It had been a one-night stand, they’d both agreed. Strangers, never to meet again. A game played well. Until now. Claire sucked in air as she walked towards the group, trying to look as nonchalant as anyone could with a high heart rate and embarrassment whipping through her at sixty knots.
Ethan. Was this for real?
In the fresh morning light he looked even more gorgeous than he had in the dim bar lighting and elevator shadows. She didn’t know his full name or what he did for a living, but she knew how he looked in the throes of an orgasm. She knew what kept him awake at night...or at least she could guess after what little information he’d given her under duress. She knew how he kissed, how he held on tight and how easily he could let go. And she knew that was just the warning she needed to heed.
His eyes narrowed ever so slightly as he admitted to the group that they knew each other, and that small frown was enough for her to know he wanted to forget last night as much as she did. But now that they were face to face and doomed to spend the next few weeks together, she wasn’t sure forgetting him was going to be possible.
‘It’s a small world,’ she mumbled to her new boss Chase, and prayed the heat rising from her chest wouldn’t materialise as a full-body blush. Unfortunately it did.
Luckily, one of the women handed her a bottle of water and a smile and made space to stand next to her in the semi-circle to hear the safety briefing.
‘Thanks for the water. I’m Claire,’ she whispered as they walked over to see how the lifeboats were released.
‘Kristina.’ The woman smiled and stuck out her hand. ‘Hello.’
Claire shook. ‘First-timer too?’
‘Yes.’ Kristina looked so confident it was hard to imagine this was all new to her. ‘But at least you know someone here.’ She nodded towards Ethan. ‘That’s got to make things easier.’
‘Oh. I don’t really know him. We’ve only just met. I mean...last night. We were at the same hotel. We bumped into each other in the bar.’ Claire winced. Now she was just gibbering and making everything seem worse.
But Kristina smiled. ‘He seems nice anyway.’
‘Nice. Yes.’ ‘Nice’ wasn’t necessarily the word she’d use. Sexy. Orgasmic... She bit the smile from her mouth. ‘I don’t know him that well.’
‘I think we’ll all know each other far too well by the end of this mission.’
‘Oh? What kind of a mission is this exactly? What do you know that I don’t?’ Claire laughed, wondering what she’d signed up for.
‘I’m ex-military,’ Kristina explained. ‘Living in close quarters like this for weeks on end can get claustrophobic. We’ll probably all have cabin fever by week four.’
Great. Stuck on a ship with a guy who made her hot and want to know the answers to too many questions with no reprieve. Claire chanced a look over at Ethan, who was chatting and laughing with one of the team, and she wondered how the hell he’d come to be here when his favoured place was Africa and he appeared to be more comfortable outdoors than in the cramped conditions they had on board. No wonder, given what he’d told her about his past last night. How did a person even come back from a life-threatening situation like that?
She watched as he bristled and his back snapped straight when Chase called for everyone’s attention. More questions formed in her head. Why the sharp reaction to the SARCO? Did Ethan not like playing second fiddle to another man? Did he want to call the shots?
And why was she interested? He was not her business. She’d come here to find out who she was and to take the lead in her life for the first time in years. Doing her thing, for herself, by herself. Like she had last night when she’d had sex with a man because she’d wanted to, and she’d liked the way putting her own needs first had made her feel. She’d liked the way Ethan had made her feel too. Which wasn’t helping her right now.
Not wanting to spend any more time thinking about him she refocused on Chase, who was reading from a clipboard giving everyone their duties for the morning. ‘We have a specific area we’re allowed to patrol between here and as far south as Libyan territorial waters and we’re heading out there today. We patrol and we wait. We listen to reports from other ships, the coastguard or aircraft sightings. We respond. Sometimes it takes days to hear of something or someone needing help, sometimes it’s only a matter of hours before we get alerted to a raft or a boat in trouble.
‘In the meantime, we keep busy. I’ve left an inventory in each of the medical rooms and everything should be in order, but we do daily checks so we can radio for more supplies if we need them. Kristina, can you go with Freja and check the meds? Claire and Ethan, I need you to check the surgical room, make sure the oxygen cylinders and ECG machine are working, the resus trolleys are stocked and acquaint yourselves with the layout. When there’s a squall things can move about and we all need to know exactly where the emergency equipment is so we can put our hands on it when we need to.’
Brilliant. If Ethan had been allocated to work in the clinic area then he must be a medic of some sort. Now she was going to spend awkward one-to-one time with him, and probably work closely in a team. But if he registered that inconvenient fact he didn’t give anything away; he didn’t meet her eye when he heard their names mentioned together, no partners-in-mischief wink.
Her mouth suddenly dry, she followed his taut back and long hurried strides across the deck, through the medical suite and into the surgical area, apparently also known as the operating theatre, resus, birthing suite, morgue or whatever it needed to be as required.
He held the door open, let her go in first then closed it behind them. Then he turned to look at her, those blue eyes wide with shock. He sighed heavily as if he’d been holding his breath since the moment she’d rushed onto the deck. ‘Claire? This is surreal.’
It wasn’t accusatory, he just sounded confused, amazed, maybe a little freaked, as she was. It was one thing to have a one-night stand but something altogether different when that one-night stand turned into a six-week co-habitation on a mission bound to be fraught with emotion for the people whose lives they were saving. There wasn’t space for anything personal. She looked at him and hoped being with him twenty-four hours a day for too many weeks would stop the flutter in her belly she got just by looking at him. ‘Doctor? Paramedic? Nurse? Why are you here, Ethan?’
‘Paediatrician. You?’
‘Nurse.’ So things were going to get cosy here, at least in geography if nothing else. ‘How long are you here for?’
‘Six weeks.’ His eyebrows rose in question. You?
‘Nine.’ At least she’d have some time without him when she’d be able to breathe. ‘So, when I said I was running away to sea, you didn’t think about casually mentioning you were too?’
‘Believe me, there was no running on my part.’ He ran a hand through that lovely sand-coloured hair that she imagined she could still feel under her fingertips, as if he’d been somehow branded onto her memory—touch, scent, taste. ‘If I remember rightly, Claire, you didn’t want to discuss real life. Besides, Marseille is one of the biggest ports in France, you could have been going anywhere...chasing racing drivers.’
‘That was a joke. I’m not chasing anyone. The opposite, in fact.’
‘I know, you made that very clear. But I imagined you on some fancy super-yacht sailing around the Med on holiday. Or...’ He shrugged and there was a hint of a smile. ‘Okay, to be honest, I didn’t imagine you anywhere other than in that lift. I much prefer reality to games and dreams.’
His eyes settled on her mouth and she saw the flare of interest and felt it resonate deep in her belly. The attraction was still hot and intense and very inconvenient given this was her fresh start. ‘Not that I need to explain, but I was badly hurt by my cheating ex, my self-esteem fell below zero and I needed to feel strong again. Last night I did. I took control and did what I wanted and I’m not ashamed of that.’
<
br /> He shook his head, interest morphing into concern. ‘I don’t want you to feel ashamed, not at all. We were consenting adults and last night was amazing. Trust me, I’d much rather be there doing that than be here doing this. I’m just surprised to see you.’
‘I can tell. You didn’t exactly look thrilled when I walked onto the deck.’
‘I have a feeling things are going to get busy and complicated and probably messy on this ship. And once the six weeks is up I’m heading straight back to Africa.’ He turned and busied himself with checking the valves on the oxygen cylinders and writing things down on the clipboard Chase had given him. ‘I don’t think we should take things any further.’
‘I wasn’t going to suggest we did.’ She spoke to his back, glad that he couldn’t see the two hot spots spreading over her cheeks. ‘I know how one-night stands work, Ethan. We were both very upfront about what we wanted yesterday, I’m not about to hold you to anything. Relax, you don’t have to warn me off.’
He turned to look at her, his expression troubled. ‘I’m explaining, not warning.’
‘You’re doing both.’ There was a crushing feeling in her chest that told her she felt a little hurt that he was flipping her off like this, which was weird because she had thought about saying the same thing. She should have been relieved. The last thing she needed was emotion involved in all of this and she had a feeling there’d be emotion aplenty if she got to know Ethan more.
His shut-down in the lift halfway through a story about being crushed under a building demanded questions and they required answers, as did his love affair with Africa, but then there would be more connection and she’d be falling for him and before she knew it she’d be back at square one, having her heart broken by someone who couldn’t love her back. ‘Don’t worry, I’m cool with drawing a line under last night and I have no desire to step over it.’
Liar. Her head had it all sorted, she just had to get the memo to the rest of her body.
He nodded. ‘Good, because I don’t want there to be anything awkward while we’re here.’
‘Not from me.’ She raised her palms.
His shoulders relaxed a little and he smiled. ‘Or me. Friends, then?’
‘Yes. I think we could both do with a friend in a place like this.’ She didn’t want to admit that her body strained for more than that.
His smile grew. ‘And I’m glad I added a little of the excitement you’re looking for.’
‘Oh, believe me, you did.’ Heat rushed over her skin at the memory of his hands and his mouth and how he had felt inside her. Keeping on the right side of the line was going to be a damned sight harder with those memories flitting back every time she set eyes on him.
The door swung open, interrupting her thoughts. Ethan snapped upright and his smile fell as he looked towards the door. Chase breezed in and as he caught Ethan’s eye his jaw tensed.
What was it with these two? They were like two stags locking horns.
‘We need everyone on deck,’ Chase said. ‘Moonbird has radioed a sighting of an overloaded vessel in distress eight nautical miles south-south-west. First visuals estimate around fifteen people on board, no obvious life jackets, thick smoke coming from one side of the boat.’
Her heart kicked up a gear. This was why she was here—to save lives, not to moon over out-of-reach men or analyse relationships that were none of her business. ‘Sure, Chase. We’ll finish this up later.’
‘Wind’s getting gnarly, it could be a bumpy ride. Make sure you grab your life jackets.’ Chase nodded and just before he left he added, ‘We have crew who are experienced in retrieval. We do an assessment of each person as they come on board. There’s a translator who documents everything with you. You’ll soon get to grips with it all.’
As they followed him out Ethan turned to Claire and frowned. ‘Moonbird?’
‘One of the humanitarian planes that patrols the area. Whoa.’ The boat lurched forward and she grabbed onto the rope that made walking around the deck much easier and safer.
‘How do you know that?’ Ethan was at her shoulder, one hand at her hip making sure she didn’t fall.
Friends do that, she reminded herself. ‘I did my research. When I applied I treated it like an exam—studied, got to know the subject inside out, learnt all the nautical terminology. Didn’t you prepare?’
‘I only agreed to come at the last minute. They were desperate.’ The way he said the last word made it sound as if he had a bad taste in his mouth. Or maybe it was because the boat pitched again, forcing him to grab the rope too. ‘I do have a file they emailed me but I haven’t read it all yet. Okay, stay there. This is getting hairy.’ He ran to the life jacket stores and brought two bright orange ones back. He handed one to her and tugged one over his head. If she wasn’t mistaken he was looking about as green as she felt.
She fastened the jacket round her waist. ‘Is it bad form to throw up when you’re in the middle of a rescue attempt?’
‘I would say so.’ He laughed, pulled something from his pocket and held it out to her. ‘Mints from the flight. Might help.’
‘Thanks.’ But he wasn’t looking at her any more. His gaze had landed on Chase, standing on the bridge with binoculars at his eyes, and he was back to looking troubled again. ‘Ethan, have you and Chase worked together before?’
‘No.’ He frowned. ‘Why?’
‘You both seem a little, er...tense around each other. Is that the alpha male thing playing out?’
‘I barely know the guy.’ He shrugged as he held the rope more tightly, his knuckles white. ‘I’m sure he’s excellent at his job.’
‘That doesn’t explain anything.’
Spray washed over starboard side, making the wooden deck slippery, and she tried to get purchase with her trainers. Her stomach felt as if it was being turned inside out. ‘How long does it take to travel eight nautical miles?’
‘Don’t ask me. You want to go sit down somewhere?’
‘Yes, but I’m not going to.’ Nausea rippled through her, from her stomach to her head. She did not want to throw up in front of him, or anyone else, for that matter. ‘I think we must be sailing into last night’s storm. Eugh.’
As if he could read her mind, he briefly tipped her chin up and smiled. ‘Apparently they have meds. Do you want me to get some?’
She shook herself away from his hands and checked to see if anyone had been watching this interaction. The last thing they needed was for people to think there was something going on between them, or be made to feel awkward around them. But they were hidden by the life rafts. Alone. Her heart tripped. Last night being alone with him had felt like heaven, now it felt dangerous and illicit. ‘No. I’ll be fine. But thanks anyway.’
‘You don’t have to fight it. What use will you be if you feel ill?’ He smiled softly. ‘Can I tell you a secret?’
‘Oh? Okay.’ She was thrown back to the lift when she’d leaned against him, all alcohol-fuelled bravado, and told him she was scared. The first touch of his skin against hers had sent tingles through her body. The scent of him as he’d wrapped her close had driven her crazy with lust. More tingles zipped through her now. It would be too easy to reach for him but she couldn’t. Just couldn’t.
He gripped the rope with both hands as the ship tipped hard to port. ‘I’m pretty sure I’m going to throw up any minute too if I don’t have a tablet. Wait here.’
‘That’s your secret?’ Laughing, she watched him slide across the deck as the ship crashed over a huge wave, and wished he wouldn’t be quite so nice to her. Being a friend was all well and good, but not when your body wanted to hurl itself right over that line.
CHAPTER FOUR
WAS THIS THE karma he’d been waiting sixteen years for? Slip-sliding on a creaky ship in close proximity to the man who’d chosen to save him instead of someone more worthy. And Claire. And the damn attra
ction to her that he couldn’t act on either here or when they were back on solid ground.
If he were a religious man he’d have thought it was some kind of a test. One he was most likely to fail if Claire stayed on his radar. He tried to hurry back to her but spray showered him and cold seeped through his bones as he fought to keep upright and moving forward. As he peered across the bow he saw Chase watching him inch his way back towards Claire. Ethan raised a hand. All good.
Chase nodded then turned away.
If the tension between them was obvious to Claire then it was going to be obvious to everyone else. It wasn’t his intention to make any of the team feel uncomfortable, so he’d have to find time to speak to Chase and blow through the uneasy connection that had brought them to this point.
But not today. He barely had time to hand a strip of pills to Claire when the ship’s engines quieted and someone shouted for the rescue raft. Someone else stumbled past, dragging a box of life jackets. Two people lowered the boat landing for the rib to attach to when it came back with rescued passengers.
‘Okay?’ he asked Claire.
‘I will be.’ She nodded, took the tablets with a gulp of the bottled water she’d been gripping since he’d first seen her that morning. At one point he’d had a feeling she might hit him with it.
Ignoring the almost overwhelming nausea, he dredged up a smile. ‘Come on, then, let’s really get this adventure started.’
From where he was standing he could see crew members, balancing precariously on turbulent rafts, setting up a human chain. He scanned forward to the sinking dinghy, which was lurching up and down in the thrashing waves and to two small and shocked-looking children at the front. They needed to be off that flimsy boat now.
What was the hold-up? As always in the early stages of any mission he felt stymied by inaction. But there were protocols they all had to follow to keep everyone safe and he knew the crew was doing its best to work as quickly as possible. But his hands were itching to do something.
Saved by Their One-Night Baby Page 5
