by Cherry Adair
“We’ll never know. The hope is each of the four ships carried a tablet. Maybe together they’ll tell us something.”
Peri mentally crossed her fingers. “The hope is we find one right here.”
“It’ll still belong to the Cutters.”
“It’ll still be part of history, and connected to our tablets. No matter what they choose to do with it.”
“Jesus.” He stopped swimming to look at her. “You don’t plan on swiping it, do you?”
Since he didn’t sound too worried about it, Peri smiled and rocked her hand.
He shut his eyes behind his mask. “You’ll be the death of me, woman.”
She smiled. "But what a way to go."
The water was so clear, she could see the tiny crabs scurry along the white sand, and a pink starfish scaling a rock. “Come on, I see the forecastle over there.” She indicated a slightly less broken section, where she could see the window opening, and a curve of deck still intact. “That’s where they kept all their war toys. It made navigation a bit tricky because it caused the ship to be a bit top heavy- Oh, wow!” She saw another cannon on the sandy bottom and darted off.
Jack-knifing to dive low, she trusted Finn to follow. “I love finding the cannons. Look at this beauty.”
Finn shook his head. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t stroke that thing like you mean it.” He wrapped his arm around her waist and tugged her against his body. “You look sexy as hell in this drysuit. I’m so damned hot for you I’m surprised the water around us isn’t boiling. You have no idea how badly I want you right now.”
She didn't give a damn if the man in the Moon was listening in. “Do you think- "
“No,” Finn laughed, taking her hand to twirl her around in the water as if she were a salsa dancer. “But later, when the probability of drowning in your arms is no longer an issue.” He pulled her back into his arms. “Then not just yes, but hell yes.”
Despite the cumbersome tanks, two drysuits, and the buoyancy of the water, she felt the same urgent need she saw in his silvery eyes. Peri gave a dramatic sigh. “Can’t cross that off my bucket list then. Too bad. Okay.” She kissed her fingers through her mask, then pressed them to his mask over his lips.
“Since there’s no one working there right now,” she said, indicating to the large grid on the port side of the wreck, “let’s go play in Nick's sandbox.”
On arriving at the edge of the grid they removed their fins, securing them on the post installed there for just that purpose. Then using the fixed position of the white, PVC pipes, spaced thirty inches apart, they pulled themselves hand-over-hand horizontally over the area.
“Be here. Be here. Be here,” she whispered as she glided over the squares, the white sand rippling beneath them in their slipstream.
“It probably won’t be,” Finn cautioned, proving he had ears like a freaking bat. His attention was fixed, as was hers, on the area below him. “We have no indication that there might be more tablets, remember that.”
“I’m going to find one here. Today,” she said, determined. If this was to be her last hurrah, then damn it, she wanted to go out with a bang.
Seeing an intriguing bump in the sand, and keeping her movements slow and small, Peri sifted a finger through the shimmery grains. Even so, particles drifted up around her arm. Motionless she waited for them to settle. “And it mig- Holy crap! Finn. Look at this.”
Coming alongside her, he closed the gap, hooking his ankles on the pipe to remain in place. “Could be anything- “
She withdrew her clenched fist. “Or it could be a giant, whopping freaking emerald.” She opened her fingers to expose the apricot-sized green stone.
Finn was already sifting sand between his fingers. Looking for more. “Could just be part of the cargo- “
“Could indicate the chest holding the tablet. . .” She toed her way, hand-over-hand to the next opening, finger-combing the sand. “How close were the emeralds to your tablet? Mine on Napolitano were maybe a foot awa—"
Everything inside her stopped. Could it be? Was it. . .? The water around them became cloudy as she dug like a terrier after a juicy bone. "I found another one. Finn. . .I think- God, I hope- this is the corner of another tablet."
Finn put his hand on her wrist. "Slow down, you're stirring up the silt."
Her insides jumping around with excitement, Peri forced herself to freeze in place. "Damn I want to move fast, and I know we have to take this slow." The suspended particles seemed to take a lifetime as she waited for them to drift back to the seabed.
“Steady does it.” His hands joined hers, and they moved in unison in slo-mo. “Yes. Just. Like. This.”
Peri’s heart went into overdrive, pounding frantically behind her eyeballs as, together, they slowly pulled a fourth tablet from its centuries-old burial place in the sand.
After marking the location and photographing their finds from every angle, they'd placed the emeralds and the tablet in a wire basket to haul to the surface. Finn and Ariel returned to Logan's ship, pulling themselves up onto the edge of the dive platform. The other two divers, ready to go down, stood nearby adjusting their masks.
Oblivious, Peri grinned as she ripped off her mask and drysuit hood. "Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap. Can you believe it?"
Even if he wasn't blown away by their discovery, Finn was excited just watching her.
Her glorious hair spilled free as she pulled the cap from her head. It tumbled down her back in a fiery fall. He wanted to lay her out, right there in the sunlight, strip off her drysuit, and take her as her body shivered with exhilaration and lust.
Settling for touching his thumb to her lower lip, he laughed. "Excited?" he teased. He wanted to capture that smile, that devilish look in eyes the color of water, that unbridled enthusiasm, to enjoy whenever she wasn't with him. Fuck it. He never wanted to be apart. "God. I wish I could bottle your energy and enthusiasm. I’d store it up and ration it so I’ll always have it.”
Her look of excitement dimmed, gone and back so fast he almost missed the subtle shadow that fell over her face. “Can't keep me in a bottle, Finn Gallagher," she said with a sassy grin. "When you leave, you’ll go empty handed. Come on. Let’s get this accumulated crap off it, and see what it looks l-"
"Did I hear that right? You guys found another tablet?" Steve Galt said as he removed mask and hood and joined them on deck. He was followed by Earl who also had a basket with a few artifacts in it.
"Over on G9-BH173," Peri told him, eyes glowing as she pulled the basket, heavy with its contents closer to her hip.
Since a blind man could've found the tablet, he wanted to talk to Nick and Logan before he highlighted that to Peri. Or perhaps he wouldn't ask the Cutters about this coincidence of whale-sized proportions. Finn didn't believe in coincidences, and finding a fourth tablet, in a location Nick had already searched, in less than an hour, smacked of conspiracy, not a genuine historical find.
"Do you have a way to contact Nick and Logan?" he asked the men in general, not taking his eyes off Peri who looked like a sleek, sexy mermaid with her sultry smile and loose red hair tumbling around her shoulders.
"Logan's on his way to the airport to pick up Daniella, and Nick's too far away to pick up the lip mics," Earl reminded him. "I imagine they'd want the tablets to stay together, don't you? Isn't that Italian museum guy on board Blackstar going to try and decipher what they say?"
Steve turned Peri's basket to get a better look at the tablet. The gold still gleamed, but once it was properly cleaned the true beauty would be even more evident. "Look, take it with you when you go back, I'm sure both Nick and Logan would say the same. Leave the stones, though."
"This tablet is probably a hundred times more valuable than any emeralds," Peri pointed out, twisting the length of her hair and feeling around for the pins that had held it in place when she dived. Found, she jabbed them into the coiled mass to anchor it on top of her head.
Suddenly Jones was there with an o
utstretched hand to haul her to her feet. "Thanks,' she said without so much as a glance his way. The guy didn't move once she was upright. He stood much too goddamn close. Finn started to get to his feet, but she accidentally elbowed Jones in the ribs as she unzipped her drysuit. He stepped back. Not far enough as far as Finn was concerned, but the diver took another couple of steps in retreat as Finn rose to his full height.
Ariel pulled one arm out of her suit. "I think that's a good call," she told Earl, freeing the other arm to expose her white bikini top and a freckled expanse of the upper curve of her breasts. "Finn's people have already cleaned his, they know their stuff." Tying the neoprene sleeves around her waist, she was ready to leave.
It was agreed that Logan's guys would notify the Cutters of their find, and let them know the tablet would be on Blackstar when they arrived there in the morning.
They jet skied back to his ship with the tablet safely secured on Finn's jet ski. "Want to see what our guys have discovered on Nuestra Señora del Marco?"
"Another tablet, maybe?" Wet, spiky lashes framed jade eyes that gleamed with avarice.
"Four tablets aren't enough for you?" Finn led the way across the deck to the processing area which smelled strongly of chemicals.
"For now. . ."
More tablets hadn't been discovered, but Mike and his team on Blackstar Two almost salivated as they took the new tablet from Finn.
Before Peri could insist on staying to help clean the new artifact, Finn took her hand. Walking back across the deck, he whispered, "I'm exhausted. I think I need a kip."
She glanced at her dive watch, before giving him a narrowed eyed look. "It's after seven at night, Gallagher. Almost dinner time."
He led her up the outside stairs. "Dinner in bed after our nap?"
Nap, of course, was a euphemism for wild monkey sex. He'd waited all day to get her naked, and they barely made it back to his cabin before he'd stripped her, stripped himself, and made it to the bed.
FOURTEEN
The next morning, at four-thirty on the dot, Finn opened his eyes, wide awake and as usual, rarin' to go. Beside him, Ariel stirred in her sleep. Her soft body snuggled bonelessly beside him, she tightened her arms across his belly without waking. She, on the other hand, would wake up later - slowly, surfacing as if doing a deep dive.
Finn was tempted to stay and make love to her again. He relished making love to her when she was soft and sleepy, their lovemaking languid and measured, with none of the heat and flash when they were wide awake and hot for each other. It took a ridiculously small amount of encouragement to get them both to boiling point.
Last night had been no exception.
Gritting his teeth, he resisted the temptation, great as it was. She'd gotten maybe two hours the night before, she needed a few more.
For Finn, this momentous salvage was a cog in a larger wheel of his business interests, not his entire world as it was for the Cutters. The fact that he smelled a con diminished his elation at finding his tablet. Ariel had found another, a fourth had been in the museum on Merrezo for years. It wasn't unique after all, worse, he suspected the Cutters had set up- Fuck. He didn't know what. But he’d sure as hell find out.
He slipped from their bed, then covered her with the sheet. Ariel was a delicious distraction, but he needed to grab whatever hours possible to work. He had something else going, that was even more momentous and potentially historical than the tablets.
The Mars launch was a mere five months away. No time at all, given the impact the momentous trip would have on interstellar travel. Leaving scientists on the surface of the planet for six months was as thrilling as it was groundbreaking. Those twelve men and women would eventually pave the way for more colonists to terraform Mars in the near future. There was already a waitlist of upwards of ten thousand families ready to go. Almost every aspect of the Blackstar Group was involved in some way on preparations for humans to inhabit the planet.
Finn's business interests wouldn’t stop because he was distracted and perpetually hot for Ariel. While dressing as quietly as he could, he was amused by something he’d be an idiot not to acknowledge. This morning was the first time in memory he’d awoken to the idea of not immediately starting work. It was the first time something-or someone-excited him more than rocket blasters.
Two hours later, he observed her in the cleaning room on the monitor in his office. He'd been watching it with one eye, knowing she wouldn't sleep in for too long. Wearing white shorts and a lime green tank top which bared the gentle swell of her breasts, and her muscled arms, she looked fresh and vibrantly alive. Her hair was pulled back in a braid which swung between her shoulder blades as she moved.
She looked so pretty his chest hurt.
As he worked, his eyes drifted from time to time to the monitor, watching her with Mike on Two, as they painstakingly cleaned the tablet. After another three hours Finn took a call from his attorney before leaving his office for the salon one deck down.
Having cleared two hours in his back-to-back schedule, he was eager to hear what Dr. Vadini, and he supposed, Núñez, had to say about the tablets. They were going to shit themselves when they learned there was a fourth.
Sunlight, flooded the large room, bouncing off the pale grays and whites of furniture and walls. Beyond the windows, a strong gale had the waves frothing and peaking. Typical Patagonian weather, and not good conditions to dive in.
Zane and Teal were helping themselves to the buffet set up in the salon in anticipation of their meeting. They turned in unison as he entered. “Nick and Bria are on their way,” Zane said by way of a greeting. “Water’s rough and they wanted to see if it calmed a bit before they came over.”
“They’ll have a long wait. Wind is going to be like this most of the day,” Finn told them.
"Blackstar's barely moving. Your gyro stabilizers are worth every penny you paid for them," Teal said, a note of admiration in her voice. "I'd like to take a look at them while I'm here. Since we'll be in this area for years, I plan on retrofitting Decrepit as soon as possible. Our stabilizers are crap. Don't help at all. Half our crew will be hanging over the side if we don't do something."
Absently she shoved up the unrolling cuff of what must be one of Zane's denim shirts. Her husband took her arm and effectively rolled it back while she poured a mug of steaming hot coffee with her free hand. “Bria’s pregnant, that's why the rough seas are bothering her.”
"You're welcome to check out any part of the ship. Talk to Dan Firth, my Chief Engineer, he'll be delighted to talk shop," Finn told her as he imagined Peri swollen with his child. His heart kicked in several extra beats. Other than the nebulous thought of, “one day” passing on his company, the idea of children had never really entered Finn’s mind. Now it was firmly embedded there like an earworm of a song.
He imagined a fearless toddler with Peri’s red hair roaming Blackstar, and his heart did a rapid dive of terror.
Dear God. He was afraid for the safety of a child he didn’t have. He headed to the buffet for his own cup of coffee, thinking a drink would serve him better after that foreign, earth-shattering revelation.
Holy shit, who would’da thunk it? Phineas Gallagher, confirmed bachelor with an iron will and a focused agenda, actually thinking of himself as a father. Yeah. He saw it, no problem at all. Which begged the question of what did Ariel think of kids? He’d have to ask. Sometime. Maybe right after he offered her a ring big enough to cover one finger up to the first knuckle.
Logan walked in alone.
“I thought you went to pick up Dani from the airport yesterday? Where is she?” Zane asked, carrying two plates and following his wife with their coffee mugs to the table near the buffet. The dining room one deck down would be crowded with crew and staff. This meeting required quiet and no distraction. Other than what now seemed to be his favorite personal distraction ever – Ariel. When she eventually arrived.
Logan joined Finn where he was pouring himself a cup of coffee. “Long fl
ight. She wanted to sleep in.”
“She’s pregnant,” Teal announced, holding up her arm for her husband to roll up the other sleeve, and diving into her heaped plate of food like a starving lumberjack.
Logan narrowed his eyes. “Who- How do you know? We haven’t told anyone yet.”
“Everyone’s pregnant,” Teal said matter-of-factly around a mouthful of bacon as she tugged her arm free of her husband's ministrations.
Zane turned to his wife, his own food forgotten. “Specify everyone.”
Finn smothered a sympathetic grin. The woman was diabolical.
“Since when has Daniella slept in? Never as far as I know.”
“One person is not everyone, and?” Zane said dangerously, removing the loaded fork from his wife's hand and setting it on her plate.
Her brown eyes sparkled as she muttered, “And it’s a birthday surprise.”
“My damned birthday was five months ago!”
“Next birthday. By the time your next one rolls around, you’ll be changing diapers between dives. Patience is a vir- Hey!”
Zane scooped his laughing wife from her chair. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his chest as he strode from the room. Finn heard their laughter as they went down the corridor.
“Hope there’s a free cabin somewhere close by,” Logan said dryly, taking his coffee to his usual corner of the sofa. He set his phone on the table, in the center of which were four easel-type stands lined up in readiness to display the tablets.
“Better be a quickie,” Finn told him. “The others are due any minute.”
"The others are here," Nick announced, entering hand-in-hand with his wife. They both looked windblown and pink-cheeked. "It's getting worse out there." Nick combed his fingers through his dark hair. "We almost decided not to come, but we didn't want to miss this historic moment."
