A Risk Worth Taking

by Zana Bell

  The route was very rough and the bike jolted and jarred, demanding all his concentration. He was going too fast, but damned if he’d slow. Yet through it all he could feel Cressa warm at his back, her arms wrapped around him. She never made a sound; he never felt her arms tighten in terror. The road eventually leveled out and they were at another bay on the ocean side, this one with no houses. He pulled up and killed the engine. The water was black, with white lines of foam marking the waves. The only sounds were the rain on their helmets and the distant slush of the sea. Cressa’s arms were still around him.

  Gradually, he felt his heart slowing, his breathing becoming regular. There was something about watching a wave coming up to the beach, crashing, then washing back, both following and erasing the wave that had come before it. The waves all looked the same, but no two ever broke in quite the same way.

  He lost track of time, but finally the cold stealing through his limbs brought him back to the present. He felt the shiver in Cressa’s arms, yet still she hadn’t uttered a word. For a mouthy woman, he thought with a grim smile, that must have required some control. He turned on the engine, ready to go back home.

  CHAPTER NINE

  ADAM CAME INTO the kitchen on Saturday morning looking like every woman’s fantasy of a dangerous man: jeans and big boots, black hair spilling over the collar of his leather jacket.

  He hadn’t said a word when they got home, after the surreal bike ride, and Cressa had gone to bed churned by inexplicable, indefinable tensions. She could still feel his unspoken emotions and could hear him moving around quietly on the other side of their connecting wall. She fell asleep listening to the tapping on the computer, the turning of pages, the soft scrape of his chair against the floor.

  The following day at work he’d taken malicious delight in setting her the most painstaking guidelines for every single task, so that by the evening her face ached from smiling with gritted teeth. She was even more annoyed when the stunt coordinator congratulated her on a fine day’s work.

  Today, however, she’d woken very hopeful of relocating the Adam of that first, incredible meeting. It had been a mistake to invite him into her workplace and she now needed to get him alone to reestablish that connection. It had been real—she was sure of it, though she couldn’t understand why he seemed so determined to pretend it had never existed.

  “Good morning. I’ve got everything ready.” Cressa indicated the backpack and tank bag. She straightened and looked at him. “Though I did wonder if you’d try to get out of going.”

  “I thought about it,” he admitted with a slow-burn smile. “When you’re around, things seem to spiral out of control. But—” he shrugged “—a deal’s a deal. Besides, self-destruction appears to be wired into my DNA.”

  A curious look filled his eyes, hot but wary. Something hot and not at all wary flared through her in response. She managed to sound casual, however, as she asked, “Can I go with you? My bike’s got a loose chain.”

  “Want me to check it now?”

  “No, we should grab the sun while it’s here. You know Northland. The sun can disappear anytime. We can sort out the repair later.”

  “Sure.”

  He appeared in an amiable mood, so she decided to push her luck. “In that case, will you let me drive? You know I’ve been dying to try it.”

  He paused. “O-kay, but any problems and we swap immediately.”

  “Yes!” Only with difficulty did she manage not to throw her arms around him.

  Anticipation sparked as she mounted his bike, keenly aware of the powerful engine beneath her. Adam swung up behind, his thighs running long and lean against hers. He wrapped his arms around her and she felt his chest at her back.

  “Ready?” she asked.

  “Always.” She could hear the smile in his voice.

  Heart in her mouth, she turned the key and felt, as well as heard, the roar of 650 horsepower. Of course she wasn’t taking on too much. Not at all. She skidded out the back wheel but got it under control again, and they headed off in a swirl of dust, up the rutted track and down the peninsula. It took a few gear changes before she was used to the process, and she felt Adam wince each time. His body, tight to hers, moved in perfect rhythm with the bike. With her.

  The green hills spooled past them, and as her confidence grew, the speed increased and they leaned as one into the bends. Once, his hand pressed her thigh. She glanced down and found his finger pointing to an early-flowering kowhai tree glowing brilliant gold halfway down one steep valley. She nodded and he patted her leg in acknowledgment before withdrawing.

  The sense of power was heady; huge bike and strong man both in her control. She loved that Adam trusted her enough to let her take him to a secret place on his bike. They veered off onto a dirt road. The going was rough as they jolted and lurched. Once more the back wheel skidded out a bit, but again she wrestled the machine under control. From the shift of Adam’s weight, she knew he, too, was compensating, finding the balance.

  The last slope down to the beach was particularly steep, and she surrendered to instinct, action and response happening on a subconscious plane. The bike flew down the final jarring drop and she skidded to a halt. The silence when she switched the engine off was loud in her ears. Adam swung from the bike as she removed her gloves and unstrapped her helmet. He also removed gloves and helmet, then looked around. They were at a magic cove, small and secluded, with high cliffs plunging into the jade sea. Beyond the breakers was a tiny island, not much more than a large rocky outcrop, skirted with surf that glistened white under the sun.

  “What an amazing spot!” He glanced at her. “Good riding.”

  “Yeah?” His words evoked a little glow within, but she wasn’t going to show it. “You’re a remarkably calm passenger.”

  He ran his fingers through his hair. “Not so calm,” he drawled. “I had my eyes shut in prayer all the way.”

  She began to protest indignantly, but then remembered. “Liar! You pointed out the kowhai tree.”

  He laughed. “Yeah. Well, some parts weren’t as bloodcurdling as others.”

  “Nah,” she said, shrugging off her jacket and flicking her braid free, “you can’t fool me. You trusted me.”

  “Actually, you scared me shitless several times,” he admitted. “But for the first time on the bike of that size, you did well.” He tugged her braid. “Are all Kiwi girls this crazy?”

  She put her hands on her hips, eyed him up and down. “Confident, not crazy. Race you to the island!”

  Adam’s eyes widened as she pulled off her jersey, then her T-shirt. Underneath she wore her purple bikini.

  “You didn’t say we were swimming. I don’t have any board shorts with me.”

  “I said we were going to the beach,” she told him in a well-duh! tone. “Why? Are Texans afraid of a little cold water?”

  That worked. As she undid her fly, he was already ripping off his jacket, T-shirt and boots. He swore as she unzipped her boots and kicked them off while he fumbled with laces.

  “This is fricking crazy,” he muttered. But as she wriggled out of her jeans, she saw his eyes sweep her body.

  She strode over to the bike and ripped wetsuits out of the pannier. “You didn’t really think I’d make you swim in freezing water.” She tossed him one. “Jake’s suit should fit. Sorry, I could only find shorties.”

  He caught it with one hand. “Thank the Lord for small mercies.”

  “Thank me,” she said. “But I’m still going to beat you.”

  They fought their way into the wetsuits, laughing as they wrestled neoprene over their shoulders. Then she was zipping her suit as she took off running down the beach. “See you in the water.”

  In seconds he was in pursuit, and they hit the sea together. Cold knifed her feet and legs. Adam swore, then threw himself headlong into the icy waves. Gritting her teeth, Cressa forced herself to follow him.

  They emerged gasping.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me. Do
es this count as fun here?” Adam’s white teeth were clenched, while she shivered convulsively.

  “The swim to the island will warm us up.”

  Their movements were jerky while the water layer inside the wetsuits stole the warmth from their bodies, but gradually it warmed and their muscles began to ease.

  “See?” she said.

  Adam threw her a baleful look. “See nothing! I’m only swimming easier because my whole body is numb.”

  She flicked water at him. “Don’t be such a baby.”

  Predictably, he immediately duck-dived, and she spun in the water, trying to see him. That was impossible with the sun bouncing off the surface, and in seconds she felt a hand curl around her ankle and pull. Grabbing a breath, she surrendered to the icy water. As she sank, she saw the flash of his grin when he rose past her.

  Enjoy your victory.

  Cressa knew she could hold her breath for what her sisters called a freakishly long time. She swam deeper, grabbed some seaweed as an anchor. Long legs twisted above her. She waited. The legs thrashed. Down he dived again, urgency in his movements. Spotting her, he swerved over. As he used his arms to steady himself in front of her, she grinned, did a thumbs-up and shot to the surface. He rocketed up behind her, but as he broke free, she pressed both hands on his head, bobbing him down again. When he came up the second time, he was spluttering.

  “How long can you hold your damn breath? You scared me to death.”

  She laughed, twirling in the water to stay warm, enjoying the sensation of her usually heavy hair floating weightless around her. “About a minute and a half, but my sisters say it feels like three minutes when you’re waiting on the surface.”

  “Yeah, I’ll say.” Adam flicked his own wet hair off his face. It fell back sleekly, gleaming in the sunlight.

  “Come on,” she said. “I’ve something to show you at the island.”

  Side by side, they swam against the sea, ducking waves as they went. They weren’t exactly racing, but neither of them let up speed, so there was little breath left for talking. Cressa guided him to the rock shelf where it was easy to get out of the water. They scrambled up the steep slopes to the top, where a lone pohutukawa had managed to find purchase amid the sharp stones and tough grasses. Adam reached the summit first, and for a second Cressa paused to enjoy the sight as he stood tall, gazing around. He was pure lean muscle and sinew. Long torso in black neoprene, long arms and long legs gorgeously bronzed and finely muscled. All that construction work, no doubt.

  He glanced down and caught her checking him out. His eyebrows rose.

  “You remind me of a character in a Bond movie who’s sussing out enemy territory,” she said.

  He gave her a pained look as he extended a hand to her, but just said, “It’s incredible here.”

  She let him pull her up, even though she didn’t need help, and waggled her eyebrows. “You’ll love this even more.”

  She led him to the far side, where a small channel foamed and frothed between the island and a wicked outcrop of rock a few yards away. The powerful rush of the incoming swell warring with the equally powerful backwash churned the jade waters into dangerous whirls and eddies.

  “We call it the washing machine.”

  “Yeah, I can understand why.”

  “You’ve got to time your jumps. See how there’s a very brief lull? Notice the rocks underneath?”

  “What? Those vicious ones?”

  “Yeah, that’s why timing is all-important.”

  With that, Cressa launched herself into space. It was pure showing off. She’d been doing this since she was ten-years-old. Jake and Rob had taught her. None of her sisters had been game to try it. Neither had Brian. He wasn’t a coward—he skied black diamond runs and sailed in storms—but he had a thing about heights. There was the whoosh as she hit the surface, and she immediately relaxed, letting the churning water carry her safely through the channel to pop out on the other side.

  Adam peered down at her. “You look like a mermaid from up here,” he shouted.

  “Are you going to try?” she yelled back.

  She had her answer as he disappeared, and seconds later she heard him hit the water. Seeing him in the furious frothing sea was impossible, but she could swear she almost felt him before he bobbed up in front of her, eyes shining.

  “That was fantastic!” He kissed her on the nose. “C’mon, let’s do it over.”

  The kiss meant nothing, she told herself as she swam after him. Spontaneous excitement, that’s all. Would he do it again?

  Disappointingly, he didn’t, but they had fun, racing each other up the small island, jumping off and swimming around, laughing and competing. Finally, she called it quits. “I’m getting cold. Let’s make this the last one.”

  “Sure.”

  She’d noticed that expression on his face at work. Concentration and calculation. He squatted, measuring the rocks and the distance of the drop with his eyes.

  Cressa scrambled over to join him. “What are you up to?”

  “Nothing.”

  He grinned up at her with such mischief in his eyes she could suddenly picture him as a kid. “You are up to something.”

  He rose from his haunches, and once again she was aware of how tall he was. “I just want to try something.”

  His tone was mild, but she eyed him with suspicion. “Adam?”

  He went to a rocky ledge and turned around, his heels just off it.

  “Adam, no!”

  CHAPTER TEN

  HIS WHITE GRIN was the last thing she saw as he launched himself with extraordinary grace into a back somersault before slicing into the water as neatly as if he’d jumped.

  She threw herself after him, and when she emerged from the washing machine’s force, she was furious.

  “You could’ve killed yourself!”

  He laughed at her. “So, you can dish it out, but you can’t take it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re happy to frighten others to death, but you don’t like it when positions are reversed.”

  “But they never are.”

  He raised an eyebrow and it hit her. What he’d said was true. She was the daredevil, the one everyone gasped over.

  “C’mon, I’m starving.” Adam started swimming back to shore.

  Cressa followed, pondering her extreme reaction. Yes, she’d been afraid for him, but, less nobly, she’d been chagrined, too. She would never do a back flip off the island. Even for a million bucks, she’d never do it.

  On shore they stripped off their wetsuits and toweled vigorously to get the circulation going. As Adam bent to dry his legs, Cressa saw a scar running down his spine. A shorter, second one on his hip disappeared under the line of his black boxer briefs.

  “Is that from breaking your back?” She was awed by the length of the scar.

  “Yup.”

  He so clearly didn’t want to discuss it, whereas she was dying to find out everything. She’d have to play things light.

  “Ah. That explains it.” He lifted an eyebrow and she added, “Your obsession with safety. Did it take a long time to recuperate?”

  She spread out her towel and he spread his close to hers. “Over a year, with some months in the hospital. Several years before everything was working as it had before.”

  “What’s the scar on your hip?”

  “A bone graft. Want a drink?” He was scrabbling through the bag.

  “Watch what you’re doing—there’s a knife inside.” She rescued the buns, cheese and tomatoes. “So is that why you gave up doing stunts?”

  “Partly. The body wasn’t what it had been.” He passed her a can, cracked open a Coke and took a sip, eyes on the water. “Neither was the mind.”

  “You lost your nerve?” No way. Nothing about him indicated that.

  He watched her cutting slices of cheese. “I lost my sense of invulnerability. The odds of further crashes in that business finally penetrated my thick skull. I don’t i
ntend losing that much time in hospital beds again.”

  In the bright winter sunlight his pupils were small, but the irises were still very dark. His hair was beginning to lift as it dried.

  “Did you ever think you wouldn’t walk again?”

  He looked back to the waves, sipped again from his can. “For a while I thought I might be a paraplegic.”

  It was hard to even imagine what that would have felt like. Her words came out sounding like a platitude. “That must have been terrible.”

  He lay down, propping himself on one elbow. “You know, it was the best thing that could have happened to me. Gave me time to think.” His smile was wry. “Lots and lots of time to think.”

  She handed him the cheese-and-tomato-filled bun. “So what did you think about?”

  “Life. The universe.”

  “No, that was a real question.”

  “That was a real answer.” He bit, chewed and swallowed. She waited him out. “Okay, truthfully? I spent the first weeks being angry with the universe, then angry with myself. Then I wallowed in self-pity for a while and after that…” He shrugged.

  “And after that?” she prompted. He was good at evasion, however straight his answers seemed to be.

  He smiled. “Then came the meaning of life, the universe and everything.” He polished off the remainder of his bun and stretched out flat on his back in the sun. “That feels great.”

  He closed his eyes and she knew he was signaling the end of that particular conversation. His lashes, slightly crusted with salt, were so long that they cast fanlike shadows on his cheeks. “My kidneys are finally beginning to defrost.”