SeaChange (7 page)

“Which is why I am not here, my friend. No one saw me enter
and no one will see me leave. In fact, I’m almost certain that I am nowhere on
the North American continent right now.”

“Of course not. What was I thinking?” Jake’s drawl ended in
a snicker. “Thanks for your help. Talk to you later, Wen.”

“Count on it.” He sketched another bow. Jake turned to
leave, guiding Heidi with a hand at the small of her back. “Jake?” Wen’s soft
voice had them turning back to face him.

“Yeah?”

“These are not—pleasant individuals. Since they apparently
know she survived, they are almost certainly going to come after Ms. Eriksen.
And they may very well know now that she is with you. Be very careful, my
friend.”

“Well, that was interesting,” Heidi said wryly.

“Wen usually is. He liked you, by the way.” Maybe too much,
Jake mused, holding out a hand to help her over the railing and onto the boat.
He didn’t know what to make of that. He wasn’t used to feeling the least bit
jealous or possessive, and he didn’t like it one bit.

“How could you tell?”

“Well, he didn’t shoot you.” He wasn’t being sarcastic, not
entirely. As far as Jake knew, Wen had absolutely no conscience whatsoever. If
he’d thought Heidi’s presence was any sort of risk, there’s no telling what he
might have done. If Jake didn’t like feeling possessive, he flat-out hated
feeling scared.

Heidi laughed. “Good to know I passed the test.” She
followed him down the steps to the cabin, pausing in the galley for a bottle of
water. She uncapped it, took a long swallow, then paused. “Any reason we can’t
go back to sleep now?”

“You mean other than the drug runners who could be on your
tail?” Which was exactly where he wanted to be, Jake thought darkly. All over
that sweet little ass.

“Yeah, other than that.”

“That’s not enough?”

“They’ve had plenty of time to find us here, if they were
looking.”

“Marinucci was going to keep my name out of things as much
as possible, but you never know. If our guy has contacts in U.S. law
enforcement, I’m sure he got wind of who I am and where you’re staying.”

“So what do you think we should do?” She gave him that evil
little feminine smile that said “you’re being a silly male, but I’ll humor you
for the moment, ‘til you figure it out for yourself.” His sister Leta had
always excelled at that look, and Jake had always hated it.

“We should leave the dock, anchor offshore somewhere.”

“So the guys who may be looking for us don’t have boats? Or
planes? We know they have both. We’re probably just as vulnerable in the open
ocean.” She walked past him into the doorway of the master cabin and shook her
head. “Come to bed, Jake. It’s four-thirty in the morning. We need some sleep.”

She had a point. He studied her carefully in the lamplight.
They were both exhausted, and the dark circles beneath Heidi’s eyes pretty much
matched the bruises that had surfaced up and down her arms and legs. He felt a
moment of guilt for the desire that filled him. What kind of animal was he to
think about jumping all over a woman who had to be in serious pain?

“C’mon, Jake.” Her voice had gone low and sultry, then she
hooked one finger through the belt loop on his shorts and tugged. “Let’s sleep
for a couple hours, then figure out what to do next.”

A horny animal, that’s what kind. Then his jaw almost tore
itself off the hinges with the force of his own yawn. And a tired one. She was
right, of course; if the bad guys tried hard enough, they were going to find
them wherever they went. Jake had rented the slip in another name. Only
Marinucci knew where they were docked. The
Siren
’s registry was
Panamanian at the moment, so it wouldn’t be an easy trail to follow. Besides,
maybe sleep would help untangle the mess in his brain, give him the chance to
figure out what the hell he was doing.

He followed her to bed.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

She was back there again, in the Zodiac. Brad’s smiling face
looked at her as they waved to the gorgeous dark-haired man on the
Depression-era wooden boat.

“He wants me,” Brad had teased, almost purring his
appreciation over the broad chest and six-pack abs. “Definitely plays for my
team.”

It was an old game and one with no real malice or, for that
matter, intent to even meet the subject of their argument. Neither of them was
into bar pick-ups or one-night stands. But this time Heidi was really
attracted, and she was sure she could feel a magnetic pull from the big man’s
lazy smile.

“No,” she replied, feeling his eyes on her. She was sure
they were dark and mysterious, even though he wore sunglasses. “Not this time.
This one’s looking at me.” And she shivered at the thought of all the dark and
sexy things he might do to her if it weren’t for the hundred yards of ocean
between them.

Then the sky grew dark, instantly, like a scene change in a
movie. Clouds formed and a plane flew overhead, dropping something in the
ocean. Then the boat came, and soon the guns began to fire. Finally, the chase
was on…

Heidi screamed as the cigarette boat ripped through the
Zodiac, tearing the smaller craft in half. She screamed again as she saw Brad’s
beloved face vanishing down into the swirling black depths. She saw his hand
reaching out for her as she struggled to get to him. She heard his voice,
whispering in her ear even though they were apart. “I need you, Heidi. Don’t
let me go…”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jake woke to the sound of screaming. It wasn’t the first
time, but it had been a while. As he segued into consciousness, he
automatically took stock of his surroundings. There were no gunshots, no
explosions and no rumble of earthquake or roar of fire. He’d been through all
of those in the last seventy-some years, but this was different. This time he
was in his own bed on his own boat and the wrenching screams were coming from
the silky-soft woman asleep beside him.

Well, not asleep anymore, he amended as he opened his eyes.
On the last shriek, she’d bolted upright and her big blue eyes had popped open,
wide, wild and terrified.

“Heidi?” He didn’t want to startle her further, so he moved
slowly, spoke softly. “Heidi, it was just a dream. You’re okay.”

She shuddered, shaking the whole bed.

“Dream,” she muttered, and rubbed her eyes with the heels of
her hands. “Right.”

“Rough one, huh?”

“Yeah.” She was still shivering so he sat up next to her and
wrapped her in his arms. She jumped a little at the initial contact, then went
limp, settling back against his chest with a massive sigh.

“Last night?” He pulled her all the way into his lap and
held her close.

“Oh yeah.” She nodded against his chest.

“Want to talk about it?”

“Not really. You know what happened. Gunshots, smoke, the
Zodiac ripped in half. Then Brad reached out for me, begged me for help, and I
couldn’t save him.”

“You never mentioned that part before.” He smoothed his
hands down the length of her back, over her nightshirt but under the heavy fall
of her hair, and leaned his chin on the top of her head. “Did you see him go
into the water?”

She paused, and he could almost hear the wheels grinding in
her head. “I don’t think so,” she mused. “I remember spinning in just half the
boat. I remember looking for Brad, but I don’t remember seeing him. I guess my
subconscious just added that last part. A few seconds after the Zodiac ripped,
it flipped over and that’s when the lights went out.”

“Sounds reasonable.” She’d relaxed a little, sagged against
him some, and his body was starting to get other ideas.

“Unless…”

“Unless what?”

“No, it’s stupid.”

He snorted, chuckled. “Heidi, you may be many things,
including blonde, but I can safely say stupid isn’t one of them. Nobody’s
judging you here anyway. If something occurred to you, say it. Sometimes
thinking out loud can help.”

“Okay, but you’re going to think I’m nuts. It’s just that my
Scottish grandmother supposedly had some sort of ESP. She called it ‘the sight’.
Most of the family never really believed her, or at least admitted to it, but
she always knew who was calling before she picked up the phone, and that was
way before caller ID was invented. If somebody was hurt or sick, she’d always
know before anyone called her. She’d show up with soup or something any time I
stayed home from school sick. I know as a scientist I’m not supposed to buy
into that sort of thing, but with Granny I guess I always did.”

He couldn’t come out and tell her that he knew for a fact
that magic existed, now could he? But he could ease her fear by not playing
skeptic. He shrugged. “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio…”

Heidi smiled in relief at his easy acceptance. “Exactly.
Anyway, Granny always claimed I inherited a share of it. I mean, I’m not
psychic, not really, but once in a while I do get these creepy feelings and
they usually turn out to be right. When my parents died, I knew something
terrible had happened the minute I woke up that day. I didn’t get the call for
another hour.” Her voice started to rise, her spine again.

He squeezed her in a quick hug. God, did that feel good. “No
need to get defensive, I believe you. Go ahead.”

“God, this is too weird.” She gulped in a lungful of air. “Out
there in the Zodiac, I got one of those feelings and I told Brad we needed to
head in. Before the cigarette boat showed up. It was just this icy chill down
my spine.”

“But he didn’t listen?”

“No, he did, but the motor was old and didn’t want to start.
They were there by the time he got it going.”

“That sucks.”

“Yeah. Big-time.” She took another deep breath. “And
sometimes I have dreams that tell me to do something, seem to point the way.
They’re almost always right. I tell myself that it’s just my subconscious being
smarter than the rest of me.”

“Which could be true.”

“Yep.”

“Or it could be that you are, in fact, a little bit psychic.”

“I really don’t know what to believe. But tonight, maybe my
subconscious, or Granny’s sight, or whatever the hell the voice in my head is,
is trying to tell me that Brad’s still alive. He could be, couldn’t he? Still
out there somewhere and needing help?”

“Wow.” He rocked back against the pillows, dragging her more
fully into his lap. It felt nice, so she let it happen. It had been a long time
since she had anybody but Brad to lean on in a crisis, and that had been a very
different sort of friendship. She buried her nose in the hollow of Jake’s neck,
breathed in the salty, musky scent of him, felt the vibrations in his throat
when he spoke. “That’s a pretty big leap.”

“I know. It sounds stupid when you say it out loud.”

“Not stupid. Wishful, perhaps.”

She adored the fact that he didn’t laugh, didn’t tell her
that she was crazy. Even Brad had only humored her strange forebodings. He’d
never really accepted them. She’d never even thought about telling a boyfriend,
not since the one she’d been dating when her parents died had immediately
broken up with her and told her to go see a shrink. There hadn’t been any since
she’d felt close enough to trust with her secret.

Jake continued. “But wishful doesn’t mean wrong. Next time I
talk to Wen, I’ll ask him to check the hospitals and such up and down the
coast. He’s got a vast network of contacts in Mexico. If anyone can find Brad,
it will be him.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem. It would be nice to know I didn’t screw up as
badly as I thought.”

“You really did try to find him, didn’t you?” She pulled
back just enough to look at his face, then reached up to smooth the furrow
between his eyebrows.

“For an hour. After that, I figured it was too late, and I
wanted to get you back to the States, to a hospital.”

“Thank you for that too, even though I didn’t end up needing
it. And for God’s sake, please don’t beat yourself up. I know you did
everything in your power to find Brad.”

He smiled and gave her another hug. After that, it was the
most natural thing in the world to reach up and kiss him.

“Hmmm. Good morning,” she purred when they came up for air a
few minutes later.

“It’s looking that way,” he agreed, rubbing his leg along
hers. He shifted her in his lap so she was straddling his hips, then he dipped
his head down to nip along her collarbone, pushing aside the neckline of her
stretchy cotton nightshirt. “If you don’t want this to happen, now’s the time
to say no.”

Tingles from his little bites were running along her skin
and sending urgent messages straight to all her feminine parts. She tilted her
head to give him better access. The hard ridge of his erection pressed up
through the thin fabric of his running shorts and her damp panties. “I know
this is probably a bad idea, Jake, but I really, really need to feel alive
right now. We’re both adults, both single. And it feels like you want me.”

“Hell yes.” His mouth claimed hers in a kiss that was more
overtly sexual than any they’d shared before. His tongue penetrated deeply,
thrusting in and out in a raw imitation of what was to come. Heidi tilted her
head up and welcomed his invasion, rubbing her wet mound along the thickness of
his erection and pressing her breasts against the solid mass of his chest.

“I know I’m not the perfect California girl,” she whispered
when they came up for air. “I got the blonde part right, but somehow missed the
bit about weighing ninety-eight pounds.”

“No, you don’t look like you’ll break when I fuck you,” he
rumbled. “Is that supposed to be a bad thing?” He lifted his hips, pressing his
hardness against her more firmly. “Does it feel like I find you unattractive?”

“No.” She pulled back to pull her nightshirt off over her
head. Jake groaned and tugged her down so his mouth could ravage the aching
peaks of her breasts.

“Magnificent,” he murmured before he slurped one whole peak
into his mouth. The pleasure sent another spasm through her pussy, setting up a
rhythmic pulse. She rubbed her mound against his massive hard-on, but she didn’t
shift enough to dislodge his mouth. He suckled her hard while his hand found
the other engorged nipple and rolled it between his fingers.

She felt a climax building, which made no sense. She’d never
come without a hand or vibrator on her clit. She moaned out loud, then caught
herself and stopped. He stopped sucking for just a second to whisper.

“Go ahead and scream. It turns me on.” Then he licked her
nipple before using his teeth and biting.