Chapter 13
HOLLYN COULDN’T STOPthinking about waking up in Kai’s arms. For the first time in a long time, she’d felt safe. Maybe it had been the way his arm had cradled her back, and his hand had rested on her hip, but the intimate touch had made her heartbeat pick up speed like she was going at a hard cardio workout at the gym. She’d liked the way it felt.
So much so that all she could think about as she ran behind him up the stairs was that electric moment when she could have sworn that he was going to kiss her.
She’d wanted him to. What kind of woman was she? She’d only just met him, hired him to fly her to an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and she was ready to jump into bed with him.
No! Not jump into bed. It would have been just a kiss. Of course, it would have been her first kiss. And, oh, how she’d wanted it to be her first kiss.
She shook her head to try to rid herself of such petty thoughts. They were trying to escape so that they could save themselves and finish what they started, and all she could think about was how she was twenty-eight and never been kissed.
To be honest, it was kind of hard to kiss a man if you couldn’t actually speak to him. The one time she’d tried, he’d ended up completely mesmerized by her voice and wouldn’t stop bringing her Starbucks orders until she had twenty grande caramel macchiatos in a span of one hour that she clearly couldn’t drink. Just because she’d said that she could really go for one right now. Thank goodness she hadn’t said she’d kill for one. She didn’t even want to think about what might have happened then.
She’d finally told him to forget he’d ever met her, and she’d quickly run away. It hadn’t been one of her finer moments. But she’d learned that even when she was simply talking, her voice could work its magic on some men.
Even now, she had to wonder if Kai had actually been affected by her singing on the plane.
Maybe he hadn’t really wanted to kiss her.
Had she said something to make him want to please her? She didn’t remember saying a word, but what if her abilities had evolved so that some men could simply sense her desires and fulfill them before she even uttered a syllable? Such a scary thought.
Kai stopped at the top of the stairs and held up a hand for them to wait. Hollyn could feel the sea breeze floating in through the open portal, and she sighed in relief at the cooling effect. She hadn’t realized just how hot it had been on the lower decks of the ship. She just hoped they never had to go back into the belly of a sailing vessel anytime soon.
With a wave of his hand, Kai moved onto deck slowly, and Hollyn and Bertie followed.
They slipped across the deck, sticking to the shadows when they could until they’d made it to the foredeck, where the dinghy that had brought them aboard rested under a large, white tarp.
As they slipped up beside it, Hollyn whispered, “Where are the controls?”
Kai looked around and spotted a small control panel on a pedestal near the edge of the deck. He nodded in that direction and began unfastening the tarp so that he could pull it off.
Hollyn helped him as she looked around for Bertie. When she spotted her, she asked, “Bertie, do you think you could figure out how to work the controls?”
Kai stopped for a moment and looked at her like she’d just asked a seagull to build an exact replica of the Taj Majel. “What? Bertie’s a smart bird.”
He shook his head and continued working until the last snap came undone and the tarp flew off with a gusty breeze. It caught on a stack of containers near the bow of the ship.
“Power it up, pigeon.”
Hollyn knew Bertie was not fond of Kai’s sense of humor, but she had to admit, it made her smile just a little. Bertie needed someone to tease her occasionally. The poor thing never really had any fun. She was far too busy watching out for Hollyn all the time.
Just as Bertie raised her feathered wing to push the large, red button that Hollyn assumed started the wench that would lift the dinghy off of the deck and lower it into the water, a round, blinding spotlight blasted on and shone down on the trio on the deck from high above them.
A booming laugh floated down to the deck as the captain clicked the speaker system and said, “Did you really believe it would be that easy to get away?”
Out of the shadows, crewmen slinked forward, surrounding them. One grabbed Bertie and, fight as she might, was able to subdue her quickly.
Kai rocked back and forth from one leg to the next, his hands raised, ready to defend them, and Hollyn knew what she was going to have to do.
But as the first couple crewmen moved in, and Kai threw quick punches in succession to knock them both backward on their asses, the seas began to lift the boat a little higher as the waves began to build.
A couple more crewmen approached, and Kai made quick work of them with a high kick and a roundhouse that whipped one’s chin up to point at the inky black sky and the other’s head to the side to watch the ship dip leeward before righting itself with a slosh of water over the side. The men seemed to wise up and began to attack in packs as Kai continued to fight them off. Yet, now, a rivulet of blood was running from his nose, and his lip was a little swollen. Hollyn knew he wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer.
