“Are those—”
“Diamonds,” Cassian confirmed. “Forty-seven of them.”
“Jesus.”
Cassian took hold of James’s suit jacket.
“Couldn’t let this sink with the ship,” Cassian said, shoving it into the inner pocket of James’s jacket. “Not now that we were forced to come here for the blankets regardless.”
“Are you sure that you wantmeto be the one to hold onto it?”
“Of course. Why shouldn’t my new most important possession protect my previously most important possession?” Cassian said with a light chuckle. “Besides, it isn’t as though I can reach into my own breast pocket so easily.”
Precisely the moment that the last sentence escaped Cassian’s lips, his face fell as a realization struck him. James’s face fell, too.
“Lifebelt,” James blurted out before he began frantically patting his chest. “I forgot somehow. I forgot that I never found one for myself. Oh, God, I need a lifebelt!”
Cassian poked his head inside the closet and looked around. No lifebelts. Probably Ethel and John had taken them. Or else one of the other stewards.
“We’ll find you one,” Cassian said before pushing himself to stand. “Let’s go.”
After scooping up the piles of blankets, Cassian and James left the room. They checked one of the other nearby staterooms but had no luck. Then, Cassian remembered that since Ethel and John had taken the lifebelts fromhisroom, their rooms still ought to have some. Together, they first checked John’s room and then Ethel’s. Nothing.
When Cassian faced James to see his reaction, his heart about cracked in two. James’s face was weary-worn, his eyes fearful andfilled with sorrow. Oh, the poor man looked so broken and frightened. Immediately, Cassian flung his blankets onto Ethel’s bed, and then he began untying his lifebelt.
“What are you doing?!” James shrieked. “You can’t give me yours!”
“I’ll be fine,” Cassian assured him. “You’ve seen me swim. I may as well be a participant in those Olympic Games.”
James huffed a light, tired laugh.
“You know I love your confidence, Cassian, but sometimes your conceit still surprises me,” James said. “It’s a freezing cold ocean, not a heated swimming bath.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Cassian pulled his lifebelt over his head and put it on James. He reached behind the man to take hold of the ties and then hurriedly began to knot them. “I promised you once that I’d keep you safe, and that’s exactly what I intend to do. We’ll make it out of this, James. Both of us.” He secured the last tie. “There.” Cassian began to pull away but then realized something else. Something perhaps equally as important. “Hold on a moment. I forgot something.”
Before James could reply, Cassian took hold of the loose fabric closest to the shoulders of James’s lifebelt and pulled him in for a fierce, bruising kiss. James let out the softest, sweetest whimper as their lips moved together, and when they parted, both of them breathless, Cassian nuzzled James’s nose.
“I love you, James. And I want to spend my life with you. Only you. Only and always.”
James let out a shaky breath and smiled.
“Only and always,” he echoed.
They shared one more fast kiss, and then Cassian turned to retrieve the blankets from the bed. He handed half of them to James. Afterward, they rushed back to the boat deck, running as fast as they could.
When they arrived, Cassian found John and Ethel still waiting for a lifeboat. It looked as though the officers were nearly finished filling the second one with women and children who had been waiting nearby, while the first boat in the area had already been lowered.
Ethel, of course, must have refused to board the second one without John.
“Cassian, we still haven’t been able to—” Ethel began to say.
“I can see that!” Cassian clipped.
Nearby, the officers were helping a woman into a lifeboat, coaxing her in with gentle, reassuring words, though their efforts to comfort her seemed futile. No matter what they said, her eyes remained wide and wild, and her body continued to shake, probably not only from the cold, but from fear as well.
“Blankets! We need blankets here!” one of the officers called out.
Cassian started over to help. He haphazardly threw the pile over to the passengers on board, his simmering fear and frustration keeping him from being more civil about it.
