Midnight Jewels

your ex-fiancé trying to use you to fleece your aunt and uncle. You weren't just hurt personally, even though it was your engagement that went down the tubes, in the final analysis you were more concerned about what had almost happened to your relatives. You took responsibility for it, didn't you? You felt that it was all your fault."
    "Well, it was my fault. I'm the one who got hoodwinked by Aaron Sanders. I'm the one who introduced him to them. And I do owe my aunt and uncle a great deal. They didn't have to take me in, you know. They could have let the state put me into foster care. They had no obligation toward me."
    "When Sanders tried to take them to the cleaners, you blamed yourself for having been stupid enough to believe he loved you."
    "It was stupid of me to believe it." Mercy didn't like the way the conversation was going. On the one hand she welcomed more intimate, revealing, honest discussions with this strange man. But on the other hand, she didn't particularly want to be the one who made all the intimate, honest revelations.
    "What I'm trying to point out, Mercy, is that you reacted as you did because you felt responsible, even though you were just another victim yourself. It was a matter of honor for you."
    Mercy stopped swimming and began treading water. "Just what is the point of this conversation?"
    Croft stopped swimming too and hovered in the water only a short distance away. He seemed to float without effort. There was no mad churning of his hands or scissoring of his legs to hold his position. He
just floated
. The uneven, unearthly blue light from beneath the rippling surface gave his hard-edged face a disturbing illumination. "I want you to understand that I did what I did tonight because of a similar sense of obligation."
    Mercy raised her eyebrows. "Are you by any chance trying to justify yourself to me?"
    He frowned. "I was just trying to explain."
    "You've already explained," she said stiffly. "I know why you came down here tonight. I know you feel you have to do this, even though you could easily jeopardize my future in the rare book business and get us both arrested for sneakiness or something."
    His frown turned to an arrogant scowl. "If I'm wrong I'll take full responsibility."
    "Terrific. When future clients refuse to deal with me because my reputation as a reliable dealer is in shreds and I've got a prison record, I'll just casually mention that it's really all your fault and that you take full responsibility. I'm sure that will solve everything."
    "Mercy, I—"
    Whatever Croft was going to say next was cut off abruptly when the overhead lights and the camouflaged garden lamps came on with no warning. Mercy gave a small yelp of surprise and automatically whirled around in the water to stare toward the doorway. Unfortunately the foliage was too thick to see whoever stood on the platform from this angle.
    "Is anybody down here?" The voice was Isobel's.
    "Over here," Croft called back readily. "In the pool."
    "For pete's sake, Croft," Mercy muttered. "I don't have any clothes on."
    "I told you, this is camouflage," he whispered back.
    "Being stark naked in the water with all these lights on is not my idea of being camouflaged." Mercy launched herself toward the side of the pool, intending to grab her robe. She could hear footsteps on the graveled path and knew Isobel was making her way through the greenery. With all the lights turned on it was an easy trip. She would appear in a matter of seconds.
    As it happened she appeared just as Mercy had herself halfway out of the water. Isobel stepped out of the shrubbery at the side of the pool, her expression concerned. She was dressed in a flowing robe of silver satin, her long black hair loose and streaming around her shoulders. Mercy had time enough to notice that the exotic black mass fell all the way to the woman's waist before she realized Isobel was not alone. Lance was right behind her.
    Mercy gave another muffled gasp and dropped back into the water. Lance looked at her immediately, his eyes going from her flushing face to the broken image of her nude body under the surface of the water.
    Mercy opened her mouth again to demand some privacy, but before she could voice the words there was a flash of broad-backed, naked male in the water in front of her and an instant later Croft was surfacing to stand between Mercy and Lance's interested gaze.
    "Sony about this, Isobel," Croft said coolly. "We couldn't resist a midnight swim. You said