all over again. Success was a necessary ingredient each time she had an opportunity to help someone in need.
She walked with Braden toward the beach. When they reached it, she removed her sandals. A small group of people gathered near a building, lights from two posts shining on them. Down at the dock, a boat was ready to motor out to sea. Night diving.
She smiled big. “I haven’t done this in years.”
Braden went to the building where three people were being fitted with gear.
“How did you know there was a trip tonight?”
“I called when I got to the hotel. I thought it would take my mind off Tatum.”
Just as she’d thought. But instead he’d opted for a drink. “It’s more fun with a partner.”
Now he was the one who smiled. A sexy grin that gave her an unvarnished glimpse of his thirst for adventure. She loved it because she could so relate.
He spoke to the man in charge, who nodded and set them up along with the others. She and Braden needed all of the gear. Dressed in a warm-water wetsuit, she boarded the boat after Braden and put on her gear. Now she understood why he’d asked the bartender for water. They’d each only had one drink but hydration was important when scuba diving.
Sitting next to him on a stern bench seat, she watched the three other passengers, a trio of men in their late thirties talking excitedly and paying them no attention. Two crewmen manned the dive.
“When did you learn to night dive?” Braden asked.
“I started by going to my parents’ house in California. I swam in their indoor pool with the lights out. How did you learn?”
“In the ocean. Now it’s one of my favorite things to do.” He tipped his handsome face up to the moonlit sky. “It’s pretty dark now.” He looked back at her. “But if you dive at sunset you can see creatures getting ready for the night, some settling in, some preparing to feed. Sunrise is even better.”
She fell into the images he created. “Seeing everything wake up. The sunlight brightening the water.” She sighed. “Yes, it’s beautiful.”
She looked over at him and met his eyes, as lost as hers in the wonder. And then the wonder changed to something else. A connection, deeper than the physical chemistry they shared the first moment she saw him. A real connection. And then that fizzled when the reason they’d come here came back to her.
She shouldn’t be enjoying this so much. While Tatum either suffered or was already dead, they were living it up on an excursion. A glance at Braden made her think he felt the same.
But there was nothing they could do until morning. They needed to talk to the police first.
The boat slowed. One of the crewmen dropped anchor, and the other began instructing them on how to proceed with the dive. When it was their turn, Arizona dropped off before Braden. She turned on her headlamp and swam down, taking note of the anchor line to make the return easier. He caught up to her and they descended together, slowly. A crewman swam ahead of the group. Light from every diver’s lamp helped with navigation. Light from the moon illuminated the surface just enough.
The sea bottom came into view. Colorful fish scattered and regathered. The reef inhabitants swayed with the ocean current. Lobsters crawled along the bottom. Waving her hand, she saw phosphorescent plankton lighting up the darkness.
Arizona looked at Braden and wondered if he could see her smiling. His eyes creased as though he were, too.
Kicking her feet, she navigated along the reef, checking out the flourishing life. There were signs stuck into the ocean floor that said Do Not Touch!
She wished she had a camera.
Feeling Braden take hold of her ankles, she stopped kicking while he swam up her body and pointed.
Looking ahead, she saw a big, long shark swim by, barely visible in the sphere of light. Ghostlike. Exotic. Her heart beat faster with a flash of apprehension. But the shark passed the group of divers, probably having already fed at sunset.
Arizona rolled to swim on her back, facing Braden to convey her excitement. With his hands on her hips, eyes smiling, no words were necessary, especially when his gaze lowered to the way the straps of her vest plumped her breasts. She breathed deeper through her mouthpiece.
His green eyes glowed in their headlamps, excitement flaring to passion. She didn’t mistake that. He felt it, too.
Then a crewman poked him on the arm, jarring them both back to attention. He jabbed his thumb upward. Time to surface.
Braden released her, and she surfaced with him, finding the anchor line in the moonlit sea. When her head broke into the night air, Braden surfaced in front of her. He removed his mouth pieces and then moved his mask down and slid it around to the back of his neck. Why he’d done that gleamed in his eyes. He was impassioned enough to kiss her. She hoped he did. Removing her mask, she slid it to the back of her neck as he had done. Braden’s eyes smoldered hotter.
The others surfaced on the other side of the boat, talking excitedly about the shark. Their reason for coming to this island dropped away.
Braden reached up to hold on to a ladder. His intensity hadn’t abated since touching her underwater. Hers hadn’t, either.
Angling his head, he kissed her. Wet mouths melded. The way his strong arm held her, the way his other held them both above water, heated her already swirling senses. The exhilaration of the dive only added to her desire, spontaneity and a dash of danger with a man who had fallen under the same spell.
Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she gave everything she had into the kiss.
“All right, you two, it’s time to head to shore,” one of the crewmen said. A chorus of chuckles passed across the boat.
Braden lifted his head, green eyes shadowed and hungry. She shook herself back to the present and turned. He pushed her rear as she climbed into the boat, making her laugh.
Sitting on the bench seat, watching them approach the shore, her levity faded as the weight of what had just happened came down on her. He was recently divorced. He had a child. And he was an engineer, even though she couldn’t think of him that way anymore. She couldn’t remember if it had ever felt this way with a man before. This quickly. It had never felt scary, that was for sure. She’d always cut it off before it got to that point. This felt scary.
Sneaking a glimpse over at him, she saw him staring off to his right, not smiling. Tense. Regretting, like her.
“It was just the dive,” she said. It had served its purpose. It had taken their minds off Tatum and passed time.
But a little too well. They were here to find his sister, not have a steamy affair. His sister needed them. There was no time for anything else.
Chapter 3
Braden walked slightly behind Arizona, unable to stop looking at the seesawing sway of her butt as she moved. Those khaki shorts didn’t help. They conformed to her shape, sloping up over slender hips to give way to a floral cotton tank that followed her curves to her plump, round breasts. Last night had
