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She touched the tendrils at her left cheek. “I remember your telling Lowell that you felt I couldn’t do it. Do what?”
Matt gave her a quick look. “You heard that comment?”
“I miss very little. Even when I’m in the throes of sobbing my heart out,” she warned him. “Please answer my question. What don’t you think I’m capable of doing?”
Matt took a breath and dove in. “We’re dealing with cutthroats, Layne. I question Kang’s reliance on you. A Chinese man never places his reliance on a woman. Why you? It would be beneath him. And you’re an outsider, as well.”
“Yet you’re trying to coerce me into joining you on a jaunt to Hong Kong to meet with Kang?”
“Lowell thinks you’re up to it.”
“And you don’t?”
“No.”
She gave him a close look. “Either you’re the cleverest liar I’ve ever met, or you’re working against your own people, Major.”
He remained silent, meeting her impertinent gaze.
“You’re expecting trouble on this mission, aren’t you?” she demanded. “Of course, what mission doesn’t have danger? You don’t think I can protect myself, do you? Kang is an honorable man, even if he is a pirate. These men live by their own unwritten codes. He wouldn’t hurt me, although it’s true they dislike Americans—they think we talk too much and can’t keep secrets.”
“I told you I wouldn’t lie to you, Layne,” Matt reminded her huskily. “And frankly, I wish I had met you under any other circumstances. You’re a woman of exceptional scope. Ordinarily, I don’t let anyone get under my skin…but you have. If I had my way about this, you’d stay here. If we had a penetration agent among the pirates, you wouldn’t even have been considered.” He gave her a veiled look. “But then, I’d never have met you.” Matt shrugged. “We’re both caught up in a web of events outside our control.”
Layne’s heart knew he was telling the truth. What agent would say I don’t want you on this mission? And yet he was still hoping to convince her to come. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re an enigma, Major Talbot?”
His boyish grin reappeared, relaxing his strong features. “I’ve been called many things, Layne. Enigma is just one of them.”
“So tell me,” she asked suddenly, “how would I explain to my colleagues that I’m taking a sudden vacation in the Orient?”
His eyes narrowed. “You’ll come?”
“I’m not sure. I hadn’t realized Kang was involved. But first, I want to know how you’re going to handle this assignment, Major.”
“We’ve arranged for a substitute teacher to take over your duties until you return,” he said in a quiet monotone, as if reciting it by rote. “If you come, you’ll pose as my wife. We’ll be spending our honeymoon and combining it with a writing and photographic assignment for a leading national magazine. It’s a perfect cover. You’re already established as an expert on the South China Sea pirates since you published those three articles in Life. My cover as a photographer is well established, and anyone checking will find my credentials in order. We’re scheduled to fly out of D.C. tomorrow at—” he checked the watch on his wrist “—8:00 a.m. From there we’ll fly to Noreta Airport in Japan and disembark for about an hour. We’ll catch another Northwest Orient flight to Hong Kong, where we’ll stay at the Princeton Hotel for a day or two while we’re waiting to be contacted by Kang. From there, it’s his game, and he’ll tell us how he wants us to play.”
“What does the lao-pan have that you want, Matt?”
“I can’t tell you.”
Layne pursed her lips. “You’re a test pilot they’re sending over with me. It has to have something to do with planes.”
He shrugged. “No lies, remember? It’s safer for you not to try to piece it together.”
“That’s right. The less I know, the less I could spill to the enemy in case I’m caught and interrogated.” Layne drew in a deep breath. “I know the Company has a compartmentation policy. Feed only necessary tidbits of information on a need-to-know basis to those involved. But I’m not one of your operatives. You’re asking me to walk into a situation that’s obviously got some danger attached to it and blindly trust you!” Her voice rose with feeling. “And I learned the hard way about trusting anyone from the Company.”
Matt’s mouth became grimmer. “Look, Layne, if I have my way about this, once the contact with Kang is made, you’ll be staying in Hong Kong where it’s safe.”
A deluge of old emotions broke loose within her. “Why do we have to act like we’re married? And why the Princeton?” Her voice held a note of anguish.
“It’s necessary under the present circumstances to arouse no suspicions when we fly to Hong Kong. A husband-and-wife freelance team on a honeymoon won’t stir up too much interest in enemy intelligence communities. I’ll be contacting our CIA people and British Special Intelligence as soon as we land there.”
“And the Princeton?”
The pain was evident in her trembling voice. Matt softened. She deserved a buffer zone of protection on the emotional front. “Kang’s orders. That’s where you stayed last time, and apparently he likes that location because the hotel sits right on the bay. An ideal strategic ploy if he or his people need to escape from the British officials who’d like to string them all up.” His eyes grew tender. “I know it was the hotel where you and your husband stayed.” He reached out, cradling her hand in his. “I hope it will be for only a few days.”
Tiny tingles of pleasure arose from his touch, and Layne wondered if he realized how much his one gesture had halted her spinning emotional reaction.
“I—It’s just that…it brings back some very unpleasant memories.”
Matt frowned. “Unpleasant?” He’d assumed the opposite. “But you were on vacation….”
Layne withdrew her hand from his. “It’s nice to know that not everything is in my file,” she said sharply, suddenly refusing to meet his eyes.
“Files give facts, not emotional experiences. Didn’t your husband want to vacation in the Far East with you?” Rapidly he searched the compartments of his memory for facts on Brad Carson’s marital status with his wife. Outwardly, it had appeared to be storybook perfect. There’d been nothing to suggest that Layne was unhappy. But his gut had told him differently when he’d perused Layne’s file. Carson had been ice all the way through, and after meeting Layne, Matt had recognized the chasm of emotional differences between her and her late husband.
“I suppose anything I say to you will end up in a report somewhere.”
“No, it won’t. It’s none of anyone’s business what your personal life with Brad was like.”
Layne wanted to believe him. “It was my idea to try and find one of the pirate clan leaders for an interview. Brad wanted nothing more than to relax at the hotel for two weeks.” Layne drew small circles on the white damask tablecloth with her index finger. Her voice became hushed. “I love the Far East. I was raised by my amah—my Chinese nanny—and could speak her language before I ever learned English.” She gave a rueful laugh. “My mom and dad were chagrined, to say the least, when they found that out. Anyway, I practically begged Brad to take me to the Orient. I hadn’t been there in seven years, and I was homesick.” She glanced over at Matt. “Would it sound strange if I told you that I feel more at home living among the people of the Far East than I do here?”
He shook his head. “No. It’s understandable. You spent the first fifteen years of your life over there.”
“Funny,” Layne mused, “Brad could never grasp that. He didn’t want to go, and we got into a terrific fight over it. Brad hated tears. He called them a sign of weakness. And I cried a lot because I wanted to go home, just for two weeks. To make a long, complicated story very short, Brad capitulated and we went to Hong Kong.” She shut her eyes against the memory. “If I had known that two months later he was to be killed,” she said softly, “I’d never have forced the issue with him. I would have done exactly as he wanted. I should have let him have his way….”
“Maybe. Maybe not,” Matt murmured, catching her morose gaze. “After five years of marriage you had never returned home. Why shouldn’t he have allowed you that one request?”
Layne gave him a small smile. “Because we always went where he wanted to go on vacation, for each of those other four years.” She sighed, raising her dark head to look at him. There was an odd catch in her voice when she spoke. “You have a gentle way of getting me to put it into perspective, Matt. Thank you.”
The seconds spun effortlessly between them. Matt was aware of nothing in that moment except her. He felt a wrench in his chest, the blazing heat of desire uncoiling deep within his body. God, how he wanted her. “If you had been my wife,” he said huskily, “I’d have made damn sure that you’d gone home to the Far East long before our fifth year of marriage. The Orient is as much a part of you as flying jets is to me, we all need our own kind of emotional sustenance in order to be happy.”
“I agree with your analogy.” A soft smile lingered on Layne’s lips, and in her heart, as she tilted her head, drinking him in. There was an honesty to him that she’d never encountered in an agent before. “Are you working for the Company full-time?”
Matt shook his head. “No. Just on special projects. The rest of the time I do what I enjoy most—flying.”
“A career officer, no doubt?”
“Does it show?” he asked, grinning.
“Yes, but it’s becoming to you. You wear your authority well.” And I feel heady, dizzy and wonderful, she added mentally. How could one man unhinge her so quickly?
“Since that’s coming from an Air Force brat, I’ll say thank you.”
As Layne met his warm gaze, she felt a delicious wave of hunger course through her. She stared at Matt’s mouth, a mouth neither so thin as to be considered cruel nor so full as to be overtly sensual. But it was the way he used his mouth that entranced her. One moment the corners would be drawn inward as if he were experiencing some silent pain; the next, they’d be curved generously upward into a genuine smile meant for her alone. She remembered his kiss, the branding fire of his commanding mouth as it took total charge of her parting lips. How many times in the past forty-eight hours had she recalled those moments of intimacy between them?
“Listen, Layne,” Matt said quietly, breaking into her thoughts, “we’ve got to have your decision.”
She remained silent a long minute, studying him. The bright September sun slanted through the floor-to-ceiling glass, back-lighting his head, broad shoulders and torso. He was an eagle ready to attack and a warrior from the past come to life again. He could be ruthless one moment, hot-blooded the next. She used her instincts, trying to probe beyond what he wanted her to read in his features. Fear raced through her, making her stomach clench in response.
“And if I don’t go? Will you still leave for Hong Kong without me?”
“Yes.”
“But you don’t know Chinese.”
“I’ll have to rely on British SI to help me.”
“And then?”
“And then I’ll wait for Kang to contact me.”
“That will be dangerous, Matt. No one approaches the pirates in ignorance. These men are straight out of the late eighteen-hundreds. They wield knives and axes instead of guns and attack ships grounded by typhoons on those little islands out in the China Sea. And when they swarm aboard those ships, they kill.” She took a deep, unsteady breath. “And they never show mercy. You aren’t any match for them.”
Matt heard the tremor of fear in her voice. “Look, I’m not going to try to talk you into coming, Layne. Personally, I don’t want you along. It could get very dangerous.” His voice lowered to an intimate level. “I’d rather go alone and try to survive so I can come back and get to know you better.”
Layne twisted the linen napkin in her lap. The aching honesty in his voice made her believe that he would want to renew their acquaintance without the pressures now surrounding them. He was drawn to her, as she was to him. Layne tried to separate her romantic feelings from the unfolding drama. She knew the Chinese mind. And she suspected Matt was unprepared for the way they dealt with outsiders such as himself. If she didn’t go along…Pictures of him dying from knife wounds made her pale.
“Layne?”
“It’s nothing.”
Matt’s eyes flared with disbelief as he watched her face whiten beneath her tan. “No lies, remember? What’s wrong?”
“They’ll kill you. You’ll never get close to the lao-pan and his cutthroat clan. If you aren’t one of them, they’ll never accept you.” Layne raised her chin, meeting his concerned gaze, then held out her hand, palm toward him. A thin white scar crossed the entire palm. “When I was looking for Kang, I was told by the junk people in Aberdeen Harbor that he hated all foreign devils. His youngest son had been killed by the British police on Kowloon. The only reason I’m considered part of Kang’s family is because I helped his eldest son get admitted to a university in California. It was hoped that by educating Kang’s son in the United States, the Dragon Clan might eventually stop their marauding as more of their people were enlightened.”
“I see,” Matt murmured. “And Kang’s way of showing his thanks was to take a dagger to your palm?”
“It’s a ritual among the Dragon Clan. Only the lao-pan may allow an outsider who isn’t born of the clan to become a member of it. It was his way of honoring me—instead of lopping off my head.” She grimaced. “I wasn’t ecstatic about the idea, believe me.” She gave him an embarrassed look. “When he cut my hand, I fainted. When I came to, his wife had placed healing herbs on my wound and bandaged it. I’ve shed my blood and mingled it with his. I can walk with safety among his people. If you don’t have this mark, you’ll be killed. They allow no outsiders to live to tell the rest of the world about their fortresses on the different islands.”
Matt stared at the scar on her slender, artistic hand for a long moment, his lips tightening. “Didn’t Brad go with you when you searched for Kang?”
Layne shook her head, slowly lowering her hand and tucking it back into her lap. “No. He stayed at the Princeton for that week. I went to Macao in search of the pirates without him.”
Matt swore softly, his entire body tensing. “He let you go by yourself?” What kind of idiot was Carson? Matt would never have allowed Layne to go into that nest of thieves by herself!
“Yes.”
Matt put a leash on his anger, but it still came out in his lowered voice. “Well, I’ll tell you something. If you were my wife, you wouldn’t be traipsing off on some adventure without me. You could have been raped. Didn’t you consider the risks? Kang could have killed you—or worse, made you a slave. We’ve got enough background data on the pirates for me to know that much.” He let out a shaky breath, staring across the table at her. “What the hell kind of husband did you have?”
Layne’s mouth pulled into a sad smile. “It’s a long story, Matt. And too depressing.” She leaned forward, urgently. “Just as you never would have let me go by myself to find the pirates, I can’t let you go alone, either. The lao-pan wants to talk with me. He won’t harm you as long as I’m there. He owes me a debt. If a lao-pan owes you, he must honor whatever you ask for—that’s the unwritten Chinese code. And now I’ll collect on it by asking him to help you in whatever way necessary.”
Matt reached across the table, pulling her hands into his. “You’re a special woman, kitten. Now listen to me carefully, I can’t tell you much about this mission. It’s all top secret. And it could become dangerous. I worry about you…I’m sorry, but you’re not agent material, and that makes you vulnerable to attack from every quarter.” His thoughts grew turbulent. It was like leading a lamb to slaughter. And yet single-handedly Layne had tracked down the pirates and met them on their own turf. There was a hidden streak of courage within her. His fingers tightened around her hands. His brother and the avionics were lost somewhere among the scattered islands ruled by the pirates of the South China Sea. And this woman with the childlike trust in her eyes was the only one who could help them enter that violent, bloody world to find Jim, his copilot and those black boxes. He knew that if they fell into the wrong hands, it could set the U.S. back ten years in electronic surveillance and defense systems.
“I trust you, Matt,” Layne began quietly. “I swore I’d never get involved with another agency man. But you’re different.” She wet her lips, aware of the emergence of feelings she’d thought had died. “You’ll protect me. I know you’ll do your best. And I feel safe with you. I’ll go. Just take me back to my apartment and I’ll pack….”
She was coming! Matt stared at her, then gave her fingers one more squeeze before releasing them. “All right, let’s go. I’ll have all the papers and passports in order and pick you up tomorrow at 6:00 a.m.” Numbly, Layne pushed back her chair. All she knew was that she had no choice. Matt needed her, and she was going.
* * *
Even though she was expecting it, the knock at her apartment door made Layne start. She hefted the last bag into the living room and ran to answer the door. The last few hours she’d alternated between bouts of fear, doubt and hesitation. The opportunity to see Kang Ying again was exhilarating. But the ominous note surrounding Kang’s request left her with an icy feeling in her stomach. And then there was Matt Talbot, an operative. The sort of man she had sworn never to involve herself with again on any level. Yet she was drawn to him. Eagerly, Layne pulled open the door.
Matt stood there, leaning against the doorjamb. His smile said, Relax, everything will be all right. He was dressed in a pair of dark brown slacks, with a light blue shirt open at the collar. She liked the way his sport jacket accented his wide shoulders. Suddenly shy, she managed a smile, gesturing for him to enter.
“Come in, Major—”
“I think we’d better suspend the social formalities,” he suggested easily, halting among her three suitcases. “Call me Matt.”
Layne nodded nervously and shut the door. She wore a pair of designer jeans, low-heeled sandals and a sienna colored long-sleeved blouse that highlighted the color of her honey-brown eyes.
Matt gave her an appraising look that confirmed her choice of traveling clothes. “Scared?” he asked as he walked over to her.
“Yes. Does it show?”
“Just to me,” he soothed. “Everyone gets butterflies beforehand.” His mouth stretched into a softened smile. “I’ve got them, too.”
She gave him a look that said she didn’t believe him. “You look capable of handling virtually anything, Maj—I mean, Matt.”
He was aware of her lilac perfume enhancing the warm scent of her body as he stood mere inches from her. “Looks are deceiving,” he warned her. “Stand still.” He saw a brief flicker of fear in her eyes as he reached behind her, gently loosening the confining pins that held her blue-black hair in the chignon.
“Did I ever tell you how beautiful you looked the first time I saw you?” he whispered huskily as he loosened the neatly twisted hair. The silken mass tumbled through his fingers to settle in a cloud around her shoulders and breasts, and he drew in his breath, aware of her femininity, her vulnerability where he was concerned. She did trust him, allowing him to caress her magnificent hair. “There,” he said, his cobalt eyes dark with veiled desire. “That’s how I like my wife—winsome, carefree and beautiful.”
Layne trembled beneath his touch. Her knees were weak from the caress of his fingers coaxing her unruly hair across her shoulders. Closing her eyes momentarily, she felt a throbbing intimacy leap between them. When Layne reopened her eyes, she drowned in the flaring azure of his, losing her heart to this inscrutable man who touched her soul as surely as the sun kissed the uplifted face of each flower. At a loss for words, she took a step away from him.
“Remember,” Matt went on gruffly, himself shaken at the sudden flare of intimacy, “you’re my wife, and we’re newlyweds. Anyone watching us would expect us to be in very close contact with each other.” A glimmer came into his blue eyes. “This is the only part of the whole charade that I’m going to enjoy.”
“What? Pretending that we’re married?” she heard herself protest. But Matt’s touch was anything but fakery. And Layne’s instincts told her his feelings were genuine despite the circumstances. She realized she was becoming badly rattled. She didn’t want to be helplessly ensnared by his male magnetism and that special flame of tenderness that surfaced whenever they were together.
Matt’s brow wrinkled slightly, his eyes growing darker with concern as he reached over, gently brushing her flushed cheek. “Where does pretending end and reality begin?” he mused. “Sometimes they overlap to become the truth.” A disarming smile tipped the corners of his mouth. “I told you before, kitten, you’re the stuff dreams are made of…the kind every man wishes would come true.” His brows moved downward and he caught himself as he saw shock register in her eyes. What had Brad Carson done to make Layne react like this? Perhaps aboard the plane on the way to Hong Kong, he would have time to explore some of the more personal facets of this complex woman.
Layne’s heart was pounding, and she lifted her hand to her breast. “This whole thing is a nightmare to me,” she warned him.
“Even the idea of being married to me?”
“It’s merely part of the plan. Nothing more!”
“And you aren’t going to enjoy it?”
“Damn you, Talbot! You watch your step. Just because we have to pose as man and wife doesn’t mean I’ll allow you to take any liberties.”
Matt’s smile broadened as he watched her bluster, because he knew how deeply he had affected her. He could tell by the gold fire burning in the depths of her wide, heart-stealing brown eyes and by the delicate flush of rose across her cheeks.
He pulled a small, dark green box from the inner pocket of his suit coat. “Let’s make this charade a little bit more genuine and permanent then, shall we? According to the records, we were married two weeks ago in a civil ceremony that was held in Alexandria, Virginia.” Matt claimed the hand that was resting against her breast and slipped on the rings.
Layne looked down, a gasp escaping from her. The diamond engagement ring and wedding band were fashioned out of old gold; the diamond had to be at least three carats. “Oh, Matt! They look—”
He placed the green box in a nearby desk drawer. “They belonged to my grandmother,” he explained, carefully noting the sentimental expression that replaced her shock. “She told me that if I ever found a woman who made me lose my train of thought and was in my mind every waking and sleeping moment, that I should give her these rings. And I just found such a woman.” He pulled other essential papers from the left breast pocket of his suit.
Layne gave him a stricken look as she gazed down at the rings. A rush of joy suffused her heart for one heady second before it was replaced by fear. Brad had been just as smooth with his words before they’d gotten married. Was Matt the same? Was he, perhaps, lying to her for the sake of the mission? Yet Brad and Matt seemed as different as a glacier and a gentle, crystal-clear stream. Matt’s warmth and care radiated outward to surround her. Brad had never made her feel like that. How could an agent—how could anyone—produce that sort of feeling if he didn’t mean it? Her heart said he couldn’t. Matt Talbot was more sincere and emotionally honest with her than any man she’d ever known. But even as she felt it, five years of the glacial past froze her fleeting joy. “I couldn’t possibly wear these. I mean, what if—”
