Vortex (Cutter Cay) (19 page)

But Daniela gave him a startled glance as the guy said, “Yes, sir.”

Logan rested his hand lightly on the small of her back, indicating she move to the foredeck. Her skin was cool beneath the thin fabric of her top, and she shivered slightly, shifting out of reach to walk beside him. “If whoever snuck on board wasn’t one of your two prime suspects,” she asked casually; “who do you think it was?”

Logan shrugged. “Could be almost anyone. People know that I have uncanny luck finding valuable wrecks. Don’t worry about it. The local cops are on it.”

“You don’t think it was personal?”

“Conjecture is useless at this point. The cops haven’t even had twelve hours to figure it out.”

“Will they shoot to kill if an intruder comes on board?” she asked, glancing back at the security guy as she started to warm up.

“Would you prefer they shoot to
almost
kill?” he asked dryly, more interested in watching her warming up than anything else right then. She was poetry in motion.

Holy shit, Logan thought shaking his head at his own folly. The woman was a lie machine, and had some heavy-hitting friends in very high places, according to Nick.

“We have forty-six people on board,” he told her, shoving the disjointed bits and pieces of his hasty investigation aside to be worked on by his subconscious. “And the bad guys didn’t hesitate to pump my ship full of lethal gas. Hell yeah, they’re ordered to shoot to kill. If anyone harms what’s mine, they’d better be prepared for the consequences.”

He stretched his arms over his head. He schooled his features to blandness, when what he wanted to do was rip into the assholes with his bare hands. “Worried your cousins will get hurt?”

She stopped stretching. “Frankly, I’d be stunned if they
aren’t
hurt at some point during all this. I don’t want them dead, they are blood after all, but I wouldn’t mind if they were—suitably bruised.”

“I can assure you, for hitting you, and for chucking you into the water at night? They’ll get a little more than suitably bruised. Yes, boy. We see you,” he told a prancing, butt-wagging, tongue-lolling Dog. “Ready?” Logan asked Daniela.

Because right or wrong, fact or fiction, he was more than ready.

They did a steady circuit around the entire ship, keeping a good slow jogging pace. Clearly she was a runner. “Again?” he asked, amused when she took off without answering.

“Race you,” she yelled into the wind, Dog at her heels as they took a left turn at the aft deck, picking up the speed to a balls-out run. Logan dropped back a few steps to admire the view, then loped ahead.

“Sure,” he yelled over his shoulder. “Twenty laps equals about a mile. How many do you usually do?” He liked a good hard five-mile run first thing. Of course, he preferred hot and heavy sex first thing, but that wasn’t usually to be on a months-long salvage. Fist. Run. Fifty-fifty.

“Ten.”

“Laps?”

She made a rude noise.
“Miles.”

Logan laughed. “Liar.” And he didn’t give a shit.

The longer she ran, the more mussed she became, as her thick, shiny hair slithered from its mooring, to stick to the sweat on her skin. Her olive skin became flushed, her eyes shone. It was almost as if running was liberating her from her cage of fear. Logan wished he could give her that when she was still.

Dog stopped at the four-mile mark, flopping down in the shade, and watching their every circuit. They stopped at six. A good run, a perfect day, and the shocking, sheer pleasure of running with a partner when he’d always preferred running alone. But for the rare occasion, Logan didn’t even run with Jed.

His heartbeat and respiration were elevated, and he was hotter than hell. Hot because the morning temps were rising, and hot because his mermaid had her hands braced on her knees, head down, butt up. It was a fine look.

Grabbing two bottles of iced water from a plastic bucket Harris had left out for them, he opened one, draining half before he came up for air.

If he’d been alone, Logan would’ve taken a dive off the railing to cool off. Looking at her, with the thin cotton of her top clinging to her damp skin, and her eyes glowing as she stood up to face him, made him even hotter.

He cracked the other cap, unscrewed it, then handed it to her, ensuring their fingers brushed. Her eyes widened at the contact before she muttered, “Thanks,” and rubbed the frosted bottle across her flushed cheeks, then around the back of her neck.

Her hair had fallen completely out of the rubber band, and hung in glossy damp strands around her shoulders. She shoved it off her face as she chugged the water. For a moment he indulged his new hobby—
her,
watching her throat work as she drank.

“Come with me,” he told her silkily, heading around the corner. He had to get his hands on her. Now.

“Where’re we going?” she asked, falling into step beside him.

“Right here.” Right in the shade of the upper deck, where there wasn’t another living soul. For the moment anyway. Logan leaned against the rail, extending his arms on either side of his hips. He curled his fingers around the warm, polished wood and held on for the ride, which was sure to be bumpy, he thought with inner amusement.

Her amber-brown eyes narrowed to lick over him with cool suspicion. “What are you doing?”

He gave her a surprised look. “Standing still so you can kiss me.”

She huffed out a laugh. “Why would I want to do that?”

“To the untrained eye, I’m considered quite handsome.”

The lines of strain eased around her eyes a little. “To the trained eye, you appear to be delusional,” she tossed back smartly. But she didn’t walk away. Progress. “I’m hot and sweaty and I need another shower.”

“Kiss me first. Look, no hands.” He wiggled his fingers on the railing. He’d positioned himself in the least threatening, least aggressive stance.

She raised a beautifully arched dark eyebrow. “You kiss with your hands?”

“Not on a first date,” he told her piously, itching to grab her, hold her, and show her precisely what his hands could do. His fingers flexed against the unyielding wood on either side of him, but he kept them there with admirable control.

She rolled her eyes. A stray shaft of sunlight tipped her lashes gold, and highlighted her fine-grained, damp skin. Lust surged through him like a vortex, pulling him under. “One kiss,” his voice was light, but he felt the hard thud of his heart. “My reward for letting you win.”

She shook her head, biting her lower lip. Something that Logan very much wanted to do himself. Her eyes sparkled up at him, and his thudding, crazy heart did a triple axel.

“You didn’t ‘let’ me win, Cutter. I beat you fair and square.”

“And you did it with that bum knee. Remarkable.” He smiled, holding out his hand. “Come over here and kiss me, or I’ll think you’re chicken.”

Amusement faded from her features as she said flatly, “I
am
chicken.”

“You are the least chicken woman I know,” he told her seriously. But I still double-dare you.” He beckoned with one finger. “One kiss. The security guys will be sweeping this area in seconds. I can’t give you much longer than that.”

“You are so full of yourself.” She narrowed her eyes. “Put that hand back on the rail.”

Triumph pinwheeled inside Logan as he clamped the offending hand on the rail beside him.

She stepped closer. “This is just so anyone watching doesn’t think
I
think you’re … repulsive.”

The whisper of her breath fanned his chin as she moved an inch closer. Maddening woman. All she had to do was tilt her face a little … “That’s a relief,” he whispered, flexing his fingers on the rail, and imagining his fingers cupping the soft lobes of her breasts instead.

“I do have my reputation to upho—”

Her soft lips brushed his, and he felt the shock of contact right down to his toes, and in happy pulse points through his body like little starbursts.

She hesitated a moment, then closed her eyes and leaned closer. Logan smelled the clean, grapefruit-tinted perspiration on her skin, and then she swept her tongue into his mouth, and he couldn’t breathe, and wasn’t thinking of anything but the little sound she made as she kissed him.

The world went away.

Ten

Logan’s body radiated heat. Daniela inched closer, the animal part of her brain reacting to the scent of virile male. She wanted to climb inside him and pull him over her like a blanket.

Kissing him was sure to be a mistake, but her good sense was overwhelmed by his hot, lean strength. Consequences and regrets teased the edge of rational thought. She slowly brought her mouth to his. The time for timid tastes was past. She wanted a real kiss.

He tasted of coffee and expectation. Nerves fluttered in her belly, and moisture pooled between her thighs although they touched nowhere but their lips.

“Don’t go,” he murmured as she lifted her head.

Her heart was pounding and prickles of nerves danced across Daniela’s skin at the heat in his eyes. The breeze chilled the moisture on her lips. “This is—”
Dangerous.

“Elemental,” he finished, voice husky, gaze steady as he met hers. His knuckles shone white as he gripped the railing, but he didn’t reach for her. “We’re in public. I’m not going to ravish you beneath the sky, surrounded by sparkling water,” he said softly. “Just a kiss, Dani, it’s just a kiss. Come back.”

It wasn’t just a kiss, that was the problem. Her mind stalled for a nanosecond. Had he called her Dani? She blinked back reason. Of course not. The man was addling her brain. He’d said “ravish” and she
wanted
to be ravished. She wanted to be naked with Logan Cutter on that big bed upstairs, wanted to feel his rough skin against her smooth skin.

She wanted … she squeezed the thoughts away, eyes closed, because he saw too much. Wanted too much.

And in doing so, made her want too much, too. Damn him.

Helpless to resist, she rested her palms on his chest. He went still at her touch, but his heart beat a rapid tattoo beneath her fingers. The hair on his chest tickled her palms. She went hot and then cold and then hot again as she brushed his lips with hers again. Once. Twice.

She’d already proven her judgment in men was flawed. But at least with Logan she was already aware of the danger. She’d be gone soon. She’d take this memory with her.

His pectoral muscles went hard as his entire body tensed. Daniela realized she was flexing her short nails against his skin like a cat. He growled low in his throat, and changed the angle of his mouth, taking control.

Everything around her faded. The sun. The shining water. The sounds and smells of the ship filled with people. It all went mute. All she heard was their syncopated heartbeats. All her senses were focused on this man. Here. Now.

Logan slid his hand around the back of her neck, then cupped the back of her head, his fingers tangling urgently in her hair as he kissed her with heat and passion, using his tongue and teeth to drive her crazy. His other hand, sure and insistent, skimmed over her hip to rest firmly at the base of her spine.

He lifted her into the hard jut of his erection, and Daniela’s insides went into a meltdown as liquid heat sped in a dizzying race through her veins. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she kissed him back with everything she had.

Logan made a harsh sound in the back of his throat, his arms tightening around her with steely strength as he gave her the real kiss she craved. Hot, devouring, all-encompassing, and more kiss than Daniela had ever known or imagined.

Intoxicated by his insatiable sexual energy, she kissed him back, tapping into stores of sensuality she hadn’t known existed.

She loved the smell of his skin. She loved the feel of him, she loved his taste. Eager. Bold. Delicious.

Addictive.

They were pressed together so tightly there was nothing between them but sweaty skin to sweaty skin. Her softness to his steel. Her heartbeat duplicated the rapid thundering of his. The sound filled her, spiking like small explosions of heat and light throughout her entire body.

Daniela shifted against him to relieve the ache in her breasts. The large splayed hand on her butt pressed her more tightly against his erection. He was strong, vital, powerful. She wanted all of that and more.

“Hey, Logan, I need—Oh, shit! Sorry!”

Logan broke the seal of their lips and it was like being doused with ice water. Disoriented, she blinked the world back into focus.

“What?” he demanded tersely of someone behind her. His fingers tightened in her hair, and he eased her face to rest against his shoulder. His skin was satin smooth, and hot under her mouth. She slicked her tongue over his collarbone and thrilled when he shuddered. She did it again, and his fingers flexed in her hair.

“We’ve done a thorough sweep of the ship,” the guy spoke rapidly. “I think we can let everyone stand down.”

“If you think that, Jedidiah, then fucking-well make an executive decision and implement it.”

Jed said something, which Daniela didn’t hear as Logan tilted her face up. His blue eyes were navy and smoldering. The interruption had barely fazed him. “Where were we?”

Daniela went up on her toes, tightening her arms around his neck. “Right. Here.”

*   *   *

They had dive time after all. After sweeping the ship one last time, they’d unearthed nothing new. By early afternoon, the dive team was suiting up and sinking beneath the water to explore
La Daniela.

Armed with baskets to load small items, and the blower to move the sand out of their way, Logan and Vanek went down first. They swam into the silky water, and for Logan it was like returning to the womb. Serene and peaceful.

Too bad he felt anything but peaceful after the call he’d just received.

While Vanek filled his basket with gold bars from a stash they’d discovered yesterday, Logan swam along the torn hull of
La Daniela.