Free Dangerous to Know by Merline Lovelace Page A

managed to correct that impression before I fell into the bay. Those people aboard the yacht may have seen me. Whoever was waiting on that boat now expect me, not you.”
    â€œTrue.”
    â€œWhy were you going there? Other than the obvious reason?” She stared at Maggie, her eyes thoughtful. “You must be delivering something. A message. Or information. Or money.”
    This woman was definitely too intelligent for her own good.
    â€œThat’s enough,” David interjected. “You’ve just run out of time to gather your things, Paige. I’ll have them sent to you. Come with me.”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œDammit, you have no idea what’s going down here.”
    â€œNo, I don’t. So tell me.”
    â€œYou don’t need to know. I’m not going to allow you to—”
    She interrupted him in a soft, dangerous voice. “David, if you harbor even the faintest hope that we might marry someday, which I’ll admit appears very unlikely at this moment, you won’t finish that sentence.”
    His jaw tight, Doc refrained from finishing his sentence.
    While he scowled down at her, Paige fired the final shot. “I love you, David. I think I’ve loved you since the moment I walked into your office and you helped me sort out the mix-up on that rather expensive publication I ordered for you. I…I know you love me, too.” She held up a quick hand when he moved towards her. “Let me finish!”
    â€œYou’ve just said all that matters.”
    â€œNo. No, I haven’t.” She drew in a deep breath. “I see now that we don’t really know each other. You think I need to be coddled and protected and cherished all my life, and…”
    She slid Maggie a quick, sideways glance. “And I think you need a more adventuresome partner, a woman who stirs more than just your protective instincts. I want the chance to prove I’m that woman. I need to do this. For you. For me. For us.”
    Maggie held her breath, feeling much like a voyeur watching a riveting, compelling personal drama. She probably should’ve gone back into the bedroom some time ago, she told herself ruefully. But there wasn’t any way she was going to miss the ending to this particular scene.
    â€œWhatever you’re doing must have some desperate consequences,” Paige added softly. “For you, or for our country. I can help. I have a right to help.”
    When he didn’t respond, she drew in a deep breath. “I’m not leaving, David. Not willingly. I’m going to deliver whatever it is that Meredith’s supposed to deliver. When this is over, we’ll decide who we really are and where we go from here.”
    Endless seconds ticked by. Outside the open balcony doors, a shrill horn honked on the boulevard below. Inside the suite, a soft breeze stirred air redolent with the scent of white carnations and tall velvet blue irises.
    â€œWhen this is over—” Doc snapped “—I just hope we know who the hell we are.”
    Â 
    Sometime later, Maggie studied the two figures on the settee as she waited for control to acknowledge her transmission.
    Paige fidgeted a little, hunching shoulders still wrapped in Doc’s coat against the cooling breeze. Her eyes were wide with excitement.
    David didn’t move. Not a muscle. Not an eyelash.
    Maggie had worked with him on a number of missions in the past three years. She’d seen him up to his elbows in an Asian swamp and flat on his stomach, inching his way across a thin crust of ice that cracked ominously under his weight with everymovement. She’d watched him at the high-speed computer in the control center, his jaw tight and small beads of sweat rolling down the side of his brow as he pulled together a list of possible Irish terrorists just hours before visiting British royalty were scheduled to land in Washington, D.C.
    But she’d never seen him as tightly