Page 36 of One Forbidden Night In Paradise (Hot Winter Escapes)

A shadow moved over the bubble of glass and they both glanced up to watch a spotted eagle ray swooping smoothly through the water, more like a bird than a fish, its great fins rising and falling like wings, the tail spine trailing after it like a kind of reverse antenna.

‘They look like they’re flying,’ she said softly.

‘They do fly. Most rays do, I think. They launch themselves about six feet into the air. If I hadn’t seen it I would never have believed it...it was astonishing.’ He checked himself. ‘There’s footage on the Internet, if you’re interested.’

He glanced away towards where the rays were foraging around the bottom of the wreck and her eyes fixed on the fine, pale hairs at the nape of his neck, a pulse beating high in her throat. Why had he swerved the conversation away from the personal to the generic? It was so swift and subtle she doubted most people would have noticed, but she did a similar thing when she didn’t want to give something of herself away. Only she talked about her siblings. But what could Chase possibly want to keep to himself about spotted eagle rays?

She cleared her throat. ‘Why do they do it? Why do they jump?’

‘For fun.’ He grinned. ‘Or because they’re trying to shake off the parasites that live in their gills.’

‘Like chickens having a mud bath.’

Glancing over, he laughed softly and she felt the sound move through her, tangling inside, unravelling her. ‘I’m not that familiar with chickens but it sounds feasible. I’ve heard lots of different theories. Some people think that the males do it during mating season. To get noticed by the females.’

She heard the inflection in his voice and a flicker of sensation skated across her skin, hot and sharp like a flame. Chase didn’t need to do anything to get noticed. Even today, in faded shorts and with his hair falling across his forehead, his was the kind of beauty that made people forget what they were saying when they saw him.

And it wasn’t just women. Men responded to it too; or maybe they simply responded to the intangible but unmistakable leader-of-the-pack aura of authority that was as much a part of him as those glittering green eyes.

Outside the bubble, the rays had disappeared from view, and she leaned forward to see if she could see another.

‘He’ll be back. That wreck is like an all-you-can-eat buffet.’ He hesitated, then tapped the joystick. ‘Would you like to have a go?’

‘Me?’ She frowned.

His eyes gleamed. ‘Yes, you—unless there’s a very tiny stowaway in here that I don’t know about.’

She laughed then. ‘Okay, yes. I would like that.’ Her eyes darted around the cabin with its state-of-the-art dashboard. He might think of it as a ‘toy’ but just thinking about how much it cost made her nervous. ‘But do you trust me?’

‘I could ask you the same question.’ His gaze held hers, steady and direct. ‘I mean, just getting into a submersible involves a substantial amount of trust.’

Did she trust him? She thought back to how he had gone through the safety measures in place in case of an emergency: the four days’ worth of air, extra food and water, the rescue sub at the ready. She knew Chase would never put her in danger, but then she realised with a jolt that she trusted him in other ways too. Which was a first with anyone she’d been intimate with. Aways before she’d felt that betrayal and hurt were inevitable just as a spinning coin must eventually fall on its side. But probably because theirs was a physical relationship with a limited shelf life, she felt as if there was not the same risk of hurt or disappointment.

A gear shifted inside her head, reversing her back to when they’d argued after having sex again and he had waited outside the cabin to see that she was all right. It was a moment of care that went outside the boundaries of the physical.

‘I do trust you,’ she said quietly.

He didn’t react but the sudden intensity of his gaze made her feel something a lot more complicated than nervous.

‘Then it’s very simple—there are four thrusters that allow the sub to move in any direction. This is up, this is down, left and right. Now you try.’ He lifted his hand and she took hold of the joystick. The leather was still warm from his grip and for a moment she lost concentration, imagining that same hand warming her body. Very specific parts of her body.

The sub jerked forward, and now his hand covered hers. ‘You’re doing fine. Just ease into it. Like this. See? Good.’

‘And how do you stop it?’

‘That’s a good question.’ She felt his fingers splay over hers and the submersible stilled, hovering gently. ‘Not one I would have thought of asking.’

‘You wouldn’t?’ It seemed obvious to her.

He moved closer, his eyes resting on her face, the green layered with a dark heat she could feel inside her.

‘Because when I’m with you, stopping is the last thing on my mind,’ he said, his voice daring her in that dark, soft-edged way that made heat dance along her limbs and her skin prickle with a mix of panic and desire.

For a moment she couldn’t breathe. Dizzily she stared up at him and then impulsively she leaned forward and kissed him, moaning softly as he kissed her back, his lips moving across hers, slowly, deliberately, tongue parting her lips in a sensual exploration that made her belly feel hot and tight with need.

She really was dizzy now. Her head was spinning. She blinked, bracing herself against the sea. No, actually, it was the submersible.

‘Chase.’

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