“What about that bulletproof plastic you wore around your chest?” she asked.

“Too short. And there’s no way of cutting it or tying it to anything else.”

“There’s my dress,” she said. She took off the dress and a silk slip until she was down to just her panties and bra, gleaming white against the creamy skin of her firm, slim body. Her legs were long and fine, her rump nicely rounded. Her breasts were small, pert and uptilted and he had to clench his fists to keep from reaching out for them.

Clad only in panties and bra, she began to attack the dress. It was soon in strips.

“Too bad about the dress,” he said, obviously delighted to see her undressed.

“It’s all right. I never liked this dress anyway,” she smiled back and began to braid the cloth strips into a rope.

The Scorpion nodded and looked away. If he kept looking at her, they’d never get out. He grabbed a handful of strips and soon they were both intently braiding.

They worked quickly, yet methodically. Their lives would depend on the strength of their knots. Soon they had a rope about twenty feet long.

“Is it enough, do you think?” she asked.

“It’ll have to be. We don’t have any more cloth,” he said and began checking everything he would need. The rope, chisel, lighter, lamp, the wooden stave about five feet long that had once been part of a spear or shepherd’s staff, and some hand-sized rocks.

The Scorpion stood up, clad only in his underwear, the remains of his white thaub tied around his waist, like a short skirt. In the flickering light from the lighter, he looked like an ancient Greek warrior ready for battle. His rock-hard muscles were finely etched and his skin was slick with sweat. Kelly could see the muscles rippling under his skin as he prepared his gear. He was so much of a man he seemed more than a man. His sheer male beauty made her tremble. If ever a man was made who could do the impossible, it was this dark stranger, she thought, a spark of hope stirring.

He showed her how he wanted her to use the lamp, holding it so the light would hit the rock face above him where he would have to make his next move. She nodded, then looked up into the darkness. It seemed so high up. It was insurmountable, she thought, her heart sinking. She held the flame so she could see his face. His eyes were gray as flint and she could see the flame reflected in them.

“How will you do it?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.

“There’s only one way to do anything. One step at a time.”

“But why did you pick that side? More handholds or something?”