sweet body clinging to him.

There were a thousand islands and islets in the
Cyclades
. Two thousand more scattered from the
Aegean
to the
Ionian Sea
. Together Sly was confident he and Eva would find their own paradise in this magical place. And for a time they would be as carefree as the wind, sailing from port to port. They would love like vagabonds, and live each day as if the world might end tomorrow.

For who really knew what the future would bring? Or how soon the truth would surface and the Chameleon would rise up out of the sea, and it would start all over again?

* * * * *