Page 27 of Billionaire's Surprise

Where was he? I couldn’t find him. I stumbled forward, still searching as yells about someone getting hurt, knocked out, reached me. The undertow was pulling the unconscious body out to sea.

No. The ocean couldn’t have Fray. Could not! I started forward again, my feet running before I even realized I was moving. The water wasn’t taking one more person I loved from me. Hadn’t I lost enough? Fray would not be taken from me this way.

I was chest deep when I saw him. I lunged toward him as he towed in the man who’d been injured. I hadn’t seen Fray because he’d been swimming into the deeper water. He’d gone after our fellow passenger to keep him from drowning. Before I reached Fray, another pair of swimmers relieved him, taking the man. Fray’s gaze immediately went to where I’d been sitting. I saw worry dawn across his features when he didn’t see me, andhe started moving toward shore, unknowingly coming right at me.

I didn’t slow down, swimming hard for him. I slammed into Fray’s body, wrapping my arms and legs around him while I sobbed.

“Em,” he gasped, his arms closing around me. “Hey, hey,” he soothed, rubbing my back. “It’s okay. What are you doing out here?”

“I thought it was you. They started yelling, and I couldn’t see you, and I thought you were drowning, and I was going to save you, and I love you.”

He pulled back enough to see my face as he blinked, taking in my hysterical babbling. He cupped my face. “Baby, I love you, too. And I’m fine. You shouldn’t be out here. It’s not safe for you.”

“I can swim,” I muttered into his neck, refusing to un-barnacle myself from him. We weren’t bobbing in the waves, so he had to be touching bottom. There wasn’t much danger of me hampering his movement. Then I felt him walking, probably taking us toward the shore. “I needed to save you,” I repeated. “I love you. I can’t let anything happen to you—nothing can happen to you.”

I knew I was jabbering, words just bubbling from me in my panic, but I didn’t care.

Fray carried me out of the water and back to our chairs. Grabbing a towel, he wrapped it around me then sank into one of the loungers with me on his lap. I leaned my head on his chest, still clinging to him.

We sat in silence for a long while, each of us calming. Our breaths synced, and the steady thump-thump of his heart beneath my ear lulled me.

“Did you mean it?” he asked quietly.

I nodded, not looking up at him.

“Em?”

I tilted back my head and met his dark gaze. “I love you.”

He cupped the back of my neck and leaned forward, meeting my lips. “Christ, I love you so much. You have no idea…”

He trailed off, kissing me hard. We got lost in each other, tangled in the moment. It happened all the time with us, the two us forgetting everything but the way we physically connected.

“I’ll always do my best to stay safe for you,” he promised. “But I couldn’t let—”

“Of course, you couldn’t,” I interrupted. “You couldn’t let a man drown if you could save him. I would have done the same thing. I was just scared when I couldn’t see you. And I’m really proud of you. You’re a hero.”

“I want to always be your hero.”

I hugged him tight. I wanted that, too. But the reality was, he’d have a really hard time doing that when we were half a country apart.

“Are you ready to go back to the ship?” I asked him. “I could really use some one-on-one hero time.”

“Babe, you might not know it, but you’re my kryptonite. Anything you want, I’m weak to do anything but your will.”

I shifted, feeling him harden beneath me. It didn’t matter the situation; he always seemed to have that reaction to me. “Hmm…I don’t think you’re weak at all. But by all means, let’s go back to the cabin and test out your theory.”

Fourteen

Fray

She loved me. Thank God!

As we’d waited for transportation back to the ship, I’d contacted Marco to have him prepare the cabin for us. I wanted everything ready and for no one to disturb us tonight. We were supposed to go to the special Christmas Eve party the crew was throwing, but I had a feeling Emerson wouldn’t mind skipping that—not once she saw what was in store for us.

I held her hand, carrying our things as we headed back to our suite. Looking at us, you wouldn’t guess she’d been propositioning me and I wanted to jump her.

However, despite appearances, I wanted her as soon as we were in private, but nerves also roiled in my gut. What if she said no to us? What if she hated the surprises I had in store for her?

---