Breathless Encounter: Breathless EncounterThe Dark Side of Night

by Cindy Dees

  Eager to see him again, to just look at him and be in his presence, she opted for a quick shower and raided his drawers for a clean T-shirt. She headed out to find him.

  Of course, a crew member was in the passageway as she emerged from Aiden’s room. He glanced away quickly but not before she caught the grin lurking at the corners of his mouth. She had no illusions: the entire crew no doubt already knew she’d spent the night in the boss’s cabin. There was no help for it. Yachts were tiny places that kept no secrets. Her euphoria this morning was such, though, that she brushed off the momentary embarrassment.

  “Have you seen Aiden this morning?” she asked the steward.

  “Last I saw, he was eating up on deck.”

  She headed up to the sundeck to find him, but the space was empty when she got there. She strolled around the walkways and didn’t spot his tall, perfect form. Impatient, she headed up to the bridge and spotted Steig on the catwalk, looking out to sea through a pair of binoculars.

  “Good morning, Miss Sunny. Sleep well?”

  To his credit, there was no sleazy innuendo in the question. In fact, if anything, she thought she caught a note of approval in the Swede’s voice. “I slept fantastic,” she replied jauntily. “Do you know where Aiden is?”

  “Out there.” He gestured with his chin to the open ocean.

  “I suppose he’s swimming alone again, isn’t he?” she demanded.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Don’t ma’am me. I’m just the refugee you were kind enough to take in.”

  “You’re Aiden’s special guest...ma’am.”

  She didn’t quite know what to say to that. She gazed out at the ocean’s lazy waves trying to spot her lover. No sign of him. “How long has he been under?” she asked.

  Steig, staring out at the ocean again, answered absently, “Six minutes, give or take.”

  “Six—” She broke off in horror. “Free diving with no oxygen for six minutes?”

  Steig looked startled and a sheet of dull red chagrin spread across his cheeks.

  “Exactly how long can he stay underwater?” she asked ominously.

  “Maybe you should talk to Dr. Jones about it. Or Aiden himself.”

  Her suspicion blossomed into full-blown certainty that something strange was going on around here. Nobody could hold their breath for six minutes and counting. At least not anybody normal. A world-champion free diver might pull it off on a single dive after careful pre-breathing and preparation, but not dive after casual dive like Aiden did. Steig wasn’t even showing the slightest sign of concern as the seconds ticked away.

  “What the hell is going on with him?” Sunny demanded.

  “Really. You need to talk to him about it.” Steig made a production of peering through the binoculars and turning his attention back to the water.

  “Oh, I definitely will.”

  How was it that she could make passionate, mind-boggling love with Aiden and feel as if she’d connected with him at the deepest and most fundamental level, and still not know him at all? What in the world was he hiding from her? What were they all hiding from her?

  Chapter 6

  Aiden was by turns terrified, exhilarated and appalled. He cycled through the sensations almost too rapidly to process. He swam with a vengeance, doing his darnedest to wash away the storm of emotions. But it didn’t work. No matter how he deep he dived, how long he pushed himself to stay under, how much he exhausted himself, the roiling in his gut refused to go away.

  The usual comfort of the sea eluded him. Even the plentiful fish in this region seemed determined to avoid him today. The water remained silent and empty around him, and no answers were forthcoming as to what to do about the woman who’d invaded his soul.

  He swam for hours. The sun traversed the zenith of the sky and was starting down toward the western horizon when he finally gave up seeking a peace that refused to come.

  Heading back to the white oasis of the Sea Nymph, he hoisted himself out of the water on tired arms. He picked up the towel someone had laid out for him and wiped the salt water off his skin. And as he did so, he spotted Sunny’s slender curves on the bridge deck.

  The defensive set of her shoulders, the way her arms were clasped around her middle spoke volumes. Alarm coursed through him. He probably shouldn’t have slipped out while she slept this morning. But he’d needed distance from her, some perspective. A chance to remember his purpose in life, to reconnect to his faltering sense of duty.

  He jogged up the ladder that was the fastest route to the bridge deck. He noted the furtive way Steig vacated the deck as he approached. What had the Swede been talking to Sunny about?

  “Good swim?” she asked as he drew near and kissed her on the cheek.

  He shrugged. “Tiring.”

  “How tiring?”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “How do you do it? No normal man can hold his breath as long as you can.” Suspicion vibrated in every syllable.

  Ahh. He cursed mentally. He should’ve known she’d spend the afternoon watching him swim—and how could she not realize something was up? No help for it now. His only option was damage control. He answered lightly, “I told you. I’m a spectacular swimmer.”

  “What you can do is Guinness World Records stuff and then some. It’s superhuman. How do you do it?”

  “Practice?”

  “How stupid do you think I am, Aiden?”

  He sighed. “I’ve never thought you were anything other than highly intelligent and perceptive.”

  “Then please don’t insult me. I’d like an answer to my question.”

  “I can’t give it to you.” It was no big stretch to know what her next question would be.

  She obliged by delivering a terse, “Why not?”

  “I just...can’t.”

  “Does this have something to do with why a research scientist like Dr. Jones is aboard the Nymph?”

  Nope, Sunny was not slow on the uptake. She’d gotten to that bit of logic all too fast for his comfort. How long before she made other, more damaging connections? “If I asked you to just leave it alone, would you?”

  “Would you if you were in my position?”

  “No.”

  “Well, there you have it.”

  “It’s classified. I can’t talk about it,” he tried desperately.

  She stared at him thoughtfully. “Which means Gemma is involved. Which means she’s doing some sort of research that involves you. How did you describe her work? Aquatic stuff?”

  Crap. Sunny had a good memory, too.

  She continued her uncomfortable line of reasoning. “So, you either are a natural freak she’s studying, or she’s done something to enhance your ability to hold your breath.”

  Since there was no explicit question in her remark, he did not make any response.

  “And, since I’ve never heard of anybody, ever, who could hold their breath the way you can, I’m betting that Gemma did something to you. Care to tell me what it was?”

  “Absolutely not,” he blurted, vividly aware all of a sudden that a filmmaker who specialized in exposés was grilling him.

  “This yacht is very small. Nothing can stay secret aboard a boat for long. You know it, and I know it. So why don’t you just cut to the chase and tell me what’s going on?”

  Sadly, she was right. “Once you know, there’s no going back. You have to live with it forever.”

  She shrugged. “That’s how all knowledge works. It changes you.”

  Easy for her to say. She had no idea how much knowing his secrets would change her life. And he couldn’t explain it to her without revealing too much. “Curiosity is not always a good thing, Sunny. This is one time you need to walk away and not ask any questions.”

 
“And yet, I’m not. This involves you, Aiden. I want to know.”

  It was his fault. Had he not made love to her—twice—she wouldn’t be in such an all-fired tizzy to know every last detail about him. He’d brought this on himself. In his selfishness and loneliness, he’d dragged her into his life. He was a fool. He’d known from the day he met her that she was insatiably curious and doggedly determined in pursuing answers. He’d known better.

  The bottom line was, the project was not his to reveal. It was Gemma’s work and the work of his boss, Jeff Winston, the first recipient of the stem-cell transplants that had artificially enhanced his body. In Jeff’s case, it had been his bones, and hence his strength, that had been boosted.

  Apparently, he’d waited too long to respond to Sunny. She declared, “Fine. If you won’t tell me, I’ll just ask Gemma.”

  He snorted. “Good luck with her.”

  Sunny smiled mysteriously. “She rather likes me. And us girls have to stick together. She happens to think you haven’t been treating me very well, and she also thinks you need someone like me to shake you out of your shell. She said so last night when you didn’t show up for dinner. In fact, the two of us spent the evening together getting chummy.”

  Oh, God.

  She turned away from him, presumably to go track down Gemma. He huffed in frustration. “Sunny, stop.”

  She turned around to stare at him expectantly.

  “If you have to hear it, you may as well hear it from me.”

  An expectant expression entered her snapping hazel eyes.

  “This conversation will go best if there’s alcohol involved.” He added under his breath, “Lots of alcohol.” Louder, he added, “I’ll meet you in the salon in five minutes. There’s something I have to get first.”

  * * *

  Five minutes stretched into ten as Sunny waited to hear what the big secret was. Aiden had been so serious about it all. He’d scared her more than she liked to admit. A lot more. Fear that something was terribly wrong with his health nagged at her.

  Finally, he joined her, and she noted that he’d taken time to dress in a white shirt and slacks that made him look every inch the old-money blueblood he apparently was. And he had a stack of papers in his hand. But it was the grim set of his jaw and the sober expression in his eyes that really captured her attention.

  “Sit down,” he said shortly.

  She moved over to the poker table in the corner where he held a chair for her.

  He put the papers and pen down in front of her and said tersely, “I need you to read these documents and sign them.”

  “What are they?” she asked curiously.

  “They’re self-explanatory.”

  Not feeling real talkative, huh? She glanced down at the papers. A nondisclosure agreement? She scanned the legal documents quickly. They made clear in no uncertain terms that lawyers for Winston Enterprises would sue her into the Stone Age if she ever talked about anything she learned aboard the Sea Nymph, and that said lawyers would just be getting warmed up. The papers promised to destroy the rest of her life if she broke the terms of this document.

  Becoming more alarmed with each signature, she signed page after page of legal papers. Finally, she’d worked her way through the whole stack. She pushed them across the table to Aiden. “Okay. Talk,” she said.

  “Jeff Winston is an old friend of mine. We went to college together. And he approached me two years ago with an unusual proposition, which I accepted. A doctor whose research he’d been funding needed human subjects for a highly secret medical experiment, and he wanted me to be one of those people.”

  “Gemma Jones?” she interrupted.

  “Correct. This is Gemma’s project. She is not only a physician, but also an internationally renowned geneticist. And she discovered what she believed to be a way to use stem cells to super activate certain genes.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “She can use stem-cell therapies to accentuate or change certain features of individuals.”

  A chill skittered down Sunny’s spine. She saw where this was going, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to believe it. “Like what?” she asked cautiously.

  “In Jeff’s case, Gemma was able to enhance his bone density and deactivate certain amino acids that limit muscle strength. The end result is that he can develop and skeletally support more muscle than a regular person can.”

  “He’s superstrong, then?”

  “Yes.”

  She had to force the words out, but she had to know. “And you? What about you, Aiden?”

  “My cells have greatly increased their capacity to absorb and use oxygen, particularly when under high ambient pressure.”

  “Translation into plain English for us nonscience geeks?”

  “I can hold my breath underwater for a really long time.”

  “How long?”

  “Longest so far is nine minutes and twenty seconds. Gemma believes I’ll be able to go longer than that as more of my body tissues make the shift and the changes in my cells become permanent.”

  Her filmmaker’s instincts kicked in and questions crowded into her mind one on top of another. “How many people are participating in this project? Do they all have different abilities? Can anyone enhance something about themselves, or only specific people? Does the government know about this? My God, what are the side effects? And what about the other human test subjects—”

  Aiden raised a hand to stop the deluge. “I’m not at liberty to talk about anyone else. And frankly, the less you know, the better.”

  “Why? Because I have a movie camera?”

  “Because you champion causes. Because you live to publicize that which you think other people should be aware of. And yes, because you have a camera.”

  “I signed all your documents.”

  “I think you’ll agree that this project has the potential to be...explosive...if the public finds out about it. The temptation to talk might be more than you could resist.”

  “Why did you tell me about Jeff Winston, then?”

  “The government already knows about him.”

  “And they haven’t shut down Winston Industries and thrown Gemma in jail till the end of time for pursuing this research?”

  “Are you kidding?” He snorted. “Uncle Sam is our biggest fan. They’re pushing us to do more and faster.”

  Shocked, she just stared.

  “Think about it, Sunny. Scientists all around the world are messing with stem cells right now. Someone else is bound to stumble across the same information Gemma did. But that someone may not be the slightest bit friendly to the United States. What if, say, China could create an army of millions of enhanced soldiers? Where would that leave the United States?”

  “Ohmigod,” she breathed.

  “Our edge as a nation is all about having better technology than the other guy. We have no choice but to keep up in this field of science, too. Problem is, the U.S. government has so tied the hands of American scientists in the field of stem-cell research and genetic engineering that we’re rapidly falling behind the rest of the world.”

  “Some people would argue that the restrictions are to prevent us from playing God.”

  “Those people may be right. But the reality is that Uncle Sam is delighted to have Winston Industries take it upon itself to do this research. It relieves the Feds of moral responsibility for the work but keeps them on the leading edge of military technology development.”

  “But you’re mutilating your body!” she exclaimed as the implications of what he’d told her began to sink in.

  “Do I look mutilated?” he asked in amusement.

  “Is this why you have those terrible asthma attacks?” she challenged.

  “The downside of my gift. My cells w
ork best under high pressure. Helps keep the oxygen from dissolving into solution. In air, like this—” he waved a hand around him “—my cells aren’t so efficient anymore. As long as I don’t exert myself on dry land, I’m fine, though.”

  “It’s barbaric,” she declared.

  “It’s a miracle,” he countered.

  “How can you say that? You’ve distorted your body into something unnatural!”

  “I’ve enhanced it into something more than it was before.”

  “But why?” she cried.

  “Because somebody has to do it. Better me than some psychopath who’d lose his head and turn into a criminal or try to get rich off of it.”

  She just shook her head, too appalled to speak at the moment.

  He continued, “My special abilities allow me to help other people. We stop terrorists and catch criminals and save innocent people. Like you. Without my skills, you’d have died. I was able to spend long enough underwater to find you before you drowned.”

  How was she supposed to argue against that? “Don’t get me wrong, Aiden. I’m glad I’m alive. But I can’t condone what you’ve done to yourself.”

  “I’m not asking you to condone it. Just accept it.”

  “What are the long-term side effects?”

  He sighed. “Cataloging those is a work in progress. The treatments appear to gradually change gene structure. Gemma’s trying to determine if the changes are permanent or if they’ll get passed on to our children.”

  “Ohmigosh. She can breed superhumans? Once word of this gets out, the entire human race will be irrevocably changed!”

  “Hence that stack of nondisclosure documents you just signed.” He added gently, “And trust me. The federal government will have something to say if you try to reveal this project. I suspect they won’t stop at lawyers, however. They’ll send in a black-ops team to silence you permanently.”

  Her eyes widened. What had she stumbled into?

  “Welcome to the future, Sunny.”

  But whose future? Mankind’s maybe. But what about hers and Aiden’s? Had any chance for the two of them just evaporated in a stack of legal documents and bizarre science experiments?