by Cherry Adair
It had been a magical weekend precisely because "Persephone" remained a mystery, and because she'd appeared to have no knowledge of who he was. There was something ultimately freeing in that. She'd given him everything without ever knowing, or asking, about his bank account. It was a rare gift to have that kind of anonymity.
Unfortunately, Finn wasn't naïve. Maybe the weekend had been as pure as he'd wanted it to be. Maybe it wasn't. Wishing it, didn't make it so. His PI should be able to ascertain who she was, and if necessary, uncover her play.
Find her for fucksake. I'll ask her myself.
The salvage had officially started, but there was still a crapton of prelim work to do. Once things got more interesting, and he got more involved, Finn hoped she'd fade from his mind. With his regular day-to-night work and the salvage, he had enough on his plate to distract himself.
Still, he speculated how much she'd enjoy this sunset, turning her face up to the cool breeze coming off the water, the open French doors spilling soft lights and music out to the deck where he and the others gathered at the aft rail. The scent of the ocean and spicy food rode the breeze. The cool, salty air stroked his face and ruffled his hair, reminding him of the feel of her fingers against his scalp.
Peri. Sassy, sexy. Did her real name suit her as well?
Overlapping animated conversation, laughter, and glasses clinking, lent an air of excited anticipation. Divers from their five ships, and peripheral hangers-on, including some press, milled about Blackstar's expansive main salon on the third deck, drinks in hand. Too damn many people crushed together in one space.
More than thirty divers had done their first dive that day across the three wrecks - Finn's and the Cutter’s - covering more than fifty nautical miles of ocean up and down the coast of Patagonia. A small selection of their spoils was now displayed under the watchful eyes of four security guards. Some of the impressive bounty -a handful of the hundreds of ancient gold and silver bars, gold jewelry fit for a queen, and emeralds bound for Europe, had been hastily cleaned of their dark crust for this evening's event. For the first day of a salvage, the magnitude of the haul was unprecedented.
The potential for historically significant treasure, artifacts that no one had seen in hundreds of years, had drawn Finn to this investment. He’d built a career–thrived in fact–on new, unexplored territory, be it in the sky, or in the depths of the ocean. If what he and the Cutters suspected was true, he'd get a return on his sizable investment. Several times over. A nice bonus, and a definite win-win.
"Your cleaning crew did an excellent job processing the stuff on display," Jonah told Finn. "The s--"
Jonah’s words dissolved like mist over the water. With what felt like a small explosive charge, Finn’s heart shuddered like a multistage rocket hitting outer space as it did a second-stage drop. Deaf, mouth suddenly dry, Finn's focus zeroed in on a waterfall of fiery hair, creamy, freckled skin, and fuck-me jade eyes that were unmistakable. His gaze slid down her body, and the dress of flame that defied all the laws of gravity.
Persephone.
“Ariel?” Theo gave her a worried frown. “Are you alright?”
Peri's heart gave several excited knocks of anticipation as she blinked him back into focus. Ariel was the only name Theo knew her by. She always used it if she wanted to put some distance between her doings and her brother. Just in case things went sideways. It had never been more necessary than now. Her first confrontation with the Cutters.
"Just taking it all in,” she told him easily, as she visually tracked the guests. “The ship’s spectacular." An understatement. Blackstar was beyond a megayacht, it was a gigayacht. The superyacht of superyachts. Over three hundred feet of sleek black hull, six decks, and miles of gleaming brightwork. It must take a veritable army to run it. Peri was impressed, and if she wasn't so tense, she'd love to poke around and see more.
She knew she wasn’t going to have that opportunity. Not once the Cutters recognized her. Not that they could do much about her presence, other than try to make her life difficult. She represented the Argentinian government. It wasn't as though they could fire her.
The invitation to the party had come from the Cutters, but this wasn't one of their ships. They'd brought in a new big gun for this salvage.
Peri accepted another glass of white wine from a passing steward, then rubbed the back of her neck when she felt someone watching her. Surreptitiously glancing around, she froze as a tall, dark- haired man headed for her like a laser guided missile.
Dizzy, dry-mouthed and sick to her stomach, she suddenly felt light-headed, confused. Exactly the way she'd felt that time she'd surfaced too fast and got the bends.
Holding her gaze, his grey eyes glittered like polished steel as the party guests parted for him like a kelp forest before a shark. He moved with a familiar self-assurance. Self-assurance that came from knowing who and what he was. He was the king of the world, and he and everyone around him knew it.
Her stomach fluttered,her heart raced, and her lungs burned because she forgot how to breathe. Holy crap! Leo?
Her first thought was; how the hell did you find me? Quickly followed by a fervent: Please God, do not be a Cutter!
Then he was there. Close enough to touch, engulfing her in the faint, clean scent of citrus, sea and man. His molten, quicksilver colored eyes ran over her face and body like a lover's eager hands. The naked hunger she saw there stole her breath and sent her heartbeat into overdrive.
Her body instantly reacted to the visceral memory of his hands and mouth all over her. Hot, sweaty sex. The feel of his sweat-dampened skin sliding over hers. Peri's nipples tightened, and her breath caught.
He looked a lot more dangerous now than he had a week ago. More in control than the insatiable man who'd taken her against a wall, in the shower, on the balcony, on the floor of their hotel room. A mental flash of their gyrating, sweaty bodies, his mouth between her legs, the weight of him in her hand, his fingers in her hair, made her tense like a bowstring.
A prickle of unease mixed with the instant flair of sexual hunger. Her knees went weak, responding to the pull of his blatant sexual power. Nothing had changed in her response to him since she'd last seen him. His maleness beckoned to every female atom in her body to respond. And boy, did she.
His dark hair brushed the collar of a white dress shirt, casually open at his strong, tanned throat. His hair was the only soft thing about him. His features were chiseled, and his Roman nose only added to his sex appeal. His jaw was shadowed, and his eyes remained fixed on her face. Towering over her, Leo extended his hand to her as if a week ago that hand hadn't explored every millimeter of her body. Inside and out.
Peri's eyes dropped to his unsmiling mouth.
"Finn Ga--"
"Phineas Gallagher, I know," Theo said with his American-educated Spanish accent, as he intercepted the other man's outstretched hand to give it a vigorous shake. "Doctor Thiago Núñez, Minister of Antiquities. It's an honor to meet you, sir. I've read your articles in scientific journals over the years. I'd be very interested to learn more about your space exploration. I might be interested in purchasing a ticket-"
"Theo, you hate heights." Peri was hardly aware she’d spoken. God, this was surreal. Anticipation, tempered with fear, heightened her senses and made her head swim.
His face a taut mask, Leo's poker face was exceptional. If one didn't see how his eyes devoured her features one by one. A muscle pulsed in his jaw.
Her heart thudded violently. His elegant features appeared more austere than a week ago in Buenos Aires, maybe the white-hot heat in his eyes was a trick of the light? Wishful thinking? There was something coiled and dark behind the silver-gray. Something she hadn't seen, or hadn't noticed when they'd first met. "You're never going to set foot on a spaceship, no matter how exciting it sounds."
Unless he had an identical twin, her passionate lover “Leo” was multibazzilionaire inventor slash philanthropist slash god-only-knew-what-else, Phineas Gallagher.
Large and commanding. He looked as though he owned everything around him, and he probably freaking-well did.
God, no wonder he'd looked vaguely familiar at the museum. She just hadn't put it together because it was so random and out of context. She'd heard of the Blackstar Group. What the hell had he been doing at the museum in Buenos Aires picking up a strange woman? Why would a guy with serious bank, a guy who looked like this, moved like him, smelled like him- need to have an anonymous weekend fling?
On the other hand, that weekend had been an aberration for her. As daring and adventure-driven as she was, she'd never done anything like that in her life before that weekend. She was a normal, healthy, single woman, and she hadn't had a lover in well over a year. The sparks he ignited had been off the charts. It would've been impossible to ignore, and she hadn't tried. A hot- flaming hot, interlude had been offered. She'd grabbed it- him- with both hands.
Now she wondered, fatalistically, if he'd connect the dots. Between her presence at that museum, at that exhibit, to her presence on board his ship, and her involvement with the Argentinian government? And any minute, the confrontation with the Cutters?
When Peri extended her hand, Leo -Phineas- wrapped his fingers around hers. The contact of skin to skin felt like holding onto a live electrical wire. She wet her dry lips with a sweep of her tongue and was gratified by the flare of heat in his eyes as he followed the movement.
"Ariel Andersen, your liaison with the Department of Antiquities." Proud of how steady her voice sounded, Peri smiled.
He did not smile back. Instead, he raised a brow. "You know this could take twenty years or more?" The hint of Ireland in his voice gave her goosebumps. It was several seconds before she realized his deep voice carried a message her befuddled brain couldn't quite decipher.
Even a football-field-length gigayacht would become a very small space indeed if she was sequestered on board with him for any length of time. Peri felt every hard knock of her heartbeat and covered the base of her throat with her hand, sure everyone could see her rapid pulse.
Her cheeks grew hot at the thought of the Cutters outing her in front of him. The wine glass felt slick in her suddenly sweating palm as she gave him a level look, her heartbeat skittering in her chest.
Longing. Panic. Embarrassment.
Damn it, excitement seeing him again.
"I'm fully aware, Mr. Gallagher.” Boy, she was going to win the Best Actress Award any minute. “Don't worry, I have no intention of interfering with your day to day operations. You won't even know I'm onboard." Because any second now you’re going to find out who I really am.
Okay. That sounded good. Cool. Competent. Not panicky at all. “Have you worked with the Cutters before?" But it was too freaking late for cool. Did she have a fever? Her skin felt hot and tight. The blood in her veins was on fire, surging through her in pulsing waves. If just looking at him made her wet, she was in trouble.
She was in big, big trouble.
"Yes, many times. Their ventures usually prove profitable."
Because the bastards were pirates of the worst kind. "They seem pretty sure about the value of this one. There's a lot of equipment coming in, a lot of salvage ships gathered. Do you know how they heard about this particular location?" Might as well get all the questions in before the shit hit the fan.
"You'll have to ask them. There's Zane now, want me to call him over?"
"No.” Chicken. “This is a social gathering. I’ll have plenty of time to ask my questions over the next few weeks."
God, this was awkward. How could her much-anticipated confrontation with the Cutters possibly work with him in the mix?
"And it's Finn."
She blinked.
"My name's Finn," he repeated.
"Right. I'm merely here to observe, Finn." She didn't want to talk about the Cutters and scrambled mentally for some sort of civilized, impersonal, cocktail party exchange. "I must admit, I'm also intrigued to hear about your race to Mars." She probably would be if her brain wasn't behaving like a squirrel on a wheel as she fixated on the way his mouth moved. Peri wanted to feel it on hers, needed him to touch more than her hand. Wanted Theo to vanish and take all the party guests with him. Her nipples, painfully aroused, pressed against the lace cups of her strapless bra.
"The first flight is half a year away."
"Ariel loves heights." Theo tried to wrap a possessive arm around her waist, but she adroitly sidestepped so his hand dropped to his side. "I can't even walk across her living room," he smiled. "This girl has nerves of steel. Lives on a bluff and half her house is a glass box suspended over a cliff. A ten-story drop to the rocks below." He shuddered dramatically. "Can't do it."
"I'm not a girl, as I keep reminding you." She pinched his forearm in warning to keep his hands off her. "You're missing out, Theo. Two-inch thick tempered glass, cantilevered over a bluff. I have the most spectacular views in Patagonia.” Finn didn’t care, and she was talking too much and too damn fast because she was a nervous wreck waiting for several other shoes to drop. “Three sixty views- nothing but ocean and sky. You should've built there yourself. Your loss, my gain."
The memory of Finn's hard naked body, hips pounding into her, was as visceral as if they were in the act there and then. All her body parts responded with alacrity. She remembered the scent of his skin, the heat of him pulsing against her. Remembered that his lightest touch could make her come. And had. Multiple times that weekend.
In serious lust, she couldn't drag her gaze away, couldn't stop her body's reaction to him. She decided to just enjoy the experience solo. "Theo and I met when we both bid on the same piece of land several years ago." Shut up, Peri! This is TMI. Cocktail party. Polite 'nice to meet you' convo, not my freaking life story. He doesn't care.
"I got my peninsula," she continued a little breathlessly, and as though she hadn't just given herself that little pep talk, "a spectacular bluff view, and this -" Did his lips just twitch? "This job with the Department of Antiqui---" She let out a little yelp when Finn grasped her upper arm, cutting off her inane chatter.
"Excuse us," he said with utmost insincerity to Theo. Plucking the wine glass from her nerveless fingers, he shoved it at Theo before propelling her through the crowd. Heads turned at their passage.
Startled by the abruptness of his gesture, Peri tried to yank her arm free. "Wait. What-"
He shot a terse, "Shut up" over his shoulder.
She dug in her heels. "Excuse me?!"
His fingers merely tightened as he plowed between his guests like a guided missile. Head's turned, people jumped out of their way as he pulled her out into the wide corridor beyond the salon where a dozen or more people clustered around a bar in the curve under the stairs. Everyone there turned as one to watch their progress.
Peri's cheeks flamed. "Maybe-" And maybe not. He wasn't stopping for anyone or anything as people parted like the Red Sea.
Finn almost crashed into a steward dressed in a black uniform with the ship's white logo on his pocket. The large tray, with filled wine glasses, swayed and dipped. Disaster was averted without them slowing as the waiter pressed back against the paneled wall, holding the tray over his head so they could pass without incident.
Slapping his palm on the third door to the right Finn manhandled her inside without a word. Darkness enveloped them when the door slammed shut. Without pause, he walked her across the small room, then pinned her between his hard body and something cold and metallic at her back.
The heat of him enveloped her. The world shrank in the cocoon of darkness, and the rasp of their heavy breathing.
Gathering her hair at her nape in one fist, he used it to arch her head back. "Do you know how fucking long I've been trying to find you?"
FOUR
God," Finn murmured, breath hot against Peri's throat. "You taste so-" He took her mouth in a ravenous kiss, as if he'd been unable to wait a second longer. The kiss was so hard, so aggressive that Peri almost came right there in the darkness.
Wrapping her arms around his waist, she kissed him back with all the fervent longing she'd felt since they'd parted. She didn't want to stop. She'd dreamed of this for eight days and nights, but reality far surpassed the memory.
Their lips crushed, the kiss mutely rough. Not merely hungry. Starving. Yes, please, and thank you. The taste of him was a match to her tinder. She welcomed the slick heat as his tongue dueled with hers and his fingers gripped her butt through the flimsy fabric of her dress, pulling her tightly against his erection.
She made a soft, urgent sound when he released one hand from her butt cheek, to pull her dress and strapless bra down around her waist. Bending his head separated the juncture of her thighs from the promise of that erection, but the sensation of wet heat as his mouth touched her naked breast compensated.
Plumping her breast in the cup of his hand, Finn curled his tongue around the erect bud, then sucked. The sharp, sweet sensation shot to her core, making her head thrash against the heated metal at her back. Tightening her fingers in his hair, she urged his mouth harder against her skin.
The familiar intoxicating scent of grapefruit and ocean shot through her veins like hot brandy as the heat of his damp mouth trailed from one breast to the other. Peri was so consumed and distracted, she at first didn't notice he was bunching the flimsy fabric of her dress in his other hand. Not until she became aware of the cool, silky glide of fabric as he skimmed her long dress up her thigh.
Lifting his head, he buried his damp mouth in the crook of her neck, and unerringly tore the delicate silk of her thong free from her body.
As he tugged the wisp of fabric from between her legs she felt how wet she was and freed one arm, her hand going to his zipper. The hiss of the metal teeth of the zipper being tugged down mingled with their heavy breathing. It was no easy task to get the small tab over his impressive erection. She used the time to explore, lingering to see if everything was as she remembered it.