Dragon Soul (Dragon Falls, #3)(43)

He examined me from head to lace-up sandals. “Interesting choice of cruise wear. I didn’t know you were a fan of Xena.”

“Isn’t every woman? She was a warrior princess,” I said as nonchalantly as I could. With a move I had practiced in the bathroom while changing, I pulled the sword from my back and made a couple of movements with it. “All the better to protect my employer from nefarious brigands who would do her harm.”

Rowan glanced around. “Where is our light-fingered friend?”

“Gel,” Mrs. P said, right on cue, leading her herd of models to us. “My sisters are here.”

“Er…” I said, eyeing them. “Sisters?”

“We are all priestesses of Heka,” one of the models said, a brunette with a flawless complexion. “As is our sister Aset.”

“Pleasure to meet you, but… sisters?”

“Sisters,” Mrs. P insisted. “The one next to you is Ahset—she has an H in her name, whereas I do not—then there’s Ipy, Khenut, Henit, Dedyet, Bunefer, and the tipsy one is Gilukhipa.”

“I love champagne, don’t you?” Gilukhipa said with a happy little hiccup.

“Wow. That’s… that’s some sisterhood you have there.” I tried not to look like someone who needed to lose twenty pounds. “And how lucky for you that they’re on the same cruise.”

“We came to help our sister,” the one named Ipy said. She seemed to be the ringleader, since the other ladies just murmured in response. “We knew she would have need of us to guard her secret from those who would discover it, and thus we are here.”

“My sisters will let no harm come to me while you are handling the challenges,” Mrs. P said to me.

“No, we will not, although I think we should get Gilly to our room,” Ipy said, giving her priestess sister a gimlet eye. “Lest she succumb to the lure of more champagne.”

“Give her our room key, gel,” Mrs. P told me.

“Huh?”

“The sisters are staying with us, naturally.”

“But…” I glanced at Rowan, who looked as surprised as I felt. “But don’t you have your own rooms?”

Ipy shrugged. “We cannot guard our sister if we do not sleep at her side. Come, we shall make the accommodations ready for our dearest one while the champion is guarding her.”

I didn’t see any way out of it. Mrs. P was paying for the trip, and I had no right to keep her friends from our cabin if that’s what she wanted. Reluctantly, I handed Ipy the key, and the ladies all took off.

Except Mrs. P, who told Rowan, “The shop has men’s costumes. Tiny ones. You might want to perk up your romantic life with one.”

“I don’t need to wear a costume, tiny or otherwise, thank you,” Rowan said stiffly as she cackled and snagged another glass of champagne before sitting down in a chair next to where May and Gabriel were now talking in low voices.

I gave Rowan a look that told him he should know better. “If you are implying that we’re doing this for the hell of it, we aren’t. We literally have nothing else to wear. And speaking of that, how is it you knew about our room being trashed? You wouldn’t happen to have been there, would you?”

“Yes, I was there,” he answered, taking me completely off guard. “That’s why I called the hotel’s front desk—so that they’d send someone up to find out what happened before you returned to see it.”

I took a step closer to him, and immediately was aware once again of the scent of him, part citrus and part something that made me think of leather-bound chairs in a private library. “And just why were you there?” I asked in a soft tone, making sure to meet his gaze. His eyes, now more gray than green, were wary, but as I took another step closer, the interest in them turned molten. “You wouldn’t be trying to steal Mrs. P’s jewels, would you?”

“As a matter of fact, I was, but someone beat me to the job.”

The words pierced me as if they had been arrows. It took me a minute to be able to answer him, but I was proud that when I did so, my voice was steady. “You’re a thief? You really do want to steal from Mrs. P? That’s… that’s… that’s just infuriating, Rowan!”

“There’s a reason for what I’m doing—”

“On the contrary, there’s no reason. Not a valid one. Not for theft.” I took a deep breath. “Well, at least you’re honest about the way you’ve been using me.”

“What? No!” He took me by the arms, his eyes clouded now. “Sophea, what we had last night is nothing to do with this—with the ring. What we did was about us, no one else, and I’m more sorry than I can say if I gave you the impression that you were a stepping stone on the way to Mrs. P. I would never use you like that.”

“But you just admitted that you want to steal from Mrs. P.”

His lips thinned. “Not for my own gain. Not for money, or satisfaction, or hell, even by my own free will. There’s a situation, and I’m more or less obligated to help fix it.”

“Obligated like being blackmailed?” I asked.

Pain flashed in his eyes for a few seconds. “You could say that.”

I searched his face for signs he was lying, but there was nothing in it but sincerity. And something heated that left me feeling restless and needy. Although I didn’t condone his plan to steal from Mrs. P, it made much more sense that he was being forced into doing so. I wondered idly what he’d done that was so bad it could be used to force him into his present acts, but decided that was a discussion for another time. “Now I feel like I should apologize,” I said, my emotions tangled into a giant ball of confusion.