Deceived by Patricia H. Rushford Page A

her throat. She swallowed it back. He straightened and wrapped her in a warm flow of Spanish words she was certain would have embarrassed her if she’d known what they meant. Maybe someday she’d ask him.
    â€œShall we?” Matt offered Lisa his arm and they walked into the dining room.
    They met Gram and J.B. at the table, and had to pose while J.B. took a dozen or so pictures and Gram told them all how wonderful they looked. While they studied their menus, Jennie and Lisa filled them in on the speargun incident.
    â€œOh, Jennie, I’m so sorry I wasn’t there.” Gram peered at her over her reading glasses. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
    â€œI’m fine.” Jennie dismissed Gram’s concern with a wave. “You and J.B. don’t need to worry about me.”
    Off and on during the elegant meal she caught Dominic looking at her—not like he admired her exactly—more like he was trying to sort things out. Sometimes he looked sad, other times annoyed. Jennie wondered if maybe he had a girl friend at home and he, too, might be struggling with the bond developing between them.
    On the other hand, he could have been feeling guilty. Had he been the person with the speargun? Both he and Matt, and of course Roberts, had the opportunity. But why? Jennie caught Dominic’s gaze and felt a twinge of guilt herself for suspecting a friend
. A friend who had risked swimming in shark—infested water to help you get to shore.
    After dinner they all headed for the ship’s largest and most elegant lounge to watch the musical ship’s singers and dancers perform songs from popular musicals. At the program’s end they drifted to another lounge to listen to music from the fifties and sixties and watch limbo and dance contests. Jennie couldn’t concentrate on any of it.
    All she could think about was how she was going to break away from them and keep her rendezvous with Roberts.
    She needn’t have worried. At eleven-thirty, Dominic and Matt excused themselves, saying they were too tired to stay up for the midnight buffet. “Maybe you two better turn in as well,” Gram suggested. “A few more minutes and I’m afraid we’re going to have to carry Lisa upstairs.” Lisa shifted her glazed look from the musicians to Gram. “What do you mean?” She blinked and stifled a yawn. “I’m not tired.” For emphasis she slumped over and dropped her head to the table. “Okay, maybe just a little. But I’d still like to stay up and see what the buffet is like.”
    Twenty minutes later, they headed for the lobby area, where the chefs had prepared a long table of the most elegantly prepared foods Jennie had ever seen. Meats, seafood, and every kind of fruit and vegetable imaginable. In the center stood a dolphin ice sculpture. The sight brought Lisa fully awake.
    Jennie was too nervous to eat, and at five till midnight, she made her excuses and said goodnight. The buffet would keep them occupied for at least an hour.
    As she climbed the steps from deck five to deck nine, she thought of a dozen reasons why she shouldn’t meet Roberts, but none of them were as compelling as the reason she chose to go. She’d been through all the arguments. What if he were a stalker, a murderer, a rapist? He could have made up the stuff about having a message from Dad. He could be planning to kidnap her—or worse.
    Or he could be for real. Her intuition told her she could trust him. And that’s what Jennie clung to. “God,” she whispered as she made her way down the corridor and up the stairs to the pool deck. “You’ve always taken care of me before. Please do it now. I know I’m taking a chance, but he said he had a message from Dad. I have to go.”
    At two minutes before midnight Jennie reached the fitness center, where she’d been trapped in the sauna. That eerie reminder didn’t help the