Amber looked at Daniel, shocked. Agreeing to this was the last thing she'd expected from him, but he walked over to another table and took the cards Minnie handed him, then began to expertly shuffle them. She sat down next to him and looked over at him, but he just continued to shuffle the cards, waiting for the men to join them.
“Change your mind?” Daniel asked.
Several hours later, they were still sitting in Minnie’s with the crowd that had gathered to watch the game. Word had spread about what was happening in the café and the room was crowded, entertainment was hard to come by out here and no one wanted to miss this. The pile of money in front of Daniel had been slowly growing larger, each hand he won depleting the pile in front of Dennis. Amber had been watching Daniel’s cards and she knew that he was only toying with him, and she wondered if he’d really take all the man’s money.
It wasn’t long before she got her answer. Dennis, desperate now that he had lost almost everything, made a huge bet which Daniel won easily. When Daniel pulled the pile of money over in front of him, Dennis looked down in front of him, got a desperate look on his face, then pulled a weathered leather pouch out of the inside pocket of his coat. “One more hand. If I win I get everything back and the boat. If you do, you can have this,” he said, slapping the pouch down on the table.
Daniel looked at the pouch with disgust. “And why would I want that?” he asked, pointing to it.
“Because it’s worth millions of dollars,” Dennis said, then when Daniel snorted, he said, “It’s a map to a ship wreck full of gold.”
Daniel actually laughed. “You really expect me to believe that?”
Dennis looked desperate. “It’s the truth, it’s been in my family for two generations and no one believed it was real, but it is. We’ve done the research, there really was a ship full of gold that sank.”
Daniel smiled indulgently. “Okay, it’s a bet.” Then he turned to the man they’d chosen to deal. “Deal the cards, if he wins he gets it all, if I do the map is mine.”
Not five minutes later, Daniel was gingerly pulling the pouch toward him. Dennis was staring at the table in shock, then he jumped up out of his chair and ran out the back door, the man with him following. The silence in the room only lasted a second after he was gone, then the crowd erupted into cheers and clapping, the people of the town only too happy to see Daniel take down one of their tormentors.
When the clamor died down, Daniel called Minnie over to the table and handed her all the cash on the table including his own. “I’d like to donate this to the town,” he said, grinning as the room erupted in cheers again.
Everyone seemed to want to talk to Daniel, so Amber excused herself and headed for the bathroom down at the end of the hallway. When she got to the door, she noticed that the back door was propped open and that she could hear voices. When she realized that it was Dennis talking, she stepped into the bathroom and peered through a crack in the door. Standing that way, she could just see him pacing around behind the restaurant, clearly deeply unhappy that he’d lost.
“Shit, shit, shit. What the hell am I going to do when Trevor gets back, he’s going to kill me,” Dennis said. “We’ve got to get that map back.”
Chapter 8
Amber sat back down next to Daniel, leaned in and whispered, “Dennis is planning to ambush us and take the map back.”
Daniel nodded his head. “I figured something like that was going to happen.”
“What are we going to do?” Amber was a little frightened and Daniel could hear it in her voice.
“We’re going to get up and walk out of here like we don’t suspect anything, they’ll probably do it at the end of the dock,” Daniel said, as calm as could be.
“Daniel, they said they were going to kill us and drop our bodies in the bay, then steal the boat. Dennis figures that by the time anyone notices that we’re missing they’ll be long gone.” Amber couldn’t keep the fear out of her voice.
“Nothing like that is going to happen, don’t worry, we’ll be fine. While I deal with them, you get to the boat, get the anchor up and start the engine. I’ll be able to buy us a few minutes, just long enough for us to get out of here.” The confidence in his voice calmed some of Amber’s fear.
They’d made it to the end of the dock when Dennis stepped out of the shadows, his buddy right behind him. But Daniel was prepared for them, and before they could even say a word, he’d dropped them both to the ground. Amber was already on the boat and pulling up the anchor when he jumped on and headed straight for the cockpit. In seconds the engine roared to life, but the anchor was taking forever to come up, giving Dennis and the other man enough time to regain their feet and start heading their way.
As soon as she saw the top of the anchor, she yelled go and the boat began to move, but Dennis pulled a pistol out of his pocket and began firing at them. “Get down!” Daniel yelled, ducking his head just as a bullet whizzed by and lodged itself in the wood behind his head.
More shots followed the first, but soon she heard Dennis screaming that they needed a boat and the sound of footsteps running down the dock. She carefully poked her head up and saw them running for their boat, then they jumped on and began pulling up the anchor. Daniel smiled, then slowed the boat down, shocking Amber.
“What are you doing?” She asked, remembering that bullet flying past his head.
“I’m luring them away from town,” he said, turning to see if they were following them yet. “Once we get away from here, we’ll lose them.”
Amber nervously watched as the men began to follow them, Dennis riding in the bow, his gun pointed at them. But as soon as they were clear of the harbor, Daniel slowly began increasing his speed, leaving the men in the boat behind. When they were far enough ahead that she could no longer see the other boat, she breathed a sigh of relief.
“What do we do now?” she asked, shivering in the dark, the night suddenly cold.
“We’ll anchor for the night like we planned, then set out for Anchorage in the morning,” Daniel said, changing direction and heading back towards the coast.
“Do you think they’ll try to follow us?” she asked, another shiver passing through her.
“I’m hoping they will. Then when we get to Anchorage the cops can take over,” Daniel said, guiding them into a small cove.
Daniel woke to the sound of Amber screaming, he was out of bed and across the hall before her last scream died out. When he burst through the door she was sitting up in bed, knees pulled up to her chest, her hands covering her eyes. She was trembling and taking deep breath after deep breath, clearly the dream had scared her badly. He rushed over to the side of the bed and sat down next to her, then pulled her into his arms and held her until the trembling stopped and her breathing had returned to normal.
“Bad dream?” he asked quietly.
Amber’s head was buried in his chest and he felt her nod. “Want to talk about it?” he asked, his voice gentle.
She took a shuddering breath then said, “In my dream that bullet didn’t miss your head,” and burst into tears.
He let her cry for a few minutes, then when her sobs began to quiet, he tilted her chin up and said, “But it didn’t. I here and I’m fine. It was just a dream.”
Amber looked into his eyes, “It seemed so real in the dream and I just kept thinking that I’d just found you and you were already gone,” she said.
Daniel’s heart soared at her words, it was the first real evidence he had that she was beginning to feel what he was. “I’m not going anywhere for a long time, I’m afraid you’re stuck with me or have you forgotten that already?”
She smiled at him through her tears and said, “I’m glad to hear that.”
He handed her a tissue from the box next to the bed, then when she’d dried her tears, he wrapped his arm around her and eased them both back against the pillows. “I’m sorry you got so scared, I didn’t think that it upset you that much,” he said, thinking that he could stay right wher
e he was all night.
“I didn’t think so either,” she said, snuggling further into his arms, then sighing contentedly.
That sigh did something to him, something that made his body suddenly come alive with desire, a throbbing in his loins that had him growing hard almost immediately. Shifting so that Amber didn’t feel it, he tried to just sit with her, but he was all too aware that all she wore was a short tee-shirt and a pair of skimpy panties. He tried to focus his mind on the trip the next day, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t seem to get past the fact that Amber was lying in his arms with hardly any clothes on.
Shifting again, he asked, “Are you feeling better?”
“Yes, I think so,” she said, then sighed again.
“Well, then I think I’ll go back to bed. We have an early morning tomorrow,” he said, knowing that there was no way he’d be able to keep his hands off her if he stayed.
Amber tensed up. “Oh, I was hoping you’d stay.”
It was Daniel’s turn to sigh. “Amber, if I stay here I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep my hands off of you. I’ve wanted you since the first time I saw you, but I don’t want to take advantage of the fact that you had a bad dream,” he said.
Finally, she looked up at him, “Do you really mean that?” she asked.
“Every word of what I said is true. Amber, I’m so attracted to you that sometimes I can’t think about anything else. I want you like I’ve never wanted a woman, but this situation we’re in makes it complicated. I don’t want either of us to get hurt. I don’t want to push you into something you’re not ready for. When it happens, I want it to be real,” Daniel said, brushing her cheek with his thumb, his eyes locked on hers.
“I’m scared too, Daniel. I didn’t expect to feel this way and it almost seems to be too good to be true, but someone told me not long ago not to worry so much about the future, to just enjoy the present,” she said, then pulled his head down and kissed him.
Daniel was so shocked he didn’t respond to the kiss at first, and for a moment Amber was afraid that she’d misunderstood, then his tongue slipped into her mouth and she stopped thinking. Almost instantly Daniel’s blood began rush through his body, Amber tasted so good, even better than he remembered. Her body was pressed up against his, soft, warm, and so very inviting, so inviting that he couldn’t help shifting position so that her entire body was pressed up against his.
Amber gasped when she felt his erection on her stomach. Then, desperate to feel his skin against her, she began to struggle out from under the blankets. When she was finally free, Daniel pulled off her t-shirt exposing her full breasts and this time it was him who gasped. He captured her mouth with his again and covered one of her breasts with his large hand, pleased when he discovered that it fit perfectly and that the nipple was stiff and hard in his palm.
He teased the hard peak with his fingers, then unable to resist trailed his mouth down her neck, across her chest and took it in his mouth, making Amber moan with pleasure. When Daniel’s mouth closed over the sensitive nipple, it was like a fire had suddenly been lit inside her. With each flick of his tongue, the fire grew until she felt like every nerve in her body was alight with pleasure. Amber had never experienced pleasure like this, had never understood what the big deal was, but suddenly she understood what all the fuss was about.
Reaching between them, she slid her hands into his boxers and wrapped her hand around his throbbing penis, pleased when he groaned. She stroked him, as his mouth continued to lavish her breast, the pleasure between them building as they explored each other. When Daniel’s mouth left her breasts, she was a little disappointed, but he captured her mouth in a kiss that made her forget her disappointment then trailed his hand down her stomach, across her hip and rested it just at the juncture of her thighs.
Amber opened her legs for him, desperate for his touch, but he only stroked the inside of her legs, prolonging the moment. Finally, when she was writhing beneath him, her hips rising from the bed in an invitation that he could no longer resist, he slid her panties aside and plunged his finger inside her. She was hot and wet, incredibly tight and more than ready for him. But he wanted to give her pleasure first, the kind of pleasure a woman never forgets. After a few gentle thrusts of his finger, he pulled it out of Amber’s hot passage, making her whimper and whine. But when he slid his finger over her swollen nib, her whimpering turned into moans of pleasure.
Amber was lost in a spiral of sensation. It started in her middle and spread through her body in waves that only intensified with each gentle movement of Daniel’s finger. Her breath was coming in short gasps as the intense feeling filled her, the enormity of what she was feeling so immense she was sure that any moment she was going to break into a million pieces. But just when she was sure she couldn’t take any more the last wave of pleasure, one much bigger than anything she’d felt before, washed over her and she cried out Daniel’s name, her body thrashing under him.
Unable to resist any longer, Daniel knelt between Amber’s legs and pressed himself against her opening, waiting for just the right moment to enter her. Then just as her pleasure began to abate, he thrust himself inside her and stopped, letting that first moment of their joining wash over them both. Then he thrust his hips and drove himself deeper inside Amber, who responded by wrapping her legs around him and pulling him in deeper.
Thrilled by Amber’s response, he drove himself into her over and over, until she was again thrashing beneath him. Needing to drive her over the edge once more, he leaned back and reached between them, then used his thumb to stroke her clitoris. That was all it took to send Amber into oblivion again, but this time she was determined to take Daniel with her, so she ground her hips into him, finding that it only intensified her own orgasm.
Daniel was unprepared for Amber’s response, the way her body clenched around his, the muscles grabbing him so tightly he had no choice but to give himself up to the feeling. With one final thrust, he emptied himself into her, his throbbing penis making Amber’s body respond once more, the waves of pleasure so great she got tears in her eyes and couldn’t breathe for long seconds. As they both began to come down from the height of pleasure, Daniel collapsed on top of her, then rolled over onto his back and pulled her into his arms.
There was no need for words just then, they both knew that what they’d just experienced had been truly wonderful and neither wanted to break the spell they were under. But both were wondering what this meant, where they would go from here, for now though, it was enough to be there together while the passion between them mellowed and they fell asleep.
The first rays of sunlight were just coming through the port side window when Amber felt Daniel stir. Groaning, she rolled over and cracked open one eye. “Go back to sleep,” he whispered, then kissed her on the forehead. “I need to check the weather and a few other things before we set sail, but you should sleep for a little while longer.”
“Are you sure? I could make coffee,” She offered, feeling guilty.
“Go back to sleep, you’re going to need it, the next few days will be difficult,” Daniel said, this time kissing her on the lips.
“Okay, but call me if you need me,” she said, snuggling down deeper under the covers against the cold morning, even in summer Alaska could be chilly.
When she awoke hours later the sun was finally up and the chill was gone from the air, she dressed and made her way up to the cockpit where she knew she’d find Daniel. He was standing with his back to her on the phone when she walked up and she couldn’t help but overhear part of his conversation.
“I know it’s not what we talked about before, but I want you to do this for me. It’s got to be more real,” Daniel said, then listened to whoever was on the other end of the conversation.
“I don’t have time to explain right now. We’ve got to weigh anchor soon or we’ll miss the tide. Will you just do that for me?” Then he paused again, “Thanks, cousin. I owe you and I promise I’ll explain when we get
there.”
When he hung up the phone, he turned and saw her standing in the door way. “Good morning.”
Amber couldn’t help but blush, and for a moment she wondered if the night before had really happened, but then Daniel crossed the room and pulled her into his arms. “I hope you slept well, we’re ready to leave as soon as we have breakfast and I’d like to report that no one has seen our friends this morning, hopefully their boat sank,” Daniel said, with a wicked laugh.
Amber laughed, then slapped him playfully. “That’s a terrible thing to say.”
“Well, I had it insured,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows at her.
“Daniel!”
“I’m just kidding. I’m sure they’re fine. Now let’s go have some breakfast and get out of here before we do see them,” he said, spinning her around and shoving her toward the galley and the breakfast he’d made.
She was tempted to ask him who he’d been talking to but was distracted by the food spread out on the table. “I thought you said you couldn’t cook.”
“I never said that, I just said that we didn’t bother to cook on the boat,” he said, that wicked grin back on his face.
Amber's heart skipped a beat and her heart filled with a strange feeling she’d never felt before, it made her a little breathless and dizzy. But she recovered quickly, “It looks wonderful and I’m starving. Thank you.”
They had good winds across the Gulf of Alaska, allowing them to reach Anchorage in a little less than three days. The new mast and sail worked as well as Jeremy had promised and Daniel was charged up when they sailed into the private marina where he’d booked them a berth.
“I thought the boat was fast before, now I know that no one can catch us,” he said, throwing her a line to tie up the boat. “I can’t wait to get her out into the open ocean and really open her up.”
Amber smiled. As exhausted as she was, she’d enjoyed the trip just as much as Daniel had. It had been thrilling to skim along on the top of the ocean, the wind in the sail pulling them along at speeds she’d never thought possible. When the wind died, Daniel cranked up the engine and then they really flew until Amber had to tell him to slow down. He’d laughed but cut back on the throttle until the wind had picked up and the sails had flown again. She was excited about the next stage of their trip, they’d discussed their options at length, but still hadn’t come up with a plan.
Be My Bride: BWWM Romance (Brother From Money Book 19) Page 8
