Hell or High Water (Deep Six #1)(91)

She stilled for just a second, and he wondered if he should have kept his mouth shut about Rusty. But then she hummed her agreement, nibbling on his earlobe, and he relaxed, smiling. He was softening inside her now. He needed to pull out. Because he wanted her returning to him for this, because this connection they shared wasn’t something to ignore, to toss aside, not because the condom leaked and they had to make a decision about an accidental pregnancy.

Olivia…round with my baby. The thought of getting a woman pregnant had always terrified the holy frickin’ hell out of him. But imagining Olivia carrying his child filled him with a sense of…rightness. A sense of completion that he didn’t know had been missing in his life until now, when she—

No sir. He shook his head. Don’t get ahead of yourself. You’ve yet to convince her to—

A tentative knock sounded on the door.

He growled his displeasure at the same time Olivia groaned. “That better not be you out there, Bran!” he barked, hissing as he pulled out of her wet heat. He watched his retreat with avid interest, noting how pink and swollen she was. How wet. And just like the motherfrickin’ sixteen-year-old he’d regressed to today, the sight was enough to have his blood warming again, pooling low in his groin. He couldn’t get enough of her. Figured even if he had her a thousand times, the sight of her, naked, sated, biting her lip, would have him wanting to have her, needing to have her a thousand times more.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Bran said through the door.

“Again!” both Leo and Olivia called in unison.

“I needed to let you guys know we’re about to have some company,” Bran said. “A deep-sea fishing boat was sailing by us on its way back to Miami. They hailed on the radio to say they’ve sprung an oil leak. They’re gonna tie up to us in a couple minutes and borrow a few quarts in the hopes it’ll be enough to get them where they’re going without having to call in a tow from the Coast Guard.”

“A fishing vessel?” Leo called, pulling off the condom, wadding it in toilet paper, and tossing it in the trash before reaching for the swim trunks and T-shirt he’d laid over the opposite end of the bathroom vanity when he changed into Maddy’s brother’s wet suit.

“Yeah, we must be close to a good fishing hole or channel or something,” Bran said. “I’ve seen three or four deep-sea fishing boats pass by our starboard side since we’ve been anchored. And get this, the name of the boat with the oil leak? It’s Breaking Wind, for crying out loud. You gotta love those crusty, beer-loving fishing boat captains and their warped senses of humor.” He chuckled.

“I’ll be on deck in a sec,” Leo assured Bran.

“No need. We’ll handle it. I just figured I better let you guys know—”

“I’ll be on deck in a sec,” he said again.

“Yeah. Roger that.”

He heard Bran’s muffled steps move toward the door of the cabin as he stepped into his swim trunks. Olivia hopped down from the countertop. It caused her breasts to jiggle in the most amazing way. He groaned. “Stop bein’ so damn sexy, woman. You tryin’ to kill me, or what?”

“You’re one to talk,” she said with a saucy grin, leering at his package before he pulled his swim trunks over his hips. Then she stepped into the shower, bending to retrieve her soggy clothes. He not only got a peek at her pert bum shoved in the air, but the plump pink lips of her womanhood as well. The blood rushed from his head so quickly that he had to grab the counter to steady himself against the sudden onset of dizziness.

“You’re doin’ that on purpose,” he accused.

“Just taking advantage of an opportunity when it presented itself,” she said, parroting his earlier words back to him. And this was why he loved her. Yes, she was beautiful. Yes, the sex was amazing. But it was her wit, her spark, her…intangible something that made him grin, that made his heart warm, that made him want to listen to her tease him for hours before he grabbed her up and hugged her, kissed her, screwed her blind.

He was grinning like an idiot as he pulled on his T-shirt, watching Olivia wring the water from her clothes. “I could ask Maddy if there’s a clothes dryer on board,” he offered.

“I’ll finish wringing the water out, slip on the robe”—she pointed to the navy-blue terrycloth garment hanging on a hook on the back of the door. The precise way the belt was folded and tied told him the robe was freshly cleaned—“and then meet you upstairs and ask her myself.”

“I suspect everything with the approachin’ fishin’ boat is on the up and up. But the way this day has gone, I’m not takin’ anything for granted. So just in case things aren’t on the up and up, I was sort of hopin’ you’d be willin’ to hang down here for a bit,” he said, his grin widening because he already knew what her answer would be. The same as it was the last time. And right on cue…

“Not on your life,” she harrumphed.

He chuckled, shaking his head as he turned the knob and opened the door. The love inside him was so huge he thought it a wonder his skin was able to contain it without bursting open to spew forth heart-shaped confetti. “I reckoned as much.”





Chapter Nineteen


7:22 p.m.…

Olivia blew out a breath the minute Leo closed the door and simply stood there, trembling. He had no idea how much his words had both touched her and brutalized her—That’s what Rusty was talkin’ about when he said we needed to start really livin’. What we just did, you and me, darlin’, that’s what it’s all about.