“Roger.”
Her prompt investigation into the matter dissolved what was left of his anger.“You think they might have unloaded it immediately?”Oliver asked.
“Depends on whether they were opportunistic thieves or professionals,” Dot said, her thumb rubbing the finger he’d touched.
He smiled.
“They’d need some good equipment to lift a cannon from the ocean floor, so they would have had a big boat with a decent range,” Dot continued.“They may come to shore anywhere.”
Meaning they’d never get it back, but the hope Dot might feel something for him, tempered his disappointment.
“I’ll take a look,” Dot continued.“Can you give me the coordinates?”
“You scuba now?”He’d tried for months to get Dot to learn to dive, but she’d freaked out and refused to try again.
She shook her head.“It’s not deep.I’ll snorkel.”
She would struggle to stay down for long enough to do any kind of investigation.“I’ll go with you.”As she opened her mouth to argue, he added, “I can take you straight there, and you can share my tank when we go under.”
She hesitated, the refusal on her face, before finally she nodded, her police mask sliding into place.“Let’s go.”She slipped on a weight belt and moved to the marlin board with the rest of her gear.
His gut clenched.This distance between them wasn’t right.At one time she’d been the first person he’d thought of when he woke in the morning, the one he called any time he had news.Back then he’d been determined to succeed, to be one of the few people who had a career in maritime archaeology, and everything else had been secondary—except Dot.
But she wasn’t the friendly, sweet, hard-working woman he remembered.Was that person still underneath her facade somewhere?
Sherlock had filled Oliver’s tank and Oliver followed her into the water.Together they swam the short distance to the wreck.Dot took a few deep breaths and dived under, the weight belt keeping her from being too buoyant as she took photos of the disturbed site.Her movements were slow, calm, and nothing on her face showed she was scared.He hovered next to her, while she continued moving around the site, her gaze focused on the task at hand.
He frowned.How could she hold her breath for so long?She’d been down there for a couple of minutes.His muscles tightened as he held out the spare regulator to her, but she ignored him.He clenched his hands, resisting the urge to yank her to the surface.She seemed fine, still moving to get the best angles for her shots.
When she surfaced, she’d been under for almost four minutes.She took a deep breath of air.
“What the hell was that?”Oliver demanded, unable to keep the shock and fear from his tone.
She raised her eyebrow.“What?”
“The last time we went diving together you couldn’t bear to be under water that long.”
“A lot has changed in ten years, Oliver.”
His name on her lips made him pause.It brought back so many memories of good times, laughter, love.He pushed down his fear as he floated closer.“Have you had free-diving lessons?”
That hesitation again before she nodded.“I enjoyed being able to stay underwater, but hated the weight of the tank and the amount of water on top of me.So I learnt free-diving and only snorkel at shallow depths.”
It was just like Dot to take the bits she liked and find a solution.“That’s great.”They treaded water only inches away, the flow of water from Dot’s strokes caressing him.He gazed at her, her brown eyes reminding him of strong dark tea.Her eyes always grew darker when she was aroused.“Really great.”
She cleared her throat, stuck the snorkel back in her mouth and swam back to the boat.
Conversation ended.He frowned.He needed to stop her from walking—or swimming—away from him all the time.
By the time he reached the boat, Dot was stripping out of her stinger suit.Underneath was a navy, one-piece swimsuit which was cut just high enough to show off a little of her butt.He’d always loved running his hands over it and dragging her closer to him.She’d fit so neatly against him.
Dot glanced at him as if feeling his eyes on her, and then straightened, grabbed her bag, and went into the cabin to get changed.
Could she read his expression?
“What’s the plan?”Sam asked him.
Oliver blinked.Right.He had an expedition to lead.“We’ll go back to town, get our things, and return to stay out here until we’re done.”
