Ava was relieved Adam had interrupted. She did wish she could explain about forgetting the time and about the embrace with Aaron, but she knew it would sound like nothing more than lame excuses. And it was lame. The truth was she'd been irresponsible... on both counts. The situation and circumstances in Aden for her and Adam were perilous. She'd put both their lives at risk by missing the pick-up time.

Furthermore, she'd handled the evening with Aaron in a completely unprofessional manner. She'd allowed the wine and his appealing company to make her forget where she was. She hoped she hadn't ruined everything. And, on top of all that... what if those two guys were part of Badaki's al-Qaeda gang? Ava could scarcely fathom the consequences of that.

"Hey, did you recognize those guys, Adam?" she asked as she followed him down the beach towards the spot where he'd pulled up the Zodiac.

He flicked back his head, drew his brow together. Adam studied her for two beats before answering, "Don't worry, Slim, they're not al-Qaeda." He pulled a left and trudged a ways up from the beach, calling back out of the dark, "Those yahoos were likely nothing more than petty thieves. Judging from the style of their pakol caps, I'd say they're not from this region at all. But you know what, I think I've seen them hanging around Aden recently... Gimme a hand here, will ya?"

Ava hurried into the bushes where Adam was positioned with one side of the tender's aft-end raised off the ground. She hefted the other side as best she could. Adam said, "Yeah, they figured they'd cornered themselves an easy mark, with benefits, that's all. Ready?" Ava nodded and they humped the Zodiac out of the bushes and down into the water.

Back on Vendetta and scrubbed up squeaky, Ava was lying on her bunk in deep contemplation. In the background she could hear the reassuring sound of Adam humming in the shower. He'd saved her life for a second time, and risked his own in the process, and he hadn't served her the royal shit that would rightly be her just deserts, considering her behavior this evening. But best of all, Ava now knew she had nothing to fear from Adam... as far as her immediate personal safety was concerned.

His personal safety and well-being were another matter altogether. What she'd discovered on the Internet troubled her greatly, and she needed to think through, with extreme care, how she was going to handle it. It was her turn to save his life.

Presently, Adam came to the cabin door and spoke softly through the slats, "Hope I'm not waking you, Slim. I'm havin' a drink. Would you like something?"

"Um, thanks. Orange juice and aspirin if you have 'em. And, Adam, I scraped my knees while hiding from those guys. It stings. Is there anything I can do? I'll have difficulty sleeping."

"Hold it a sec," he said.

He returned shortly. "I've got some aloe leaves. They can work magic on sunburn and scrapes.... Uhh, do you want me to put some on for you?"

She smiled at his gallant decorum; after all they'd been through it was adorable. "Yes, please. But you can't do it from out there. Come on in."

Adam nudged open the door and sidled into the room.

Beams of platinum moonlight shone through the deck hatches, casting pearly highlights on Ava's skin, shading the dips and hollows of her body not covered by the bundled sheet she clutched round her upper torso.

Adam sat on the edge of the bed and handed her a glass of OJ and two aspirins. Ava noticed his eyes had taken on a polished emerald hue in the moonlight. She leaned on one elbow, popped the pills, washed them down. She asked, "Where's your drink?"

"Maybe later." He made a dismissive gesture.

"Do those leaves really work?" Ava asked.

Adam took her glass and set it on the shelf above the headboard along with the aloe leaves; he kept one of them. "I guess there's only one way to find out, huh?"

He held the succulent leaf and sliced it with a paring knife. He squeezed, and a dollop of its translucent jelly plopped into his hand. He set aside the leaf and knife. Ava lay back and swung her legs over his lap.

Adam greased his palms with the gel and then hesitated, looked down the length of her lean, lithe, American Beauty stems. His chest was heaving from his breathing. He seemed to be having some difficulty maintaining his bedside manner. He exhaled purposefully and with an unconvincing look of determination, began.

With tentative fingertips he touched her. Ava inhaled sharply. Adam asked, "Too cold?" He pulled back. "Sorry, they're just out of the fridge."

She purred, "Ooh, no, it's exquisite. More... please."

He began applying the aloe round her knees, taking excessive time, and infinite care.

"Feel better?" he asked.

"Oh yes, it does." Ava lifted her legs and shimmied further up the bed. She turned over, removing the sheet, rested flat on her tummy, her arms splayed above her head. "Could you please do my back? I think I took too much sun the other day."

Adam bent sideways and reached to smooth the cool gel over the top of her shoulders where her skin had taken on a tincture of pink. He massaged her slowly and with gentle care, as if she would disintegrate if he pressed too firmly.

"Um, Adam?"

"Yeah?"

"I was wondering about your brother, Cole."

"Uh-huh?"

"Were you two close when you were kids?"

"Well, you know how it is with brothers. We argued and fought all the time; there was less than two years between us. But, yeah, we were close. Physically we were like two peas, but scratch the surface and you'd swear one of us was adopted. I teased him all the time, told him he was dropped at our backdoor one sad rainy day." Adam chortled once. "Yeah, we were close."

As Adam spoke, Ava felt the circles of his massage increasing in diameter. The tone of his voice had a wistful and loving roundness. She said, "When was the last time you saw him? With all the world cruising, you haven't spent much time at home, huh?"

Adam didn't immediately respond. He removed the towel from round his waist. He climbed on to the bed, knelt, positioned his knees on either side of Ava's thighs. He leaned and reached for the aloe, squeezed out another blob and slathered it over his palms. He replied, "You're right, I haven't been home much. I'm not that welcome, anyway. The last time I saw Cole he was shipping out from Norfolk, a brand new sailor."

He placed his hands on Ava's lower back, directly above the point where it began to swell and form her buttocks. He slid his hands up along her sides, on to her upper back, round her neck, over her shoulders, down her arms and then under and back down her sides again. He covered every cell of her supple, china-doll skin.

At first, Ava made little mewing sounds that were barely audible as Adam's soothing, sliding, slippery touch cooled her skin and began to stoke a fire within. But before she became completely sidetracked, she posed another question, "'Not that welcome,' how so?"

"Cole was crusading off to sea to propagate the might and right of The United States of America. He believed in 'The Cause'. And there's nothing wrong with that; I was proud of him. But to my father it served to once again highlight the contrast with my 'hedonistic' lifestyle."

"You mean the sailing? Your father doesn't approve? I got the impression you'd been successful."

"Meh, I've done okay. But to the Old Man, recreational sailing as a career is nothing more than an immature dalliance."

"And how long ago was that?"

"The big Double M, Y2K. You know, the year the entire world was supposed to split apart at the seams," Adam said cynically. "It didn't. But my world sure did."

"Tell me about it, Adam. I want to know."

Ava's words were spoken in earnest. She knew very well what had happened, what had brought Adam to this place a decade later, but she needed him to express it, get it out, put it on the table.

The massage became less delicate. Adam's hands pressed into her more insistently. He said, "Don't you worry about that stuff, Ava; it's your situation we gotta talk about. You know you could've been killed tonight, maybe worse."

"I know, Adam, I know. My behavior was horrid and unforgivable. I should've stuck to our agreed-upon plan. It's just that..."

Adam interjected, "It goes beyond that, Ava. This place gets more dangerous each passing day. You've got the cops and al-Qaeda on your ass, and those protest demonstrations are beginning to get ugly; we don't know what kinda' unholy hell may erupt. I know you refused before, but I think it's time I sail you to safety."

"No. I will prove my innocence, and I will get my story. With or without your help, Adam," she emphasized. "I won't discuss that anymore."

"Deal," he responded, his tone as crisp and incisive as hers. "We'll discuss neither your present nor my past any further." He shifted lower down Ava's legs, slipping off her borrowed boxers in the process. He tossed them to the foot of the bed.