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Chapter 8
“Hey, wait for me!”
Jesse’s gaze cut to his right, and he found Tara walking toward him, fresh-faced and smiling, her hair pulled back in a tight braid. She wore a long, baggy navy sweatshirt over her black thermal undersuit.
“Hey,” he managed, holding the elevator door for her—while trying not to think about the fact that he’d heard her cry out last night. Since he’d borne witness to her orgasms before, he knew exactly what he’d heard. He would’ve put money on it.
She thanked him as she joined him in the elevator. Jesse leaned against the side wall, because that was literally as far away from her as he could get in the ten-by-ten box in which they were once again trapped.
Tara smirked at him. “I feel like we ride in a lot of elevators together.”
Jesse nearly swallowed his tongue. At her cheek. At her addressing the elephant in the room. At how fucking happy she seemed at oh dark hundred, and with probably not much more sleep than he’d had himself. “I’ve noticed.”
Her sleep last night was unfortunately something he knew about firsthand because he hadn’t been able to sleep either. He’d been up late reading, chiding himself for the fact that he was going to feel like shit in the morning if he didn’t get some shut-eye. Which was why he’d still been awake at 12:15 AM to hear it—the unmistakable sound of Tara’s pleasure from probably three feet away. Close enough that, had the wall not been there, he would’ve been able to reach out and touch her.
And fuck if that wasn’t exactly what he’d wanted to do.
Her ecstasy in his ear, it’d been so damn tempting. He’d literally stumbled out of bed, his mind already carrying his feet out of his room to pound on the door to hers. But he’d said they were a mistake. And she’d said nothing should happen between them again.
So he hadn’t touched Tara. He’d touched himself. He’d shoved down his boxers, braced a hand on the fucking wall they shared, and jacked himself so hard and fast that he’d gone to his knees.
The image in his head the whole time? The way she’d looked when she’d come while his mouth sucked her off.
The thing that kept him awake for another hour? Wondering if there was any possibility that she’d come with the same memory in mind.
“Sleep okay?” she asked.
Jesse chuckled at the ridiculousness of their situation. “Okay enough.”
“Ugh, I hear that.” She tilted her head to one side, then the other, obviously trying to work out a kink. Her stretches gave him a close-up view of her scar, making him realize how deep the cut must’ve been. God, she’d been lucky to survive whatever had caused her injury.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, just….” She shrugged as the doors opened onto the lobby. The rest of the team was congregated there waiting, everyone in various types of thermals, and a round of greetings rose up as they stepped out, leaving Jesse curious about what Tara had been about to say.
Before long, they’d made their way to the Going Deep, finished supplying it for the trip, and were getting underway with no more chance to talk privately—probably a good thing, all things considered.
“Goood morning, Atlantic Ocean!” Jud called out, standing out in the light rain with his head back and his arms held wide, then he joined everyone on the bridge wearing a big smile.
Jesse looked at the guy with whom he’d be doing a lot of his underwater work. George laughed. “Jud’s one of those annoying morning people.”
“No shit,” Jesse said, chuckling. But truth be told, excitement was filling his gut, too. It’d been too long since he’d last been in the water. In a way, he felt like he was coming home, which was a refreshingly good thing to feel.
About an hour later, they were at the edge of the survey site, a little over seventeen nautical miles offshore. In the rainy distance, they could just make out the silhouette of the Atlantic Wind Energy ship with whom they were working. They dropped anchor and made for what Jud referred to as the war room.
Located just behind the bridge, the room was part onboard conference room, part mission control. A bank of monitors lined one side, which would allow them to see multiple reports from their dive computers and any digital surveying they did.
“We’re gonna touch base with the AWE team and then come up with our game plan,” he said, making contact with the other ship. He put the receiver to his mouth. “This is the DVS Going Deep. Over.”
The captain of the other ship introduced himself, and then both team leaders took a moment to introduce the entirety of their crews.
As both teams enumerated the plans and challenges, Jesse felt—for the first time in a long time—that he was right where he was supposed to be. On the water. In his element. Doing things he knew he was good at doing.
The company owned a lease for the potential installation of sixty turbines, and they still had a quarter of the area to survey. So they carved up the remaining area into two zones, with CMDS handling Zone 1, with waters ranging from fifty-five to eighty-five feet deep, and AWE handling the deeper waters of Zone 2.
All there was left to do was kit up—and Jud was up first. Because of maximum diving time limits, Jesse and Jud would be taking turns and diving in cycles—one of them on the bottom while the other rested on the surface until they off-gassed enough to dive again.
Tara served as Jud’s tender, assisting him with dressing in the comp
