by Cherry Adair
Her instinct to get her tablet away from the Cutters had been spot on.
“What third tablet?” Finn demanded with dangerous softness. A muscle tightened in his jaw. His eyes turned storm-cloud dark as he swiveled to look at her.
She hadn’t even opened her mouth to respond when the oldest Cutter threw in his two cents. “There really is another tablet?” Logan inquired. Damn those deep blue eyes cut like lasers. “Where did it come from?”
No point prevaricating now. She’d never counted to three before diving off a cliff, and she didn’t now. “I found it diving Napolitano.”
“Diving-" Finn bit the word off to demand, "Diving with whom? Case?"
"Yes."
"Is that part of your job description?"
"There’s nothing in my job description that says I can’t salvage in my spare time."
He had nothing to say to that. “So it's onboard Tesoro Mio, and accessible."
"No, it's not."
"Where is it?” It was chilling how a low voice could hold so much threat.
Cleaned, beautiful, and on her kitchen counter at home as of a few hours ago.
Lifting her chin, she responded calmly, despite the pterodactyls swooping en masse in her stomach. “Somewhere safe.” And she didn’t think for a freaking moment that Finn, or the Cutters, would let her end the conversation there. And honestly, in their place, neither would she, damn it.
“That wasn’t the question.” Each word seemed chipped out of granite. "Tell us where it is. Right now.”
His tone put her back up. “You have no right to order me to do anything, Finn."
"Why? Don't you want the preeminent authority on the tablet to take a look at it?"
"Don't put words in my mouth. Of course I do.”
“Why were you working a salvage?”
“Because I’m a diver and salvager, the same as the rest of you,” she told him tartly. “Napolitano has been mine from the start.” Finn was so close she imagined she saw angry little black dots darting around in his irises. “I was the one who discovered the wrecks. Five years ago.”
“Is that so? So, you’ve had the tablet for years. Yet you didn’t mention it the other night when it was the main focus of our conversation at dinner?” Not waiting for her response, he raised a brow. "Napolitano is registered to a shell company under the Koúkos Corporation umbrella.”
She didn't correct the timing of her discovery. Peri shrugged while her heart pounded so hard she was sure it would jump right out of her chest and flee the scene. Holy hell. How had he found out who it was registered to?
Not that it surprised her. A man didn’t get to be in Finn’s position in business without knowing precisely who and what he was up against at the negotiation table.
“You named a corporation cuckoo.” The lethal edge in Finn’s voice could strip paint off a hull. “As in a bird that commandeers another bird’s nest?”
He was too damned quick. “Huh. Is that what Koúkos means? I just liked the sound of the word.” As if any intelligent person would name their company something without knowing what hell the name meant. She was the cuckoo. In the Cutter’s nest.
She did a quick glance around the room to gauge if anyone else was connecting the dots. They were looking her way, but they hadn’t become hostile. That, she knew, could change on a dime. Her entire body braced as if they were about to stone her. Rubbing her damp palm along the nubby arm of the sofa, she wished she had a drink to moisten her dry mouth.
Zane made a rude noise and shot a glare at Theo. “Isn’t that a conflict of damned interest, Minister of Antiquities?”
“Miss Andersen was the one who brought the wrecks to my attention,” Theo told him, voice stiff. He didn’t like being questioned. “She already had her claim and was the logical choice to oversee the salvage. Especially one of this magnitude.”
“In a fucking pig’s eye,” Jonah snarled. “It’s a major conflict of interest to put the wolf in charge of the hens. I demand that she- “
“She’s doing a fine job,” Nick inserted smoothly. “I don’t have a problem with it – her- at all. Naturally, we all want to see your tablet,” he addressed Peri, his brilliant blue eyes kind. “Is it easily accessible? Can we get to it before Signore Vadini arrives?”
“As I said. I’ll bring it in the morning.”
Nick smiled. “Good enough.”
“No,” Finn said flatly. “We won't wait until tomorrow. Dr. Vadini will want to see all of the tablets when he arrives.” Glancing at his watch, he stood. “We have two hours before then. Let’s go.”
“No need for you to leave your guests.” Theo got to his feet. “It would be my honor to accompany Ariel to the location.”
Peri didn’t look at her ex-lover. Her entire focus was in trying to read Finn’s stoic expression. “You don’t know where that is, Theo.”
“You'll tell me.” Now Theo sounded mildly annoyed. He wasn’t a man who showed his emotions on his sleeve, but boy, did he hate when people he dealt with didn’t give him the deference he believed he was owed. Apparently, he’d taken a dislike to Finn for some reason. She suspected the feeling was mutual.
“It will take at least two hours for the round trip to the mainland wherever it is. At a guess I'd say it's at your glass house,” he said stiffly. “And I think I should go alone. That way you’ll be here when the other tablet arrives. If you’d give me the code to get into the house I’ll leave immedi-“
“No,” Finn repeated, cutting Theo off, his brusqueness verging on rudeness. “You’re welcome to remain here. Or return to – wherever you came from, Dr. Núñez.” His silvery eyes locked on Peri. “This is not a matter that’s up for debate."
“One of you let me know when it’s my turn to offer an opinion.” Peri crossed her arms and legs and planted her butt more firmly on the loveseat.
“We’ll take the chopper and make a quick round trip. I don’t want Dr. Vadini to wait any longer than necessary to have all three tablets to study. Up,” he told her.
She looked at him. “Try again.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw as he gritted out, “Don’t push me.”
“Don’t bully me.” Stand off. Unfortunately, it was exhilarating sparring with him.
Did his lips twitch? Peri gave him a suspicious look, but he was still glaring, so obviously not. He held out his hand. “Please allow me to take you to your house so we can return with the bloody tablet before the turn of the century.”
Placing her hand in his, she allowed him to pull her up beside him, and said sweetly, “Since you asked so nicely. . .”
In no time they were up on the bridge deck where two of his security people waited beside a sleek, black helicopter.
“Aw, do you need their protection to keep you safe from me?”
“They’re here to prevent me from strangling you and dumping your body over the South Atlantic bloody Ocean. Get in.”
With a snort of laughter, Peri climbed on board without his assistance. Finn went around and got in to sit at the controls. He motioned to the two men to stay onboard. They didn't look happy about it as they stepped away from the spinning rotors, but remained watching them.
Finn turned on the blades, and as they started to slowly rotate, handed her a headset. While she put it on, he leaned over to fasten her seat belt for her.
“I’m not a three-year-old. I can buckle myself in.” She liked his hands on her. His warm breath fanned her mouth. His face was so close she could see individual eyelashes.
"Don't," she warned.
He didn't move. Not his eyes, nor the fingers curled around the webbed seatbelt across her chest. “I like touching you.” His lips barely formed the words, yet the timber of his voice resonated through her bones like the vibrations of a tuning fork.
The heat of his fingers burned through her t-shirt. She didn't move either. But, God, she imagined his fingers stealing up the loose leg of her shorts to stroke her thigh, as he had the other day. She imagined him
lifting her shirt to bare her breasts to the afternoon sun flooding the inside of the small space, nuzzling her breasts above the lace of her bra. Holding his gaze she imagined the roughness of his jaw scraping across her skin and the slick smooth heat of his tongue gliding across her nipple.
Squeezing her legs tightly together did the opposite of helping. Peri went hot, then cold, then hot again. “I like being touched by you," she pushed out, breath restricted. "But we have an audience.”
Still leaning over her, he didn’t straighten back into his own seat. “Do you give a damn?” Their mouths were barely touching, just enough that she could taste his coffee scented breath.
Peri licked the taste from her lips. “No. Yes,” she amended, mouth dry, heart trip-hammering as his eyes dilated into two black pools. “W-we’re in a hurry, remember?”
The loud whop-whop-whop of the blades blocked out any other sound as he kissed her. Not a marauding pirate's kiss, but a soft, somehow more intimate brush of his lips against hers. Peri’s insides melted into a puddle of mixed emotions too intense to describe.
She was in so, so much freaking trouble.
Lifting his head, he left her lips damp and bereft. Finn murmured, “To be continued.”
"I'll be ready. Bring your A game, Gallagher."
The gold tablet was propped on the center island counter at her glass house. Finn cast it a cursory glance as they walked past it to look at the jaw-dropping view, a spectacular, panoramic view of water and sky. As important as the artifact was, he was more interested in what he could learn about her. Here in her personal space, and in this truly private moment away from his ship, and the myriad people vying for his attention.
Her house, a five-sided-glass box, perched precariously on a wind-ravaged bluff. The mind-bending-275 degree-panoramic-view through fifteen-foot-high windows, was jaw-dropping, even for a man who'd seen spectacular architecture around the world. Miles of sparkling ocean and cloudless grey-blue sky stretched endlessly around him. Through the glass floor, waves thrashed soundlessly against the jagged gray rocks ten stories below his feet. Even the galley kitchen's floor was glass.
The open concept was approximately three thousand square feet. A white, Carrara marble, two-sided fireplace soared from glass floor to glass ceiling, bisecting the room, flanked by long, low, white bookcases, holding a display of ancient blue and white Chinese porcelain. Her large bed, covered in some soft fabric that mimicked the color of the palest blush found inside of a conch shell, appeared to float in space. A large, fluffy white area rug—an island—defining the L-shaped living room furniture, left plenty of room to walk across the gravity-defying floor.
She accompanied him diagonally across the room to the vast expanse of windows facing the ocean. “Incredible.” Sunlight bounced off the water as far as the naked eye could see. The anchored ships from here were mere specks on the vast blue. “You really are fearless, aren’t you?”
“Sometimes that’s not such a good thing. Being afraid, and doing something anyway, isn’t always the smartest choice.”
She remained face forward, staring at the view. Finn took in the delicacy of her profile and the sweep of her dark lashes. He wondered what she was referring to, and how he could fix it. Damn. They had to hurry back. They needed time- he needed time. To learn everything about her. To discover what gave her joy and what made her beautiful eyes cloudy. “Being afraid, and doing it anyway is called bravery.”
She smiled. “Some call it stupidity."
"I built my fortune on taking risks other people thought stupid. I did alright."
Her smile enchanted him as she turned up her face to look at him. "That you did."
Turning her in his arms, Finn kissed her. She immediately wound her arms around his neck, lifting up on her toes to position her mouth exactly right. She consumed him, filled his thoughts every fucking waking minute of every hour. Everything about her was music to him. A symphony of sounds and scents. The arousing play of her hands in his hair, the taste of the slick inside of her mouth, the assertive give and take of her tongue, were enough to drive him out of his mind. Lust on steroids.
His fingers dug into the taut muscles of her ass, pulling her firmly against his erection.
Tightening her arms around him, she moaned. Then pulled her mouth away from his. Her lips were kiss-swollen and pink, her cheeks flushed, her pupils huge. "Do you think we're unwittingly being given some sort of aphrodisiac?"
Finn laughed. "Whatever it is, let's package it and sell it. I think we'd make a fortune."
"Have you ever. . .?"
"Felt like this before? Never."
"Thank God, I'd hate to be alone in this. Whatever this is."
"Lust. Pheromones. Hunger."
Stepping out of his hold, she tugged down her t-shirt which had ridden up. "All of that. Do you think we'll burn out at some point?"
Wrapping his arm around her waist, Finn pulled her against his body and with his free hand gently pushed her hair over her shoulder so he had a clear view of her earnest face. "Not in the foreseeable future. You okay with that?"
She shot him a sassy smile. "As long as you can keep up with me, sure. As much as I'd like to take my bed for a test drive, we really can't stay here too long. But I'd like to take a rain check on that."
"A test drive should be slow and methodical, not taken in haste, I agree," he told her seriously, loving the way her eyes lit up, and lips curved. Turning around, he noticed some of her beautifully displayed pieces. "Are these artifacts you’ve salvaged over the years?" Sliding his palm against hers, Finn linked fingers with her as they walked.
"Yes, I keep the ones I can't bear to part with, the rest I sell. As you see, I don't like clutter, and having an ancient relic locked in some storeroom unseen would be a criminal waste. People need to see and enjoy them."
She motioned to the binoculars on a stand nearby, but he shook his head. He'd rather look at her. He’d like to come back and look through her telescope at the stars with her from her vantage point. But another time, "How did you get into salvaging?"
"My father had an interest, so it was a way to feel close to him. I worked as a freelance diver for a percentage of the salvage with various salvage crews for years. But I was looking for something to call my own. There's a small museum in the South of Spain that I've sold quite a few of my finds to over the years. They allowed me access to their underground storage facility, which contained storage drawers filled with, and was piled high with ship's manifests and log books from as far back as... "
She shook her head. "Probably the Crusades. Although I didn't get that far back. Every spare moment I had, if it was at all feasible- I went back there and continued my search, hoping to find that nugget. . . I must've combed through hundreds of thousands of documents before I discovered word of Napolitano, Nuestra Señora del Marco, Santa Ana and El Crucifijo. Then I followed that thread, reading hundreds and hundreds of other documents looking for another reference. It was a long and dusty road.
I finally found what I needed to locate the ships. Hundreds of miles from where they should've been. Then I did dive after dive until I had my hands on each one of them. Five years ago I moved here. Invested some of my earlier profits into the house, and the rest is history."
"You've done well with Napolitano. Is Rydell Case your partner?" Your lover?
"I've had several years to devote to salvaging her alone- or rather with the help of professional local divers. But it far exceeded my wildest expectations. I brought Case in a few years ago when I realized the scope of Napolitano. He was working another salvage, so it's only now he can devote his time to her. He brought his family with him. He's here for the long haul. With my job with the Ministry, and keeping track of everything you and the Cutters bring to the surface, I'm glad of his help and that of his divers. I'm pretty much sitting back, and will rake in the money while he and his team do all the work."
"There's no way you'd ever sit back, and I suspect you feel the same way about
money as I do. It's just to keep score for achieving your personal best. But I know you love to dive."
"I do, and I will. But I'm just as fascinated at the history of everything that's being found. I'll dive Napolitano as I can. My priority right now is my job for the Ministry. It's a big responsibility, and one I take very seriously."
He looked around. “We must have the same decorator.” Spare. Lots of white. Pops of color. Intriguing artifacts. Air and space. He could move in right now.
The idea, for a confirmed bachelor, wasn’t repugnant.
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she spoke against his ear, "I noticed."
Finn slid his arms around her narrow waist, drawing her tightly against him. Her warm breath fanned his skin, setting up a domino effect of need.
Her smile barely curved her lips. “Everyone’s waiting for us.” She uncoupled herself from his light hold before he could steal a kiss. “Bria’s expert is arriving any minute. We really should go,” her voice was brisk as she headed to the all-white galley kitchen.
When he paused to admire a forty-inch-tall, intact, bronze statue of Aphrodite on a white marble plinth, she offered, “I found that on a small wreck off Cape San Vito, Taranto, in Southern Italy, six years ago. There wasn't much there, but she's one of my favorites.”
“And this?” He indicated a deeply embossed gold box on a glass shelf nearby.
“I found that little tobacco box in an 1804- picked clean- Spanish galleon off the coast of Peru. One of my first salvages. All the treasure had been sold off by another salvager years earlier, and the wreck abandoned. But I hoped they’d missed a few things. And they did.”
“How long did it take you to find this?”
“Five months. It was good practice. Ready?”
Finn picked up the small duffel bag, containing her tablet, off the Carrara marble countertop. “Brave and dogged. Admirable qualities.”
