His hand caressed my forearm before he squeezed my fingers and leaned in to kiss me. “This,” he said. “Only a lot sooner.”
* * * *
The waves really were pretty, and the sound was almost soothing as I closed my eyes and leaned back against the lounger. Chase, along with a group of other people from the ship, was monkeying around on a boogie board.
I tried not to be tense as I watched him play in the gorgeous aquamarine water as it lapped up on the sandy shore. Nothing would happen. The water was practically clear, and the waves weren’t too rough. A gentle breeze blew around us, and if not for my fears, it would be paradise.
Of course, Chase being Chase kept his attention on me, making eye-contact every few minutes. I’d smile and wave, lifting my drink or my book and silently assuring him I was fine. I hadn’t turned a single page in the novel. It was a romance, and a good one too, but at the moment, it just couldn’t hold my attention.
Maybe, I should just go walk along the water’s edge. I wasn’t hot, but it would give me something else to do and take me closer to Chase. It wasn’t as if I couldn’t swim—not that I’d go deep enough to need to. My aunt had assured I’d taken swim lessons for years. I think she’d hoped if I swam well, my aversion to water would go away. Nope.
Having made my decision, I headed for the foam-edged, ebbing water. I was halfway there when the screaming and yelling started. I froze, pure terror filling me. I couldn’t breathe, even though my chest rose and fell in panic. No.
My gaze frantically searched the water, looking back and forth for Chase. Where was he? Where the hell was he?
No. Don’t do this.
I couldn’t find him. I stumbled forward, still searching as yells about someone getting hurt, knocked out, reached me. The undertow was pulling the unconscious body out to sea.
No. The ocean couldn’t have Chase. I started forward again, my feet running before I even realized I was moving. The water wasn’t taking one more person I loved. Hadn’t I lost enough? Chase would not be taken from me this way.
I was chest deep when I saw him. I lunged toward him as he towed in the man who’d been injured. I hadn’t seen him because he’d been swimming into the deeper water. He’d gone after our fellow passenger to keep him from drowning. Before I reached Chase, another pair of swimmers relieved him, taking the man. Chase’s gaze immediately went to where I’d been sitting. I saw worry dawn across his features when he didn’t see me, and he started moving toward shore, unknowingly coming right at me.
I didn’t slow down, swimming hard for him. I slammed into Chase’s body, wrapping my arms and legs around him while I sobbed.
“Em,” he gasped, his arms closing around me. “Hey, hey,” he soothed, rubbing my back. “It’s okay. What are you doing out here?”
“I thought it was you. They started yelling and I couldn’t see you and I thought you were drowning and I was going to save you and I love you.”
He pulled back enough to see my face as he blinked, taking in my hysterical babbling. He cupped my face. “Baby, I love you, too. And I’m fine. You shouldn’t be out here. It’s not safe for you.”
“I can swim,” I muttered into his neck, refusing to un-barnacle myself from him. I realized we weren’t bobbing in the waves, so he had to be touching bottom. There wasn’t much danger of me hampering his movement. Then I felt him walking, probably toward shore. “I needed to save you,” I repeated. “I love you. I can’t let anything happen to you—nothing can happen to you.”
I knew I was jabbering, words just bubbling from me in my panic, but I didn’t care.
Chase carried me out of the water and back to our chairs. Grabbing a towel, he wrapped it around me then sank into one of the loungers with me on his lap. I leaned my head on his chest, still clinging to him.
We sat in silence for a long while, each of us calming. Our breaths synced, and the steady thump-thump of his heart beneath my ear lulled me.
“Did you mean it?” he asked.
I nodded, not looking up at him.
“Em?”
I tilted back my head and met his gaze. “I love you.”
He cupped the back of my neck and leaned forward, meeting my lips. “Christ, I love you so much. You have no idea…” He trailed off, kissing me hard. We got lost in each other, tangled in the moment. It happened all the time with us, the two us forgetting everything but the way we physically connected.
“I’ll always do my best to stay safe for you,” he promised. “But I couldn’t let—”
“Of course, you couldn’t,” I interrupted. “You couldn’t let a man drown if you could save him. I would have done the same thing. I was just scared when I couldn’t see you. And I’m really proud of you. You’re a hero.”
“I want to always be your hero.”
I hugged him tight. I wanted that, too. But the reality was, he’d have a really hard time doing that when we were a country apart.
“Are you ready to go back?” I asked him. “I could really use some one-on-one hero time.”
“Babe, you might not know it, but you’re my kryptonite. Anything you want, I’m weak to do anything but.”
I shifted, feeling him hard beneath me. It didn’t matter the situation; he always seemed to have that reaction to me. “Hmm…I don’t think you’re
