by Cherry Adair
“It’ll be over before it begins.” His breath was rapid, his chest heaving as he struggled to catch his breath.
She lowered her head, closed her mouth over the blunt, heart-shaped tip. She sucked him deeper, reveled in his gasp and the taut arch of his hips. His heartbeat pulsed against her swirling tongue.
Her own heartbeat thudded erratically. His pleasure gave her pleasure. She loved the taste and texture of him, the novelty—the power of holding him in her mouth. Hell, it was the ultimate power a woman had over a man. Callie liked it. No. Loved it. A lot.
His body gathered, tightening like a too-tight bowstring. She’d done this.
One moment she had her face buried against his groin, the next he swung her up and over onto her back and plunged her onto his damp hardness. They came together so violently it left them both limp and incapable of moving. Even her eyelashes felt depleted.
“So much for all those condoms,” she muttered weakly against his heaving chest.
Other than his erratic and hard heartbeat syncopating with hers, Jonah was as limp and depleted as she was. “Highly overrated.”
She was too happy to give it its due consideration. She figured that ship had sailed the first, second, and eleventh times he’d been inside her.
Callie danced her fingers over the corded muscles in his neck, then skimmed the sweat-damped muscles of his back with the flat of her hand.
“Do you have any idea just how erotic and sensual you look when you do that?” Seductive and low, his voice sounded like hot chocolate on a cold night. Like every dream she’d never allowed herself to dream. Like a sweet that was going to be snatched away any second. Need incarnate made her brain skitter away from grim reality. She was nothing but heat, and light, and a need so powerful her body shook with it.
His lips traveled over her forehead, then down over her temple, where she felt the damp glide of his tongue tasting the still-hard-beating pulse he discovered there. “Is running naked down a corridor the most daring thing you’ve ever done?”
He’d challenged her to see if she’d chicken out. But running down a deserted corridor was the new Callie. “You’re joking, right?”
“I don’t mean diving, or hang gliding.” Jonah cupped her chin, his long fingers caressing her jaw and his lazy lips exploring the contours of her face as if fascinated by the taste and texture of her skin. “I mean something that exposes your vulnerability.”
Her thick hair was still wet, and she shivered in the air-conditioning. “You mean like having sex with you?” Her voice was dry, but her heart thudded uncomfortably where her breasts pressed against the hard wall of his chest. She was vulnerable. When he found out who her brother-in-law was, he’d see it as a complete betrayal of his trust. And he’d be right.
“This is daring?”
“It’s not easy for me to trust anyone. I can count on the fingers of one hand the people I trust unconditionally.”
And one of them isn’t myself, she thought, heart heavy. Rydell and Peri were everything to her. She’d known them almost her entire life. She’d known this man who touched and tasted her so intimately for mere minutes in comparison.
She automatically opened her mouth when his lips covered hers. His tongue swept inside to slide over hers, hot, seeking, hungry. Callie forgot to breathe, savoring the moment because it was soon going to be snatched from her greedy grasp, and she’d be left empty and alone.
Jonah pulled away an eighth of an inch, his breath hot on her face, his eyes painfully, startlingly intense, and so blue Callie felt as if she could fall into them and be enveloped in warmth. “I trust you.”
Oh, God—Callie wanted to yell, Don’t! “And your brothers.”
“Yeah. I haven’t known Zane, Nick, and Logan long, but I trust them with my life. They trust me with a multimillion-dollar ship, and give me carte blanche to do what I like with her. This salvage—this Atlantis find—is my gift to them, my show of appreciation for them putting their trust in me.
“We’re close. So close. With just a few more artifacts I’ll prove myself to them and to the archaeology community. Everyone will know the name Cutter Salvage after this. A win–win.”
And there she had it.
No win–win.
Her loyalty to Rydell was absolute.
Jonah’s loyalty to his brothers was just as unequivocal.
There was no room for negotiation. No compromise.
Rydell or Jonah?
Only one could win.
The other would lose.
And no matter which of the two men won, she’d lose.
* * *
“That woman’s behavior last night was really odd,” Leslie said the next morning. Everyone but Jonah had already eaten breakfast and gathered on the dive platform getting ready to dive.
Jonah had showered and gone by the time Callie woke up in her own bed. Showered and dressed, she went up to breakfast, but no one had seen him this morning. She presumed he was with the captain and would join them when he was done. She knew he liked to read his news alone over several cups of coffee, and he might be anywhere on board doing just that until it was time to go down.
“There was no doubt—to everyone here last night—that none of us had any interest in her.” Vaughn pulled his wet suit up his legs. “She seemed pretty focused on Jonah, I think. But, intelligent man that he is, he put out a giant NO sign, in neon, like the rest of us.”
“Hey, speak for yourself,” Brody muttered. “I would’ve done her in a heartbeat.”
“Charming,” Callie muttered with a shake of her head. It seemed that every salvage had someone like Brody on board. Brash, and not too bright. At least Jonah had nipped Brody’s drinking in the bud. He’d had all the booze removed, not counting on the younger man’s willpower to do the trick.
Callie reached up to shove the pins more securely into her coiled braid, squinting from the glare on the water. “Jonah found her in his bed last night.”
“Holy crap,” Vaughn said, pausing what he was doing to stare at her. “You’re shitting me. Is that where he is? In bed with that crazy woman?”
Leslie pulled a disgusted expression. “Ew! I thought I heard something running up and down the corridor late last night. Please don’t tell us he took that bitch up on her offer?”
“God, no.” Callie shook her head. “I went to ask him something, and she was sprawled naked on his bed in all her bouncy, glittery glory.”
“Oh, man, Callie, that’s just cruel!”
She ignored Brody’s expected response. He was over thirty and had the attitude and hormone levels of a teenager.
“I don’t get it.” Leslie looked at Callie. “Why was she so damn persistent?”
“Maybe I’m irresistible?” Jonah said as he came down the ladder to join them, dressed in nothing but black shorts and his killer smile. Callie’s heart went into overdrive, and the temptation to throw herself into his arms was overwhelming. She picked up her mask instead. He gave her a good-morning glance, brief and hot.
“I’m sure your legion of fans would agree,” she told him with just the right amount of humor. “Maybe she wanted not someone, but something on board?”
“To steal something, you think?” Brody demanded. “You were with her most of the night, weren’t you, Jonah? You would’ve seen if she swiped anything.”
“I was with her most of the time. Other than an hour or so when I thought she’d left. Then she was God only knows where, doing God only knows what.”
“My cabin’s always locked,” Leslie assured him as she sat beside Callie, their legs dangling over the water.
“Anndra had the master key,” Callie pointed out grimly, slipping her sunglasses on since they were chatting instead of diving, and the glare off the water was fierce. Not to mention she was sure the longer everyone sat around at such close quarters, the better they’d be able to see she was a well-satiated woman this morning, and not because she’d gone to bed early and had a good night’s rest.
She admired the play of muscles shifting under the bronze satin of Jonah’s back as he lifted his wet suit from the rack. “She had full access to every nook and cranny on board.” And tried to get into all Jonah’s nooks and crannies while she was at it. The skank.
“Yeah.” Jonah turned, his wet suit in his hands. “My thoughts exactly. I just talked to Maura about that. She’ll check to see if anything’s gone missing, and she and Gayle will go through all the security tapes to see if Anndra was up to no good.”
Security tapes? Callie narrowed her eyes and looked around. There are cameras? Oh, crap, of course there are. Most large ships had them, and especially salvage ships, where danger could come from 360 degrees given the valuable cargo on board. Was there a camera anywhere near where they’d made out on deck last night? What about in the hallway? Wouldn’t that be great having half the crew see her running bare-ass naked down the corridor? Maybe it would go viral.
Leslie gave him a glance filled with humor. “You mean even worse ‘no good’ than getting into your bed?”
“That alone should be a punishable offense,” Jonah told her drily, then cocked a brow at Callie.
“Was it a secret?”
“Nope.” He started suiting up and shot her a small, way-too-intimate smile, Callie was sure no one could miss. “No secrets on board Stormchaser.”
Callie’s heart squeezed. One truth revealed, but the sword of Damocles still hung directly over her head. She took off her sunglasses, she didn’t want anyone to think she was hiding anything else. “Um … one more.”
She held up her bare left hand. “I’m actually a widow. Sorry for the subterfuge, but the ring keeps most predators away. I like to wear it until I get to know everyone.”
Leslie made a noncommittal hum, but her eyes spoke volumes as she snagged Callie’s. “Sorry, Cal, was it recent?”
“Four years. Leukemia.”
The other woman gave her a sympathetic look. “Tough on both of you.”
“Yes, it was.” It was going to take some getting used to having a bare left hand. She’d worn her ring for six years; it would be a hard habit to break. “Adam would’ve gotten a kick out of me using his ring as a shield. He was one of the good guys. I was lucky, even if it was for such a short time.”
“Not that I have a problem fending off mashers, but I think I’ll make up a fictitious husband,” Leslie said drily, making her voice upbeat, for which Callie was grateful. “It’s the closest I’m going to get, since I’m never on dry land and my dating pool is extremely … nonexistent.” She laughed. Saul didn’t even crack a smile. “I think his name will be Brad, and he looks like a movie star. That’s my fantasy and I’m sticking to it.”
“The best you can do for a fantasy is a pretty guy with six kids who acts for a living?” Saul demanded.
“It’s my fantasy, what do you care if he has six kids, or twenty?”
“You should have kids of your own.”
Leslie gave him a startled glance. “I think that ship has sailed.”
Saul looked at her over his coffee mug. “That ship’s in dock.”
Good for you, Callie thought, shooting the poor guy an encouraging look before turning to Jonah. “Maura and Gayle are going to beef up security, I presume?”
“The captain and first mate won’t let anyone on board until we know what, if anything, has been stolen or compromised. Anndra had some pretty specific questions about things blowing up on board, and mentioned fire. I gave Maura an accurate account of what she asked; she’ll ensure that everything is where it should be, and no tampering was done. When we get back from the morning dive, I’d like everyone to check and double-check your personal possessions to make sure she didn’t have sticky fingers.”
“Well, she left rather unexpectedly, and in a big hurry,” Callie told them, not making eye contact with Jonah. “So maybe whatever it was she came to find wasn’t taken.”
“Maybe she got what she wanted and took off.” Brody’s eyes settled directly on Jonah.
“Maybe she’s just a misguided young woman with too much time on her hands.” Leslie played devil’s advocate.
“Whatever happened, she’s not welcome on board Stormchaser again, so she better find her entertainment elsewhere. One more thing before we go in. Callie and I are going to investigate the location where Saul was injured. I’d like the rest of you to work on Ji Li this morning.” Jonah instructed. “Then everyone on the city for the duration, unless anyone wants to keep at Ji Li, in which case go for it.”
“What duration?” Callie asked, swinging her feet over the tempting clear aqua water, dying to get in. Silence would be good right now. Just looking at Jonah made her want to jump his bones, and she needed to cool off.
“I put in calls for more divers,” Jonah told them as everyone finished getting ready. “Ten to start with, we’ll see how that goes. If we need more, we’ll make that call in a couple of weeks. The new divers will arrive next Thursday.”
Brody grunted as if displeased.
Jonah continued. “Two finds of this size can’t be handled by six people. It would take each of us seven lifetimes to uncover everything from the city. And while I know that’s the most interesting part, right now Ji Li’s cargo is what’s paying the bills.”
“I’m not that happy about my split being split.” Hooking on his tank, Brody looked like a sulky teenager.
Callie didn’t much like Brody, but she was pretty sure his sentiment must be in everyone’s heads. Her concern wasn’t how the spoils were going to be divided, but whether any of the new divers would know her, or make a connection between herself and Rydell? She’d gone on three major salvage operations with Ry over the last five years. That was a lot of people who knew of their close connection.
Her relationship with Jonah was so new, so budding, it wouldn’t take the knock of this information.
God. Now she had something else to worry about.
Seventeen
Jonah, the last to suit up, pulled up the zipper on the front of his suit. Wrapping him like a gift in mouthwatering tight black neoprene—a present Callie couldn’t wait to unwrap. She hid a smile, even while her heart ached with the knowledge that this couldn’t last, wouldn’t last. And would probably all blow up in her face a lot sooner than she anticipated.
No regrets.
“I’ll use my cut to pay them,” he told the team, accepting his tanks from Vaughn, who was dressed and ready to rock-and-roll. “Thanks. The investors will have to take a small hit, too. But they’ll be grateful in the end. Don’t worry, nothing will change for any of you. It’ll just lighten the workload. Get everything to the surface faster. Logan’s dispatched a second chopper, which should be here in a couple of days. It’ll be based in Heraklion, so we can get artifacts back to Cutter Cay quicker.”
He looked at the assembled group, and up to the first deck where Callie and Vaughn had set Saul up under an umbrella with the comm equipment and everything he’d need for an afternoon on board.
“Anyone got questions?”
“Let me know what you find with that alien quicksand, will ya?” Saul raised his voice as the blower started up. Casted leg propped up on a chair, he looked as fit and healthy as a man could look with a cast from ankle to mid-thigh.
“First order of business,” Jonah shouted back.
Saul gave Jonah a thumbs-up.
“Let’s do it, people.” Jonah dropped into the water, Callie right behind him.
She loved diving with him. Even more so now that she knew his body so well. She’d stroked the muscles he used to pull his body through the water as he swam. She loved the tight flex of his taut backside, and thought his strong swimmer’s legs so sexy she’d spent half the night exploring how flexible they were.
Very.
Putting aside everything while she was under the water, she grinned behind her mask.
The others branched off when they reached Ji Li, while she and Jonah continued on to where Saul had had his accident
. The water this morning was as clear as she’d ever seen it. The same incredible color of Jonah’s eyes. As far as she knew, he hadn’t ventured nearly this far before. She hadn’t told him, wanting to see his reaction when he rounded the corner.
It was a long way away, past the lava tube and cavern, and beyond another “mountain” of deposited lava with tentacles that reached for miles. She and Saul had marked hundreds of artifacts that would eventually be taken on board.
The tender could anchor close to this grid, the smaller boar easier to maneuver as necessary than Stormchaser.
It must’ve been terrifying for the inhabitants of the city to feel the rumble beneath their thin leather sandals, to smell the thickening smoke, to see the fire erupting into the sky. They’d probably believed they’d angered the gods, and this was their punishment. They must’ve tried running, and gotten caught as the magma swirled around the streets, crashing through brick houses and taking everything in its path in seconds. Evidence of the flow of magma was everywhere, and it was easy, with the incredible evidence before her, to picture what had transpired that day.
Some might’ve made it if they were fleet of foot enough, or had a boat. No, Callie knew, no one would run fast or far enough to avoid being consumed by an eruption of this size. The mountains of lava rock were scattered through the seabed for mile after mile, stretching as far as she could see.
The eruption had been cataclysmic. No one survived. In one way it was depressing as hell swimming through people’s lives, imagining their hopes and dreams, picturing children playing in the streets, and musicians tuning their instruments.
Callie was too scientific to be too sentimental. This was history waiting to be written. She wouldn’t let these people disappear and leave nothing of themselves behind. She wouldn’t let them be forgotten. Over time, she’d piece together their lives. If she had time.
Others might see ancient buildings, but she saw lives in the pottery and utensils, in the exquisite mosaics, the amazing detail of the statuary, and the decorative bowls and flagons.
They had art, and music, and culture. They loved and were loved back. The people wouldn’t be forgotten; she would bring them back to life for countless generations to come.