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always, a tightening inside at that question, a surge of emotion that was compoundedof fear for Lisa and disgust with himself. “I thought I had,” he said finally, roughly. “I put her in an extremely private boarding school in Europe three years ago, and she’s had special security around the clock. An army couldn’t have gotten to her. But Sutton did.”
    “Edward Sutton?” Robin nearly flinched as steely gray eyes fixed on her.
    “You know him?” Michael asked softly.
    Robin cleared her throat. “His was one of the names I got while I was nosing around the Serendipity.”
    “Connected to the club?”
    “Very loosely, according to what I heard. There was a hint he was more strongly connected to the illegal gambling going on in the back room.”
    “Did you ever see him? At the club or on the yacht?”
    Robin shook her head. “Not that I know of. Certainly not on the yacht.”
    Michael was silent for a moment, piloting the boat automatically, his mind working hard. Hekept his eyes off Robin. “Gambling,” he mused softly, almost to himself. “One of Sutton’s hobbies was always high-stakes poker.” Abruptly he asked, “Do you know anything about boats?”
    “I’ve crewed on a sailboat the last three summers.”
    “Good enough. Take the wheel while I change, will you?”
    Robin stepped forward to obey, suddenly conscious of the cramped space on the bridge. She caught her breath as he brushed against her but stood gripping the wheel firmly and staring straight ahead. She didn’t trust her voice enough to speak.
    For a moment, neither did Michael. He had, with an effort, managed to keep his mind off the lovely body he had stripped naked last night, but the tight confines of the bridge made her closeness and his surge of memories inevitable. She affected him like no woman he’d ever met before, both physically and emotionally. Emotionally, her unusual combination of toughness and vulnerability tugged at something inside him.Physically, he was all too aware of a desire for her more powerful than any he’d felt before, a hunger he could only just control.
    His arm still burned from the accidental contact with her breast, and his belly had knotted as if a fist had hit him there. He wanted to reach past her and turn off the engine, allow the boat to drift where it would while he took her below and … He shook off the thought with iron control.
    “Just keep her on course,” Michael muttered, and left.
    One of the things Robin knew about herself was that she was generally attracted to very strong men. She knew that—and she didn’t like it. At least twice during the past few years she had been briefly involved in relationships that had never gotten off the ground because she had quickly begun to resent the very strength that had first attracted her in a man.
    She was afraid it was happening again, and it couldn’t have been at a worse time. She didn’thave the emotional energy for it, even assuming Michael became attracted to her.
    “Another hero,” she muttered between gritted teeth, reminding herself. “He saved your life in the best tradition of heroes, and now he’s going to help you bury the bad guys. Great. Just great. Give him a medal, but don’t, for God’s sake, give him …”
Your heart
.
    It was a good piece of advice. Robin just hoped she could accept it.
    As the boat began nearing Miami, traffic on the water increased, and she forced herself to concentrate. She watched the course steadily and began drawing tight all the threads of self-control she could muster. She was afraid she’d need every edge she could get.
    Michael hesitated just outside the bridge when he returned, watching her while she couldn’t see him. She was handling the boat well, and he wasn’t concerned about that. What he was concerned about was his own willingness to involveher in a situation that promised to become even more dangerous before it was over. If he had any sense at all, he reminded himself,