Midnight Jewels

I realized you had gone gallivanting off on your own. You have no business flitting around Gladstone's house in the middle of the night. You were heading for the vault, weren't you?"
    "How long have you been out of the bedroom?"
    She blinked, trying to see his face in the shadows. She could barely make out the vague outline of his shoulder. He was just an extension of the darkness around her. "I don't know. I wasn't looking at my watch. A few minutes, I guess. Why?"
    "Just close your mouth and do as you're told. We probably don't have more than a few seconds. Come on." He manacled one of her wrists and led her straight into the heavy foliage that fringed the path.
    "What are you doing? What's going on?" She stumbled against a palm and then found herself on another path. Croft was yanking her along it with no regard whatsoever for her bare feet. She wondered how he could see so well in the dark. It had to be the ghost in him, she decided resentfully.
    "Take off that robe."
    "Forget it. I'm not playing Jane to your Tarzan. Once was enough tonight."
    "The Tarzan bit comes later. Right now we're going swimming."
    He broke through the foliage that ringed the pool, pulling Mercy with him. She found herself on the tiled edge looking down into the glowing blue water. "No thanks," she muttered, realizing abruptly what he intended. "I don't feel like a swim tonight. I want you to come back upstairs to our suite before you get us both in trouble. Can you imagine how embarrassed I'm going to be if anyone discovers you were prowling around the vault in the middle of the night?"
    "Your embarrassment would be the least of our problems." His hand was already on her robe, wrenching free the sash and pushing the garment off her shoulders. Underneath she was naked. The sight obviously did not inflame him to any great degree of lust. He seemed oblivious of her nudity. "In the pool," he ordered in a soft, dangerous voice. "Now."
    Croft was already unzipping his jeans and shoving them down over his hips. Mercy didn't argue any more. There was no point. The man might be crazy, but he was serious. She knelt down at the edge of the pool and slipped cautiously over the side. Croft was right behind her.
    "Ah," Mercy sighed, relaxing immediately as she slid into the water. "This is wonderful. What are we doing in here, Croft?"
    "Guess."
    She groaned. "I was afraid of that. This is camouflage, isn't it? In case someone heard us come down the stairs?"
    "Not us. You. No one heard me come down the stairs."
    "Why not? Did you levitate?"
    "Keep your voice down."
    "You sound irritated."
    "Probably because mat's the way I'm feeling."
    Mercy nodded. "I'm learning to take what I can get in the way of honest emotion from you." She flipped a hand through the water, sending a small wave in his direction. It broke harmlessly against his broad chest. "I thought it might be a bit nippy in here, but this is like bath water. Perfect. Do you know something? I've never gone skinny-dipping in my life."
    Croft glanced at her curiously as he began stroking leisurely toward the far end of the pool. "You've led a sheltered life, haven't you?"
    "It was my aunt and uncle's fault. They were a little old-fashioned." She turned languidly in the water, enjoying the novelty of a late night swim in the nude.
    "They raised you? This aunt and uncle?"
    She was mildly surprised by his continuing interest in the subject, especially at the moment. Until now he hadn't shown much real curiosity about her past. "They got stuck with me when I was three after my parents were killed in the plane accident. Aunt Rum and Uncle Sid already had two boys of their own who were starting into their teens when I arrived. Just when they'd begun looking forward to getting their own kids raised and out of the house they had to start all over again with me. I think they were a little stricter with me because they'd never raised a girl before. They gave up a lot to take on the job of rearing me."
    "That explains it," Croft said quietly.
    "Explains what?" They were both speaking in whispers, she realized, just as they had earlier in her bedroom. Maybe she was fated to conduct every meaningful conversation with this man in a barely audible tone.
    "Your feelings of gratitude toward them. You mink you owe them something, don't you? You feel indebted to them in a way a child doesn't normally feel toward a parent. And you're very conscious of your debt. I noticed your attitude the day you told me the story of