The Adventurer

matter?"
    "I was just curious. You said to pick a topic. I picked a topic. If you don't like it, you're free to choose another."
    "School of hard knocks. I graduated with honors." When she said nothing in response, Gideon began to feel guilty. He had only himself to blame for sabotaging her buoyant spirits. "What about you?"
    "Does it matter?"
    He winced. "No. Just trying to make conversation."
    "I've got a better idea. Let's not try. I think it would be best if we both shut up for a while."
    This time the silence that hung over the table stretched until Bernice arrived with the check.
    Well, Trace, you've managed to dazzle her with your usual devastating charm, haven't you? You're hell on wheels with the female of the species, all right. You had to work real hard this time, didn't you? She didn't get discouraged easily. You had to really push. But now you've done it. You've managed to turn her off completely. Nice going. Even Machu had the sense not to screw up this badly when Ellora turned up on the doorstop.
    Gideon was startled at the unexpected sense of loss he felt.
     
     
    T HE MAN MUST HAVE BEEN MAULED rather thoroughly at some point in the past, Sarah decided some time later. She sat quietly in the passenger seat of Gideon's car as he drove back to her motel. She no longer knew what to say. She couldn't believe she had been so wrong about him, but there was no doubt he didn't seem to want to have much to do with her. Had she misjudged him completely?
    It was possible. She had managed to fool herself once before.
    Another curtain of fog was closing in from the sea as Gideon parked his car in front of Sarah's room. A yellow lamp illuminated the number on her door. She started to dig out her keys without much enthusiasm.
    "Good night," Sarah made herself say without any emotion. "Sorry I took up so much of your time. Good luck with your magazine. Maybe I'll contact you again some day if I ever decide to do another treasure hunt story."
    Gideon didn't move from behind the wheel. He just sat there, large and forbidding in the deep shadows. "Is the offer still open?"
    Sarah's hand froze on the door handle. "Yes."
    "I'll take the job."
    "
Gideon
." All the doubts of a moment before dissolved in a second. Without a moment's hesitation she threw herself across the seat and into his arms.

3
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    I T CAME AS A DISTINCT SHOCK to Sarah when Gideon's arms abruptly tightened around her in a crushing grip. His mouth came down over hers with devastating swiftness as he pinned her against the back of the seat.
    Belatedly she tried to pull away from the overwhelming embrace as she realized what she had initiated. She had been intending only a quick, impulsive, friendly hug. She should have known better than to let herself get this close to him. She was too vulnerable.
    It had finally dawned on her over dinner that Gideon had not fallen for her during the past four months the way she had fallen for him. Her letters had meant nothing to him. He had not been thinking about her as anything more important than just another
Cache
subscriber asking for assistance. He was nowhere near ready for a relationship.
    But now she found herself trapped in an embrace that was more shatteringly intimate than any she had ever known. It was only a kiss, her mind cried out. But she had never been kissed like this. It was, after all, her first kiss from Gideon. Gideon with whom she had slowly, surely fallen in love during the past few months.
    Gideon, her own personal dream hero come to life.
    Except that he didn't see himself in quite the same light. What's more, he saw her as a nuisance.
    "Gideon?" She could barely speak his name. She gripped his shoulders with feverish intensity as four months of gathering desire welled up inside and threatened to swamp her.
    "You're so delicate and fragile," Gideon muttered against her mouth. His hands moved over her with incredible sensitivity, learning the shape and feel of her. "I could crush you."
    "You won't." She could not think clearly now that he had finally touched her. She clung to him even more tightly, her arms curving around his neck, her head tipped back against the seat. He was so wonderfully solid and substantial—so real. She'd known all along she couldn't have been wrong about him. Perhaps he was finally beginning to realize it, too.
    His mouth moved against hers again. The kiss was far more satisfying than she had dared to dream it would be. There was an exciting, intoxicating hunger