When the waves starting acting up even further, he decided to find out how close the storm was. Maybe they should turn around. He wanted to keep Lia to himself for a while, but not at the risk of their getting trapped in a storm.
He glanced at his touchscreen navigation and switched over to the weather report. Crap! He’d been so intent on getting her alone, he hadn’t been paying attention. A wicked tropical storm was brewing and it was right behind them. He didn’t have time to steer back to Italy, or get back to their island. All he could do was move ahead and hope like hell that he outran the bad weather. If he had been thinking with anything other than his lower region, they wouldn’t be in this mess.
After another half-hour passed, things looked desperate. His radio crackled to life and the storm warning came over its line. He picked up the handset and tried to call in his position, but didn’t get a response.
“What the hell?” he muttered as he pushed the buttons, trying to get a signal. The thing went dead. That wasn’t a good sign — not a good sign at all. No, it would be OK. They were going to be fine.
Using every bit of concentration he had, he focused on trying to keep the boat steady as the waves picked up in height and ferocity. They were getting tossed around too much for his liking and he really wished that Lia would get back in the control room so he could keep an eye on her.
“Shane?” Lia was standing next to him, making him sigh in relief. Her skin was flushed and her hair messed as if she’d just climbed from bed. He couldn’t get them to safety while she looked like that. Tearing his eyes away, he focused on the emergency at hand and cleared his throat.
“You need to hold onto something, Lia. We’re right smack in the middle of two storm fronts, and they’re fighting each other to see who can sink us the fastest.”
She wasn’t a novice boater: she’d been on the water many times in her life. Though he tried to hide his rising panic, he knew that she was well aware of the danger.
“I was worried about the clouds,” Lia said. “How long until we hit the mainland? I fell asleep, but it must not have been for very long.” Her voice was slightly tense, but not overly so. After all, their whole trip was less than two hours.
“I…uh…had to take a detour.”
“A detour? Seriously, Shane? The clouds were building up when I fell asleep a bit ago. You had to have noticed!” she exclaimed.
“I did, but it wasn’t so bad,” he said, knowing he sounded ridiculous.
“You weren’t thinking at all, Shane! I can’t believe I fell for your stupid trick. Did you believe a nice, romantic boat ride would win my favor back?”
Well, yeah, actually, he thought, but he stopped himself from saying so. “Look, Lia. It doesn’t matter. There’s a group of islands not far away now. We’ll take cover there, wait out the storm, and then reach the mainland before you know it.”
“You’re a pain in the ass, Shane! Do you have any idea what you have done?” she snapped, but he saw the way she was looking out at the rough seas. The ocean could turn from a thing of beauty to a dangerous place in the blink of an eye.
Yes, he knew what he’d done, and he wasn’t proud of himself. He’d just been trying to get some time alone with her, not put her in danger. Maybe she was the smarter of the two of them. Not that he was saying that out loud, either.
A hard wave knocked against the boat, flinging Lia against his side. Shane reached out and caught her before she went stumbling to the deck. Her face was inches from his as her curves pressed tightly against his body, and Shane felt himself sinking into her eyes.
“Don’t you dare even think about sex,” she said, but the husky quality of her tone gave him hope. He wouldn’t mind at all getting stuck with her overnight. The storm was now looking like a bit of a blessing — that was, if he could get to safety in time.
As the islands came into view, still too far away for Shane’s comfort, the airstream picked up, whipping through the control room. “Shut the windows,” he called above the screaming wind.
For once, Lia obeyed with no argument. As they came closer to the islands, the waves swelled larger, angry splashes of water rising high around them, as if on a mission to pull the large vessel deep into the ocean, to take another victim in her merciless grasp.
Just as Shane started to breathe easier, the boat lurched, then suddenly stalled, nearly knocking him off his feet. Gripping the wheel tightly, he looked out, horrified when he saw the hole in the side of his yacht. He must have hit a reef.
The boat was going down. “Lia, we have to abandon ship. Grab the emergency pack and we’ll get in the lifeboat.”
When she didn’t answer, Shane turned to find her on the floor, knocked unconscious. Letting go of the wheel, he rushed to her side, bending down and feeling her neck. He let out a sigh of relief when he found that she was breathing.
Not hesitating any longer, he lifted her into his arms and rushed through the yacht to where his emergency raft was holding on tight. Shane carefully laid her inside and dashed to the cupboard opposite so he could grab the emergency supply bag. He tossed it into the boat, following behind it quickly before he released the safety, dropping them into the surging waves of the ocean.
The waves had been frightening when they’d been in his giant vessel; they were deadly in the small emergency boat. Turning the engine on, he navigated the waters as best he could, grateful they were so close to one of the islands.
As they moved through the storm, he saw two giant walls of water on either side of him. The small craft was having a difficult time reaching their peaks and getting closer to safety, but she was doing it — just barely.
As they neared safety, he looked back, his heart nearly breaking as he watched the last of his yacht disappear beneath the heaving black sea. So many memories had just been sucked below to the cold ocean floor. But Shane had no more than a second to dwell on it, so he faced forward and aimed toward the safety of land.
Nearly there.
“Shane?”
This wasn’t the best time for her to wake up. “It’s OK, Lia. We’re almost to land.”
Shane spoke too soon. With a jolt, the boat was thrust forward as two waves converged on them, determined to not allow their escape.
“Hold on!” Shane called as Lia was lifted into the air. This could be it — the end. Almost in slow motion, Shane watched in horror as Lia’s head slammed against the side of the boat for the second time in less than an hour.