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“Zoe. If I need to come and get you, I will. Then you definitely won’t like me very much.”
The way she spun around and the look on her face indicated she had a nasty retort ready. She swam toward me with intense vigor, as if preparing herself to slap me all over again. No other woman had done so in my entire life. Perhaps they’d known better, embracing my reputation of being nasty when I was angered. But this girl had no fear. At least of me.
When she was a few feet away but out of my reach, she stopped swimming, narrowing her eyes in another hateful glare. “What do you want? Did I break some unknown rule? Did I eat the last of your favorite cereal?”
It seemed all the anger and frustration were ripped away just by studying the sadness in her eyes. “I wanted to tell you that your father is going to fully recover. He’ll be going home in a few days. That’s it.” There was no way to repair what had been done. I stood, taking a deep breath then starting to walk away.
“Wait.”
“What is it, Zoe?”
“Thank you for letting me know. I’m sorry I’ve been acting so hateful. I do understand you’re trying to do your job.”
I cocked my head slightly, nodding a few times. “Both you and your safety are the only things I can concentrate on. I owe that to your father, my best friend. I hope that means something to you.”
“Yes, it does. Why don’t you come for a swim?”
“I have something better in mind.”
“You do, huh? What’s that?”
I turned around and lifted my shades, studying her intently. “How about a sail and snorkeling?”
She stared at me for what seemed like a full minute before answering. “I’d love that.” She threw out her arm. “Friends?”
As I glanced down at her outstretched hand, I took a deep breath before crouching down, accepting her gesture. “Friends.”
It was too bad the electricity coursing through us was so intense that we both sucked in our breath at the same time.
Yeah, as if this friends thing was going to be easy.
CHAPTER 13
Maddox
There was one thing my mother had told me that had stuck in my brain after all these years. In one of her rare, lucid moments, she’d reminded me that women had an innate way of getting under a man’s skin.
That’s exactly what Zoe was doing as she flaunted her sexy body in her skimpy bathing suit. Sighing, I forced myself to glance toward the horizon, scanning the perimeter, always on edge that someone would hunt us down. Without any backup, we’d be sitting ducks.
“This is incredible,” Zoe said as she stood watching while I hoisted the sail, standing back as the wind began immediately to take her further into the cove.
“She’s another one of my babies, but I don’t get to spend nearly enough time on her.”
“Her. Are boats always referred to as a woman?”
“Not always, but I always believed that sailing a boat was like handling a beautiful woman. You’re required to learn every nuance about what she enjoys, and how she prefers to operate in order to make her purr.”
Even in the bright sunlight, I noticed she was blushing, biting her lower lip to keep from laughing. Or screaming. I wasn’t entirely certain. “That’s actually… quite profound.”
I was the one to laugh, already feeling some of the tension disappearing. She’d helped me pack a picnic basket and there was an even more private cove I’d found and explored where I would take her. The afternoon was perfect, barely a cloud in the sky.
“I don’t know about profound, but this type of sailboat can be finnicky, enough so it took me some time to be able to operate her on my own. Once I did, I couldn’t imagine being on another vessel.”
“It’s huge.”
“Oh, little lamb. This is a small one in comparison to some of them.” I’d used the endearing term, something I’d told myself I’d never do again. It didn’t seem to faze or anger her. She was dancing to the reggae music I’d turned on, a lemonade in her hand. From where I stood, she appeared like an angel sent from the heavens, the golden light of the sun highlighting her dark curls and hourglass figure.
I forced myself to turn away before it became obvious I couldn’t think about her without desire roaring in. Another moment of tension settled between us, which had constantly occurred over the last two days.
