Hooked (A Romance on the Edge Novel) (31 page)

“Sonya, I’ll pull out,” he said in a strained voice. His hand found the button between her legs that had her agreeing to anything he wanted. He’d taken full advantage of the little traitor all night long.

“
Yes
,” she hissed. Did she really have a choice?

He rewarded her by flicking and rubbing her sensitive switch while deepening and quickening his thrusts. It didn’t take long for her rockets to fire on all cylinders. She didn’t worry about being quiet. She was in the bottom of a boat with water all around her. For all intents and purposes they could be the only ones alive, and she responded with abandonment as though they were.

She shuddered in his arms as she returned to earth. “Garrett?” She tried to turn and look at him over her shoulder.

He held her fast. “Don’t move.” He lay heavy, throbbing and thick inside her, not having climaxed. She felt his muscles tighten and twitch. His arms were bands of live steel and kept her immobile. “Give me a minute.”

One push, an arch, a vibrating moan, and she knew he’d be a goner. The power that she held was intoxicating. Rigid ropes of muscles—with corresponding thick veins pumping blood throughout his system—held her fast as though he knew she was tempted. All it would take was one little shove.

A wave broke against the boat’s hull.

“
Fuck
.” On a tortured groan, he lost the formidable grip he held over himself and pumped his hips into her like a man possessed, thrusting in long, fast, unrelenting stokes, driving deep.

The way he held her, imprisoned against his body, his leg pressed between hers, one arm across her chest, the other anchoring her hips to his, left her with no alternative but to take what he delivered. It should piss her off to be at his mercy like this, but it had an opposite, thrilling effect. As physically restrained as he had her, she knew she held him within her body just as captive, and it sent Sonya crashing into another orgasm.

Garrett hoarsely hollered her name as his body betrayed him and he climaxed deep within her.

Silence, and the seemingly mocking of the rocking boat, followed the tempest that had raged in the small room. Sensations ebbed and sanity returned. Sonya jerked out of Garrett’s arms and scrambled off the bed. “What the hell just happened?”

Garrett opened his eyes and regarded her with intense satisfaction. “You know what happened.”

“You said I could trust you!”

He laid his forearm across his eyes as though the action would make the harsh reality of what had happened go away. “I know.”

How dare he look so pleased with himself?

He lifted his arm and raised himself on his elbow. She tried to ignore the way his perfectly carved body lay draped, in naked splendor, on her bed. “I’m sorry, Sonya. I thought I could resist. I should have known better.”

“I should have too.” She should never have let this situation get so far out of hand. “There could be serious repercussions here.”

He rubbed his hand over his face, the sound raspy as he scratched over the stubble on his chin. “I know.”

“Quit saying, ‘I know.’ You don’t know! This is my body we’re taking about. My life. I’m not ready to be a mother. I’m not even a wife!” Gramps wouldn’t care for his coveted great-grandchild being conceived before a ring was clamped on her finger. If that happened she saw a lifetime of lectures. Not to mention, the inexcusable example she would provide for Peter.

“Calm down. Chances are good that you won’t get pregnant. Couples try for months, sometimes years, and don’t conceive.”

She raised a brow in disbelief. “Do you really believe that would happen to us?”

“Nope.”

“Me, either.” Grabbing a change of clothes, she stormed into the head, slamming the door behind her.

She wished, not for the first time, that the boat had a shower. Instead she had to settle for a thorough sponge bath. Knowing Garrett, his little soldiers would be as tenacious as he was. What if one of those soldiers was breaching her unsuspecting girl at this very moment? Sonya laid her hand on her flat stomach, trying to visualize a tiny life just beginning.

No. She straightened. Garrett had to be right. Chances of them having made a baby must be one in…who the hell knew how many? Who figured odds like that anyway? Chances
had
to be just as good that they hadn’t. Right?

There was definitely nothing she could do about it now. If she found out she was expecting,
then
she could panic. Until that happened, she had more pressing matters to deal with.

Like a drift opening to fish in a few hours and crewmen to retrieve.

And how the hell to get a fish cop off her boat in the condemning light of morning.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-
S
IX

“Have a good night?” Judd asked, with a knowing smirk, as Garrett entered the cabin aboard the
Calypso
to find him and Skip eating smoked salmon for breakfast.

Garrett glared at Judd until he squirmed in his seat. “Where do we stand on Kendrick?”

“Took his statement, along with his crewmens’.” He angled his head. “As you’ll expect, they differed from everyone else’s in the bar, including Harte’s and mine. Remember, I was having dinner with Davida when Sonya and Harte entered the bar and confronted Kendrick.”

“Where’s Kendrick now?”

Judd rubbed the back of his head. Skip reclined in the captain’s chair, hands linked behind his head. The position made him look far from jolly as the shrewd man eyed Garrett with stiff reservations. “First, let’s get back to where you’ve been all night. Were you with Sonya Savonski?”

Garrett clenched his jaw. “Yes.”

Skip huffed out a breath and glanced out the window to the river. “Are you aware of the situation you’ve put yourself in?”

“More than most.”

Skip met Garrett’s stare. “Again, I have to ask you, is this relationship with Sonya going to interfere with your ability to do your job?”

Since he might have impregnated her this morning, Garrett had to conclude that this time they indeed had a relationship. Whether Sonya would admit it or not, was still in question. As for her interfering with his job, most definitely. “No, it will not.”

Skip narrowed his gaze and then straightened, lowering his arms to rest on his knees. “I hope you’re right. Kendrick boarded the
Albatross
last night at twenty-three hundred hours. At twenty-three fifty-two, troopers lost her in a fog bank. We have yet to catch sight of her.”

“How much time until the drift opening?”

“Just over an hour. I want to cast off in twenty.”

“Fine.” Garrett turned and headed below to his bunk. Sonya had dropped him off at the cannery where he’d grabbed a shower before finding the
Calypso
tied to the east dock. This time he hadn’t argued with her and had worn one of her rain jackets to try and hide his identity. He’d also donned some of Wes’s clothes that were on the
Double Dippin’
to try and protect Sonya’s reputation. Even though he hated that she was ashamed of his job, he didn’t want to cause her grief with anyone over her sleeping with a trooper. Besides, after having one night with her, he knew he’d have to have another, if not a full calendar’s. Keeping their sexual escapades covert benefited them both.

At least until fishing season was over. Then everything changed.

He grabbed a fresh uniform, trying to compartmentalize what had happened between them last night, and this morning. Panic ate at him over the reality of the situation he’d put them in. He tugged on his shirt and buttoned it up. He could be a father. The thought had his fingers pausing on the buttons. He’d had every intention of pulling out of her hot, silken body before he’d lost the ability to do so.

He yanked on his pants. So much for good intentions. What had he been thinking? Whenever he was around her, his objective got screwy. What made him think he could hold onto his control when everything showed him control was something he didn’t possess around Sonya Savonski?

Sonya finished eating a Snickers bar, and washed it down with a Mountain Dew for breakfast. As breakfasts went, it wasn’t one for champions but seemed to do the trick for morning-afters. She propped her feet on the console, crossing her legs at the ankles and leaned back in the captain’s chair. Looking out of the windows of the
Double Dippin’,
she scanned the area for Wes and Peter. The sooner they got here the sooner she could cast off and sail away from the
Calypso
docked a few boats east of hers.

She grabbed a couple Chips Ahoys trying to silence the gnawing in her stomach. She could eat until she weighed as much as her boat and that gnawing wouldn’t be satisfied.

Damn Garrett for giving her a night of sex that she’d never forget.
Especially, if the result of their hot night ended up producing a child
. Her throat went dry and she almost choked on the bite of cookie she swallowed. She reached for the can of soda.

What would she do if she were pregnant? Would she be able to keep her job at the high school? Could a woman in this day and age be fired for being an unwed mother? How would she care for a child? Daycare might be a necessary choice she’d have to consider, but she could also teach private music lessons at home. She’d been asked by parents before. It would definitely open her options to be a stay-at-home mom, like hers had been. Money was an issue, always had been before. If she were going to have a baby, money would become paramount. As well as insurance. She’d need medical insurance, which meant she had to keep her job.

“Ahoy there,
Double Dippin’
!” Peter hollered.

Sonya jumped at the shout, but was grateful for the interruption of her wandering thoughts. Peter and Wes climbed down the ladder to the deck. Finally they could get away from here, away from Garrett, and hopefully distance would quiet her drifting mind. She straightened when Aidan came into view, dropping to the deck behind Wes and Peter.

What was he doing here?

She exited the pilot house and met her crew on deck, her gaze centered on Aidan. He looked…good. His dark hair blew softly around a face sporting a shiner he must have received from their escapade last night. It gave him a rakish appearance that complimented the beard shadowing his jaw from not shaving since fishing had started. While most men would look unkempt, on Aidan it lent him an air of debauchery that was very appealing.

“Hey, Sonya, I invited Aidan along.” Peter slapped Aidan on the back. “Time he knew what drifting was all about. Besides,” Peter rubbed his hands together, “with all the fish we’re going to catch today, we could use the extra crew.”

Boy, did she ever need to have a talk with her little brother. Aidan’s eyes narrowed as she took her time in answering.

“I decided I needed to see what all the hubbub was about.” Aidan gazed at her with those warm brown eyes and his head cocked to the side. “What do you say? Show me the ropes?”

“I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“Of course, it is,” Peter joined in. “Come on, Sonya, you two can brawl together, but not fish together? What kind of example is that?” Peter beamed with a knowing smile.

“He’s got you there,” Wes piped in with a chuckle, pulling on bibs and exchanging his tennis shoes for boots after boarding the boat.

Asking for Aidan’s help yesterday had probably crossed a line that she shouldn’t have, looking at it in the brighter light of day, but to kick him off her boat now that he was here would be rude. Besides, she
did
want Aidan to understand the decisions she’d made. If only he had been open to understanding her last summer.

“All right, but you carry your own weight.” And no making moves on the captain, she wanted to add. She had all the moves she could take in the last twelve hours. “Cast us off, Peter.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.”

“Sonya?” Aidan reached out and grabbed her arm. Stepping closer, he studied her face.