The Adventurer

what about you?"
    "If you want to make certain I don't dig them up on my own, all you have to do is stick around and keep an eye on me."
    "I'm a busy woman, Trace. I've got more important things to do than try to keep tabs on you. No, the fastest solution to this problem is for me to dig up my earrings before either you or your old buddy gets to them."
    "I don't think that would be a good idea."
    "I don't care what you think any more," Sarah said. "I've told you, you're fired as a treasure-hunting consultant and as my partner."
    There was a long silence from the driver's side of the car. Gideon concentrated on the narrow, twisting road that was taking them down out of the rugged terrain to where the main freeway sliced through the mountain pass.
    "Does it occur to you that you might be overreacting a bit?" Gideon said eventually.
    Sarah gritted her teeth. "Overreacting to what, pray tell? Do you think it's possible I've gone a bit overboard in my response to your insults? Perhaps I should have just laughed off the accusation that I slept with you in order to get you to help me find my treasure. Maybe I overreacted to being accused of trying to use sex to stiff you out of your cut of the action."
    "Sarah…"
    "Or perhaps I'm being just a tad irrational now that I've come to my senses and realized I've been deluding myself about you right from the start. The famous Fleetwood intuition screws up again. I can't say I wasn't warned. Hell, you warned me, yourself."
    "Sarah…"
    "Then again, maybe I'm being a bit petty and overly defensive now that I've discovered I've got to protect the Fleetwood Flowers from not one, but two professional opportunists. Yes, I can see where I might be overreacting. I'll have to watch that, won't I?"
    "Do you get worked up like this a lot?"
    "What do you care? I won't be around you long enough for it to be of any great concern to you." Sarah continued to scowl out the window for a minute. "I wonder if I should just turn around and drive straight back up here this afternoon instead of going back to Seattle for the night. I know you don't think Savage can find the jewels on his own, but my intuition tells me he can and will. And now there's you to worry about, too, of course. Yes, I think I'd better get right back up here today."
    "Forget it, Sarah. You're not coming back into these mountains to dig up the Flowers on your own."
    "Who's going to stop me?"
    "Me."
    "I knew it, you
are
kidnapping me. Well, you won't get away with it. If you think you can just lock me away in your cellar or something and have no one notice I'm missing, you're crazy. My best friends in the whole world know I went to find you and if I turn up missing, Margaret and Kate won't rest until they've found out what you did to me. And Kate's husband will probably help them look."
    "I'm beginning to see why you're successful at writing novels of romantic suspense. You have a very unique imagination, don't you?"
    "And that's another thing. Better not forget what I do for a living. I've got an outstanding contract to complete. If I don't finish the last book on it, my publisher and my agent will come looking for you, too."
    His mouth flickered suspiciously, but all Gideon said was, "I'll keep that in mind before I do anything rash."
    Satisfied she'd made all the threats she could for the moment, Sarah lapsed back into a brooding silence. She needed her anger. At the moment it was all that was keeping her from tears.
    "Sarah, I know you're in no mood to listen to explanations."
    "You're right."
    "But I'd like to point out that it's not entirely fair to blame me for wondering about your motives. You landed on my doorstep like a small tornado and I feel as though I've been swept up and carried along in a high wind ever since. From the first day you acted as though we were long-lost lovers—as if we'd known each other for ages. You practically begged me to make love to you every time I kissed you. You told me you were going to court me, which is another way of saying seduce me. You went wild when I did finally make love to you, as if I was some irresistible, private fantasy of yours that had come to life. It was crazy, Sarah."
    "So I made a teensy little mistake."
    "That was one explanation," Gideon said dryly. "But the other, more likely one is that you had a few private motives for wanting to ensure you had me tied up in knots. I don't blame you. You figured you needed some expert help finding the Flowers."
    "Shut up,