Page 14 of Shark Bait

“I am, but you don’t have to tell me.”

I shrug. “Maybe I want to tell you. Maybe I don’t want you to think I’ve been…used. Maybe I want you to know that Fis made me undress and sleep in his bed. Hence the cameras. I think he liked to watch me sleep.”

Shark presses his lips into a thin line, clearly trying not to say anything.

“Come on, Shark Daddy, I tell you all that and you clam up on me. Makes me feel like a loser. Whacha thinkin’?”

“All right,” he says. “I’d like to remove Fis’s eyeballs. But also, watching people is a professional hazard for me, and I think watching you sleep naked on my bed would be nice too.”

I didn’t expect him to say that. Heat crawls up my neck. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Why? You plan on sleeping in my bed?”

“Yes.”

Shark side-eyes me. “Baby girl, are you flirting with me?”

“Only if you are.” Holy crap, this man’s intense. Also weareflirting. It’s crazy. We’re both insane, I realize.Welcome to the circus. We sell cookies here.

Suddenly, Shark stands. He parts my legs, kneels in front of me, and wedges his body between my thighs. He’s shirtless and sexy as all get-out when he cups my face. “Your skin feels hot,” he says. “I like making you blush. Make your move if you want me.”

“Which move?” I ask.

“Any.”

“What if I want your heart?” I tease.

Shark rears back and drops his hands as if I burned him. He scrubs his jaw.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “That was lame.” I huff. “Way to ruin our moment, huh?”

He smiles. “You can recover the moment once you open the safe.”

“I thought you already opened it.”

“I did just to be sure it worked. Then I closed it again so you can have the honor of opening it for your birthday.”

I touch my chest and bat my lashes at him, playing at being coy, as if his gesture is somehow funny instead of endearing. “You remembered my birthday?”

“It’ll be hard to forget.”

Shark’s staring at the safe instead of at me, which tells me he doesn’t want to be teased about his feelings. He moved away when I asked him about taking his heart. He didn’t like to be teased that way. And for all I know, his heart is already taken byTatiana, the Russian doctor. I’m pretty sure I’m jealous of her even though I’ve never met her. The fact that he knows another woman is enough to make me jelly.

My irrationality is caused by the pregnancy hormones. Yes, that’s all it is. Once the baby is born, I’ll forget all about this random hot guy who saved me and my baby.

SIX

WHO’S THE OTHER PERSON?

SHARK

The radioactive materials hidden inside the engine room worry me more than I let on.

I know she and the baby are fine since the instruments I use to detect radioactivity sent an alert only this morning, and she spent last night in the living room. I consider this a stroke of good fortune and a warning not to push my luck by lingering on the yacht any longer than necessary.

I’ve contained the radioactive source until professionals come for the vessel, after the pair of us have already taken off. Which is why I check my watch again. I want to leave already. “Our pickup crew arrives in ten minutes,” I tell the lollipop thief, whose name I’ll ask for soon enough.

One hand on her belly, the other on her back, she gets up from the chair and walks over to the safe. “I’m excited to open it. You?”

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