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"Fine, a little aged," Drew said. "But not unacceptable."
"I agree," Aiden said, excitement in his eyes. "We have to do this." He waved his hand toward the bay, the majestic Golden Gate Bridge in the distance, Alcatraz and Angel Island. "Look where we are—in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The Pacific Ocean is just beyond the bridge. We've all been working hard for a long time. Our jobs have big stakes, life and death. The pressure is tough. We need to relieve that tension every once in a while. This boat is the perfect solution. We can cruise, we can race." He paused. "We can entertain the ladies."
"You're getting married, that's lady singular to you," Drew said with a grin.
"Well, you and Burke can go crazy then. Look, I can do the dance and tell you all the reasons why we should do this. And then Burke can tell us all the reasons why we shouldn't. But bottom line—I'm buying this boat," Aiden said. "I want to partner with you both, but if you're not in, I'll keep looking. So what do you say? Are you in or are you out?"
"I'm considering it," Burke said. "Give me a minute."
As Burke went to check out the galley, Drew's attention turned to a small sailboat pulling into a slip two rows in front of them. As the woman jumped off the boat to secure the lines, his chest tightened, and his heart skipped a beat. She was slender, wearing jeans and a navy blue windbreaker. Her light brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail.
Two teenage kids got off the boat. They exchanged a few words with the woman, and then took off. As she turned around, Drew saw her face.
"Oh, my God," he muttered.
"Drew?" Aiden asked. "What are you looking at?"
He heard the question but he didn't have time to answer. He had to get to her before she disappeared again.
He jumped off the boat and ran down the docks, hearing Aiden call after him. He didn't even glance back. He was not going to let Ria get away again.
But she was already walking down the dock toward the yacht club.
"Ria," he shouted as he ran after her.
She glanced back and stiffened, then turned around and quickened her pace.
What the hell?
He broke into a jog, catching up to her in the parking lot. "Ria, wait." He grabbed her arm, hoping he hadn't completely lost his mind and was about to scare the life out of a total stranger. But it wasn't a stranger staring back at him. It was Ria.
Her brown eyes widened, and she sucked in a quick breath of air.
"It is you," he said, feeling confused, relieved and amazed all at the same time. "You're alive."
Her hair might not be blonde anymore, but her brown eyes with the gold lights were the same, as well as her lightly sunburned cheeks, and her lips—her soft, full, pink lips that made his body tighten in memory.
He was suddenly slammed with a montage of images from the night they'd spent together. Every one of his senses came alive. He could smell the orange blossoms in her hair when he kissed her neck. He could taste the heat of her mouth. He could feel her breasts swell under his hands as he licked her nipples into peaks of pleasure. And the way she'd come apart under him, on top of him—he could still hear her soft cries of uninhibited pleasure.
Damn!
His breath came so fast he started to feel dizzy.
He'd wished a thousand times for people to come back from the dead, but it had never happened—until now.
"Drew," she said finally, biting down on her bottom lip, as she tried to come up with something else to say.
The silence went on far too long. He'd seen her in his dreams so many times he had to tell himself that he wasn't dreaming now. But he was holding her arm. He could feel the heat of her body. He could hear her voice. She wasn't a ghost.
"I don't understand," he said, shaking his head in confusion. "I thought you were dead. Everyone did."
"So you heard about the fire on the boat?" she asked slowly.
"Heard about it? I saw it. I was on the dock when the explosion almost knocked me off my feet." He could still hear the thunderous roar in his head and taste the terror that had run through him as he and Juan had sailed toward the destruction.
"You were on the dock?" Her eyes widened in surprise. "I thought you were on your way to the airport."
