Page 12 of Unmoored

Murph picks his way carefully around a tangle of boats toward an open section of dock. The engine is churning up the sand into mud, clouding up the water behind the boat.

I hold my breath as the seconds tick by and the engine spits up sand, fully expecting to hear the hull scrape the bottom… but it doesn’t.

“Here we are. Safe and sound,” Murph says.

Despite the odds, I can’t help thinking. The engine cuts out to the sound of my stifled laughter, and he casts me a quizzical glance as he loops the rope around the dock cleat.

I gesture around us. “I see why you didn’t want me trying this.”

He snorts. “Apart from the fact you don’t have a boating license?”

“Shh,” I wink conspiratorially at him. “That’s between you and me. I meant how crowded it is. If I tried to get in here, I’d take out every boat from here to kingdom come.”

Murph huffs softly and shakes his head, but I can see the smile he’s trying to fight back. He hops up onto the dock with one of the ropes, walking to a cleat at the front.

I don’t wait for him to help me up this time, either. While the boat is still next to the dock, I scramble up onto it, on hands and knees. But thanks to my stupid lifejacket, I can barely evenseethe boards below me.

Murph pauses what he’s doing and stares at me again, watching me get upright with more willpower than grace.

“I’d offer you a hand, but I’m starting to get the feeling you’re stubborn.”

I grin breathlessly at him as I make it to my feet, then pop one foot behind me. “Ta da!” I announce. “Like a ballerina. A star athlete. A mountain goat?—”

Murph grunts, making the final knot like he could do it in his sleep, and then springs to his feet much more nimbly. “Here. Let me just do it this time.”

He’s already crowding right up to me, reaching out for me—and my brain is short-circuiting.

“Uh huh. Please.”

He’s looking at what he’s doing, but I can’t tear my gaze from that look of quiet, focused calm on his face. It’s like he has a plan, and all I have to do is go along for the ride.

And I trust him already. I don’t know why, but I do. With a man like Murph around… I could stand to be a little less stubborn now and then.

When the buckles are undone, Murph pulls the foam lifejacket over my head and off in one swift motion.

Holy shit.

I’m standing frozen on the spot, lost for words, my lips parted for breath as I try to thinkanyother thought besides the one echoing around my brain.

He can undress me like this… anytime, anywhere, any place he likes.

Murph turns to toss the lifejacket into the boat. He nods to himself and glances at the cleats on the dock. Now he’s looking back at me… and the only situation that’s changed is the downstairs situation.

That one’s growing urgent—and real fast. Thank god I wore my looser-fitting, black linen shorts and not the teeny-tiny ones. But they can still only hide so much, and I can’t think of anything else while I’m standing so close to Murph that I can smell his shampoo and cologne.

He looks calm… but there’s something different about him right now. I can feel that he’s just as nervous and excited as me.

And thank god for that.

Because if I’ve ever felt this unstoppably, magnetically, overwhelminglydrawnto someone… I can’t remember it right now.

Murph slowly licks his lips, and I can’t help but follow suit. I see his gaze flicking down to my lips, and then how hard it is for him to look back into my eyes again.

He smiles—rich and warm and secretive, just for me. “So. Welcome to Sunrise.” Then takes a step back, and suddenly I can breathe a little.

I can see something beyond the intensity of the bubble of justme and him, and the thing we’ve just discovered about us.

“Th-Thanks,” I manage. “I think I like it.”

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