Rook geared up, placing his mask on his head. Damn him, he still looked sexy as hell even with a stupid scuba mask on his forehead.
He patted the spot next to him, urging me to sit on the rail. “Any day now, Stephanie.”
I snarled and flopped over to him. I looked ridiculous.
“Now, stay close to me, and don’t swim off. The currents are very strong here, which is why the sharks congregate in this particular spot. Tex will throw some fish into the water to bring them in while we stay over there.” He glanced toward the water to the side of us. “And whatever you do, make sure you always keep the boat in sight.”
“What do I do with this?” I pointed to the huge knife strapped to my thigh.
Rook placed his hand on my thigh and slid it between my legs, grazing my most intimate part. A hard erotic shiver spiked through my core.
“And that goes there.” He pushed down the upper strap of the holster so it rested lower on my thigh. “Wouldn’t want that delicate skin of yours to chafe.”
Once again, the side of his hand rubbed right over my bud, sending another tremor through my core.
I held back a gasp. For a man who claimed not to get intimate with guests, he was certainly touchy-feely.
Yeah, and you’re letting him. My body had been deprived for far too long, but that was no excuse.
“Next time, just tell me where it goes,” I protested, desperately wanting to hide that I’d enjoyed it.
“Now where would the fun be in that?” He pushed me back, and I fell into the water.
Asshole.
I had to admit, the warm tropical ocean wasn’t so bad. Neither was the shallow sandbar where Tex had anchored the yacht, giving us crystal clear water for swimming.
Kicking my fins, I followed Rook, trying not to notice his muscular legs as schools of colorful fish—reds, neon blues, and oranges—darted past us, zigzagging between beige coral and rock formations. Honestly, this wasn’t scary at all. I could stay here all day looking at the fish.
Rook stopped swimming, twisted his body, and pointed over my shoulder.
I turned, keeping my face under the waves. Fifty feet away, the water looked all cloudy. I assumed Tex had dumped chunks of fish meat there. I had expected to see gory pools of bloody chum, like in the movies, but thank God they hadn’t done that.
Within seconds, I saw my first shark. “Og, shi!” I screamed into my snorkel, the entire thing flooding. I popped my head from the water and gasped for air.
My heart pounded into my head, and I instinctually reached for my knife. The shark had to be over fifteen feet long.
Rook came up for air and popped off his mask and snorkel. “Are you all right?” he said in that overly pious tone.
“No! I am not all right. Did you see the size of that thing? I want to get back on the boat.”
He smiled. “Be my guest; however, you’ll have to swim past that very large, very hungry tiger shark.”
“You’re an asshole, you know that?” I started to wonder if this was what had happened to Cici. He offered to take her out and then he fed her to a shark.
He laughed, thoroughly amused. “Stephanie, do I appear to be suicidal?”
“No.”
“And am I not in the water with you?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Then why would I place myself at risk, let alone a guest?”
Excellent question. “Accidents happen. Don’t they?”
“Not when I’m in charge,” he said with a bite.
Somehow, I believed him, which shocked the hell out of me. Still, this was not enjoyable. Not even a bit.
“I’m sorry to put a dent in your male ego, Rook, but this is in no way shape or form my fantasy.” I think I’m going to hurl. Oh God.
He gave me a disapproving look. “Then my sincerest apologies. I’ll have you back in the boat as soon as the twenty sharks are done with their breakfast.”
Huh? My head swiveled back toward the boat, where a flurry of fins darted from the water, creating a washing machine twisting action in the small waves.
“Oh, Lord. Kill me now,” I muttered. “Tell Tex to bring the boat over.”
“And risk killing the sharks with the blades of the motor? No. We wait. And in the meantime, since you’ve convinced yourself you’ll be dying in the next few minutes, why not put your mask back on and take a look.”
I snarled at the bastard.
“All right, then put it back on so you can see the murderous shark coming for you.” He glanced beneath us.
A dark gray shadow moved right below my feet. I screamed and swam straight to Rook, unable to help myself from climbing him.
He chuckled, trying to get free of my catlike claws. “It’s merely a nurse shark. They are bottom feeders who dine on crab, not women’s legs.”
“Ohmygod. Ohmygod. I don’t care if it’s a grass-eating turtle. Get me the fuck out of here!” I wrapped my arms tightly around his neck, closing my eyes.
“Stephanie, you need to get off me,” he sputtered his words, trying to keep his head above water. “Calm yourself.”
I was sinking the man. And maybe I should. Maybe I should sit on his head and drown the SOB. But then where would I be? No answers. No closure on Cici.
I let him go.
“Good. Now try to breathe,” he instructed.
An eight-foot shark skirted right past us, and Rook literally reached out and touched the fucking thing like it was a pony at the petting zoo.
“Beautiful,” he said, placing his mask back on and disappearing beneath the waves.
My panic, still alive and kicking, took a momentary backseat to my curiosity. Rook wouldn’t be frolicking in the chum-filled water if he didn’t have a death wish. I popped on my mask and looked. Spotted sharks and fish of every color of the rainbow swirled around in a feeding frenzy—the smaller ones toward the bottom, picking up the little bits, the largest sharks on the top, taking the chunks of fish heads and whatnot.
I’d never seen anything like it.
The minutes ticked by, and I began feeling my fear dissipate. We seemed invisible to the aquatic giants with sharp teeth.
Guess you’re not so horrible after all, Rook, I thought.
After several minutes, the food disappeared and the sharks’ numbers dwindled, the ocean becoming quiet and calm around me.
Something bumped me in the back of the head, dislodging the snorkel from my mouth. Stars pricked my vision, and pain shot through my body.
I came up for air, feeling disoriented and dizzy. “What the hell was that?” I groaned.
My vision came into focus, the endless turquoise ocean all around me, the swell of the small waves, and the bright morning sun.
Wait. Where’s the fucking boat? I spun in place, doing a complete three-sixty. Oh fuck. “Rook? Rook!”
But there was no one. No boat, no Tex, no Rook.
Ohmygod. They left me here. In the middle of the fucking ocean filled with—
Bump! Something powerful slammed into my side. I screamed and then fumbled with my mask. Half filled with salt water, I caught a glimpse of what had rammed me.
No, no, no. It looked like Jaws, but fatter around the middle and had a weird little notch on the tip of the back fin.
Oh fuck, oh fuck… Was this some sick joke or an attempt to get rid of me?
The thing disappeared out of sight, and I went for my knife. I fumbled with the Velcro strap and slid it out. I spun in a circle, trying to keep an eye out in every direction. Where the hell had Rook gone?
To hell with Rook, where’s the island? The spot where Tex had dropped us had been only a quarter mile from shore at best, but now I saw nothing but ocean in every direction.
This can’t be happening. It can’t.
“Stephanie…” a soft voice whispered with the breeze.
My heart stopped. “Cici?” It sounded like her. That voice—so sweet and loving—I would know it anywhere.
“Stephanie,” the whisperer re
peated.
I began to cry. “Cici. Oh God. Cici, where are you?” I missed her so much.
I twisted around again, but there was nobody. I had to be losing my mind. This island…this fucking island wanted to do me in.
Still holding the knife in my trembling hand, the waves slapped my face and picked up with the wind. I spotted the enormous shadow coming right for me like a damned torpedo.
I fumbled with my mask and pushed my face under the water to better gauge the depth of the shark. It headed right for my thigh, its mouth open, displaying a row of razor-sharp teeth.
Oh shit! I took the knife and held it out straight, hoping the monster would run into the blade before it got hold of any body parts. The shark jerked its head at the last moment, but the tip of the blade grazed it, causing me to lose my grip.
Fuck. Fuck. No! I lost my knife.
I looked down in the water, hoping to see it, but wherever I’d floated off to, there was no sandbar, no reef below me. Only deep dark ocean.
Oh God. Oh God. Please help me.
I popped my head from the water, praying that I’d injured the shark and it would decide to find something else to eat.
What will it matter? I had no island to swim to. And clearly I’d been left for dead.
“Stephanie…” the voice called again. Cici’s voice.
Ten feet in front of me, a fin popped from the waves. The shark was coming back for me. I screamed, kicking my legs in front of me, praying for a miracle.
The shark slammed into my ribs, knocking the wind out of me. I felt my body sinking.
Suddenly, something grabbed hold of my hair and pulled hard, yanking my face from the salty waves. “Stephanie!”
I opened my eyes. “Rook?”
He released my hair and put his arm around my neck. “Throw it here!” he yelled to Tex, who tossed a life preserver overboard.
“Sonofabitch,” Rook snarled. “I told you to stay near the fucking boat.”
I hacked and coughed. Was the guy actually scolding me? “Shark. There’s a shark,” I muttered.
“No. There’s no fucking shark.” Rook dragged me to the edge of the boat, where Tex grabbed my arms and pulled me up the small ladder. He laid me down on the deck, where I turned over and coughed out a lung.
It didn’t take long for Rook to be at my side, swearing every curse word in the dictionary and then some. “And of course, you didn’t need a life vest, did you!”
“Fuck you,” I panted with my eyes closed. “You fucking left me to die.”
“What in the name of God are you talking about, Ms. Brenna?”
I cracked open an eye. “You left me.”
“I did no such thing!” Rook seethed. “I turned around and you were gone. We’ve been looking for you for thirty minutes, and thank God Tex is such a skilled captain because he knew exactly which way the current had pulled you. Do you not have any common sense, woman? Even one smart bone in your fucking body? You nearly died! On my fucking watch!” Rook’s face brimmed with rage.
So I almost died because he lost me in the ocean, and he’s upset?
“Screw you, Rook. I had to fight off a shark and—” My eyes glanced down to my thigh, where my knife remained in its holster. The knife I’d dropped.
My heart jumped, stopped, and then dipped. “What’s happening to me?” I closed my eyes and began to sob. Me. Sobbing. Like a weak, pathetic little girl, which only made me lose it completely because nothing in this world was worse than losing your mind at a time like this, in front of a man like Rook.
I covered my eyes with the crook of my arm, trying to breathe, trying to stop crying, but I couldn’t. I had been scared out of my goddamned mind in that water. And then I heard Cici and… What’s happening to me?
Two strong arms scooped me up. “Oh hell,” Rook grumbled, holding me against his warm bare chest. “Let’s get you a blanket and some scotch.”
Like I weighed nothing, Rook carried me down the small stairway, below deck toward the back of the boat.
“I’m sorry I yelled at you, it’s just…” His voice trailed off. “You scared the hell out of me.” He brought me into a small bedroom and set me down on the edge of the bed, immediately going for a blanket and throwing it around my shoulders. “I turned around and you were gone.” He shook his head.
I was about to say the same, but that wasn’t quite right, was it? Because I’d just had a run-in with a shark and lost my knife at the bottom of the ocean. Only I didn’t.
I tore the Velcro straps from my thigh and tossed the thing to the floor. “I don’t know what happened,” I mumbled. “You were there one minute and then something hit my head. I thought it was a shark, but…” I gave the back of my sore head a rub. There was a small lump.
“Well, someone must’ve been looking out for you. You were floating facedown and still had your snorkel in place.” Rook went over to the corner of the small room and poured a glass of amber liquid from a bottle sitting atop a little dresser. He brought it over. “Here. This will steady your nerves.”
I reluctantly took the glass in my trembling hand. I felt so cold. So confused. “I just…don’t understand.”
Rook sat next to me and adjusted the blanket. “I think you have a death wish, Ms. Brenna. Unfortunately, that is not part of your vacation package, so I’m afraid I intend to disappoint you during your stay.”
I wanted to laugh. The irony of his words hit home. “I think you’re right. I do have a death wish.” I mean, look at what I’d done to get here. I took money from a mobster and then I’d planned to screw over Rook, possibly have him killed. At the very least, he’d lose his island because Warner Price was not the sort of man who took no for an answer.
Still, part of me couldn’t regret my choices because there had been no other options available to me. The authorities wouldn’t help. Rook’s island was inaccessible on your own because no one really knew where it was except for his own people. As for the money, Warner Price had been my only choice. Add it all up, plus the fact that I loved Cici so goddamned much and I wasn’t willing to sit on my hands, well, those paths had led me right here.
“Stephanie, I know this comment might feel intrusive and even a bit high-handed, but I am getting the impression that something traumatic has happened to you, something recent.”
I glanced over at him.
His steel-blue eyes flickered with curiosity. “I understand if you do not wish to share your personal life with a cold-hearted prick like me, but I assure you that I am not entirely incapable of helping you. It is what I do.”
“You hook women up with cowboys and pirates. Not sure that’s going to help.”
“Not everyone needs the same things, Stephanie. Some merely want a moment—or a week—away from their own lives. Then they return home with a new appreciation for what they have or for the possibilities to create something new.”
I gave him a look.
“All right. Some women simply want to get fucked by a handsome man, but who am I to judge? We do our best to give everyone an experience they’ll remember for a lifetime.” He grabbed my chin and turned my head, forcing me to look at him. “Stephanie, you do not have to tell me what’s happened to you, but I promise if you do, I will ensure the rest of your stay is dedicated to assisting you in overcoming it.”
Jesus. I actually believe him. In fact, every second I spent with the guy made it harder to hate him or think he’d want to harm one of his guests. Even the way he’d lost his cool right now when he thought I’d died on his “watch” seemed genuine. So had I imagined his ruthless vibe like I’d imagined the shark or the monk standing outside my window last night?
I didn’t know.
I ran my hand over my wet, salty hair. Part of me did need to unload this burden and the other part wanted to see how he would react if I told him who I really was. Would he act surprised? Or did he already know?
“Stephanie.” He continued holding my chin, our eyes locked.
I cleared my
throat, deciding that going with a half-truth felt like the appropriate course of action. “I lost someone close to me a few months ago. I’m not over it, but I know I never will be.”
He let go of my chin and then bobbed his head. “I see.”
“You see what?”
He drew a breath. “Some swear that this island is more than a pile of rocks and dirt sticking from the ocean. They claim that they feel an energy that allows your thoughts and heart to become razor focused.”
That sounded corny. “What do you think?”
“I think that it’s a beautiful island and beauty calms the mind. When that occurs, it’s not unheard of for the things we’ve bottled up to seep out, looking for closure.”
“You sound like an episode of Kung Fu or a Deepak meditation CD.”
“I have no idea what those are; however, I will take your word.” He smiled, and I noticed little crinkle lines on the sides of his mouth and eyes.
He noticed me studying him, but true to form, he didn’t shy away. I guessed that shyness was not in his DNA.
I looked at that handsome face—those intense eyes, those sensual lips, the angle of his cheekbones and jawline. He was so beautiful, it was easy to let myself get lost in him.
“Have you always been this good-looking?” I blurted out unintentionally.
He shrugged and grinned wider, making my heart and stomach flutter in unison. “Maybe. Have you always been such a fucking mess?”
I smiled. “Maybe.” Then I shook my head. “No. No, I haven’t.”
Once again, he forced me to look at him. “Well, you’re still incredibly tempting either way.”
With our eyes locked, my heart slamming against my rib cage, he leaned in and placed a soft kiss on my lips.
I froze, inhaling his scent—sweet, floral, all mixed with seawater.
Slowly his mouth moved over mine, his tongue tasting me, his silky lips sliding and kneading, as if he wanted to savor the moment.
I instantly wanted more, to feel him pressed against me, to feel those strong hands on my body. No man had ever kissed me like this or made me feel so desperate and hungry.