“It is,” Grey agreed, ignoring the scenery around them as she watched the sails overhead retract with a careful eye in case any of the mechanicals that allowed her to solo-sail theVeritasmalfunctioned. In reality, the bay was not that much different from any of the others they had visited over the last week, but it felt much more secluded, which was something she always appreciated whenever she visited.
“Is it always like this?” Lauren asked, waving a hand at the empty mooring field.
Grey bounced her head from side to side and shrugged as she powered up theVeritas’twin engines. “It depends, really,” she said as she made for the buoy at the southernmost edge of the mooring field. “Most of the time, though, yeah. Hawkshead is too far south for charters to use as a mooring spot on cruises out of Charlotte Amalie, because it’s easier to jump from Saint John to the other islands if you go a little further north, like we did with the Muellers. It’s also too far north to use as an anchorage to dink down to Cruz for customs, so there’s none of that mess to deal with, and it doesn’t get a lot of foot traffic because there aren’t any hotels on the bay.”
“It’s perfect,” Lauren declared, turning back toward the shoreline.
“Yeah,” Grey murmured as she looked at Lauren, her gaze soft behind the reflective lenses of her sunglasses. She stared at Lauren for a few seconds longer before she sighed and turned her attention back to the water in front of the bow. “Absolutely perfect.”
Lauren slipped on her deck shoes when Grey backed the engines down to a crawl as they approached the edge of the mooring field, and then smiled at Grey as she made for the stairs. “I’ll go tie us off.”
Grey watched her go with a smile, thinking that a string bikini and a pair of Sperry’s had never looked so good together.She slid out of her chair and stood behind the wheel when Lauren knelt at the end of the starboard trampoline with the boat pole in her hand. Grey followed Lauren’s hand signals as they neared the buoy, tapping the throttle with each ‘go-go’ wave of Lauren’s hand and finally throwing the engines into reverse when Lauren held up a fist, bringing the seventy-five foot catamaran to a complete halt.
Once the bow lines were secured to the mooring buoy, Grey turned off the engines and caught Lauren’s eye. “Well done, Ms. Murphy.”
“Thank ya, ma’am,” Lauren drawled, bowing with a flourish. She laughed at the way Grey shook her head at her, and waved a hand beckoningly. “Come on.”
“Down there?” Grey teased, her gaze drifting over Lauren’s shoulder to the water beyond. Her skin itched from the sun and the wind that had battered her on the sail over, and she smiled as an idea for how to remedy that came to mind.
“Yes. Down here.”
“Well, gee, I dunno,” Grey joked as she toed off her shoes and shucked the shorts she had been wearing over her bathing suit. She carefully removed and folded her sunglasses, and stored them in a small cubby at the helm. “What’s in it for me?”
Lauren laughed and shook her head. “What do you want?”
“You.”
“Then come down here,” Lauren repeated, holding her arms out to either side of her in a ‘what are you waiting for’ type of gesture.
Grey climbed onto the side of the bridge and balanced on the small ledge that ran along the outside of the railing. She could see all the way to the sand and coral dotting the bottom of the bay below, and she smiled as she looked back at Lauren. “Okay,” she said as she lifted her arms over her head and dove off the side.
“Damn,” Lauren murmured as she watched Grey’s body arc smoothly through the air, her natural athleticism on display as shesliced into the water, her body in perfect alignment from her fingertips to the tips of her toes. She hurried to the edge and waited for Grey to reappear, and laughed when Grey’s head finally broke the water. “You’re nuts!”
Grey shrugged, reached behind herself, and tugged at the strings of her bikini top. “Probably.” She tossed the wet top at Lauren and grinned as it landed wetly at her feet. “Come on, Murphy! The water’s great!”
Lauren smiled and cocked her head to the side as she looked down at Grey, who was treading water a few feet away from her. “How great is it?” she asked, toeing off her shoes and flicking them into the center of the trampoline.
“Amazing.”
“Really?” Lauren teased, holding Grey’s gaze as she removed her top. She winked at her as she tossed it over her shoulder, and arched a brow challengingly as she dropped her hands to her hips.
“Is that all you got?” Grey worked her bikini bottoms down her legs and flung them up onto the boat as well.
Lauren laughed as she shucked the rest of her suit and kicked it aside. “I guess not.”
“Get down here.”
“What’s in it for me?” Lauren teased, putting an extra sway in her hips as she ambled toward the bow of the boat and prepared to jump.
Grey smiled. “Me.”
“I dunno…” Lauren tapped a contemplative finger on her chin.
“Really?” Grey laughed, sending a splash of water in Lauren’s direction.
“Okay, fine.” Lauren winked at Grey as she leapt feet-first off the side. The feeling of the warm water sliding over her skin was refreshing after the morning’s sail, and she laughed when Grey’s hands landed on her waist the moment her head broke thesurface. Before she could say anything, Grey’s lips were on hers, both gentle and demanding, and she sighed as she wrapped her arms around Grey’s neck and yielded to the kiss.
“Glad you decided to join me,” Grey murmured.
