Fire and Ash (Immortal Touch) (15 page)

“Everything but the kitchen sink…plus a kitchen sink
,” he joked. There was a small galley to the left, containing miniaturized versions of a stove and refrigerator and even a microwave. On her right (or was she supposed to call it starboard?) was a door that presumably hid the toilet. At the far aft was a double berth. She wondered if he ever actually slept at sea.

“Would you like a drink?” he was asking, opening the mini fridge to scrounge around inside. “I have beer, wine coolers
…let’s see, Sprite and ginger ale.”

“Sprite, please.” She took the proffered bottle and watched as he opened a beer for himself. It suddenly
hit her that they were isolated together, miles from anyone, and somehow the thought of being so very alone with this man was…what was it, exactly? Terrifying? Yeah, that pretty much summed it up.

“Come on, let’s go back up.” She followed him up the steps and to the stern where two white lounge chairs waited for them.

“What do you think of Misty?” he asked, stretching himself out on one of them.

Sami made herself comfortable as well. “She’s
classy.”

“I don’t even take her out that much, really,” he admitted. “She’s just another toy I bought on a whim.”

“Oh yeah, I can totally relate. Last week I purchased a mansion in Beverly Hills just because I couldn’t find anything on TV to watch.” Gadzooks, the man probably burned stacks of cash to warm himself in the winter. “Seriously, Ash, who buys a yacht on a whim?”

“
Technically it’s a motor cruiser. Yachts generally have sails.”

“Were you born with a silver spoon in your mouth or what?”

He chuckled. “Definitely not.”

“Really?” That was hard to believe. “
What do your parents do?”

“They don’t
do
anything. They’re dead.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.”

“Why? Were you responsible?”

She couldn’t believe he’d make jokes about something like that. But
maybe it was just his way of coping. Men hated showing weakness of any kind. “Any brothers or sisters?”

“No
pe. What about you?”

“I have an older brother
. Carter’s the one who got me interested in computers. He lives in North Carolina now, so I don’t get to see him that often.”

“Mm,” he responded lazily. She couldn’t tell, but
her impression was that his eyes were closed beneath his sunglasses so she kept quiet and let him rest.

Sami felt her own body melt into a deep relaxation. They lay silently side by side while the boat rolled gently on waves that playfully slapped
at its sides. The soft breeze kissed her warm skin and she felt herself drifting away. She wasn’t sure how long they lounged there in the sun. It could have been minutes or hours or forever.

“Don’t fall asleep in the sun, baby.”

His low, sleepy voice brought her out of unconsciousness and her stomach fluttered involuntarily at the intimate way he called her
baby.
She stretched luxuriously. “Mm…I’m not asleep.”

He
languidly pulled himself up and headed for the cockpit, only to return a few minutes later.

“What’re you doin
g?” she asked.

“
I was turning on the fish finder.”

“
You gonna fish?”

“Not today.
” Before she had a chance to realize what he was doing, he was straddled over her prone form on his knees.

Ignoring the
startled lurch of her heart, she glared up at him contemptuously. “Can I
help
you?”

“Do you have anything you want to say to me?” Placing his
hands on either side of her shoulders, he leaned in unnervingly close.

What the hell was he
up to? “Umm, I’m gonna say…
no.
”

“You sure about that?”

Was he kidding around again? She wished she could see his eyes under those damned dark sunglasses. “Pretty sure…yes.”

“Nothing at all?” His voice had dropped to a sensuous whisper,
his mouth mere inches from hers.

“Can’t think of a thing.”
She prayed he couldn’t feel her trembling.

“I just thought maybe you were
about ready to admit defeat.”

Oh.
Oh, of course…she might have known. “Nope, sorry. Not gonna happen.”

“Your body language is
pretty revealing.”

“
I think we speak two different languages.”

“You’re a strong-willed woman, Sam
ara.”

“
You’re a spoiled brat, Asher.”

Relenting with a wicked grin, he swung one leg over her and
stood. “All right then. Remember I gave you a chance.”

Relieved, Sami
watched him head back into the cockpit where he began rummaging around in a storage compartment. Seeing him produce a pair of binoculars, she reluctantly rose and joined him out of curiosity. He had finally removed the sunglasses, revealing those vivid eyes that unfortunately were no more decipherable than before, and was deeply engrossed in the fish finder’s display. Knowing he was probably tired of her questioning everything he was doing, she simply observed his actions quietly.

After a while he went to the port side of the boat and lifted the binoculars, adjusting them while he
stared out across the endless ocean. Lowering them suddenly, he turned to her and smiled. “Come here and take a look at this.”

Walking over, she leaned against the side of the cruiser, seeing nothing but sunlight reflecting
off the surface of the water like sparkling diamonds. “Take a look at what?”

“Over there.” He pointed, holding his arm steady so she could follow his direction. “Do you see that dark shadow in the water?”

She did see it now. Ugh…there was something about that unidentifiable shadow that sent shivers down her spine. “What is it?”

He lifted the binoculars once more. After a moment he
exclaimed slowly, “Holy shit.”

“What? What is it?”

“It’s a bull shark. A big son of a bitch, too. I’d say around nine feet long.”

“Are those…aggressive?”

“Oh, yeah. Extremely aggressive.”

“Can I see?” she requested, indicating his binoculars.

“You wanna see?”

“
Please.”

“Here ya go, then.”

It all happened so fast. One minute she was standing beside Ash, safe and secure and dry inside the huge boat, and the next…

She was in the
deep, pitiless waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

With a shark.

Her head broke through the surface of the cold water, and she sputtered and gasped in disoriented confusion. The waves that earlier had seemed so gentle were now splashing her tauntingly in the face in an attempt to smother her breath. Spitting out a mouthful of briny water and coughing, she screamed, “
Asher! You fucker!
”

He peered gaily at her over the side of the boat. “Hey there, mermaid! Can you see him yet?”

“Get me out of here!
Now!
”

“You know, I’d really stop thrashing about if I were you. Sharks are attracted to movement.”

Her muscles seized in horror as her brain wildly envisioned every clichéd shark attack ever recreated in the movies. With every fleeting millisecond she expected to feel the sharp serrated teeth, the powerful jaws, the tug as something unseen pulled her underneath the water. Her heart raced so frantically she feared she might pass out. Treading water, she swung her legs back and forth with just enough momentum to keep from going under. Her fingers desperately raked the side of the boat’s slippery fiberglass exterior.

“Ash…oh God, please…pull me up
! Please,
please
…”

“Not until you say it.”

“
What!?
”

“You know what I want to hear.” Safe inside the boat, he beamed
heartlessly down at her.

She lost it then. Screaming with
unbridled fury, she hurled every vile, obscene insult she could think of his way, cursing him with every profanity in the book and some that had probably never even been heard of before.

“Such language.”
He looked pointedly off into the distance. “He’s coming this way, Sami. You better hurry.”

Oh God, oh Jesus, oh God…
“Get me back in the boat
right now
or so help me…”

“Say it.”

“
I want you!
I want you! I want you! Asher, help me up! Please!”

He laughed
carelessly. “There’s a swim platform at the stern, dummy. You could have already climbed up yourself.”

If
it were humanly possible to walk on water, she would have done it. Swimming faster than she ever had in her life, she reached the platform and quickly climbed up the boarding ladder. The very first thing she did was throw a forceful punch at that bastard. It made satisfying contact with his cheek.

When he only grinned, she resumed shouting her enraged abuses.
Never, never in her entire life had she been this furious with anyone,
ever
. She wanted to make him suffer in the worst way. She wanted to feed his sorry ass to the shark personally.

Finally,
the last of her energy spent, she stopped yelling and went silent.

“Are you done with your little
hissy fit?” he inquired.

“You
…are going to
regret
this,” she vowed through clenched teeth, glaring at him with all the hatred she possessed.

“You think?”

“Oh, I
know.
”

His sky
blue eyes sparkled with glee. “You don’t know as much as you think you do. If you did, you’d be able to tell the difference between a shark and a bluefin tuna.”

She wanted to commit murder then and there.

Smirking, he strolled over to where her bag lay and pulled out a beach towel. Slowly he wrapped it around her while she stood speechless, dumbstruck by his revelation. Suddenly snapping back to her senses, she jerked out of his arms. “Don’t touch me!”

“Calm down
. You were never in any real danger.”

“That…that was the meanest, cruelest thing anybody ever did
!”

He rolled his eyes. “Please. That’s not even the cruelest thing I’ve done this week.”

“How could you
do
something like that to me?”

“
Come on, admit it. It was a total rush.”

“You’re…you’re…I don’t even…”
She shook her head, stunned.

“
Thought you were about to die, didn’t you?”

“Of course I thought I was about to die!”

“It’s the most intense form of high, Sami.”

“Take me back. Please, just take me back.” Exhausted, drained, she didn’t have the strength or desire to argue with him any longer.
All she wanted right now was to be as far away from him as possible.

She didn’t speak to him the whole way back.
It seemed to take forever for them to finally reach shore and the bustling marina. In her haste to exit the cruiser, she almost lost her footing. After being on the waves all afternoon, the motionless dock felt like it was rocking and swaying.

Then, and only then, did she have something to say to him. “If you ever come near me again, I’ll be contacting an attorney
!”

Leaving her tormentor behind, she went inside the
marina’s office and had someone call her a cab.

CHAPTER EIGHT

“Dammit, Dane, I’m just about at the end of my rope here! I don’t know what to
do
with you anymore! We ground you and it does no good…we take away your truck and it does no good…we forbid you from leaving the house except for work and it does no good! Can we not even trust you when you’re at work anymore? Mr. Hinson said you left the store three hours ago -
three hours
- now are you going to stand there and keep lying to me or do we finally get to the part where I hear that Collier girl’s name?”

Dane stood quietly, waiting for the fuel to run out of his mother’s
tirade. She’d been yelling at him for ten minutes now, a new record, not that he was keeping track or anything. He’d learned long ago to tune it out. Blah, blah, yap, yap, a few excited hand gestures, more blah…he was so sick of it all. Why couldn’t his parents just get off his back and stay out of his life? So clueless, the two of them.

“…you listening to me
, Dane?”