Sunset Tryst (12 page)

Christ. She was right.
Fall in love with me, but you
can’t have me.
He didn’t know which was worse. That, or him falling in love
with her and not being able to stay. Both were pretty fucked up.

“Damn,” he murmured. “I’m sorry. But I’m a man of my word,
Riley. The choice to stay or go was made the moment I agreed to go into
business with my brother. Don’t make me regret a decision I made before I ever
met you.”

Even though a huge part of him already did…

Her shoulders slumped and she momentarily closed her eyes.
“Oh hell. No, no. I’m the one who should be sorry. I
hate
guilt trips.
Yet here I am, laying a big one on you.”

There was a good chance he’d regret saying this—because,
Jesus, what if she took him up on it—but he had to at least put it out there.
He had to offer her the same out, just as she’d done with him earlier this
afternoon. “Listen, if you want me to go, I will. Like you said to me, if this
is too hard…”

Garrett told him if he took off before the end of the week
it would only make her all the more upset, but now Evan wasn’t so sure. Leaving
was the last thing he wanted to do, but he’d hop on his Monster and light out
of here if it meant he wouldn’t end up hurting her any more than he already
had.

“No.
God
no. I also said I wasn’t ready for this to
end and I truly meant that. I love being with you, Evan. I love the fun we’ve
had. I love the way you look at me and the incredible way you make me feel. No
one besides Garrett has ever made me feel the way you do.”

His throat tightened, but somehow he managed to swallow past
it. She’d given him the exact answer he wanted. And the one he also dreaded.
“Then I’ll stay.”

“Good,” she said quietly.

He shared a smile with her, one that erupted out of
happiness, but one that was alternately laced with so much apprehension. He was
a fool to think he was going to walk away from this—from her—unscathed. All
week long, from the instant she’d meandered into that hotel bar the first night
of the convention, she’d been leaving her mark on him. He’d already memorized
her laugh. He licked his lips now and could taste her on his tongue. He could
feel her sandwiched between him and Garrett—from the heat coming off her skin
down to the scent of her arousal dancing under his nose—and he honestly
couldn’t think of anything more ideal for him than this, than them.

And it killed him to know he was going to have to turn his
back on all of it.

He’d do it, though. When the time came, he’d pull strength
from some unknown place inside him and do it. He simply didn’t have any other
choice.

“Medium rare?” he asked, changing the subject.

“What? Oh, the steaks. Yes, absolutely.”

When she drew her feet out of Garrett’s grip and made her
way around the table to help him out at the grill, Evan noticed a lightness to
her eyes and a calmness in her demeanor that hadn’t been there just moments
before. Every part of him loved that she felt better, even as a sense of
foreboding prickled its way through his own body. Because when the time came to
move on, he didn’t know which of them was going to be more torn apart.

Her or him.

By the time they’d arrived at Destin’s harbor the next
evening, the day on the water for most vacationers was beginning to wind down.
Evan, Garrett and Riley, on the other hand, were just getting started.

The place was a tourist attraction as well as a working
marina, what with all the shops, galleries, restaurants and tawdry summer drink
stands lining the boardwalk that led to the docks. Every water-related rental
you could think of was within a short walk. They passed pontoons for families,
party boats for groups, a slew of jet skis for the speed-freak types and
fishing boat after fishing boat docked for the night before they came upon the
Sunset
Tryst
at the far end. She was a forty-footer, sleek, gorgeous and just as
Evan’s buddy had said, it was loaded up and ready to go with everything they’d
need for a night out on the Gulf.

It didn’t take any time at all for them to stow their gear
and idle their way through the no-wake zone. Once they made it into the lagoon,
they sped past the entrance to the harbor and took off at a steady clip out
into the Gulf of Mexico.

The waters were amazingly calm and against the evening sky
they were the most breathtaking shade of blue-green. Evan stood at the helm
while Riley and Garrett lounged on the bench seat behind him. He followed the
boat’s GPS and had planned to travel to a set of coordinates thirty miles out,
but once they’d gone that far, he opted to go to another spot ten miles further
south. There was a certain serenity to this, to being out here on the open
water with the wind in his face, to traveling toward a darkening nothingness
while being in the peaceful company of two people he was beginning to really
care about.

As the last of the day’s sun faded behind the horizon, Evan
throttled the boat back and let her come to a rest in what looked to be the
middle of nowhere. He killed the engine and dropped anchor as the gentle
splashing of the waves against the hull seamlessly replaced the low rumble of
the motor.

“This is as good a spot as any,” he said. “Ready to get
started?”

“Oh God,” Riley muttered as Garrett jumped to his feet and
rubbed his hands together. “Sure,” she said after a moment. She stood as well,
grabbing onto Garrett’s arm to steady herself when the boat rocked slightly.

Garrett widened his stance and slipped his arm around her
waist. “Come on now. Get your sea legs under you, babe.”

She elbowed him in the gut. “Hush. I’m fine. Let’s do this,”
she said to Evan.

“That’s the spirit. First up, we ready the gear. Then we
hang the chum.”

“Even the word sounds disgusting. Chum. Yuck.”

Evan chuckled. “No worries, it’s frozen. I promise it smells
a lot better that way than it would if it were fresh.”

She teased him by giving him a half smile, and he hoped he’d
chipped away at a little of her nervousness.

Since the sky hadn’t yet completely darkened and Evan wanted
them both to experience the full effects of a nighttime shark fishing
adventure, he took his time getting the gear out and ready. He chose two heavy-duty
rods with Penn 50 wide reels, killing even more time as he explained in detail
the drag and speed shift systems and the adjustable clicker settings to
Garrett—who had to have known what he was doing simply by all the in-depth
questions he was asking in return. Riley stood nearby, listening in between
stolen glances overboard. Evan hadn’t yet turned on the underwater lights so
she couldn’t see anything that might already be swimming beneath them, but that
didn’t stop her from repeatedly looking.

He pulled out the rest of the gear, setting the rod harness
and a pair of wire cutters aside but within reach. After he placed the rods
into holders secured to the boat, the only thing he had left to do was bait the
massive hooks and ready the chum.

An impressive array of stars began to pop up as the twilight
sky gave way to pure middle-of-the-night blackness. The moon rose high, cutting
through the now ebony-colored water with a dramatic streak of shimmering white,
but it wasn’t bright enough for Evan to finish up what needed to be done. He
flipped the boat’s deck lights on and with Garrett’s help readied the bait.
They hooked twenty-pound, whole blackfin tunas to each of the lines before
tethering a mesh bag filled with a frozen block of ground fish and blood—and
whatever else rounded out his buddy’s chum recipe—to a heavy-duty braided line
attached to the aft of the boat.

“Okay, here we go.” Evan looked to Garrett. “Care to do the
honors?”

Garrett looked as hyped up as a kid in a candy store. “Hell
yes. Give me that.”

He unceremoniously chucked the frozen hunk of chum over the
side with a loud
ker-plop
. Evan waited a moment, then cast each of the
rod’s lines out into the darkness, one starboard and the other portside.
Without a word, he killed most of the deck lights, trading them for the muted
underwater ones he turned on instead. There wasn’t a sound to be heard, nothing
but the mesmerizing
slosh-slosh-slosh
of the water slapping lightly
against
Sunset Tryst
’s hull.

“Now,” he said quietly, “We wait.”

As far as Riley was concerned, they could wait all night.
The ride out here had been beautiful, the sunset spectacular. And okay, so
she’d never seen this many stars anywhere else. None of that, however, was
enough to make her feel even a fraction better.

They were still out here in the middle of nowhere,
surrounded by pitch black, being circled by killers that could sometimes weigh
as much as a small car. Ones that wouldn’t hesitate to rip into you with their
razor-sharp teeth and tear you to shreds.

Her stomach lurched at the thought as Evan and Garrett
expectantly peered over the edge of the boat. They were pumped, she knew they
were. Their enthusiasm sped through her own body, only difference there being
that hers ended with zings of fear instead of the hyped-up anticipation she
knew was raging through their bloodstreams.

No, what she felt now was a prickly apprehension mixed with
a sense of dread. What if they actually got a bite? What if a bull or tiger or,
Lord forbid, even a great white shark actually chomped on the line and took
off?

She nudged in between them and peeked into the water. The
lighting below glowed in the blue-green depths and a shiver raced up her spine
despite the warm Gulf air. “You know guys, I’m not so sure about this.”

Before they had the chance to respond, a shadow moved under
the water. She saw it first off to the side, at the far end of the boat. Then
again seconds later, deeper, at the furthest reaches of the underwater beams.

Then it was gone.

Oh God Oh God Oh God.

“Did you see that?” she asked. “Was that one?”

Evan bowed further over the side. “I saw it. It might’ve
been, yeah.”

Garrett hooked his arm around her and tucked her in closer
by his side, but it didn’t help. Not when he was practically bouncing from
being so excited and she was freaked to the bone. “Breathe, babe. Everything’s
going to be fine.”

She loved everything about Garrett—except when he told her
that. How many times had he said those exact words to her only to have things
not
end up being fine? Like when he broke his wrist the first time he snowboarded
down Devil’s Run. Or the time he came home with a dozen stitches across his
shoulder after a weekend of white-water rafting with his buddies. He was an
eternal optimist—and a thrill-seeker. A dangerous combination on the best of
days.

A deadly one on the worst.

They all stood at the boat’s railing, stretching to peer
overboard for what seemed like ages—only to see nothing else. Schools of
smaller fish darted around haphazardly under the lights, but nothing as large
as that first shadow. And Riley was good with that. The longer they waited, the
more the stiffness in her shoulders and back eased. The more her nerves calmed.
The easier it was to draw in that breath Garrett had told her to take.

After a while, she actually got a little bored. The guys
boomeranged from side to side, searching the water over and over again but
coming up empty. She passed the time by lounging on the rear bench and gazing
into the star-dotted sky. Evan surprised her by plopping down next to her and
slinging his arm across the seat behind her.

“Orion’s Belt is there,” he said, pointing high above them.
He searched some more and pointed again. “The dippers are over there.”

“So you’re an astronomer too?” she whispered.

He laughed a little. “Not even close. Sorry, but that’s
about the extent of my constellation knowledge.”

“It really is gorgeous out here. So quiet. Not to mention a
little freaky.”

“Freaky? Why?” Garrett slid in beside her, effectively
squishing her between the two men.

“Why? Because we’re in the middle of nowhere. No one else is
around. We’re all alone out here.”

“I think it’s peaceful,” Garrett added, skimming his hand up
her thigh. “How often do you get the opportunity to see the night sky like
this? To really be away from everything and everyone?”

“I guess. We just seem to be
too
alone, is all.”

“No such thing,” Garrett murmured into her ear before gently
kissing her neck.

Hmm, maybe he had a point, but she still found the whole
experience creepy. She couldn’t fault his method of trying to make her more
comfortable, though. Maybe if she distracted them in just the right way, they’d
forget about all this shark-catching nonsense. Maybe if she were to—

Garrett’s lips froze on her neck when the starboard reel
clicked for the first time. A second later, it clicked again. Their stares shot
over to the rod. None of them breathed. Not one of them moved.

They weren’t alone any longer.

Something was there, close by. She knew it. The hair at the
back of her neck stood on end. A chill scurried over her skin. Garrett and Evan
bolted to their feet, but she couldn’t get her arms or legs to work.
This
was what she was afraid of.

This
was what her men had been waiting all night for.

The heavy, methodical clicking of the reel vibrated through
the hull of the boat and seeped into her bones. Her heart began to pound. Her
mouth went dry. She watched as the taut line slowly traveled from the reel, up
through the rod’s roller guides and out into the dark.

“Okay, let’s do this,” Evan said, breaking her trance.

Somehow, she managed to spring to her feet as Evan grabbed
the rod harness and handed it off to Garrett. She wanted to scream as he
strapped it on, or at the very least beg him to please, please not do this. But
all she could do was stand there in shock as the clicking of the reel sped up.
As Evan manhandled the large fishing rod. As he and Garrett mounted the rod
onto the harness’s fighting belt.

“Remember, you’ve got to feel that pop of the hook in her
jaw or she’s going to get away from you. Do it fast. Do it like you mean it.”

Garrett nodded once and braced himself before yanking
sharply on the reel as Evan stepped back. With how well she knew her husband,
she shouldn’t have been surprised by how quickly and naturally he carried out
Evan’s instructions. Anyone on the outside peering in would be easily convinced
that Garrett wasn’t the shark-fishing-expedition virgin he truly was. Just by
looking at him, they wouldn’t hesitate to believe that he had spent his entire
life out here on the water and that he had spent it being a deep-sea fisherman.

“Yeah, baby. Got her. I
got
her.” Garrett practically
growled the words out as he arched his back and started to crank on the reel.
He grimaced. He pulled. He swore.

Just like that, his deadly tug-of-war began.

Evan leapt to the railing and scanned the water. He pointed
down, but Riley hadn’t gotten there fast enough to see. “She’s a big one.”

Oh God, of course she was.

Riley white-knuckled the railing next to Evan, searching the
water as Garrett let up on the line and then reeled it in again. The rod bowed
to the point where she thought it might snap in two.

And then she spotted it.

The shark glided through the glowing underwater lights
before circling back into the darkness once again. Jesus, Evan was right. She
was fricking huge.

A ball of ice formed in her gut as the beast snapped back
around with a shake of its massive head. The harsh tug on the line knocked
Garrett off balance. He regained his footing quickly, but that didn’t keep
Riley’s stomach from plunging straight to her feet.

“Garrett! Be careful!”

He didn’t stop scowling at her superfluous plea, nor did he
ease up on the way he worked at that reel. But she knew “careful” had a
different meaning for her than it did for him. She hadn’t expected him to stop.
She knew there was no way he would, not until that shark had been reeled in
close enough to the side of the boat to consider her caught.

“You’ve got her,” Evan said. “Keep going.”

Keep going? They were insane.
She
was insane for
being out here with them. Heaven above, she didn’t know what she’d do if—

The monster changed direction again, yanking hard on the
line and jerking Garrett off center once more. His shins smacked into the
railing with a sharp skin-on-fiberglass crack before he caught and steadied
himself. He bit out a strangled “Shit,” as his forearm, biceps, shoulder and
chest muscles contracted. Riley’s own muscles screamed in protest just from
watching his struggle.

Her heart cramped when the shark jolted him again.

God, she couldn’t take much more of this. Garrett strained
against the forward momentum the shark created and alternately cranked on the
reel, repeating the motion over and over. He widened his footing and clutched
the rod in his fists as if it was his only lifeline.