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I slide onto the bench and grip the edge of it. I don’t like being out in the water without a vest. The wind whips my hair around, onto my face, and I let it because I am afraid to let go of the bench.
I stare at Kai, who holds the helm and stares up ahead, ignoring me. His jaw is set. Sunlight falls on his arms, catching the etched outline of his skin.
Scars. Rough skin as if it were carved by dozens of blades.
Still, he is brutally gorgeous. Like a villain out of a book. I can stare at him forever.
If only he wasn’t mad at me.
He’s never been vicious like this.
Four years.
An accident.
Tattoos.
That sharp hostile gaze.
I remember the story Abby told me. A fire. Second-degree burns over most of his body.
How?
When did that happen?
The only distraction from my nerves is studying his tattoos. His board shorts hang on his hips and come down to his knees, his legs decorated with the vines of ink that stop at the ankles.
The boat veers onto the open water, turns north, and zooms along the coastline that turns rockier, then speeds up, bumping at the waves.
My heart lunges in my chest, the images of the boat crash piercing me with arrows of anxiety. The boat slows down after several minutes as it starts approaching the coast and the dark opening in the rocks.
We are going toward a cave. For a brief second, I wonder if Kai is going to take me to a secluded place, kill me, and leave my body to the sharks.
When the boat slows down and throttles into the dark opening, I gape around.
We are inside a cave, a large dim space. The ceilings are about twenty feet tall, forty in some places, the stone all around us intimidating and suffocating. It would be darker here if it weren’t for the openings between the rocks up ahead that you can’t see. The light beams through in some strange trajectory, illuminating the caverns with a soft, almost magical, glow.
Kai turns off the motor, then pulls a lever, and the boat stops, wobbling softly.
Silence falls around us. It’s like a vacuum. You can’t hear the ocean from here. It’s frightening and exciting at the same time.
Slowly, Kai turns to me, and my heart thuds in my chest.
His gaze is cold and something devilish. That same knife-like sharp expression that I saw last night curls his lips in an angry smirk.
“You think your sorry is good enough?” he asks.
The harshness in his words sounds hollow, echoing off the walls.
I don’t answer and don’t look away. Whatever he has to say, I’ll listen.
It’s too quiet inside the caverns. Dim. Surreal. I am not sure I like it. The water laps quietly at the small patches of rocks that form the endings on the sides. More dark passageways lead somewhere deeper into the caverns.
One could disappear here, never to be found.
An unpleasant feeling starts in the pit of my stomach as I watch Kai walk to the stern of the boat. In a second, he pushes off and dives into the water, sending the boat rocking.
I grip the seat tighter and stare at the circles in the water, searching the area around where Kai’s head will pop up.
