by Jayne Blue
I put my hand in Stone’s, and he helped me aboard.
He then positioned himself in the captain’s seat. I hoped he knew what he was doing on that score.
“Are you okay to captain a boat? I’m a native we drive boats like most people drive cars.”
“Don’t worry I’m seaworthy, well lake-worthy. And I have no doubt you’ll pipe up if I need guidance.” He said. I was about to head out to the ocean with a man I knew nothing about.
“Where are you from?” I hadn’t even thought to look at the plates on his bike before. I didn’t know I’d be spending any time with this man, but now here I was. Trying to figure out what to talk about.
“Michigan.”
“Okay, so lakes right?”
“Yes, a lot of them.”
“Yep. So while I cruise around you’ll be doing what exactly?” I was supposed to be getting information from him. Instead, I spilled my guts about myself.
“So here’s the deal. I’m an intern for the Ecological Services Department of Florida’s Fish and Wildlife division. They pay me to count, photograph, and observe the habitat. I have a list of half a dozen endangered or at risk species to watch out for. It’s a three day a week thing. But as jobs go for brand new biology graduates it could be worse.”
“Nice. So what’s the plan out here?” He kept an eye on the water and one on me. From what I could see, he did know how to drive the boat. That made me feel a little better.
But it was time to start lying. Well partially lie. I did have to work and track for my job. But I’d hoped to go out to the island and begin to follow the trail that daddy had laid out for me. I was not about to tell this man a thing about that. I wasn’t going to tell anyone. The trick would be to use him for his boat. Could I pull that off? I had to.
If Jason knew what I was up to he’d think I was as crazy as Daddy. If Frank and Estelle knew, they’d try to stop me and get me a real full-time job. And if Kevin knew? I didn’t want to think about it. This whole scheme was a way to get out from under Kevin. God if only…
I gave Stone directions, and we moved out of the marina into open water. He was confident and skilled behind the wheel. So that part wasn’t bullshit. In Michigan, or did he say Minnesota? They had boats, and he knew how to operate one.
I filled Stone in details on about science, biology and government endangered species programs as we headed to the section I needed to cover today. I’d figure out how to get to my island later.
It was easy and uncomfortable all at the same time being with Stone all day.
I tried to ignore everything about him. His body was ridiculous. It was one thing in the jeans he’d rolled into town in but something about seeing more. I kept stealing glances to look at things like his forearms. They were roped with thick vein and muscle. Actually, he was muscle from head to toe and road worn, and I thanked goodness for the sunglasses I had on. At least he didn’t see me sneaking a peak.
Everything about him screamed sex. I was as inexperienced in that department and out of my element. But I kept returning to his tight jeans and the thighs that looked like they were straining at the fabric. I knew I wanted to see more. The thoughts in my head were a jumble of what I was out there to do and the proximity of the manliest man I’d ever seen.
We were near the buoy Station 42099. This was the area I needed to focus on today. “Okay, let’s cut the engine and float here a for a minute.” Stone did as I asked.
I was on the lookout for several species. I’d record some with my phone, but I also had the camera from the office. I was feeling proud of myself for the act I was running. I was a responsible observer of nature. I had a job to do. I wasn’t fazed by the hunk of man who didn’t seem to want to take his eyes off me. I kept telling myself these things, and I scanned the water and sky.
Then Stone took off his t-shirt. I didn’t mean to say anything but, “Holy shit,” came out of my mouth.
I noticed a tat that covered his muscled shoulders. It was a wolf.
“What?” He said and walked over to the back of the boat where I sat, probably with my mouth open. He was ripped, his muscles had muscles, I’d never seen a body like his. I take that back, maybe when Jason watched WWE Raw.
I covered up my blurt with bullshit.
“Oh, oops, my mistake, thought I saw a rare species that I’m tracking but no. Wrong.”
“Ah, nothing to record then?”
“Nope. But I’ll find something. I always do.” I stood up, and that’s when I did make the rookie boating mistake.
The swale rolled under the boat, and I wound up sliding right into Stone’s arms.
“Whoa!” He caught me and damn if I might have taken a header right out of the boat if not for him.
“I got you.” He sure did. He was solid and male, and the same thoughts I had sitting behind his bike heated me up immediately. I slid out of his arms.
“Thanks. Okay, here’s what we’re looking for.” I pulled up a few pictures on my phone. He smiled as I listed things and ignored his eyes.
“Are they rare?”
“Every species is worth noting, but there are some that the office is specifically tracking.”
“Is that because they’re what? Endangered?” He asked me and it was enough to get me going. Talking about the wildlife of my home state was my passion.
“Endangered is the last stop. That’s the worst. That’s when there is an immediate threat of extinction unless we actively manage the population and environment. Endangered is the top we try to put up a red flag up before then, threatened, proposed, or candidate all of those are important to find out. It’s a tiered system, a step-down we’re trying to make happen if we can. We’re looking to see if a population is thriving or not. Is there a marked change from year to year? Really I’m adding to data when I’m recording things.”
“You can’t count them all.”
“No, we do a fair amount of extrapolating. The office also calls me in if someone finds something odd on the beach or in their yards or in the water. I’m the first one to see if it’s disease or disaster or it they were killed for sport. So I monitor all that. You ever hear of the wood stork? That’s one of our success stories. It’s thriving after nearly being wiped out in the 1970s. I hope we can do that for the Broad-Winged Hawk. It’s not on any list, not protected at all, but disappearing. My data and the data of the other Florida field offices, that’s what we try to prove or not. Does a species need help?” I had dumped a lot of information out. It was a little shield of armor I had deployed so as not to tell him what I really wanted to find out on my island.
“The Broad-Winged Hawk.”
“Yep. Haven’t seen one all year. That’s bad.”
“What happens if you don’t find any?”
“That’s the worst case, they’re gone, and we didn’t stop it.”
Stone listened to me talk about the species I was tracking, and it was kind of refreshing. Most people did not want to hear me go on and on about birds, fish, and rare slugs so babbled on and on when they did. If Stone was thinking of putting any moves on me, I effectively doused it with my non-sexy indigenous species of Florida speech.
“So let’s quiet boating around in circles and head to Ross Island.” Shit. He hadn’t bought my diversion at all!
“How do you know about that?
“Well, it’s on this here treasure map?” And Stone lifted his hand. My Dad’s map, my map, my secret future was in his hands.
“Fuck.” I blurted.
“Sure. Maybe after we find the gold.”
Chapter Four
Stone
In a matter of hours, I’d gone from tired, dusty, and alone on the open road to soaking up the sun with a gorgeous woman on the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
It was a good trade up.
And I loved hearing her talk. This wasn’t normal for me. Mostly, I liked my women to be quiet. But Kara was a talker, and it was clear she was smart. But oh so young and innocent. I decided to pu
sh her luscious little buttons to see what happened. So I palmed the map.
It wasn’t tough. She was distracted, talking, looking, and writing things down.
She tried to grab it back. It was cute as hell. But I caught her around the waist and stopped her.
“Give that back.” She was up against me, tight, and squirming. I was immediately hard. Like a damn teenager.
“No.” I slid my hand down her waist and pressed her hips into mine. She turned fifty shades of pink.
“You don’t know what you’re messing with.” She said, and leaned, trying to climb up me.
I extended my hand with the map over the side of the boat.
“Don’t you dare!” She pressed herself close to try to stop me.
I wouldn’t have thrown it over, but she didn’t know that. But I wasn’t going to be around very long, and I was curious. I had decided to accelerate things or risk rolling out of town very soon wondering what mystery this fierce woman was hiding. I let her consider all her options while I considered how turned on having her this close made me.
“So why shouldn’t I?” I waved it again over the water.
“It is a map of an island I, uh, I own. Sort of?”
“Excuse me?”
“My Daddy owned it, and he left it to me.”
“Well it would seem like you could buy as many boats as you wanted if you own an island.” I watched her struggle with what to tell me. Her squirming had dislodged the bottom of her tank top from her shorts, and the skin of her taut stomach pressed against mine.
“I’m not rich. It’s the opposite. I’m in debt. My dad had three mortgages on it.”
“So maybe x marks the spot on here for gold. Maybe I found myself a little treasure hunter?” I ignited a near panic in her. I knew I’d hit it right on the head, but she wasn’t letting me in on anything.
“No, no. It’s just an old legend. If I’m lucky, I’ll find old plates and cups or buttons.” I loosened my grip and let her explain herself.
“Buttons?” I didn’t hide my disbelief.
“Yep.”
“You’re a terrible liar,” I told her.
“And what are you?” She had a glint in her eyes. Was this sweet young thing flirting with me? Oh, she was playing a dangerous game.
“Maybe I’m a pirate?” I said. There was a hint of a smile at that. She may be just as innocent as the town gossip said but there was a wild streak in her. It’s what put her on my bike and let her go off with me on the boat. She wasn’t afraid to take a risk. It was what had me interested. That and those fucking white shorts.
“Well, I know I am.” Then she did something I wouldn’t have bet on. She leaned in and put her lips to mine.
She was no pirate, but she was about to learn a little about plunder. I took her light kiss as an invitation and showed her what a real kiss was. Her sweet lips were delicious, and I pushed harder. I slid my hand into the top of the waistband of her shorts and pushed her ass toward me. I invaded her mouth with my tongue and enjoyed the fruity and salty mix I found.
She made a noise, a desperate sound, and her tongue circled mine.
I’d wanted to play with this little kitten, I’m not going to lie the bank teller put it in my mind. Could someone so adorable still be a virgin? At 21? It was almost a challenge.
I was going to have her. It wasn’t a question. Her smell, her curves, her taste it took two seconds of touching her to make up my mind about it.
In those two seconds, her kiss had sparked something I’d never felt with any woman. Her body was supposed to be mine. It would be mine.
The kiss deepened and my hands couldn’t be still. I roamed up and down her back and wanted to feel more of the skin covered by that tank top.
I’d been with my share of women. Most of them tough, most of them tender too, but not one of them virgins. I suddenly realized that it would be too easy to scare her.
I was going to do have to do it right. I was going to move fast, but not so fast she ran away.
“Kara do you want me to fuck you out here, on the boat? Because that’s where this is going. And I’d be happy to. Very happy to.” I said, and her eyes opened wide to look at me.
“Yes?” And it took her a second or two. I moved my hand up and slid it over her nipple. It was hard. God, I wanted her. But I needed her to know this wasn’t a game of spin the bottle I was after. I rolled it hard in my fingers, and she made a sweet sound. She responded to me quickly and in a way that was setting me on fire. I’d have a hard time taking anything slow if this lasted much longer. She swayed her hips into mine. Man, this girl may be a virgin, but she knew how to move with me.
“Uh, no.” And she stepped back. It was almost painful having her separate from me, but I felt she deserved her first time to be something better than on the boat with a stranger. I wasn’t going to push her more than I had just then. And shit. She’d kissed me.
“So we better slow down.” It was me warning her. Whether I wanted to or not touching her meant things moved fast between us. I had chemistry with the biology girl. She turned and headed to the front of the boat.
“Yes, I’m sorry I..” I couldn’t see her face. But I already figured out that it was rare for her to be at a loss for words.
She sat in the captain’s seat. She planned to drive apparently. She turned the key to start the engine again.
I sat next to her and took her in. Her skin was so smooth, soft, and now I knew what it tasted like.
“Don’t be sorry. Just be ready. Because I will have you. Just say when.” It wasn’t a warning this time but a statement of fact. She straightened her back and tossed her hair back.
“Touch my map again and I’ll throw you overboard.” She lifted the map from under her legs. Fuck, the map! She’d stolen it back when I was busy thinking about the best way to get her naked. Sneaky little girl! She tucked into a side compartment near the captain’s seat. Her body was now blocking it from me. She cranked the steering wheel, and the boat raced back toward Gold Cross. So the kiss might have felt real, but she’d just played me.
“Thought you’d distract me eh?” I asked her.
“Something like that.” She said over the sound of the engine.
“So am I the only one who knows about your map?”
“Maybe.”
“What’s to stop me from telling everyone about it?”
“Go ahead. Stand in the center of town and advertise that I have a pirate treasure map. You’ll sound just as crazy as my old man.”
She had a point. She had no idea that I was on the run. I did not plan to advertise my existence in this or any town. She didn't know about any of that, but she’d keyed into the fact I wasn’t into a lot of attention.
She also had no idea that she’d hooked me in with her mystery, her trouble, her map, and her delicious taste.
Kara
My body ached for another kiss. It was as simple as that. I wanted him to kiss me again and take my clothes off.
I thought I was so smart. I was going to use Stone’s attraction to me to get my map out of his hands. I may not be experienced with men, but I knew I had power. Kevin Potter had shown me that.
I just didn’t quite know what to do with it. What was the worst that would happen? If kissing him worked, I’d get my map back. And it did. Like a charm. I slid it out of his hands while he slid his hands all over my body.
Except.
I was weak in his arms. His tongue, his hands, his fingers? Shit. This wasn’t Kevin Potter, who I had no interest in, or a high school kid, or a science geek. The latter being my most recent date.
Stone Calder was a man, a dangerous man. And he knew I was hiding a map to something. The idea that I thought it was a map to treasure, that I believed my Dad’s stories, well, it sounded crazy in my mind, even more so coming out of his mouth.
But I wanted nothing more than to spread out that map and search. And I wanted him to kiss me again. Shit. This was not in my plan!
My m
ind raced. How was I going to use this boat and this map and ditch this man? In my mind, he was walking the plank at the end of my cutlass. Stone interrupted my fantasies with a question.
“Now where to?” He wasn’t walking the plank, he wasn’t going anywhere, except wherever I was going. Shit. Fine. I’ll bore the hell out of him with bird talk. Maybe that could do it. Talk him to death. Maybe I could even make him seasick! Several desperate plans churned around in my head.
“Up and down the coast all day Stone. Just counting and observing. Calculating. Entering data. Very boring.”
“Well, it depends on your perspective.” And I followed his eyes. They trailed down my body, and I blushed again. I angled my face out to the ocean. He didn’t need to know.
I focused on my job. Looking at Stone was a bad idea if I wanted to get anything done. I still couldn’t believe I’d lost control of the kiss. This was not a part of my mission.
I got out my binoculars, my tablet, and my phone. It was time to stop screwing around.
The early afternoon had me recording birds, fish, and whatever else I spied. It was run-of-the-mill stuff.
Stone decided to ease the pressure on me I guessed and spent a few hours either sleeping or sunning and leaving me alone. This was good. Maybe I had bored him enough to lose interest.
But it was after lunchtime, and I felt a tad bit guilty.
“Okay let's take a lunch break.”
“Aye aye captain.”
“Let’s see. What did Estelle throw in here?” I handed Stone a wrapped sandwich and opened one myself.
“Oh, perfect.” She’d made us two roast beef sandwiches and carefully wrapped them in wax paper. She’d packed water, chips, and a few oranges as well.
“Estelle’s my new favorite woman,” Stone said. I couldn’t disagree. She was my favorite woman always.
Stone and I dug into the sandwiches.
They were, of course, delicious. I polished off half of mine. Then something caught my eye. I put the food back in the wax paper and grabbed my binoculars.
“Holy crap.” I followed two birds that I hadn’t seen all summer.