In Too Deep (11 page)

“
It’s Isaac Asimov, you pleb.”
Ford tucked the Kindle under his arm and sauntered to the pool
door, his flip flops slapping on the wet concrete. “Don’t
drown—unless your dad knows you owe me another meal on the
house.”

West left the mask on the pool’s
edge and dived back under, this time striking into a fast crawl
stroke, plowing through the water’s resistance. Two lengths turned
to eight before a flicker of movement beside the pool snagged his
attention. He raised his head, changing into a slow
breaststroke.

Piper stood at the end of the
pool, fists on hips, watching him with hooded eyes. They’d avoided
each other since their heated discussion two nights before, but if
he didn’t know better he’d swear she was checking him out. West
stood in the waist deep water and swiped a hand over his face. If
her gaze contained a red dot laser, it would’ve tracked him from
chest to groin. Oh, yeah, she was definitely checking him
out.

“
I drew the short straw to come
find you.”

He didn’t speak, just followed the
telltale shift of her irises as they continued to scan up and down
his bare torso. She cleared her throat, her gaze veering off to the
side of the pool.

“
Ben and Shaye are meeting us at
The Great Flat White for breakfast.” She uttered a jittery laugh.
“Erin’s place—who would’ve thought she’d end up staying
here.”

“
Not everyone finds living on the
island unbearable.”

West waded to the pool’s edge and
climbed out. He grabbed his towel from a spectator chair, hung it
around his neck and rubbed his hair. When he turned back, his gaze
dropped to Piper’s long legs, once again encased in black denim.
She wore her purple combat boots and a
Warning: If we’re being
chased by zombies I’m tripping you
tee shirt, which made him
want to laugh. Oh, she’d trip someone all right. Most likely
him.

She kept her distance, making an
effort to keep her eyes fixed above the waistband of his Lycra
training shorts. His cock twitched as her hazel gaze darted down
again. The opportunity to tease was too good to resist.

“
Like what you see?” He pitched
his voice low and the reward was a faint tint of rose on Piper’s
cheekbones.

Her throat worked as she
swallowed, but she met his gaze, affixing a smirk to her lips. “You
must be very secure in your masculinity to parade around in those
budgie smugglers.”

“
Oh, I’m very secure.” He
see-sawed the towel over his back. “And I’m happy to show you the
rear view of my budgie smugglers—oh wait—you already saw it when
you were
checking out my ass.
”

Instead of denying it, Piper
barked out a belly laugh. “Oh puh-lease. Like I haven’t seen your
skinny butt a dozen times before.”

“
My butt is not
skinny.”

The cocky attitude returned and
she bared her teeth. “How would you know what your butt looks like?
Do you ogle yourself in the mirror while going at it
doggy-style?”

Piper never bothered with little
niceties, always straight for the jugular.

“
I can’t say that’s quite my
thing, but no woman’s ever complained once she’d got her hands…or
mouth…on it.”

She certainly hadn’t. West
recalled one memorable occasion when Piper sunk her teeth into one
cheek hard enough to leave tiny indents. She’d kissed it better
though. Then moved those bewitching, pouty lips onto other parts of
his anatomy.

“
Low standards.” Piper sniffed and
walked to the door, looking back over her shoulder. “We got a
couple of bookings for a romance cruise. We’ll see you at Erin’s in
twenty.”

She dropped a withering glance at
his crotch. “And you might want to take a cold shower. Looks like
your budgie’s trying to escape.”

Twenty minutes after taking
Piper’s advice and showering under a shrinkage-guaranteed
temperature, West strolled into The Great Flat White café. He waved
to Erin, her long, blonde plait swinging maniacally as she operated
the enormous espresso machine. She flashed him a peace sign, which
in Erin’s world translated to a confirmation of his regular coffee
order—a double-shot-flat white. He nodded, attention drawn to the
corner table by the large picture window, which overlooked the
ferry wharf.

Piper sat with her back to the
view, across from her brother and sister. Shaye leaned into Ben and
murmured something, and he gently nudged her arm and chuckled.
Piper’s gaze skipped between them, her lips pinched together, while
under the table one purple boot tapped a jerky rhythm on the café’s
wooden floor. She looked away from the gentle ribbing going on
between her siblings and pretended to study the laminated
menu.

A sharp twinge hit him somewhere
in the region of his heart. Piper considered herself the odd duck
growing up, the one who never quite fitted in. Born the middle
child, she’d been two years younger than him and Ben—and a girl,
much to her annoyance—and most of the time they hadn’t wanted her
around. She was also three years older than Shaye and while her
little sister was happy to be a mummy’s girl, Piper gravitated
toward her dad.

West quashed the feeling as he
walked to the table. Likely the chest twinge was a misdirection of
nerves from his stomach demanding breakfast.

He sat next to Piper, which she
looked real cheerful about, and said to Ben, “You already ate a
bowl of cereal at home.”

Ben didn’t bother to look up from
the menu. “Yeah, but you know I hate that bran stuff you buy, it
tastes like tree bark.”

“
It’s good for you, keeps your ass
in peak operational condition.”

Shaye made a “T” sign with her
hands. “Ewww. Too much information, dude.”

West swiveled his head to the
right with an evil grin. “We were just talking about asses, weren’t
we Piper?”

Her eyes tapered to annoyed slits
but before she could retaliate, Erin arrived at the table with a
tray of coffees.

“
Right. Latte bowl with skinny
milk for Shaye-Shaye. A long black for Ben, and West’s usual…” Erin
passed Piper’s coffee over without looking directly at her. “And an
Americano with hot milk on the side for you.”

She placed a small jug of steaming
milk on the table and whipped an order pad from her apron pocket.
“Now, what can I get you all this morning?”

Erin noted their orders and
hurried back behind the service counter.

“
So, the new photos and blurb on
the website did the trick?” West said, while Ben ripped open a tiny
sugar packet. “Some loved-up couple keen for an
overnighter?”

“
Two couples, actually. Booked in
for Saturday.”
And I told you so, loser,
Piper’s tone
implied.

Ben scratched the scruffy stubble
on his jaw. “Well, it’s three couples now,
actually
.”

“
Three? Wow, get out!” Shaye
shoved Ben and nearly knocked him off his seat.

“
Wait a minute. Three couples?
When did this happen?” Piper didn’t sound as enthusiastic as her
sister.

“
Got an e-mail last night. The
original two couples are old friends and they’ve convinced some
other friends to take a second honeymoon,” Ben said.

Piper added milk to her coffee,
frown lines appearing on her forehead. “But The Mollymawk’s only
got four cabins. We can’t all fit.”

Mathematics being one of his
strong suits, West got it. He wasn’t sure if he liked it, but he
got it. A sidelong glance at Ben revealed Ben got it
too.

“
You and West will share the
bunkroom for the night,” Ben said.

“
Hell no!” Piper snapped up
straight, her chair skidding backward with a screech.

“
It’s just for one night.” Ben
stirred the sugar into his cup, keeping his gaze glued to the
spoon’s circles.

“
I’m not sharing a room.” Folding
her arms, Piper shot West a baleful glare, but she wouldn’t prolong
the eye contact and switched her fierce gaze back to her
brother.

Interesting that the lady
protested with such vehemence. West angled toward her and waited
for the fireworks.

Ben dropped his teaspoon on the
table and huffed out a sigh. “Why? It’s a bunkroom, Piper. It’s not
like you’re sharing a bed, for the love of God.”

She opened her mouth, clamped it
shut again and remained silent. A miracle in itself. Though West
couldn’t blame her—thinking about sharing a bed with Piper kinda
drained the intelligent cells right out of his brain.

“
It’ll just be like camping when
we were kids,” said Shaye in full peacekeeping mode. “Remember how
we used to all take our sleeping bags and camp out on the beach
around the campfire?”

“
Fine.” Piper affected an
I
totally wasn’t overreacting
shrug and picked up her cup. “But
I’m kicking him out to the stern deck if he starts
snoring.”

Someone had their standard issue
cop panties in a twist about spending the night in a shared space.
Nice to know he wasn’t the only one squirming. West took his first
sip of coffee. “You bring earplugs then and I’ll bring the
marshmallows.”

“
No fires on my boat,” grumped
Ben.

West’s grin widened at Piper’s
flushed cheeks. Oh, there’d be fire all right. Because things were
heating up fast and like it or not, someone was gonna get
burned.

And for the record?

This time it wouldn’t be
him.

***

“
You’re not planning anything I
can’t reheat in a pot, are you?” Piper leaned over Kezia’s kitchen
table later that morning, watching as Shaye flipped through a
notebook of handwritten recipes. “Because cooking’s not my
thing.”

“
I’ll keep it simple.” Shaye
continued to turn pages with one hand and scribble notes on the pad
beside her with the other. “Blinis with smoked salmon for starters,
that’s easy. Now, a main. Hmm.”

Piper wandered around the room.
Kezia’s place was a 1930s refurbished cottage—compact, yes, but
also cozy and so, so Kezia. She admired the collection of brass
knickknacks behind the flue on the bricks that ensconced the
woodstove, wandered over to sniff at a delicate vase of sweet-pea,
and studied the Zoe-created artworks pinned to a
corkboard.

Kezia and her daughter were off on
a play date.

Zoe had pulled a face when Piper
asked about her friend before they left. “There are no girls my age
around, so Mum said I have to make do with George. But he’s not my
friend, he’s a
boy
. You can’t be BFFs with a
boy
.”

Thinking of West, Piper had
agreed. Best friends forever? That hadn’t worked out so
well.

Sighing, she grabbed a pot mitt
and lifted the kettle off the woodstove to make another coffee. Too
much more caffeine and she’d be jittery enough to do or say
something brainless. Like she nearly had at the pool.

“
Like what you see?” West said,
and she’d almost blurted out, “Baby I could eat you with a
spoon.”

Luckily, she picked her tongue up
off the floor and did her pride a favor by cramming it back into
her mouth. Strutting around in all that black Lycra, displaying all
those sexy muscles and glistening, tanned skin…any woman under
seventy would drool. Heck, even over seventy—she would swear the
lavender-haired Mrs. Taylor batted her eyelashes when West
personally served her her gin and tonic.

She poured the boiling water into
her mug and stirred, staring out the window. Endless blue sky and
variegated shades of green foliage dominated the island. Blue and
green and very little else. No grey skyscrapers, no colorful
billboards lining the motorway, no gold trolley buses trundling
through city streets.

“
You okay?”

Piper turned and leaned against
the counter. “Sure. Just wool-gathering.”

“
About?”

Piper couldn’t meet her sister’s
eyes. She still resisted asking for help. Hard enough setting aside
her pride at work, but with family—family she deliberately
estranged herself from—it went from awkward to excruciating. “If I
can find someone to cover for you on Saturday, will you come on the
cruise with us?”

Shaye dropped the pen and then
snatched it up, rapidly clicking and unclicking the tiny button.
“Piper…”

“
Not for the whole time. Just to
serve dinner to the guests and stay overnight.” She hated the faint
whine of desperation in her tone.

“
I can’t.”

“
I’m sure if we talked to
West—”

“
What is it with you and West,
anyway?” Shaye hijacked her gaze. “The pair of you are like
circling sharks, just waiting to attack each other.”

Piper cradled her mug, relishing
the heat on her chilled fingers. The tension between them was that
noticeable? “We just seem piss each other off. That’s why I need
you to come on this cruise and act as a buffer. Keep us from
ruining the lovebirds’ romantic weekend.”

She dredged up a wan smile. Yeah,
nothing would be more romantic on a second honeymoon than to see
her and West emitting ferocious
I want to kill you
vibes the
whole time. Or was it more
I want to shove your tonsils down
your throat with my tongue and rip your clothes off
vibes?