One Week of Summer

by Amber Rides

  “I think so.”

  “And you can drive it?”

  “I can operate it. Or pilot it, or captain it. But I can’t drive it,” he corrected, and I heard the smile in his voice.

  And what I said next surprised me. “Fine. Captain it then. Now.”

  “What?”

  “Take me out on the boat.”

  Teekay drew back. “Really?”

  “Yes. Please.”

  “Are you begging me, darlin’?” he teased.

  “If I am…,” I replied, “is that a yes?”

  “I was just damned well hoping you’d ask. Because the coordinates I gave to Jeeves are way the hell out there and I didn’t want him to chase after nothing.”

  Teekay reached over my head, opened a compartment up there, and pulled out a black water-ski jacket. He tossed it to me, then slipped outside to make the boat ready for use, all the while muttering about his regular maintenance crew. I sat on the edge of the dusty couch for a few moments, but the barely discernible rock of the waves beneath us made me antsy quickly.

  Are you actually doing this? I asked myself. Willingly going over a moving body of water in a rickety vessel made of nothing but plywood and fiberglass?

  To distract myself, I pulled a cloth from one of the drawers in the little kitchen and began to wipe down the room. It felt good to be moving, to be doing something useful. My grandmother had been a huge fan of what she called “busy work” and when she was alive, there had never been enough time in a day to get it all done. Dusting or polishing or cleaning out cupboards. All the things that probably desperately needed to be done inside her beach house. I realized a little guiltily that for the past few days I’d done nothing but lie around with Teekay.

  Not all of it was lying down, I corrected as I recalled the shower.

  I scrubbed a little more furiously at the skin-tingling memory and amended my self-directed question.

  Are you actually doing this? Letting yourself sail out into the open sea with a guy you barely know, who ran away from his armed guard, who can make you salivate with a look, who is looking at you…Right now?

  And he was. Teekay had stepped back into the cabin and his eyes were following me as I wiped the last of the snow globes clean and set it down. He was sweaty and his hair was a mess. His clothes were askew, his shirt pushed up on one side showing just how low his pants hung on his hips. He had grease on both his brow and on his t-shirt. He smiled at me – one of the pleased-little-boy ones – and tried to wipe his face with his t-shirt and instead succeeded only in blackening his cheeks.

  And I knew the answer was a resounding yes. I would follow him, not just into the middle of the ocean, but anywhere.

  Slowly, deliberately – because I wanted to give him something in exchange for the bit of himself he’d shared with me by bringing me into his boat, and I had nothing but myself to relinquish – I eased out of the jogging pants he’d lent me and looked at him expectantly.

  “Maggie…What are you doing?”

  “Putting on my life jacket,” I told him.

  “It still works if you’re wearing pants.”

  “That’s not what you said a few minutes ago.”

  I pulled off my shirt and yanked on the jacket. It was too big and hung down over my hips. It was also cool enough to make me shiver, so I zipped it up before I shimmied out of the boxer shorts.

  Teekay was eyeing me hungrily. “Open that sliding door behind you, Maggie.”

  I did as he said, revealing a small bedroom.

  My pulse ricocheted around my veins in response to the sight of it.

  Teekay shoved the key into ignition at the helm and turned it. The boat sputtered once, then roared to life. He guided it slowly out of the harbor, then flipped another switch. Loud, furious music filled the cabin. It was something unfamiliar and it throbbed in just the same way that Teekay made me feel.

  “Cupboard beside the bed,” Teekay stated.

  Without looking away from him, I reached toward it. The lifejacket slid up, and I knew Teekay was watching as several inches of skin became exposed. And I liked knowing it. I liked knowing that when he spoke next, his voice was husky because of how I made him feel.

  “In the plastic bag,” he said, his voice carrying above the music. “There’s a sheet and blanket. Put them on the bed.”

  He made some adjustments on the controls and the boat moved, very slowly, across the water. But Teekay’s gaze was still on me.

  This time, to comply with his instructions, I had no choice but to turn away. I grabbed the bedding in question, opened it, and smoothed it over the mattress. With each movement, a cool breeze skipped over my thighs and my rear end. There was break as the song ended, and in the silence, I heard Teekay inhale sharply.

  I turned to face him. His hands were tight on the wheel and he was biting down on his bottom lip so hard that I thought he might pierce the skin. He drew in another, audible breath.

  “Sit down.”

  The music started up again as I perched in the edge of the bed.

  “Undo the jacket.”

  I did.

  “Push it aside, Maggie. I want to see you.”

  My hands only shook a little as I obeyed him. And mostly the shaking had to do with the excitement sweeping through me rather than nerves. I eased the sides of the life vest aside, my breasts rising and falling in eagerness and my lids closed with the anticipation of what he was going to do to me.

  But Teekay had something else in mind.

  “Spread your legs.”

  I opened my knees, just a little bit.

  “More.”

  My thighs dropped apart.

  “Now touch yourself.”

  My eyes flew open. “What?”

  Teekay’s mouth was parted and his tongue darted out to touch his bottom lip very briefly. “Touch yourself, darlin’.”

  “I don’t…I mean, I’m not…”

  “You can start slowly,” he told me in a silk-lined voice. “Hands on your knees.”

  Hesitantly, I put my already damp palms where he told me to.

  “Good,” he said. “Now you can move the right one up to that spot just above that pretty little beauty mark.”

  I blushed, both pleased and embarrassed that he’d paid so much attention to the tiny details of my body. I slid my fingers to the spot he’d mentioned and bit back a surprised gasp at how good it felt to have my hands on my own body.

  “Up just a bit more.”

  I inched my hand up. My fingers grazed the bend between my thigh and my pelvis.

  “More, Maggie.”

  I looked back to Teekay. His eyes held a wicked gleam. I wondered vaguely how he could possibly be operating the boat while staring at me, but once again, I was powerless to do anything but obey.

  My hand met the soft fold right between my legs and I moaned.

  “Does it feel good?” Teekay asked.

  “Yes!” I admitted in a whisper.

  “Make a little circle with your hand, darlin’. Quickly. But not too quickly.”

  I did it, moving in time with the beat of the driving rock music, and immediately I was on fire. I wasn’t sure what was turning me on more – the touching itself, the soft, heated instructions coming from Teekay’s mouth, or the way he was watching me. My fingers slid over the slickest part of my body and dipped inside.

  “Fuck, yes,” Teekay growled. “Do it like that, Maggie.”

  My head tilted backwards and my hand – the one I wasn’t already busy with, gripped the blankets tightly. The bass vibrated under me as I continued to move.

  “Say my name while you’re doing it,” Teekay commanded.

  Which proved to be no problem at all.

  “Teekay!” I cried.

  “Again.”

  “Teekay,” I repeated, and this time it was a whimper.

  “Now ask my permission to come.”

  Permission?

  I hadn’t even realized how close I was to orgasm until he
said it. And now that he had…I wanted to. Badly. But permission?

  I didn’t have time to figure out if I was indignant or not, because the words spilled out on their own.

  “Please, Teekay? Please may I come?”

  “Yes, Maggie. Do it. Now.”

  And my body bucked underneath my hand as I slid my hands in and out and the orgasm overtook me. I rode it out, finishing just as the song ended, then panted helplessly as I attempted to catch my breath. I was so weak that it took me three tries to prop myself back up so I could meet Teekay’s eyes. He was looking at me, too, his pupils so dilated that his eyes were nearly black. Without moving his intent stare from me, he flipped a switch on the helm, depressed several buttons, then jumped down the two steps that led to the bedroom. I braced myself.

  But just before he reached me, the boat shook, threw Teekay sideways, and sent my stomach to my feet.

  13)

  Teekay sprung to his feet, his hand on the back of his head where he’d bumped it.

  “What the fuck was that?”

  I had no idea, and even if I had a theory, I wouldn’t have been able to articulate it.

  Teekay didn’t wait for me to answer anyway. He strode back up the stairs, through the galley, and flung open the door to the deck. He returned moments later, his face grave. He slipped out of his jeans and t-shirt and pulled on a pair of swim trunks, which was at odds with his next statement.

  “Maggie, I need you to put your clothes on.”

  I stared at him blankly.

  “Quickly, Maggie. Without panicking,” he added.

  “Why, Teekay?” I managed to squeak.

  “We need to go for a swim.”

  No.

  It was the only word my mind would form. My whole body began to shake and my head swirled with visions of deep dark places and crushing pressure against my chest.

  “Maggie.”

  Why did he seem to be saying my name so often?

  “Listen to me.” His voice sounded very far away and underwater.

  Already.

  I was shivering uncontrollably.

  “I think we hit something – I don’t know what – a little offshore,” Teekay continued. “It’s probably okay, but I need to look at the hull before we can move any further. I don’t want to take a chance that something happens to you on the boat while I’m checking it out.”

  No, I thought again, this time followed by, I can’t.

  “Maggie,” Teekay said. “We’re only a few hundred feet from the shore of this little island. I can tow you in the jacket, but I don’t think you want to be completely naked underneath.”

  Why am I getting dressed, when he’s stripped down to a bathing suit?

  I made no move to put anything on, so he reached down and started the process himself. With a patient urgency, he slid the lifejacket from my shoulders and put it aside. He dressed me like I was small child, putting my head and arms through the t-shirt, then pulling me to my feet and hoisting on my borrowed boxers and the sweatpants. As soon as he had me clothed, he zipped my lifejacket back up and began to fill a neoprene bag with dusty items from the cupboards. I was too busy wallowing in my own fear to pay much attention to what he loaded up, but it looked like canned goods and bottled water.

  Emergency supplies.

  A tiny part of my brain tried to reassure me that his packing up like this was a good sign. It meant he believed we were going to make it to shore just fine. But a larger part screamed that he was underestimating my terror.

  “C’mon, darlin’,” Teekay said softly.

  He pushed me forcibly to the deck, and in the bright light, the water looked more dangerous than ever. The shimmering distance between the boat and the shore seemed vast.

  I stared down at my hands so I wouldn’t have to face it.

  A few hundred feet, he’d said.

  But it looked like miles.

  “Maggie…”

  My head snapped back up. There was something in Teekay’s tone which filled me with a deeper dread.

  He spoke in a rush. “I’m going to have to toss you into the water. I won’t be able to carry you down the ladder and I doubt you’ll get in on your own.”

  I took a step away. But Teekay was quicker than I was. And far stronger. His arms wrapped around mine, pinning them to my body. As much as I thrashed my legs, he refused to let go. He just lifted me straight up and carried me to the edge.

  To certain death.

  “Listen to me, Maggie,” he said into my ear. “When you hit the water, you might go under for a second, but I swear to you, the vest you’re wearing will bring you up. It will keep your head above the water. All you have to do is float for ten seconds.”

  “T-t-ten seconds,” I repeated through my chattering teeth.

  “That’s right. Ten seconds. Then I’ll have you again.”

  He drew me toward him and pressed his lips to mine in a fervent kiss, then scooped me up and sent me overboard.

  Hitting the water felt like hitting ice.

  It felt like the spiralling out-of-control world of a depressed thirty-eight-year-old father wishing desperately to end it all and trying to take his fourteen-year-old daughter with him.

  It felt like dying.

  You asked for this, I reminded myself. You wanted him to take you out on the boat. You should have known.

  And I couldn’t kick or flail or move or do anything but sink down into the water.

  I held my breath as the blackness swirled around me, engulfing my whole body. My eyes refused to close, though, and they stared straight up through the thick, salty liquid. The beginnings of pinpricks of light hovered above me, and then with a gasp, I splashed to the surface and the world around me exploded in brightness.

  At the same moment that I sucked in a breath of cool morning air, a splash echoed beside me, and then Teekay’s warmth was beside me.

  “I’ve got you,” he called softly as his hands found my shoulders and he pulled me closer. “Just hold still, and I’ll swim us in.”

  As if I could move if I wanted to.

  Then we were moving, Teekay’s strong, sure kicks propelling us away from the boat. In not more than five minutes, he was murmuring that we were there. He dragged me from the water to a sandy beach, then jumped to his feet.

  “Maggie, I have to leave you here, just for a few minutes, okay? I need to check the boat. Will you be okay?”

  I managed a nod.

  “Is that the truth?” he pressed.

  “Yes,” I whispered.

  I did feel oddly all right.

  “I won’t be long, Maggie. I’ll leave the bag here – there’s a blanket and a few other things if you need them. Water and whatever. Just don’t accidentally light off a flare.” He pushed his lips to mine, then took off at a light jog.

  I forced myself to sit up, watching as Teekay dove straight into the water at the edge of the shore. His body was fluid once more, splashing through the ocean in perfect time with its waves. Strangely, it didn’t scare me.

  Could it really be that simple? I wondered. Could it really be that all I needed was Teekay, forcing me to face my fears to begin the process of healing from them?

  I had no urge to turn away from the beach. None at all.

  And I wanted to capture the freedom in my heart. No. I needed to.

  I snapped up the neoprene bag from the sand and dug through it, hoping to find something I could use.

  Yes!

  A tiny notebook – the kind with thick, water-resistant pages – and a stubby pencil were inside at the very bottom.

  I flipped to the first page and began to draw. Sand first, then waves. The beach quickly took shape under my fingers. It was good. It was accurate. But it didn’t satisfy me.

  I flipped to the next page and squinted at Teekay’s boat, out in the distance. I put the strokes down on the paper, and the sleek stern appeared, followed by the bow. The waves crested at the hull, the sun glowed in the distance. My hands worked furiously
to get the scene down.

  It still wasn’t enough.

  I took a breath, folded the book to the next page, and closed my eyes.

  What was I looking for?

  I started to draw again, this time more slowly. Even as the lines of something appeared beneath my efforts, I didn’t know what the something was.

  I was drawing from memory, which I rarely did. Almost always, my art was delivered from some object, some setting I was in right at that moment. Not now.

  I narrowed my eyes at whatever I was creating, unsure what it was going to flesh out into, but I didn’t stop.

  I shaded and I sketched and I covered the whole page with swirls and whorls and I wasn’t finished yet. I slowed my pace again, carefully forming some further, more intricate shape into the design. I worked and worked until my hand ached and the page was so full that it spilled past the bend in the middle and onto the other side of the book.

  And that’s when I stopped.

  I held the notebook out and had to let out a surprised gasp. The drawing wasn’t just one thing. It was many.

  It was the darkness that surrounded me when I was under water. It was the light above. It was the twilight sky and the clouds which obscured the sun. And it was Teekay.

  His face peeked out from it all, one side of his mouth turned up in that cocky smile, one eyebrow raised, and a twinkle in his eyes. The portrait captured every bit of him, from the self-assurance to the niggling of self-doubt to the sexy-sweetness. It was the best thing I’d ever drawn.

  “Maggie!”

  My eyes whipped up at the sound of Teekay’s voice. He was loping up the beach in my direction. I quickly snapped the book shut just as he reached me.

  “You still okay?”

  “I’m good.”

  “Thank god.”

  He flopped to the ground and rolled to his back, breathing heavily.

  With the exception of Teekay’s quick inhales and exhales, everything around us was silent and calm. And I had to break it.

  “He tried to kill me.”

  Even though my voice was small and timid, it echoed through the air.

  “No, darlin’,” Teekay replied. “I wasn’t trying to kill you. I was trying to keep both of us safe.”

  “Not you. Him.”

  Teekay rolled again, this time so he was facing me, and his face was as confused as it was concerned.