by Vivian Wood
He nods slowly, not breaking eye contact. “Yes. But I’ve been fooled by this feeling before.”
I feel around for his hand, then squeeze it tightly. “You’re going to have to make a leap. Call it faith, if you want. But to get something so rewarding, you have to take a risk.” I bite my lip. “You have to trust me. Do you think you can do that?”
Gabe takes a breath, then squeezes my hand back. “Okay, Luna. I will. I’ll trust you.”
Dropping his hand, I wrap both my arms around his neck and kiss him passionately.
He’s stubborn and distrustful, hard-headed and skeptical of even the most loyal people in his life.
But now, today?
He’s mine.
Gabe scoops me up and walks back to the bed, falling onto it with me still in his arms. We make love for what I think might be the first time…
He takes his time, kisses every inch of my body, sips from my sultry moans, drives his body into mine until we both shatter, so high on each other that we might never come down.
30
Gabe
It’s tough to think about the regatta, even as I stand on the yacht slip, double checking everything. I stand on my tiptoes and try to count the tie downs on this side of the boat.
But my mind is with Luna. I turn and look for her for the hundredth time this morning. In the regatta crowd, she blends in seamlessly. But I see her at the last moment before I turn my head.
Wearing an airy white dress, with her hair braided in a delicate twist, she looks every inch the goddess that she is. My stomach lurches a little when I see her.
I spin back around. It’s no wonder I’m fucking distracted today. I just… I’ve worked so hard to get this moment, this chance.
If I can just focus for a few hours it will all be worth it.
Fletcher Montgomery comes strolling up the dock toward me, hands stuck in his pockets, a stupid shit eating grin on his face. His hair is slicked back, his white polo still bearing iron marks. Instantly, I want to knock those expensive sunglasses off his stupid smirking face.
He barks a laugh when he looks up at my yacht. “This is what you’re competing with today? Pathetic.”
“Get the fuck away from here, Fletcher. Shouldn’t you be worried about your own yacht?”
He gives me a pitying look. “Are you serious? I have the best equipment that money can buy. I don’t have to worry about anything, frankly.”
I grit my teeth, moving away. “And yet… you’re down here. Why is that, Fletch? Is it because you can guess that Malkia has the race course route in the pilothouse at this very moment?”
His eyes tighten, his smile slips a bit. “No.”
Shaking my head, I head toward the gangplank. “May the best yacht win, you fucking piece of shit.”
He starts walking backward. “That language really just serves to remind me and everyone else of how we’re all leagues ahead of you. See you at the finish line!”
I glare at him, hoping the heel of his boat shoe will catch the rough wood of the dock and he’ll trip. But he just turns and runs off down the dock, leaving me alone to mutter to myself.
“Gabriel!” Mal shouts from the pilothouse door. “Oh my god. Gabriel!”
Climbing about, I make it up to the pilothouse in record time. “What?”
Mal looks distinctly green around the gills. “I feel horrible. I think I had some bad sushi last night.”
I wrinkle my nose. “You’re not going to be sick, are you?”
She wipes sweat from her brow. “I don’t think I can race, Gabe. I should definitely…” She pauses, holding up a finger. I cut her off.
“Get off the friggin boat, Mal. Get some fluids too.” As she catapults herself down the steps, I follow her out. What am I going to do without a co-pilot? I can steer all right, but Mal plays an essential part in navigating.
Plus, is a one person team even allowed?
“Call Luna!” Mal shouts as she exits the boat. Two seconds later, I hear Mal gag before she hauls her ass up the docks.
Fuck. I guess Luna is my best shot. I text her explaining what just happened and hope for the best. Three minutes later, I watch her running down the docks toward my yacht at a breakneck pace.
She climbs on board, a little breathless. She lifts her doctor’s bag. “I’m here! Where’s Mal?”
I shake my head. “Gone. I need you to navigate the race.”
She looks confused. “What now?”
“Come on. I need you to plug numbers into the digital GPS system.” I hold out my hand, waiting. Luna looks at me with wide eyes, fitting her smaller hand into mine.
“Okay,” she says, smiling tentatively.
“Alright. It’s almost race time. So here is the map…” I hand her the big piece of paper. Then I tap the GPS screen and the joystick beneath it. “And this is the place where you plug in the coordinates. Does that make sense?”
Her brow furrows as she bends down to jiggle the joystick. “Ah. Okay.” She studies the map briefly. Thank god that Malkia annotated her map with all kinds of information.
I clear my throat after a minute. “Do you have the first set of coordinates plugged in?”
She turns to me with a sly smile. “Aye aye, captain.”
“I’m trusting you, Luna. You navigate, I sail the fucking boat.”
She gives me the biggest, most hopeful smile. “Sounds like a plan.”
I start the engine and raise the anchor. “Ready?”
Luna nods, hanging out to my right. “Whenever you are.”
I blow out a breath. “I’m ready.”
Pulling the yacht out of the slip, I join twelve other boats who are heading out to the starting line. I don’t recognize the people who are crewing the yacht to my left, but Fletcher is on my right. He gives me that same shit eating grin, the one that makes me wish I was just a little less civilized. I would gladly trounce him.
When I see the look on Luna’s face as she sees Fletcher though… I scowl.
“How do you know Fletcher?” I ask.
“Who, him?” she asks, her gaze flitting back to me. She still looks like she’s just seen a ghost. “Dr. Montgomery teaches at my school.”
I glare at Fletcher. “Ugh. I didn’t even realize he was a doctor, but of course he is. He’s a fucking bag of dicks.”
“Forget him,” Luna says, moving in front of the window that faces Fletcher’s yacht. “Focus up, Gabriel.”
I look straight forward, clenching my jaw. “Yeah, all right.”
An amplified voice starts counting down from ten. I grip the wheel, readying the speed lever. As soon as the voice says go, I ram the lever up, watching my competition on both sides jump forward.
Luna grips the window bar and looks forward, her eyes prowling keenly. Right away, some of the yachts peel off and go left. I stay the course, which should take me about twenty miles straight ahead.
Annoyingly, I notice that Fletcher doesn’t go left. He guns his engine, taking the lead.
But that’s fine… after all, the race is not won by horsepower alone. We motor in hushed silence for about twenty minutes, passing two checkpoints. But Fletcher is like a bad case of food poisoning, I just can’t shake him no matter what I try.
Trailing Fletcher, I shift my gaze to Luna. “I think we’re going to have to shake things up.”
She wiggles her eyebrows. “I was just thinking that. I am trying to triangulate a course now based on us touching the third point and getting a piece of gold there…” She stares down at the map. “That’s what happens, right? And then we need to go somewhere different than Fletcher’s yacht. The difficulty is that we don’t know which way he’ll go.”
That gives me some pause. I can already see the floating island up ahead, where we will score our first loot. I grimace.
“I’m willing to bet Fletcher’s plan depends on where we go.”
She takes a breath, letting it out slowly. “Can this boat go faster than his?”
I giv
e her side eye. “Maybe in open water? Maybe.”
“So what we’ve definitely got on our side is you as captain, and the fact that you’re so much more experienced than Fletcher.”
I nod, focusing on the touchpoint ahead. “Yep.”
Luna considers everything for a moment, then asks a question. “What if we just steer this boat through a narrow channel? One that’s too treacherous for Fletcher to follow us in?”
I frown a little. “Like where?”
“Look.” She holds up the map pointing to a spot. “Deception Pass. If we squeeze through here before the next stop, we’ll shave off plenty of time and lose Fletcher altogether.”
“Oh, man… Deception Pass is tricky.” I suck on my lower lip, thinking hard. Obviously, we want to win, but I can’t afford to end up at the bottom of the sea if something goes wrong… can I?
Just ahead, Fletcher scoops up a piece of gold from atop a buoy. He looks back at me, engine idling, and flips me the bird.
That settles it. I glare at the pile of gold doubloons, easing down on the engine. “We’re doing it.”
“Yes!” Luna cheers.
I grab a doubloon from the pile, then race back up to the boat’s navigation center. Throwing the boat into drive, I head straight for Deception Pass. I can see Fletcher trailing behind our yacht, probably confused. But I just urge the boat onward, seemingly straight toward a solid land mass.
As I edge up toward the shore, I see the inlet. Raising my eyebrows at Luna, I make a wish. “Here goes nothing.”
Slowing the boat’s engine, I keep to the middle as best I can. Luna stands right beside me, biting her lip. “This part seems like the shores are super close on both sides.”
“Yeah.” I blow out a slow breath. “If I stay right here in the middle…”
That’s the moment that the yacht just brushes the bottom on the right side, making a loud, low sound. Luna looks completely freaked out. If I’m honest, I am feeling the same way, I just have years of practice keeping calm.
Luna grabs the hem of my shirt, her eyes wide.
“We’re okay,” I tell her. “We’re okay. We just have to make it through this part and we’re home free.”
“I believe in you,” she says. She utters it automatically, without hesitation or thought. But it warms me to my very core. To have someone who believes so wholly in me… I mean, her very life could be at risk.
It fills some void I have, deep down inside. God, I think I might be in love with her.
Just as that pops into my head I hear the scraping sound again. Correcting the boat with a gentle touch is an effort. It’s hard to focus on sailing when all I want to do is kiss her…
But eventually, we make it past Deception Pass and into easier to sail through waters. Luna holds onto my shirt for the rest of the race, helping me cross the finish line a good five minutes before anyone else.
I don’t even stick around to see the crushed look on Fletcher Montgomery’s face… Instead, I pull my yacht into the first slip available and then kiss Luna on the lips for a solid two minutes.
“I knew you could do it,” she whispers.
“I fucking love you,” I say, snarling a hand in her hair.
She beams up at me like I’m the only thing in the entire world… and I hold her close, feeling like I won way more than the regatta.
31
Luna
I walk up the dock toward the yacht club, hand in hand with Gabe. I’m riding right now. Feeling the endorphin rush of our win plus the crazy, head over heels, shout it from the rooftops kind of love for Gabe…
Love that is reciprocated. Before today, I barely dared to whisper the word in my head.
But then Gabe, staid and buttoned up Gabe, said it to me…
And my heart soared.
He squeezes my hand as we reach the first people outside of the yacht club. They are all standing around and drinking champagne in their formal attire, looking very out of place on this blustery late summer morning.
“Congratulations!” a man says, raising his glass. “You beat the other yachts by quite some time, it seems. It looks like you’re the best yacht by a mile.”
Gabe gives the group a small smile. He grips my hand. “Thanks.”
“Come on inside,” a woman says. “We are throwing a little party to celebrate and you two are now the guests of honor.”
Buoyed along on a wave of good feelings, I follow Gabe up the steps and into the club. I haven’t been here before but it is exactly what I thought a yacht club would look like inside; heavy maple paneling on the walls, a nautical theme to the wall hangings. We are ushered into the portion of the club that serves as a restaurant and seated at a round plush booth. Several people slide in the booth around us, boxing us in.
“Here, let me get you two a glass of champagne,” an older blonde woman says, snapping her fingers at the waitress. The woman wears a white dress with a pink bolo jacket, and her nails and hair are so fake. I cringe a little at her treatment of the staff, but I don’t make a fuss. It’s not my place and it isn’t the time.
As the waitress comes over with two glasses of champagne, the blonde woman smiles. “I’m Veronica. This is Charles,” she points to an older man in a gray suit jacket. “And Melanie, and Antony.” The redheaded lady and young man in all black bob their heads in greeting. “We’re all glad to meet you, dear. What was the name of your yacht?”
Gabe shifts in his seat and clears his throat. “The Arctic Light, ma’am.”
“Oh, he calls me ma’am!” Veronica says with a chuckle. “So polite. But please, call me Veronica. What are your names?”
“I’m Gabe. This is Luna,” he rumbles, nodding his head to me. Underneath the table, Gabe puts his hand on my knee.
“Did you have a company you were racing for, young man?” asks Charles.
Gabe tenses, but I slip my hand under the table and cover his hand where it rest on my knee. He looks at me gratefully for a second.
“Aurora Borealis Charters,” he supplies.
Charles nods. “Mhm. A newer company, then?”
The tension in Gabe seems to increase. He frowns. “No. We’ve been a family owned and operated business for over thirty years.”
“Is that right?” Charles asks.
Before Gabe gets a chance to answer, Dr. Montgomery strolls in the yacht club’s restaurant, his gaze sweeping the entire place. He finds me and Gabe and then smiles cruelly.
I can feel all the blood drain from my face. God, how did I forget that he would be here?
Gabe stiffens as he sees Dr. Montgomery approaching. He slides me a look, but I’m paralyzed where I sit.
I grip his hand under the table and his expression darkens even further.
Please god. Please just let Dr. Montgomery not tell Gabe about my intent to betray him. I can’t breathe as Dr. Montgomery comes up to our table, a curious smile on his face.
“Are these the winners of our little yacht race?” he asks.
The blonde gives him an arched brow. “Fletcher, you should meet Gabe and…” She pauses. “I’m sorry, dear. What was your name again?”
My lips are pressed into a firm line. Before I can speak, Dr. Montgomery smiles.
“Oh, Luna and I know each other pretty intimately.”
My face heats and my mouth opens as Gabe’s eyes find my face. “Dr. Montgomery works at the University of Washington. I’m one of the med students under his purview.”
It comes out rushed, making me sound childish. Dr. Montgomery’s smile widens.
“Do you mind if I have a seat?” he asks.
“Sure,” Veronica says, waving a hand like a queen. “Sit, sit.”
Gabe holds my hand so tightly that I almost cringe. “We have to go soon,” he says.
“Oh, sit and enjoy some champagne,” Charles says, chuckling. “We have to get to know the man who is going to be sailing us around on his yacht.”
Dr. Montgomery sits, looking between me and Gabe. “You two look coz
y.”
Gabe’s eyes narrow to slits. I can practically feel his need to say something nasty to Dr. Montgomery vibrating within him. “What do you want, Fletcher?”
Instead of answering Gabe’s question, Dr. Montgomery waves the waitress down. “I need a glass of champagne. You don’t mind, do you Gabe?”
As the waitress brings another flute of wine over, Veronica makes a toast. “To the Harbor Pointe Yacht Club! And to our winners. May we get to know you and then love you.”
She raises her glass a little too suddenly and splashes some over the rim, then giggles. I release a silent sigh as everyone cheers her, making direct eye contact with Dr. Montgomery.
He sips his champagne, a little smile on his lips. I start to sweat. Gabe is staring daggers at him, but it just seems to roll right off him like water off a duck’s back.
“You know, Gabe,” Dr. Montgomery says, not taking his eyes off of me. “When I first met Luna here, I asked her for a favor.”
My heartbeat begins to race. I claw at Gabe’s hand. “I need to get up!” I blurt out. “I have to go!”
Gabe casts a suspicious look at me, but Charles and Melanie are already moving out of the way. Gabe scoots out of the booth and offers me a hand up. I take him hand, looking at his with wide, nervous eyes.
“Come with me,” I say softly.
His brows descend and his forehead creases. “What?”
He slides a look sideways to Dr. Montgomery, then scowls. I tug on his hand.
“Please?” I ask.
He looks back and me, then shakes his head. “I’m good here.”
Dr. Montgomery stands up with a smirk on his lips. “I think it would be for the best if the three of us stepped outside for a moment. We don’t want to cause a scene, do we?”
I glare at him. Gabe has a look on his face that is a mix of suspicion and hatred. “Let’s go.”
Gabe leads the way with me right on his heels. Dr. Montgomery follows, his expression so clearly self-satisfied I can barely look at him. Gabe pushes open a balcony door, letting us out onto the yacht club’s stately balcony. It looks out over the sea and because today is so blustery, no one else is out here.
