“That won’t always be the case, little cousin,” Enzo snarled. He tilted his hips forward until his crotch brushed against her pelvis. “Your father thinks more highly of me than you do.”

Rica felt his erection press against her lower abdomen but she didn’t pull away. She knew from experience that struggling would only excite him more. She kept her eyes firmly on his. “I’m not one of my father’s assets, to be awarded to the highest earner. Whatever payment you think you have coming, it won’t be me.”

“He wants grandchildren. I’m sure you can tell, I’m ready and able to give him some.” Enzo moved his arm from Rica’s shoulders to her waist, holding her even more firmly against his body. “As for the women you think you want…” He lifted a shoulder and smiled unctuously. “That might prove interesting for all of us.”

“No matter what my father wants,” Rica said, “he would never condone you putting your hands on me when I didn’t want it.”

Enzo relaxed his grip slightly. “One thing I know about you, Rica, is that you fight your own battles. You never told him about our childhood games. You won’t tell him anything now.”

“Games?” Rica had a quick flash of being twelve and angrily telling her older cousin that she wasn’t interested in him that way because she preferred girls. Laughing, the fourteen-year-old Enzo had held her down with the weight of his body, forcing her to kiss him while he ground his pelvis into hers. She had bitten him, and he’d slapped her before trapping her hand between their bodies and making her caress him. Then, like now, she never moved her eyes from his. “He would have killed you then, just like now.” She braced both hands against his chest and shoved him back a step, knowing he would not create a scene in the middle of a public thoroughfare.

“You never told,” Enzo said musingly, dropping his hands. “Maybe because you didn’t really mind.”

Rica shook her head. Enzo was baiting her, and she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of her anger. It would have created a family schism had she complained to her father of Enzo’s actions, and Enzo had known then, as now, that she would never do that. The family came first, before anything else. “I’m going home.”

“I have some business to discuss with you.”

“I’m neither discussing nor doing any kind of business with you.”

“This message comes from your father.” Enzo glanced up and down the street, then took her arm more gently this time. “Let’s go for a walk and have a friendly conversation. Like loving cousins, eh?”

Reluctantly, Rica fell into step beside him. It was normal for her father to use Enzo or some other trusted associate to contact her about anything business related. He never discussed such matters on the phone. They walked silently into the center of town and then out onto MacMillan Wharf. The wind knifed across the water and she shivered from the slashing cold. The sweater that had been sufficient to keep her warm a few hours earlier was woefully inadequate now, but she said nothing. Enzo was like a wild animal, preying on the weaknesses of others. She would never give him that advantage.

“What did my father say?”

“Look,” Enzo said, pointing to a vessel rounding Long Point and entering the harbor.

The double-decker ferry stood out against the nighttime sky, blazing with lights on every level and approaching the pier at what looked like an impossibly fast speed. Under other circumstances, Rica enjoyed watching the captain guide the huge ship against the dock with barely a bump. Tonight, Enzo’s presence tainted even that small pleasure.

“From here to the pier at the World Trade Center in Boston in ninety minutes.” Enzo indicated the harbor where a number of yachts were moored. “And so accessible to visitors. You couldn’t have picked a better place to live.”

“Yes,” Rica said, pretending she didn’t follow his conversation. “It’s beautiful here.”

“I’m sure your gallery will do very well. Some friends are very anxious to display their works there, and it’s so easy for them to deliver the merchandise.”

Rica shook her head. “I’m sorry. I have limited space. The gallery in Manhattan would be better suited for that.”

“Your father doesn’t think so.”

Rica wasn’t surprised that Enzo was relaying this cloaked request. She and her father never talked of the family enterprises, which allowed them to avoid confrontation over areas where they disagreed. “I’m sure my father will understand I’m very busy with the work I already have on consignment. Please give him that message for me.”

When she turned to leave, Enzo caught her shoulder and swung her back to face him. She pulled away, her voice as icy as the wind. “Is there something else?”

“There may come a time when you’ll need a favor from me.” Enzo trailed his fingers along the edge of her jaw and down her neck. “There are many who believe a man is the rightful head of a family.” He half closed his eyes and bowed his head. “If anything should happen to Don Pareto, God forbid.”

Rica resisted the urge to clasp her arms over her breasts, although her instincts screamed for her to shield herself from his fury and his thwarted lust. “My father is still a relatively young man. You’re likely to find yourself in the same position as Prince Charles…too old to rule if the time ever comes.”

Enzo laughed. “I’ll have you in my bed long before then. You’ll think differently of matters after that.”

“I’ll kill you before I’ll ever let you touch me.”

Rica turned and walked away before he could touch her again. When she was far enough away that he couldn’t see her, she gave in to the cold that chilled her body and soul. Shivering uncontrollably, she wrapped her arms tightly around herself and hurried into the dark.

Tory set the book that she hadn’t been reading onto the bedside table as Reese walked into the room. Reese wore an old T-shirt and shorts with the Marine Corps insignia on them, as she often did at night around the house. In fact, everything about the evening had been so routine since they’d returned from Kate and Jean’s, Tory could hardly believe that her entire life was about to change in six hours.

“Did you get to the end of the story?”

Reese smiled. “Nope. She fell asleep with half a chapter to go.” Reese stripped off her T-shirt and shorts and climbed naked into bed. She pulled the sheet up to her waist, turned on her side, and rested her palm in the center of Tory’s abdomen. “I’ll finish it when I get back.”

“Good.” Tory covered Reese’s hand where it lay on the cotton nightshirt she had pulled on while waiting for Reese. In an automatic response, Reese laced her fingers through Tory’s. “What happens tomorrow after you leave here?”

“I’m flying to North Carolina to meet with my father and then shipping out right away. The rest of my unit will follow in the next week or so.”

“Is he going too?”

Reese shook her head. “Not yet, and maybe not at all. I didn’t get the sense he was happy about that, either. They want him here for strategic planning, apparently.”

“But he would rather be commanding a combat unit.” Tory couldn’t help but keep the bitterness from her voice. Rationally, she knew it wasn’t Reese’s father’s fault that any of this had happened. Reese had made her choice years ago, and for reasons that were inherently good, as good as Reese herself. Honorable, valorous reasons. Sometimes that made it the hardest of all. She could hardly resent her lover for being a courageous and noble woman. “He would rather be going, and if he can’t, you’re a good substitute.”

“I don’t know about that part,” Reese said quietly, recognizing Tory’s anger and not begrudging it. She let go of Tory’s hand and skimmed beneath the cotton to rest on flesh. “No one wants war, but for some people…career Marines like my father…it’s a matter of training your whole life for something that may never happen. So when it does, you want the chance to prove your life has meant something.”

“Do you feel that way?”

“My life is you and Reggie. Right here, every day.”

“But what about before us? When you thought you’d be a career Marine forever. Did you…want to fight?”

Reese shook her head. “No. I never did. I mostly had the opportunity to do what I wanted to do without that. First I enforced the law, then I adjudicated it. I didn’t need war for that.” She laughed thinly. “All you need for that is people.”

“What are you going to be doing over there?”

“Tor,” Reese said gently. She leaned down and kissed the hollow at the base of Tory’s throat. “I’ll probably be sitting around in a tent getting bored to tears most of the time.”

Tory knew that the military police unit Reese commanded would not be sitting quietly anywhere. She spread her fingers through Reese’s hair and guided her face lower, to her breast. “I love you even when you lie to me.”

Reese chuckled and swept her cheek back and forth over Tory’s nipple, which was erect beneath the thin cotton. “That’s a very odd statement.” She pushed up the nightshirt and ducked her head to kiss Tory’s breast. Then she looked up, her eyes serious. “You know I wouldn’t, don’t you? Lie to you? It’s just that knowing isn’t always…”

“I know.” Tory stroked Reese’s cheek. “When you’re sitting around being bored in that tent, or doing…whatever else you need to do, remember that we’re waiting for you, and that we need you.”

“I never forget that. It’s the constant of my life.” Reese kissed the tip of Tory’s chin. “I’ll be careful, just like I am here, every day.” Reese clasped Tory and rolled onto her back, settling Tory against her side with Tory’s cheek on her shoulder. She stroked Tory’s hair and her shoulders and her back. She pulled Tory’s shirt up again so that she could run her fingertips up and down Tory’s spine in a slow caress. “You have to promise not to worry and not to work twenty-four hours a day because I’m not here to nag you.”