In Bed With the Competition

by J. K. Coi

  She pretended not to notice the way Ben continued to watch her, but it was impossible to ignore the weight of his regard. Her nipples tightened beneath the thin protection of her clothing.

  The silence only made it worse, so she rushed to fill it. “So, has New York been everything you hoped it would be?”

  He gazed out over the water, then down at the gadget displays on the dash. “Yes and no. I’d never been anywhere other than Seattle my whole life. I thought I was prepared, but I guess I wasn’t.”

  Something in his voice made her think there was more to it than that. “Did something happen?”

  When he looked back at her, there was a tightness in his expression, and she almost felt guilty for asking.

  “I killed a man,” he said.

  Chapter Six

  “What?”

  He winced, wondering how much to say, deciding it wasn’t worth keeping anything back. “When I left Seattle to partner with Jeffrey Olsen, I thought it was going to be the beginning of something great, and on paper it should have been. Olsen had distribution connections that I didn’t have, but he’d been having trouble mastering the tech, and I already had a patent. We were each going to bring something equally important to the table.”

  “Olsen,” she said with a frown. “Jeffrey Olsen? Where have I heard that name recently?”

  “Maybe from the news reports when he died a few months ago?”

  She nodded. “Yes, that’s it. But I read that he killed himself because his company went bankrupt.”

  “He killed himself when I backed out of our business deal.”

  She gasped, clearly shocked—exactly the response he expected should anyone else discover just how close the timing had been between the fallout of their business partnership and Olsen’s death.

  “Why would you back out?” she asked.

  “Almost from day one, he started making bad business decisions, and he refused to listen to me when I told him we needed to try something different. He said that he was more experienced, and I should be grateful that he had decided to take me under his wing.”

  She groaned and put a hand on her hip. “I think I know exactly how well that would have gone over.”

  He nodded. “So I walked.”

  “But why would Olsen kill himself?”

  “When I left, a few of his people came with me. They all smelled the blood in the water. I had been his last chance. He’d done his best to hide it until he could lock me into a partnership agreement, but it didn’t work. He needed me more than I needed him, and when our agreement fell apart, he couldn’t make another deal to save his life.” Poor choice of words.

  “But you didn’t actually kill him.”

  He swallowed hard. “I didn’t give a shit about Olsen,” he admitted. “When I realized I had come all the way to New York only to get jerked around, I cut him loose without a second thought. It was cutthroat and callous.”

  “But you didn’t know he was going to kill himself.”

  “No, but I knew he was desperate.” He shrugged off the past, even though he felt anything but casual about it. “If the media had gotten wind of the events leading up to his death, who knows how they would have spun my involvement in the whole mess.”

  Thankfully, she didn’t ask him any more questions for a while.

  He maneuvered the boat nice and easy, generating very little wake as they knifed through the water. Every once in a while he pointed something out for her, enjoying her excitement in the discovery. A line of mangrove trees along the shore. An interesting fish here, and some coral there.

  They approached a section of reef. The area had gotten busy, but the tour boats had spread themselves out for privacy. Ben picked a secluded spot in deeper water just beyond the shelf, and pulled the boat to a stop. “We’ll have to leave the boat out a little bit because the reef gets too shallow, and we don’t want to damage the ecosystem with our prop. If we stay here, we’ll still be able to swim to the shelf and hopefully see quite a bit of marine life,” he said. “Take the wheel for me while I grab the anchor.”

  This time she walked up to the wheel without a twitch of the nervousness he’d seen in her earlier, making his chest swell with pride for her bravery. “What do you need me to do?” she asked.

  “If we start drifting too much before I’ve had a chance to drop the anchor, you can use this lever.” He pointed. “It’s kind of like a joystick that controls the inboard trolling motor. But this motor has a much smaller prop on the end of it, with just enough power to keep us stable until I’ve got the boat tied up tight.”

  She nodded and came up beside him, her shoulder brushing his arm so that he almost changed his mind about stepping away. But if he didn’t, they were definitely going to start to drift…and not just on the water.

  He lifted one of the seat covers and pulled out a large anchor on a heavy chain attached to a thick black rope. He braced one knee on the bench and held the hunk of iron over the edge of the boat and slowly lowered it into the water before tying it off on a hook attached to the hull.

  After going down to change into his swim trunks, Ben returned on deck with a towel over his shoulders to the most arresting sight anywhere on land or sea.

  The neckline of Beth’s sundress gaped open almost to her waist. She glanced up and saw him standing there, and they both froze. Her eyes widened as she looked him up and down. In that moment he was certain of at least one thing—Beth liked what she saw from her vantage point as much as he did from his. The heat of her awareness sprang up between them, and it made every muscle in his body taut and ready.

  She shrugged the printed dress off her shoulders and let it fall down her arms. The whole thing fluttered down her body and pooled on the deck at her feet.

  “Damn.” He let out a long whistle of appreciation. “Are you sure you want to go snorkeling?”

  She grinned. With a playful shrug, she bent down for her dress and pretended to put it back on. “You mean you want to go back to the hotel and work instead?”

  He groaned. “I’ll get the snorkeling gear.”

  Determined to cool off, he did exactly that while Beth laughed and folded her dress into her beach bag. She had pulled out a bottle of sunscreen and was applying it to her arms and chest when he returned. “Here, let me help you with that.” He wasn’t about to pass up the chance to run his hands over her smooth, creamy skin.

  She sent him a raised brow, but he dropped the snorkeling gear on the bench beside them and took the bottle from her hand.

  Heat. Sticky and moist. The air crackled with it until she finally twisted around to give him her back. He tightened his stomach muscles and took a deep breath before squeezing a dollop of sunscreen into his palm, rubbing his hands together, and then laying them on her arms.

  …

  Ben smoothed the sunscreen into her skin. He started by kneading her shoulders. The mini-massage felt amazing. Some of the tension that had been sitting there for too long was soothed, although another sort of tension only got worse.

  As his touch burned over every inch of her back—even under the straps of her bikini top so that nothing was missed—it was easy to imagine that there was no bikini.

  Her breathing grew shallow and fast. His hands went lower, smoothing down the line of her spine to her tailbone before moving over her hips.

  He spread his fingers and slipped them into her bottoms, caressing the top of her butt. She shuddered and took a few steps forward until his hands fell away. “I, ah…I think I can do the rest. Thanks.” Her cheeks were warm and her nipples tight as she hurriedly did her arms and legs.

  Finally, she squared her shoulders and spun around with a smile. “So, are we going to do this thing or not?”

  Ben handed her the flippers and goggles, and when she just looked at them hanging from her fingers, he grinned. “Now would be a good time to fess up that you’ve never been snorkeling before.”

  She looked down at the water. “It’s that obvious, is it?”


  He laughed and showed her how to put the flippers on, but the touch of his hands on her ankles and calves was just another distraction. When she stood up and pulled the mask over her head, it snagged in her hair, and he helped her fix it, smiling into her eyes until she blushed. His fingers barely touched the side of her face, but it was enough to make her pulse leap.

  He stepped back and put his hands on his hips and surveyed his handiwork. “There. You look like a natural.”

  She chuckled. “Until I get in the water and start flailing about.”

  “You know how to swim. I remember that much.”

  “Yep, but I assume this is a little different than doing laps in the pool at the student athletic facility.”

  “It’ll be easy. And I’ll be right there with you,” he assured her.

  He jumped in the water like it was nothing, coming right back up to the surface to wait for her. He shook his head and pulled on the goggles, gently treading water. She thought about climbing safely down the ladder that folded out off the back of the boat, but he looked up with a grin, and she knew she had to jump, too.

  She sputtered and coughed coming back up, but had to admit the water was amazing. Refreshing but not cold, and so clear she could see…everything.

  Breathing only through her mouth was distracting at first. It took all of her concentration, and she couldn’t focus on all the sights. But then there was a moment when she just seemed to get it. She fell into a rhythm of breathing and realized it wasn’t as bad as she’d thought it would be.

  In fact, snorkeling was fun. She floated on top of the water, relaxed as could be, watching a completely different world below the surface. The reef teemed with life. Colorful and vibrant. She didn’t want to touch anything, afraid of sending all the fish into hiding.

  Ben had no such fears. He swam up beside her, eyes magnified behind the face mask, and took the snorkel out of his mouth. He pointed to her and put his hand over his mouth, and she understood that he was telling her to take out the snorkel, too, and hold her breath.

  She nodded, and he took her hand and pulled her deeper, closer to the coral for a good look.

  They came up to the surface, and Liz took long, deep breaths, scissoring her legs to tread water. “That’s the most amazing and beautiful thing I’ve ever experienced.” She shoved her facemask up over her forehead. She couldn’t keep the massive grin off her face. “I feel like I’m on the Discovery Channel.”

  “Not quite the most beautiful thing I’ve seen today,” Ben said with a pointed look into her eyes. “But I definitely wouldn’t have missed it.”

  His regard felt weighty and intense, and she found herself floating closer until the soft waves coming across the water’s surface broke against the two of them as one. She looked up, wondering if he might finally kiss her, hoping he might finally kiss her.

  Tingles of anticipation exploded over her skin when his hand touched her shoulder and smoothed all the way to her elbow.

  He leaned in, his mouth close to the curve of her jaw. She held her breath.

  “Look at that,” he whispered.

  That wasn’t what she’d been expecting. He turned her around, pressed his chest up against her back, and pointed. She gasped, but not because of the turtle that was swimming in the water a short distance away.

  “Is that a sea turtle?” she asked. “It’s huge.”

  “Yes.” His face was next to hers, over her shoulder. “I’ve never seen one. This is a first for me too.”

  She looked up. “I’m glad we shared something that is new to both of us today.”

  Something passed between them that felt more intimate than she was prepared for, maybe more intimate than he was prepared for, too. He cleared his throat and gently floated back a bit.

  “Come on,” he said in a cheerful voice. “Let’s see what else we can find.”

  The two of them explored for hours, coming up for air and going back down, then swimming near the surface again so they could rest and breathe through their snorkels. Every time she thought about telling him they should call it a day and start to head back, she changed her mind because she wasn’t ready for the experience to end. When guilt threatened, she choked it down. There would be more than enough time for work later.

  When a moray eel passed in front of her, she was amazed that it looked like it was slithering through the water, and she motioned excitedly for Ben to come see it, too. He reminded her not to touch with a shake of his head, and they watched from a safe distance as it disappeared back into the coral.

  Ben pointed out sea grasses, lots of different kinds of fish, and at least four different types of coral. He grinned when she reached out to touch a flowerpot coral, and it pulled back in on itself like a curling fern leaf.

  During it all, he took more and more opportunities to touch her. His hands spanned her bare waist as they came up for air, and he caressed her shoulder to get her attention. As they swam, his body constantly brushed against hers, making her very aware of the shape and size of him. The way he cut through the water mesmerized her, his muscles sleek and defined. He swam as if it was second nature, and part of her was jealous. The other part of her just thrilled to watch him.

  All in all, it was one of the most amazing afternoons she’d ever experienced, but finally, despite wanting to see everything, every nook and cranny of the reef, she was getting tired. Her fingers were pruney, and despite herself, thoughts of what needed to be done in preparation for the convention were starting to creep back into the forefront of her mind.

  They were a few feet beneath the surface, and she tugged on Ben’s arm, motioning toward the boat. He nodded and pointed for her to go on ahead, he would follow right behind.

  The deep hull of the boat dug into the water about six or seven hundred feet away, the stainless steel ladder hanging off the back, catching the sun with a bit of a flash. She started to rise to the surface to blow out her snorkel and get some air to make the swim back.

  Something brushed against her flank. At first she thought it was Ben swimming up beside her, but it hadn’t felt like Ben. Maybe a fish. But it was sharp and quick, like sand paper scratching across her skin. She swiped at her hip and saw the long, muscular gray body arching away from her and descending back down below.

  A fin. A triangular tail.

  Shark.

  Her panic was immediate. She stopped swimming and started choking.

  The snorkel hung from its clip on her goggles, banging her in the chin. Even if she had been wearing it, she didn’t think she would have been able to breathe through the thing if her life depended on it.

  She flailed and kicked her legs, twisting around and looking back and forth.

  Where did it go?

  If she hadn’t been submerged in water, she’d be sweating bullets. The shark had disappeared, and suddenly the sea was cold, her blood like ice in her veins.

  Ben grabbed her arm, and she let out a little scream, taking in water.

  Choking, choking. Oh my God, can’t breathe. Get me up. Get me out of here.

  Her lungs burned. Up and out, need to get out. She couldn’t see the shark, needed to get to the surface right away.

  Both of Ben’s arms went around her, and he held her still. His flippered legs kicked in a smooth, controlled pace. Would that attract the shark? Her eyes widened as she struggled to see around him, but he shook his head, tilting her chin up until she looked at him. Her lungs burned, her chest felt too tight. Was she going to drown here before the shark could even take its first bite?

  His calm reached out for her, catching and holding her gaze. She forced herself to take a mental pause and nodded, but her lungs were burning for air.

  Finally he pointed up toward the surface. They were almost there. She blinked and nodded, but when she would have darted the rest of the way, he held her back and made her go slowly. They hadn’t been very deep to begin with, so it was just another few seconds before they both broke the surface together.

 
She blinked and choked, dragging heaving gulps of air into her lungs.

  “Where did it go?” She clutched at his arms, peering into the water beneath them.

  Despite the sunshine still beaming high in the sky, the sea seemed to have gotten dark and ominous looking. She expected to see the shark speeding up at them from below, jaws open wide, jagged teeth ready to clamp down on her leg. She shivered.

  “Stay calm,” he said, arms around her. Their legs bumped together as they treaded water. “The more erratic your movements, the more that guy is going to get curious and decide he needs to check you out again.”

  “It rubbed up against me!” She shivered. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw it again. A dark fin poking up from the surface between them and the boat. “Oh my God, Ben, there it is.”

  It was coming toward them…and then it was gone again, knifing into the water like a submerging submarine.

  “Ben!”

  He cupped her face in his hands until she looked back at him, then he readjusted her mask. “Can you handle going back down below? Will you be able to stay calm?”

  Stay calm? She wasn’t calm now, how was she supposed to be calm when she couldn’t breathe and there was a shark after her?

  He wasn’t letting go of her. Since she probably didn’t have any choice but to give it a shot, she finally nodded.

  “We’ll stay close enough to the surface to breathe through our snorkels.”

  “Okay,” she said, not believing for a minute that it was going to be okay.

  He smiled. “Don’t worry. It’s very unlikely the shark is going to care about us one way or another. We are not the kind of food it wants, and it knows that. Everything will be fine.” He looked like he actually believed what he was saying, and the clamp around her chest loosened just enough for her to breathe without wheezing.

  “We’re going to go down and start swimming toward the boat nice and easy, all right?” he said. “Below the surface we’ll look less like something it might feel the need to investigate again, but if we’re thrashing about up here, it’s going to want to check us out.”