Page 10 of Endless Depths

Seb sighs. “That’s my cue.” He pours coffee into a fresh mug. “I better get back to the wheel.”

After Seb leaves, Cole crosses his arms over his chest, framing his pecs, and says, “I don’t know what you were laughing about before. I was serious about selling your truck.”

“Let’s go talk about it then.” I toss the towel onto the counter. “We can go over rail safety, while we’re at it.”

Cole leads me down the hall, and lowers his voice to a sultry octave. “Will there be railing involved?”

“Get your ass inside and stop talking about sex in the hallway.” I open the door to our room and lock it behind us.

“Thanks, Morgan,” Lawrence says from the other side of the wall. “If you can keep it down in your room too, I’d appreciate it.”

“I don’t know how they can even fuck after thirty hours on their feet,” Javi mutters.

“The dick must really be that good,” Lawrence says.

“Talk about either of our dicks again, and you’ll lose yours,” I say with no bite.

Cole’s lips quirk into a smirk. “But the dick really is that?—”

I cover his mouth with my hand. Mirth shines in his eyes, every bit as warm as the sunshine I nicknamed him for, and hislaughter huffs against my palm. His love and happiness has always healed the scars my parents’ abandonment left me with, but tonight the fear of losing him wins out.

I want to bury myself under his skin, braid together the strands of our DNA, and devour him so I can keep him safe until we get on dry land. But I can’t do that, so I lower my palm and kiss him.

FOUR

Cole

Day bleeds into night.The lights illuminating the deck barely scratch at the endless ocean surrounding us before they’re devoured by pitch black.Briarrocks side to side despite Seb’s best efforts to steer into the waves.

We can’t trust the ocean on a normal day, but with an arctic typhoon brewing, we might as well be circling the drain of a vortex. If the Bering Sea wants us, she’ll get her way.

Frozen sea spray clings to the fifty-odd crab pots we’ve stacked on the deck. Ice is heavy, especially when it fills the gaps of the crab traps. Boats sink because of ice like that. We’ve had to break every few hours to attack the ice with sledgehammers. Morgan’s about to start a mutiny.

“Okay. After this pot, you’re done for the day,” Seb says over the PA, barely audible against the ocean’s rage.

“Fucking finally,” Morgan mutters, breath crystallizing.

“You sure, babe? You always have another round in you.”

Lawrence groans. “Oh my god, Morgan. Go jerk off your husband. If I have to hear him make one more bad sex joke, I’m going to do it myself.”

“Try it and you won’t have hands to jerk anyone off with.”

Lawrence lobs an untethered buoy at Morgan. Taking fulladvantage of the slippery deck, I skid to intercept it, and pitch it back to Lawrence, nailing him in the chest.

“Don’t throw balls at my husband,” I say. “Trust me, his are bigger than yours.”

“That’s it!” Lawrence tosses the buoy aside. “Drop your pants. Now.”

Javi laughs. “Lawless, you are weird as hell.”

“I’m not weird. I’m delirious. There’s a difference.” He pretends to push the sleeves of his orange rain gear up to his elbows. “Either you’re doing it, Morgan, or I am.”

“No one is jacking anyone off,” Morgan says.

Lawrence rounds the sorting table. “I wasn’t joking.”

“Neither was I,” Morgan says. “Sorry, Javi. You’re going to have a lot of work on your hands when I remove his.”