“You know, something really profound just occurred to me.”

Dar rolled her head to one side and opened an eye. “What’s that?”

“Button fly jeans are much sexier than zippered ones,” Kerry told her seriously.

A tired snicker shook Dar’s belly.

“No, really.” As she undid the second button, Kerry examined Dar’s waist. “Think about it. With zippers, you undo one, then Terrors of the High Seas 335

boop! It’s done. This way, you have to take your time.”

“Kerry, I think you’re overtired,” Dar advised.

“Hey, I got a nap. You didn’t.” Kerry smiled and continued her task. “It’s like gloves.”

“Gloves?”

“Yeah. Back in the days when women wore gloves, like the ones that went all the way up your arm.” Kerry glanced over, seeing an obviously puzzled expression on Dar’s face. “C’mon, Dar, you watch the History Channel. Don’t give me that what-the-heckis-the-WASP-talking-about-now look.”

Dar’s brow scrunched. “Oh.” She rubbed her temple. “You mean the evening dress things.”

“Right,” Kerry agreed. “They had buttons all the way up, and they even had little hook things they used to button them. It was considered very sexy back then to watch a woman take off a kid leather glove. Some of them had a hundred buttons.”

There was a stretch of silence as Dar contemplated that.

“Really?”

“Uh huh.” Kerry undid the last button and plucked at the waistband of Dar’s underwear. “You know something else?”

“You’re glad you were born in the latter half of the twentieth century after gloves went out of style?” Dar suggested. “Because if I had to wait for you to unbutton a hundred buttons, I’d come after you with a pair of leather cutters.”

Kerry chortled and leaned her head against Dar’s hip.

“Well, I would,”Dar insisted.

“I bet you never sucked your Tootsie Pop down to the chocolate center, did you?” Kerry continued the playfulness. “You chewed it.”

“No,” Dar replied with a dignified sniff. “I just bought Tootsie Rolls to begin with.”

Kerry squirmed up a little and started working on Dar’s shirt.

“I knew that.” She watched the gentle rise and fall of Dar’s chest under her hand. The wind outside rattled the wooden shutters against the building, and they could hear a rumble through the walls. “Are we safe here?”

Dar glanced around the room. “This place has been here for a hundred years,” she stated. “I think we’re fine.”

“Okay.” Kerry laid Dar’s shirt open and put gentle fingers on the bruises mottling her chest. “Are you hurting, sweetheart?” Her tone went from playful to serious. “You’re kinda scraped up here.”

“I’m too tired to hurt right now,” Dar admitted. “Maybe later I will be.” She sat up slowly and stripped off her shirt, then stood up to remove her jeans. “You joining me in this strip show, or are you snoozing in your clothes?”

“You think we’re going to get a chance to sleep?” Kerry 336 Melissa Good remained where she was, watching Dar cross the room in her underwear to put her now-folded clothing near their bag. The soft lamplight erased the marks of the fight from her body and rendered it in golden shadows for Kerry’s appreciative eyes. She loved the strength of her, the grace and solid power evident in every move.

Nothing about Dar was for show. It was all real, and all functional.

And all hers.

Kerry smiled to herself at the thought. She spared a moment to revel in the knowledge of what it felt like to love someone like this and to be loved to the very core. It was a true gift and she knew it, and in that one moment, it humbled her.

“God, I hope so,” Dar sighed as she pulled on her pajamas. She turned and looked at Kerry, sprawled on the bed in casual disarray.

“I’ve had enough adventures for today.” She peered closer at the woman watching her. “Ker?”

It was like wading through the mists of time. Kerry suddenly sensed the depth of what was between them, sensed the ancientness of it and heard the faint echoes from lives beyond their own. It was weird, and scary, and her eyes widened as she stared into Dar’s.

Curious, Dar came over to her and sat on the bed. “Ker?” she repeated, her brow furrowing with concern. “You okay?”

Kerry took a breath. “Yeah,” she murmured. “Just had some weird déjà vu thing happen,” she said. “I think it’s been too long a day for both of us.”

Dar patted her cheek. “Get undressed, and let’s hope the storm doesn’t...”she paused as the lights flickered, then went out

“...knock the power out,” she finished. Dar sighed as she turned and peered around the pitch black room. “Shoulda gotten out candles. What a bonehead move that was.”

“I’ve got a flashlight in the bag.” Kerry chuckled wearily, rolling off the bed and getting to her feet. She felt her way over to the table, fished it out and turned it on. “Are there candles in the room somewhere?”

Dar joined her, took the light, and made her way over to the cabinet that held the television. She poked inside and discovered a few hurricane candles, some that had apparently been previously put into use. “Here.”

Kerry took the candles, lit them, and placed them around the room in strategic places. By candlelight, the interior took on a new look, the tiny flickering flames bouncing shadows off the ceiling and lending a quaintness to the old-fashioned bed. Kerry found the courtesy bar by accident, and raided it after she changed into her pajamas.

Dar listened to Kerry rummaging for a moment, then brought a last candle over to the bed and set it on the bedside table. She pulled down the top sheet and got into bed, fluffing up the pillows Terrors of the High Seas 337

and settling back against them.

Kerry appeared from the shadows shortly thereafter, her pale hair now dry and collecting glints of the candlelight as she joined her partner. She handed Dar a mug and set a basket of goodies between them. Then she crawled into bed and relaxed, letting out a heartfelt sigh.

Outside, the storm continued to rage. They could hear things slamming against the windows, and far off, the sound of sirens.

“Dar?” Kerry asked suddenly. “What do you think happened to DeSalliers?”

Dar sipped from her mug, finding an agreeable mixture of rum and pineapple juice. “You mean out there?”

Kerry broke a cookie in half and put a portion into Dar’s mouth. “Yeah.”

It would be easy to say she didn’t know. Anyone would believe her, given the chaos they’d been through. She could just shrug. She could give a non-answer. She could even say she didn’t care.

However… Dar chewed her cookie and swallowed before she answered. “I think he drowned,” she said in a quiet tone. “We went off the ship together just before it capsized.” She licked her lips and looked up into the candlelit shadows around them. “I was doing my best to choke him at the time.”

Kerry hitched herself up on her elbow and peered down at her partner. “Why?” she asked. “What was he doing to you?

“Wanted to kill me,” Dar said. “He had a gun…” The sublime irony hit her. “But it wasn’t loaded. The poor bastard couldn’t even get that right.”

“So you got mad.”

Dar nodded. “I saw red,” she admitted. “Or blue, or whatever it is you’re supposed to see when you’re so mad that you lose your mind.”

Kerry laid back down. “So we have something in common.” She lifted one hand and examined the knuckles, the bruises vivid against her skin. “Does that feel ugly to you, Dar?”

Dar looked into the eyes of her soul and smiled. “No.”

Kerry nibbled on her cookie thoughtfully. “Really?”

Dar considered pretending otherwise. She decided she was just too damn tired. “Really,” she repeated. “I guess it should, but he was a bastard and he was trying to kill me.” She put her hands behind her head and winced as her shoulder popped into place. “I guess it’s that old ‘fight or flight’ thing.”

Kerry studied the ceiling. “Have you ever run from anything in your life, Dar?”

Her partner remained silent for a very long moment. “No,” she finally said, a note of surprise in her voice. “I almost ran from love once.” Her eyes shifted to Kerry’s profile. “But you tripped me up 338 Melissa Good in time.”

“Did I?” In her exhaustion, Kerry felt a willingness to take the conversation to something more comfortable.

“Yeah.” Dar seemed equally willing. “I remember sitting at home one night and thinking to myself how much better it would be for both of us if I…if we kept our relationship just business.”

Kerry rolled over onto her side and looked at her partner.

“And…” Dar paused. “And I could almost… I could feel, sort of, how that would make you feel if I did that, if I told you to forget it.”

“My God.” Kerry rested her head against the cover. “That would have killed me.”

Dar was silent again, for a few breaths. “Yeah. I think it would have killed me too,” she replied. “Anyway, I couldn’t. I was in too deep and I knew it.” She reached over and put her hand on Kerry’s, folding her fingers over her partner’s smaller ones and gently squeezing them. “But I was scared.”

“I wasn’t,” Kerry admitted with a wry note in her voice. “It was like a dream I never knew I had coming true.” She lifted Dar’s hand to her lips and kissed it. “I never looked back.”

“I know.” Dar felt a huge wave of exhaustion beginning to settle over her. “Lucky me.”

“Mm.” The blonde leaned her head against Dar’s shoulder. “I think you’re right about DeSalliers,” she said, gently changing the subject back. “I know it’s late, but I have to tell you this; I have to.”

Dar looked at her.

“I saw…someone. Down there. Under where you were,” Kerry expanded hesitantly. “I was terrified for a minute, and then you grabbed me.”

“Ah.”

They lay there together for a few minutes, deep in thought.

Kerry drew in a deeper breath at last and looked at Dar. “No one deserves to die,” she murmured. “But I can’t feel bad about it.”

“Except that he did get what he wanted,” Dar reminded her wryly.

“No, he didn’t.” Kerry reached over to her bedside table, picked something up and tossed it onto Dar’s chest. “Damned if I was going to let him get away with this.” She eased up onto her elbow and reached for her mug.

Dar stared at the laminated sheet laying on the center of her chest. “Son of a bitch.”

“Daughter of a bastard, actually,” Kerry corrected. “One of the things you and I don’t have in common.” She took a sip of her rum and swallowed it, then leaned against Dar. “So.”

“So,” Dar repeated, turning the sheet over in her fingers.

“Death is a high price to pay for stupidity,” Kerry said. “And Terrors of the High Seas 339

I...hate to have that on my conscience. Is there any way we can help them…the rest of them, I mean?” she asked in a serious tone.

Dar’s lips twitched. “I called the Coast Guard for them on the way in,” she admitted. “So yeah, I don’t give a damn that they sank, but I wasn’t about to disregard a maritime law I had drummed into me from the age of four.”

Kerry pulled herself up and gave Dar a kiss. She licked her lips as they parted and gazed into her lover’s eyes. “I feel…really strange about what we did tonight, Dar,” she said. “Part of me is freaking out, but part of me—”

“Liked fighting for the greater good?” Dar replied in a casual tone.

A little silence fell. Kerry dropped back against the pillows without taking her eyes off Dar. She inhaled sharply. “Greater good.” The words felt interesting in her mouth and she played with them a little, tasting their meaning. “Is that what we did?”

Dar shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s something my father used to talk about all the time—doing things for other people, or acting when it’s not in your best interests just because it’s the right thing to do.” She reached over and combed through Kerry’s disheveled hair with her fingers. “It’s what the folks in the military do, if you think about it.”

“Depending on who’s defining ‘right’ this year,” Kerry replied with a touch of wry skepticism. “But I know what you mean.” She put her arms around Dar. “Did you like doing that?”

Dar returned the embrace as they listened to the wind howl.

“I’m not very good at it,” she said. “I’d much rather take care of my own best interests than anyone else’s.”

Both eyebrows raised, Kerry leaned up on her elbow and looked at her partner. “Dar, that is such a lie,” she stated flatly.