Commanding Her Seal (Plus Bonus Novella)(46)

That was for her. And the power of it exploded inside her with a dangerous, dark edge. Yes, that was his implicit risk—that he could make her feel wanton and needy, things she scarcely knew what to do with.

But he knew. His fingers danced along her spine, and within a moment had snaked under her shirt to explore the bare skin of her back. She moaned and arched against him. Instantly he responded by changing the angle of the kiss, yanking more long, taut pulls from her core.

All at once the boat lurched, throwing her sideways, but he easily caught her, holding her steady against his body. He’d barely moved, but the kiss was effectively broken.

“Remember where we were,” he murmured.

“I’m pretty sure that will be emblazoned across my mind for a long time to come,” she said wryly as his arms dropped away.

His smile warmed the rapidly cooling places inside. “More where that came from. But give me a minute. The boat is drifting with the tide.”

She’d thought the motion was just her soaring along with the sensation of kissing a gorgeous chunk of man like Fitz. But when she glanced around, they were much closer to the island than they had been.

And then he swore as he tapped on the navigation tablet. “These depth charts are off base too. I think the motor hit a sandbar.”





The water was clear enough this close to shore to see that the motor had run aground. Fitz heaved over the side and splashed down. His feet touched the bottom, which was not a good sign. While he’d been sating his curiosity about how responsive Lilah would be when he kissed her, the boat had made the acquaintance of the island.

“Can you get it loose?” she asked and caught her bottom lip between her teeth. Clearly worried.

But her lips. God, they slayed him. So soft, so easy to part. So unpracticed that it was like the world’s most powerful aphrodisiac to know she had so much yet to discover about pleasure.

Not a good thing to be focusing on.

“Maybe.” Waves lapped at his knees as he fooled around with the release latch on the outboard motor until it gave, allowing him to raise the motor up out of the water. “Yeah. It’s cool.”

Except one of the blades was bent the wrong way. It would probably still work. Jack just wouldn’t get his deposit back, which was honestly low on Fitz’s list of concerns at this point.

He climbed back into the boat via the ladder at the back and hit the start button on the motor. And hit it again. Cursing a blue streak, he ran a hand through his hair and squeezed the back of his head. Which didn’t magically start the engine. God, it had been… twelve years since he’d taken apart a boat engine, and even then it hadn’t been with the intent of fixing it but to see how it worked.

“Is everything okay?” Lilah peered over his shoulder at the gauges.

“Won’t start,” he admitted candidly. No reason to lie. “And the navigation system doesn’t have a distress signal. It’ll find fish for you, no problem. But other than that, it’s pretty useless.”

Thirty minutes later, he’d raked the skin off his wrist trying to fix the propeller but hadn’t managed to actually get the engine started. He climbed back into the boat and tossed his nonfunctional phone into the cubby on the dash. The backup satellite utility wasn’t working either, which meant something was blocking it. Solar flares. North Koreans. Who knew? Regardless, they had no way to contact civilization.

And it was pretty clear that they were not at the right island, or another team would have happened along by now.

“At this point, I think it’s safe to say we’re out of the race,” he said. “I’m sorry. This is not what I envisioned happening when we left Jack and Thora at Green Cay.”

Also? Not what he’d envisioned when Jack had called him and said, “Hey, buddy. Come to the Caribbean.”

They were stuck. On a deserted island.

“It’s not your fault,” she insisted generously, even though it was, and the rising panic in her gaze wasn’t helping matters.

“They’ll figure it out when they realize they haven’t heard from us. Or maybe they have a double check against the bib numbers at each leg. Someone will be looking for us.”

He firmly believed that. This was not a permanent situation, merely a blip. No cause for alarm.

She nodded, clearly not convinced, and twisted that ring around her finger about a hundred times. Anxiety, which about put him on his knees. Because he’d messed up.

They both needed a distraction. This blip didn’t have to be bad. It could be good. Very good. And his gut said he should press this opportunity to turn a disaster into something memorable for them both.