A deep breath later she somehow found the will to swing onto the small ladder and climb all the way to the bottom rung, where her finned feet kissed the water each time the boat bobbed.
You can do it, she chanted. One foot off the rung. No big deal.
She bent a knee experimentally and eased one fin into the water. Felt wet, just like when she'd walked out into it from the beach last night. No problem. So far.
The reef below Dex's feet thrived with life and motion, just as he'd described. It wasn't a watery casket, lying in wait to choke off her air.
"Yep, that's the way," Dex encouraged.
Both feet off. She lowered herself down, still clinging to the top rung. Not bad. Waist deep and no panic attack. But then she tried to lower herself just a touch more and her hands started trembling. The tighter she gripped the rung, the less secure she felt.
The bright Caribbean sun beat down on her bare shoulders, and sweat gathered under her fingers. I can't. There came the panic. Her lungs constricted.
But then Dex's warm palm covered her back, then dipped lower to span her waist. "I'm here. Let go and take my hand."
Enthusiastic voices of the others floated across the water, and she realized Jace had already started the tour. His deep rumble was easy to pick up, though she couldn't discern his words. And then there were no more sounds, likely because they'd all gone facedown to view the reef through their masks. They'd migrated to the other side of the boat where she couldn't see them. So they could have all died.
She didn't have to do this. Rachel was off with the new object of her affection and wouldn't even realize Emma hadn't joined her. The only person who would know she'd freaked out was Dex, and he wouldn't judge her.
But she'd be disappointed in herself.
She let go.
Instantly the water closed over her head. She couldn't breathe, couldn't move, couldn't think. Stars exploded behind her eyes, pinwheeling with bursts of light. Blindly, she reached out, flailing for purchase.
Dex's hand folded around hers, fingers gripping tight. A slight tug and her head broke free of the surface. Gasping, she dragged air into her lungs and blinked the water from her eyes.
As she started to sink back under, she kicked and kicked again until she was treading water. Holy cow. She was in the ocean treading water after going completely under the surface. Dex's grinning face snapped into focus.
"That was awesome," he said. "I didn't think you were going to do it but you did. About gave me a heart attack, but look at you. You're in the water. You're amazing."
The pride in his voice hit her dead center in her still-heaving torso, spreading warmth as she internalized the significance of what had just happened.
And Dex was still holding her hand, like he'd promised. Her heart fell out of rhythm and flipped upside down. When it started beating again, it felt like it had grown too big to fit in the hole it had previously occupied. It was nearly painful, and she rubbed at it with the heel of her hand.
"Let's get this mask on you," Dex suggested and reached out to help, adjusting the snorkel and showing her how to fit the mouthpiece between her teeth.
She sucked in air through the tube and then discovered she could actually put the mask just below the surface without sticking her whole head under. But if she wanted to, she could. It was nearly miraculous.
Emma spent the rest of the afternoon following Dex as he swum around the reef, awed at both the amazing panorama of fish and aquatic life and the way her heart swelled anew each time she caught sight of his smiling face.
This was Dex in his element, and the water magnified what she'd already sensed about him on land. He was not only heroic and sensitive, but also magnetic and open, with a lightness of spirit, and she was thoroughly captivated by him.
She wanted more than a guide to the other side of her fears. She wanted the man he became in the water to make an appearance on land. She wanted to prove to him that he was as trustworthy out of the water as he'd shown to be in the water.
Emma might have misjudged Chris Cummings, but there was no way she'd done the same thing with Dex. With Chris, she'd sensed his instability and convinced herself she was mistaken. But she sensed no such thing with Dex. Exactly the opposite, in fact.
The man had secrets, and clearly he thought they were a problem, but nothing could hide what she'd already discovered. He was every inch the white knight, whether he saw himself that way or not. And that made him worth whatever time it took to get him to open up to her.
Back on the boat, Rachel dropped into the seat next to Emma and yanked off her mask. "Whoa, am I exhausted. Your boyfriend is something else."
"Shut up," Emma muttered, with a glance at Dex, who had taken over postexcursion duties from Jace and was talking to the other guests. "He's not my anything. He's just the snorkeling expert."
For now. Her mind had already whirled off in pursuit of a plan to burrow under his barriers.
"Whatever." Rachel waved off Emma's protest with a Cheshire cat grin. "I didn't see anyone else holding hands with the expert and getting a behind-the-scene tour."
Emma curled her lip, but her chest was full of gratitude and fledgling emotions too fragile to name to throw down a proper comeback. "I'm glad you had a good time. It ended up being pretty awesome, though I wouldn't have done it if you hadn't wanted to. What made you so hot and heavy to go snorkeling anyway? You'd never mentioned it before."
With a gentle fist bump to Emma's arm, Rachel tipped her chin. "You. I thought it would be good for you. Looks like I was right."
Wasn't that something? She'd originally decided to get out of her comfort zone for Rachel's benefit, and her friend had had Emma's needs in mind all along. Of course, at the end of the day, Emma had been the one who'd had to take that leap-and she had. She grinned at Rachel. How did you say thank you for something like that?
And that's when she decided the best thank-you was to take the next step in jumpstarting her life-Dex.
In case Dex was worried that his one-on-one time with Emma had gone unnoticed, Jace disabused him of the notion the moment everyone else left the dock.
"Should I start picking out a tux?" Jace threw out offhandedly as he worked alongside Dex to hose off the saltwater from the snorkeling equipment. "Or are you gonna elope?"
"What the hell are you babbling about?" Dex shook a kink out of the line, and water gushed out at a much faster rate. Better.
"That was seriously the most precious thing I've ever seen. With the white bikini." Jace elbowed him. "No wonder you left so early last night. I'm shocked you even bothered to hit the club with us if you had that waiting for you. Lost your taste for redheads. Ha."
"It's not like that, so shut your piehole," Dex suggested darkly. "She's afraid of the ocean, and I wanted to help her get over it. That's it. So you can pick out a tux for you and Rachel if you're so hot to squeeze into a monkey suit."
Jace scoffed. "Rachel? She's just a chick among thousands."
"Exactly. Just like Emma. Nothing special."
The lie tasted bitter in his mouth. Emma was not one of the legions of women surrounding Dex every day. Her face as she'd surfaced after going under … he'd never seen anything more beautiful. He shouldn't have offered to take her to Ilhota Rosa, but he couldn't help himself. She'd seemed so entranced by it. And he'd been entranced by her, no doubt.
He'd never taken a girl there, just the two of them. Would she invent some kind of romantic garbage out of it?
"Good to know. Guess that means you wouldn't be interested in the fact that she's hanging around waiting for you."
Dex knocked one the masks into the water as he shot to his feet and scanned the dock, ignoring Jace's chortle. He recognized Emma's tight body instantly and his own responded predictably with a big ole salute. Dear God, he'd just spent two hours in her presence, and a mere fifteen minutes later, he reacted as if he'd been in Iraq for fifteen months instead. It was insane.
"Go," Jace insisted. "I'll finish up here. Not like you're helping much anyway. Oh, and don't worry. I'll get the mask you just sent into the abyss, by the way … "
Dex leaped out of the boat and landed flat-footed on the dock before Jace had finished flapping his gums. He strode toward Emma, drinking in the way her damp hair hung in chunks around her bare, creamy shoulders. Dry, her hair had a golden sheen to it that he liked, but when wet, it darkened and was far sexier.
"You okay?" he asked as he reached her.
"Never better." She smiled and tipped her head up, showing off pink smudges under her eyes where the mask had rubbed off her sunscreen. She wore the marks like badges of honor, and he admired the hell out of her grit.