by J. K Harper
Simultaneously soothed and aroused by that bone-deep knowledge, she just smiled back and settled in for a day of paperwork, doing her best to keep herself in check around the man who seemed to melt her brain cells each time she saw him.
9
Sunlight sparkled on the water as the research vessel charged across the ocean. Gabi stood at the prow of the boat, looking out across the endless expanse of water as they neared the location of the shipwreck. The tang of the ocean was especially crisp today, whipped up by the healthy breeze. Finally. Gabi's exuberance at getting back to the wreck was hard to contain. Even though she had been kissed into a tingling paroxysm of delight yesterday, and couldn't forget about it, she was also still a little mad at Kai for having kept her away from the Santa Maria.
No matter how crazy attractive he was, and how much anticipation she had about seeing a lot more of him very soon, and how much she just bizarrely felt safe in his presence, she wasn't about to let any man come between her and her career passion. She nodded her head decisively as the vessel gradually slowed as they reached the dive site. Nope, she was going to get some of the glory again today.
Though she had to admit yesterday had been frustrating in more ways than one. After that amazing kiss early in the morning, the rest of the day had been strictly businesslike. She and Kai had gone over the team's compliance paperwork line by line. He'd focused on certain parts of their answers, such as their planned exploration coordinates. After a brief moment of wondering if he somehow knew about the wreck site, she managed to say that they might have to widen their search area depending on what the search equipment read as they went along.
That, she'd told herself as she slightly squirmed, was true enough.
He'd pinned her with a long look, his gaze slipping down to the pocket of her pants into which she'd slipped the gold nugget after she'd quickly re-dressed for her meeting with him. She hadn't been sure why she brought it with her. Obviously she had no intention of showing it to Kai, or anyone else. Sending the one photo of it to her contact with UTEI had been enough. But being separated from it had somehow made her feel weirdly agitated. She felt a strong need to keep it close to her. When Kai's gaze went there, staying longer than a casual glance warranted, her heart had hammered. But he finally shrugged and let the moment pass.
Then, in apology for pulling her off the ocean for the day, he'd taken her on a private tour of the Institute, letting her see some of the behind-the-scenes work. It was fascinating. She was pretty sure he'd enjoyed it just as much as she had. She discovered he had just as tremendous a love for the ocean and its denizens as she did, not to mention he, too, was an aficionado of nautical history. That was a pretty cool surprise, really. But at the end of the day, he'd simply very politely said, “It's been a pleasure being in your company today, Gabi. I'll see you tomorrow.”
With those cryptic words, he'd left. She didn't see or hear from him again the rest of the day.
No wonder her marriage hadn't worked out, she muttered in her head. Men were a mystery.
Seriously, Kai was the most interesting, challenging man she'd ever met. Despite her aversion to anything serious with any guy ever again, she was intrigued by him. Like, really intrigued. Another night of restless, sexy dreams left her still aroused and a little pissed off in the morning. Fine, she totally lusted for the man, as well as found him to be a great conversationalist and just fascinating overall. But really. She had work to do. Resolute, she'd focused on the day at hand and the joy of heading back into the ocean.
Yesterday, the team definitely had seen some more fascinating artifacts at the site, though they had not made any major new discoveries. Yet. Gabi was bound and determined that today, she would find more deeply intriguing parts of the wreck's secrets, diligently catalogue them all, and—perhaps most importantly—return the gold nugget to where it belonged. It nestled again in the little space at the front of her swimsuit top, pressing in a hard little reminder against her chest. With a twinge of shame, she began suiting up alongside Shane, ready to head back into the deep blue and regain her equilibrium.
Just before she reached to remove her phone, strapped to her arm in its waterproof case where she usually carried it when she was onboard any type of boat, sudden shouts startled them both. It was Liesl. "Someone's heading right for us!” the tall blonde called out, shading her eyes against the bright morning sunlight. “A sailboat."
The research vessel fell silent as everyone turned to look in the direction Liesl pointed. Sure enough, the bright white of a sailboat billowing in the breeze skimmed toward them.
Directly toward them.
"Dammit." Everson looked around at the crew. "Remember our cover story, folks."
Everyone nodded. Gabi's stomach knotted. Liesl, who had hoisted a pair of binoculars to train them on the sailboat, suddenly put them down. She looked at Gabi. "No way. I think it's your guy from the other night."
Gabi's insides lurched in a thrilling combination of excitement, nerves, and pure shock. "What? Give me those." She grabbed the binoculars, fiddled with the focus, then nearly gasped as the image sharpened directly on the fancy boat and the man steering it. He cheerfully raised an arm and waved, looking right at her.
It definitely was Kai.
How the hell had he found them out in the middle of the water? Practically in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? Okay, they weren't exactly a thousand miles off the coast of Catalina. But still, they were far off course for anyone to simply run into them. As Gabi watched, he maneuvered the very nice sailboat until he was as close to them as he could get. Despite her surprise and growing, narrow-eyed suspicion, she couldn't help but admire the masterful way he handled his sexy little craft. It sure didn't hurt that all he was wearing was a pair of black swim trunks. His chest muscles rippled in the sunlight, his strong abs flexing as he easily balanced on his boat as it gently rocked in the slight ripples of the water.
Damn. The man was sexier than hell. Torn between a desire to demand how he'd found her in the middle of the ocean and an equally strong desire to just throw herself overboard, swim over to him, and tackle him to the floor of his own boat in a shameless display of lust, Gabi only managed a semi-sputtering speechlessness.
Everson, wary and protective as always, came to the rescue. "Sweet ride you've got there, Kai Long.” The crew's boss walked closer to the railing to examine Kai's boat. He let out a low, admiring whistle. “Fancy champagne and fancy boats, huh? No half measures for you. We had a Bristol when I was a kid. Almost ruined me for anything else." Everson shrugged. His tone and stance appeared casual, but Gabi knew he was being extremely watchful. "But then I discovered science and research, and it was all over. This baby is my only boat at the moment." Everson lovingly patted the railing of the bulky research vessel.
Kai laughed, his voice echoing across the water to them. “Looks like it's really well rigged out with some good equipment, though. Every scientist needs that when they're exploring the ocean blue. Even though,” he added, the mildly confrontational tone in his voice carrying low and clear across the water, “she's a bit clunky compared to my racehorse here.” He stroked the railing of his own fancy, powerful boat.
The possessive way he touched his boat, how his fingers glided over her, slammed through Gabi as if he'd been touching her. Despite her indignation at his untimely presence, and the ridiculous notion that he'd managed to track them out here like he was some sort of super-spy, she felt suddenly, wildly caught by her sharp interest in the man standing so casually on his sailboat. Sunglasses shoved back on his head, muscles flexing in the sunlight as he easily kept his balance on his lightly rocking boat, he was pretty much the image of an insanely sexy Poseidon. Her heart hammered inside, pummeling her ribcage with her arousal and yearning.
Yearning? When on earth did she ever yearn for a guy? Especially one she barely knew? Hotter than hell kisses notwithstanding. Swallowing hard, she kept herself still, training her eyes on Kai as she forced herself to focus on the histor
ical scientific mission at hand. “You're not making fun of our boat, are you?”
Kai laughed. “I'm just saying she's a different breed than mine here. This baby,” he gently slapped the side of his sailboat, “is sensitive as well as strong. She handles a lot differently than your research vessel. Probably,” and now his voice took on a challenging tone as he grinned, looking straight at Gabi as he threw down a stinging gauntlet, “too much for you to handle, I'd say. What do you think, Gabi Santos?” His eyes traveled openly along her body, the appreciation clear in his gaze even as his words confronted her. “Can you handle a sleek beauty like this, or are you out of your element here?”
Liesl gasped and Shane laughed in disbelief. Despite her best intentions to remain coolly collected, in two seconds flat, all Gabi saw was red.
* * *
Kai could see the outraged tilt of Gabi's head from where he stood. He also had a damn fine view of her stunning, luscious body encased in a sensible yet flattering ruby red two-piece swimsuit. Just like that, his cock stirred to very firm attention. He could sense her hesitation over the situation, although it seemed she was leaning toward verbally duking it out with him. She gave a single glance toward her crew leader, Everson, who watched with a vigilance Kai would have missed had he not known the exact reason they were here.
They were nervous he was about to find out their true purpose.
Much as he wanted to watch, from a safe distance, as they descended to the shipwreck and saucy, sexy Gabriela touched his gold again, yesterday's second instance of interruption in tasting her sweet decadence had made up Kai's mind. Oh, he'd been the fool who had interrupted it himself. His dragon had gotten almost out of control while Kai was kissing Gabi, to the point he abruptly felt his usual hold over his wild side slip a bit. He told himself it was because of the small piece of his treasure, which he felt calling to him from the pocket she'd tucked it into for whatever reason.
Yeah. That had to be it.
Even so, shocked and confused by his intense reaction to her, he'd steered the day back to a more professional space, then deliberately left without making any plans to see her that night. She made his head spin in a way he didn't understand.
Frankly, it made him wary and suspicious.
But then he'd had explosively sexual dreams about her all night long, somehow tangled up with his gold and jewels as they tantalized him from an unreachable distance. When he'd awoken after the restless night, he'd vowed that today he would finally taste her to his full leisure, hear her breathy voice as he made her come again and again.
Then he would winnow out the truth from her about how it was that she could handle his own treasure.
Kai waited for the sexy spitfire to respond to his deliberately challenging words. He'd already figured out that Gabi was quick to rise to bait. He only hoped his was attractive enough.
After a barely perceptible shrug from Everson, Gabi looked back at Kai. A mix of annoyance, frustration, intrigue, and unmistakable desire played over her strong, gorgeous face. Planting her hands on her her hips, she didn't disappoint him. "Oh, yeah? Let's see about that." Her impassioned voice carried quite clearly across the water.
She turned to the crew member standing beside her, handed over the binoculars and camera she'd been holding, and with agile ease climbed to the top of the low railing of the research vessel. Kai raised his eyebrows, half shocked and half pleased at her boldness. She nodded her head once, as if making a decision. In the next breath, she launched into the water, diving in with clean simplicity, then breaking the surface while already stroking toward his sailboat. Gabi reached the side of it in moments, her head poking up out of the water like that of a beautiful seal.
"You didn't tell me you were also a mermaid," he said. He couldn't keep laughter from rumbling out of him as he bent down to extend a hand to her. She grasped it, then he easily swung her up onto the deck of his boat.
"You just hauled me up like I was a feather." Despite what he could tell was still indignation framing her words, she apparently couldn't help the little laugh that slipped out of her as well. As she shook her head, water droplets sprayed across them both. As they sprinkled over his skin, small chills of anticipation whispered over him along with Gabi's sleek, clean scent.
His balls tightened so painfully hard at Gabi's teasing reply they almost hurt. She was so sexy, so beautiful, and so willing to just have fun that it was about to drive him beyond crazy. The soothing blankness he craved was with him, cocooning him in the shelter of a familiar sensation.
The sensation that he was about to have his world rocked by this gorgeous woman.
A roaring deep inside him started so quietly, so faintly, Kai didn't notice it at first. It grew in intensity, forcing itself up through him.
Desire.
Want.
Need.
His dragon. Wrestling with his human side for control.
Kai shoved the creature back down so hard he almost stumbled from the effort.
Gabi turned and waved back at the research boat. "I'll play double duty with paperwork this afternoon, Everson," she called out. Reluctance edged her voice. “Dante can go down with Shane today, is that cool?”
“No problem, Gabs.” Everson eyed Kai again, but all he did was give him an accommodating wave. “We've got it over here. Call if you need anything.” He nodded toward the phone strapped to Gabi's upper arm, which Kai had noted and thought was an incredibly smart way to wear it if one was on and in the water a lot. “Have fun,” Everson added in a deliberately casual tone. With that, the crew leader turned back to the others on the research boat and started talking about early native inhabitants of the island and something about ancient fishing vessels and underwater caves.
Keeping his face expressionless at their attempt to throw him off the scent, Kai simply waved at the rest of the crew, then looked back at Gabi.
She once again had her hands cocked on her sweetly generous hips. "So. You really think I don't know how to sail this thing?" She pushed past him, deliberately letting her shoulder rub against his chest as she strode over to the wheel. Kai sucked in a quick breath at the sensation of her skin touching his, even so briefly. It was as if he were a teenage boy who couldn't control anything. Turning his back on the research ship, he watched Gabi grab the wheel with expert hands to tack away in the breeze from the research ship, setting the course back toward the general direction of Catalina. "Let me show you how it's done, sailor." Her voice was a long, luscious tease over him as a delighted grin spread across her face.
Damn. Even if he didn't have to find out how she'd been able to get to his gold, and what they planned to do with it, he wouldn't have been able to keep himself away from her anyway. She was a stunner.
Today, there would be no stopping him. He was going to taste her lusciousness again, continuing what they'd both wanted last night before being interrupted. Stepping up behind her at the wheel, he let his breath whisper over her shoulder, enjoying her slight shiver as he did so. She leaned almost imperceptibly back toward him. His entire body tightly attuned to her, like the electric sizzle from lightning as it flung itself from sky to ground.
"So,” he began, allowing his voice to roll over her. “As I recall from the other night at the bar, our conversation was just starting to get interesting. For instance,” and he let his grin come out in his voice, “your world of crazy seems like it has a hell of a lot of fun adventures in it. Scuba diving, research. Meeting strange, dangerous men at bars on small islands.”
Gabi's laughter whipped over him in the breeze as the sail caught the wind and they picked up speed. "You might be a stranger to me, but you're not dangerous." She seemed almost surprised by her own conviction.
Kai stepped behind her completely, putting a hand on either side of the railings around the wheel. He could tell that Gabi sensed his presence directly behind her by the sudden inhale his heightened dragon senses could pick up. A spike in her beautiful scent wafted to him. He groaned softly, fully aw
are that she could hear it.
"You think I'm not dangerous?" His voice was low in her ear. Despite his efforts to push it back, he felt his dragon roughening his tone. Guiding his daring words. "I'm definitely dangerous, Gabi. Because I have every intention of dangerously violating every inch of your body that you want me to. I also have the dangerous intention of the two of us putting on a shameless, voyeuristic display right here on the sailboat, out in the middle of the water where anyone might come upon us. Or is that too adventuresome even for you?"
* * *
Gabi's mouth dropped open, although she managed to keep the sailboat on a steady course. Kai's deep voice and provocative words wrapped around her body, swirling into her with a flash of the liquid desire that had begun when she first laid eyes on him and had yet to completely dissipate. She also still felt strangely comfortable in his presence. Her sixth sense was never wrong. Kai was a good, decent guy.
Even though he was also a bad boy who'd just outrageously propositioned her.
"Definitely not," she said in a smooth voice, though she had to swallow first to make sure it would work. "I like the sound of that. It's the kind of dangerous adventure that's right up my alley."
Gabi glanced to the side and slightly behind them. The research vessel was disappearing in the distance. She definitely felt the very sharp tug of regret that she would not be diving down to the wreck today. That she was indeed letting a guy come between her and the work she loved. Yet she was protecting both it and the research crew. Even so, she couldn't help but feel insanely turned on that she was about to get down and dirty with a super sexy guy on his sailboat in the middle of the Pacific. With Kai. Surprising, controlling, guarded, intense, yet also relaxed, laughter-filled, multi-layered, and just fascinating Kai.