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  “Because I’m the one who told him about Leia being here.”

  “Ah, so he would kill us anyway. That’s great,” Dave noted. “But why did he want to?”

  “Because there’s still a price on Leia’s head.”

  “Nope, that’s been removed,” Dave corrected.

  The kid looked at him and shrugged. “Then I don’t know. Maybe nobody told him.”

  “Maybe he’ll be completely disinterested now that he’s sporting a bullet in his wrist.”

  “I don’t know about that. He was pretty adamant. He wanted Leia.”

  “And do I look anything like Leia?” Katie asked, exasperated. “I don’t think so.”

  “Maybe not, but he heard rumors that she was coming back.”

  “So, you wanted to make sure that, if Leia did come back, he got to see her?”

  “I’m not sure getting to see her is quite what he wanted,” he admitted. “I think he was looking to take her himself.”

  “Ah, so it has nothing to do with that price on her head. It’s more about the fact that he decided he should keep her?”

  “Yes,” the kid admitted. “That’s when I realized I didn’t want any part of it. She helped me. She’s a good person. I feel miserable about it.”

  “You shouldn’t have had any part of it anyway,” Dave snapped.

  “When you think about it, and all she’s done for you, the fact that you even started down this pathway is sad,” Katie snapped. “Leia is coming back tomorrow. Imagine how she will feel when she hears about this.”

  He looked ashamed.

  Good. He should. It was a shitty way to pay Leia back. Now all they had to do was catch the second asshole.

  Chapter 5

  No doubt that the turn of events had changed the mood between Katie and Dave. Their prisoner was tied up securely and in a locked-up stateroom. Seemed Katie and Dave couldn’t have one proper date. But she knew where they were headed now, and that was fine. It just wouldn’t happen in the time frame she had hoped for. She had wanted that intimate time for themselves before they were descended upon by the rest of the team and the wedding guests. Intimate time to take the step to cement what Katie and Dave had. It would ease the uncertainty, before the others arrived and before life otherwise invaded their little private paradise.

  She shook her head at that. It just wasn’t to be. She was alone in her cabin right now. The captain was sleeping on deck, his preferred space when the weather was good, and Dave was in one of the other staterooms. She half wanted to get up and go to him but didn’t really want to take the chance of getting rebuffed. It’s not that they were in any imminent danger now, though there would always be some level of danger when involving a gunman on the loose, but, at the same time, she couldn’t go to sleep because it just felt wrong.

  When she heard a soft knock on her door, she quickly sat up. “Who is it?”

  “It’s me,” Dave said.

  She swung the blankets off her bed and walked to the door, opening it. “Is something wrong?”

  He stared at her and winced. “Yes.”

  “What now?” she asked in horror.

  He chuckled. “Nothing like that. I’m just …” And then he stopped, shrugged. “I’m missing you.”

  She looked at him in surprise and then looked deeper, seeing the uncertainty in his gaze and the need in his eyes that mirrored her own. Stepping back, she pulled the door open wider. “Then I suggest you come in,” she said gently.

  He looked at her and didn’t move.

  She shook her head. “Don’t keep a lady waiting.”

  He smiled at that and stepped inside. No sooner had he closed the door, he had swept her into his arms and kissed her passionately.

  She could feel her body lighting up with a fire she had kept banked for a very long time. This was what she’d hoped for, what she had desperately wanted, but what she had thought she wouldn’t get.

  And now that it was offered, freely, without any of the strings that she had been worried about earlier, she couldn’t resist. She flung her arms around him and held him tight.

  “I guess there’s no point in asking if you’re sure,” he whispered.

  “Don’t insult me,” she said. “Neither of us are in the first spring of youth, nor are we green. We’ve both been through relationships that put smiles on our faces and made us cry. This is where I want to be right now.”

  He smiled and lowered his head again.

  She turned to move back to the bed. “And I’m also old enough to want the comfort of a bed.”

  He chuckled at that. “And yet you’re so not old at all.”

  “No, maybe not,” she agreed, “but there’s definitely something to be said for comfort.” At that, she flipped the covers back and laid down, so he could join her.

  He slipped into the bed with her. “Do you think the captain will have a problem with this?”

  “Are you kidding? He’ll have a problem if we don’t,” she noted. “He’s a romantic, like you wouldn’t believe.”

  He chuckled and pulled her snugly into his arms. “I wanted this earlier, but everything changed all at once there.”

  “I know,” she murmured. “And that was tough in its own way. I was just lying here, thinking about that too.”

  He nuzzled her neck up to her ear, making her toes quiver and her belly tighten.

  She smiled as she wrapped her arms tighter around him and giggled as he tickled her, then laughed as his hand stroked across her skin under her short T-shirt. “I forgot to tell you that I’m ticklish.”

  “That’s okay,” he murmured, his warm breath brushing along her cheek and neck. “I’m pretty sure we’ll get you past it eventually, with much practice.”

  At that, she burst out laughing. Soon the laughter turned to moans, as he cradled her soft curves. She twisted as his hand slid down to cup the cheek of her buttocks, then slid around to her thigh, all the way down her calf to her foot. She twisted in his arms, loving the slow exploration, at the same time realizing there really was no rush. It was another advantage of their age and circumstances. No need to push and to drive this forward. They had the luxury of time to savor and to enjoy it, the way they’d always hoped.

  His touch was soft and soothing, yet intimate, awakening nerve endings that she hadn’t deliberately shut off but had become pickier about after she had broken off her marriage and then finally began testing the dating waters. It had been a long time for her, and, as Dave gently raised the temperature in the room, she realized how much she had missed this, and how much she loved being held and caressed. Nothing else could replace having that one special person who wanted to be with her.

  She moaned, as he built up the tempo of his strokes and his kisses. She could feel his heartbeat racing under her hand, as she tried to explore for equal time, but she could sense that his needs were rising at a pace faster than hers. She tried to slow him down, but he shivered with need. She looked up at him and smiled. “It’s okay, you know, if you get there faster than I do.”

  He shook his head. “No, it’s not. I want us to get there together.” He lowered his head to one plump breast, took her nipple into his mouth, and suckled deeply. She arched her back and cried out, as he suckled hard for several long seconds, then moved to the other one. She caressed his head, her fingers sliding through his hair, as he slowly worked his way down to her ribs, her navel, her hip bones, then to her hollow in between.

  By the time he found her center with his tongue and suckled gently, she was already climbing off the bed, trying to pull him onto her. He slowly made his way back up again, but his fingers were busy in the damp curls at the apex of her thighs, and she was shuddering, slowly losing her mind, when he finally eased himself to her opening.

  She wrapped her thighs around his hips and whispered, “Welcome home.”

  And he slowly drove in deep and seated himself at the heart of her. She moaned, shifting gently, trying to adjust to the size of him, and then he started to mo
ve.

  Slowly he built up the pressure, his fingers sliding into the hair behind her ears, holding her head firm, while he kissed her, driving them faster and faster. She could only hang on for the ride, already having lost all sense of control of her body, as her own needs rose up, fast and furious.

  When he threw them both off the cliff, she felt her body splinter into a thousand pieces, as she listened to his roar above her. He crashed down beside her and cuddled her close. “Now that,” he whispered, “is something I’ve been desperately wanting—for a very long time.”

  She was still gasping for air, her heart pounding, racing against her chest. “You could have made a move a couple years ago.”

  “Well, I would have, but you picked up with that new boyfriend, so I backed off again.”

  “And I picked up with that new boyfriend because I was trying to get you to make a move.”

  He rolled over and looked at her. “Really?”

  “Yes.” She laughed. “Really.”

  “Maybe I am a little dense,” he said. “You have to make things very clear to me.”

  She leaned up, kissed him gently. “Is that clear enough?”

  “Definitely.” He collapsed beside her again, tucking her up even closer. “But we still need to get some sleep. No telling what tomorrow will bring.”

  “Sleep we can do,” she murmured, nuzzling against him. “We can always wake up and have a repeat.”

  He chuckled, and she closed her eyes and fell asleep in his arms.

  *

  Waking up the next morning, Dave found Katie, her arms wrapped around him, her head resting on his chest, but her fingers moving in a repetitive pattern on his arm, as if her mind were going one million miles an hour, working out the logistics of something.

  He cuddled her close and dropped a kiss on her forehead. “Good morning to you too.”

  She smiled, lifted her head, and kissed him gently on the lips. “Good morning. I tend to be an early riser. At the moment it looks like my mind is caught up in a huge To-Do list of what I need to get to from this point forward.”

  “We definitely need to get going on some things. Are you ready to get up?”

  “Not really, but considering it’s already nine o’clock, I’d better.”

  He looked at her in surprise.

  She nodded. “We did avoid sleeping as much as we could last night, apparently.”

  “I don’t think we avoided anything,” he said, with a smile. “I think it was more a case of enjoying having something to do other than sleep.”

  “Well, that’s one way to put it.” She chuckled, then sat up, completely unselfconscious of her nudity, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. Walking over to grab a change of clothes, she dressed quickly into a two-piece bathing suit, with a flowing dress atop it. “I’m going for a swim. You’ll join me?”

  “Absolutely. Give me a second. I’ve got to find something to swim in.”

  “I’m totally okay if you go like that.” Katie motioned at his bare body.

  “Ha! I generally don’t go swimming nude because my prosthetic tends to scare people.”

  She looked at it, shrugged. “It is what it is. If you get dressed and come join me, I’ll put on the coffee. We can have it on the deck, after our swim.” Then she left him to his own devices.

  He went back to his room, quickly got changed into his swim trunks, and grabbing a T-shirt, headed up after her.

  The captain was on the deck, talking on the satellite phone. He lifted a hand when he saw them and muttered, “Most of us keep working hours.” Yet he sported a big grin.

  “Thank you for that.” Dave sat down beside him. “Any news?”

  “Outside of the fact that everybody’s on their way, no.”

  “Well, I take that as a good sign. How about our prisoner?”

  “I checked him a couple times during the night. He’s doing fine.”

  “That’s good. I hope the guys are planning on taking him away from here.”

  “I think they’re planning on talking to him first.”

  “Good,” Dave said, “as long as it’s not my job.”

  “Ha! Getting soft in your old age.”

  “Maybe,” he admitted. “And certainly turning my attention to other things.” He glanced back into the kitchen area.

  The captain laughed uproariously. “You two are good together. She’s been waiting for this for a long time.”

  “Apparently she finds me slow and incredibly dense on some topics,” Dave said on a laugh.

  “Yeah, I knew that. But, hey, you finally got there.”

  “I guess I was being too much of a gentleman,” he muttered.

  “And she was going too easy, thinking that you needed more time to get over your losses.”

  “That was a long time ago.” His voice was soft and gentle, as he remembered his wife and daughter. Both of them gone now by many years.

  “Well, like I said, maybe it’s a good time.”

  “When are the guys getting here?”

  “Sooner than I thought,” Sam noted. “I suspect we’ll have a few of them here in a couple hours.”

  “They didn’t give you an ETA?”

  “Check your phone,” Sam said. “I think they’ve been trying to get hold of you.”

  Dave nodded. “I turned off my phone.”

  “Smart man.” The captain smirked.

  Just then Katie came out with a tray laden with coffee.

  The captain looked at it and smiled. “See now? That was worth waiting for. I’ve been waiting for you guys to get your asses out of bed.”

  “Any other day …” Dave stood, pulling off his T-shirt over his head. “I was especially tired.”

  At that, she laughed and, tossing the blue flowing dress off her shoulders, walked to the edge and jumped into the water. Dave, after removing his prosthetic, was just a few seconds behind her.

  The captain grabbed one of the coffee cups, enjoying the moment, as he stood at the railing, his big voice booming out. “It’s a beautiful day, and this is definitely the place to enjoy paradise.”

  “And, if it weren’t for the prisoner and a gunman on the loose, it would be.” Katie rolled over, her head back, floating gently in the water.

  Dave twisted and rolled, generally just having a great time, feeling the cold water on his skin. It felt refreshing and clean, and today he felt like a whole new man, in a way. He’d forgotten about the prisoner, until he woke up. And that was very unusual for him, and it also showed where he might be heading in life right now, which was allowing for other things to occupy his mind.

  He glanced at Katie, and she gave him a special smile, leaned over, kissed him gently. “Breakfast?”

  “Only if you’re ready to go in,” he said.

  “I can’t believe we’re here as it is. Why doesn’t Bullard just move his base operations here?” she asked. “Just look at how it would be. We’d have a great time.”

  “Now that he’s getting married, he probably won’t do anywhere near the traveling he used to do,” Dave guessed.

  She nodded. “Which means I may end up looking for a new job?”

  “I hope not,” he said.

  She looked at him in surprise.

  He shrugged. “I’d hate to lose you.”

  “I wasn’t planning on going anywhere—outside of somebody else’s kitchen, temporarily.”

  He nodded, realizing that she would probably travel more than he would now. His job was generally at the compound these days. He’d traveled more in the last four months, chasing leads looking for Bullard, than he had in years. And now he was starting a relationship with Katie, somebody who could end up traveling far away from him.

  It was something he’d have to deal with. But he wouldn’t dare choke up about it because that was a sure-fire way of making her feel like she had no space. And he wasn’t up for that. He’d do a hell of a lot to keep her in his life right now. She was a very special woman.

  He smil
ed. “Breakfast sounds great.” He looked at her. “You want me to cook?”

  She rolled over onto her back again. “Sure, if you want to. I certainly don’t have to cook every meal just because it’s my job.”

  “Plus, you’ll get busier with everybody headed this way,” he murmured. “But maybe we’ll do that in a few minutes, since this is pretty great as it is.” The two of them floated gently on the ocean, and he couldn’t find anything to dampen his mood. At this moment, things were pretty damn perfect.

  Chapter 6

  Katie rolled over with a sad sigh. “Come on. Breakfast time. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got to get moving.”

  Up on the deck she quickly put on the blue dress and headed down to the kitchen. She quickly whipped up eggs benedict with some smoked salmon on the side, with a little bit of greens, and carried it up for the three of them.

  As she arrived, both men were on their phones, both looking very serious. She immediately realized something was up. She set up the food on the trolley and poured coffee for everybody, then sat down with hers, waiting quietly for them to tell her what was going on.

  When Dave finally got off the phone, he looked at the breakfast, then smiled. “Ah, you cooked. This looks delicious.”

  “I ended up making it. Sorry, I completely forgot about your offer. Force of habit, I guess.”

  “There’s time for me to cook other breakfasts,” he noted. “I’m a decent hand in the kitchen, but I’m certainly not a professional chef.”

  “A lot of good cooks out there never had any training.”

  “Maybe. I think I’m probably one of them.”

  She smiled. “It would be nice if we shared a passion for cooking.”

  “Absolutely.”

  “So, enough of that. What the hell is going on?” She motioned at Dave and the captain, who was still busy on the sat phone. “Are there problems?”

  “A couple connecting planes got missed, due to delays at an airport,” he explained. “The usual logistics of moving that many people. The guys will be here soon though.”

  “And our prisoner?”

  “I think they’re planning on having a serious talk with him, then probably letting him go.”