Page 10 of Dangerous Obsession

MAXIM

The sky was pristine with not a cloud in sight. The sun was brilliant. The tops of the waves glinted in the brightness.

The three of them were on Maxim’s yacht. desc. It was a luxury yacht, yet small enough to sail without a crew. He was near the bow with Cole. Jade was on the bridge.

She had been very quiet today, even though Cole had gone out of his way to be friendly with her. She wasn’t aggressive toward him, and she didn’t seem to be as suspicious as the day before. But she was quiet.

He wondered what had changed. He’d fully expected her to demand that Cole return to the health spa this morning…but she hadn’t.

So it couldn’t be jealousy. After all, she’d seen Cole kiss him last night. He was sure of it, although she hadn’t said a word about that either.

He felt bad about the kiss, but he also couldn’t deny the kiss had been amazing. Still, he would never hurt her. He’d actually intended to send Cole back to the spa and out of their lives for good.

Only it hadn’t happened. The man had been so charming and friendly this morning, he’d found himself drawn into conversation after conversation.

Time had flown by. Then he’d surprised himself by suggesting they take a jaunt out on his yacht.

Cole had been eager. Jade had agreed without even scowling, but then again, she was doing her job.

A second ago, Maxim had suggested they go undersea diving. He had all the equipment.

Cole glanced at him with his eyebrows raised. “You dive?”

“That’s right. The diving here is great. Have you done it before?”

“Not since my military days. It’s been a while.”

“So. You interested?”

“Hell, yeah, I’m interested.”

Maxim laughed. “I thought it might beat heading back to sugar wraps and special diets for detox.”

“You don’t know the half of it.” Cole rubbed a hand over the bristly golden hair on his head as he grinned with excitement.

He looked better without the wig, but seeing Cole’s nearly shaved head reminded Maxim that the man had endured a run-in with a disease that had taken millions before their time.

It was a ruthless disease. He donated to several large cancer funds and children’s hospitals, but right then and there, he resolved to do far more.

Health spas were great, but next in his sights would be a non-profit hospital specializing in cancer treatments and research.

Speaking of which, maybe it was finally time to leave the island and start building things again.

Things that made the world a better place instead of destroying it.

If he had redemption to earn for the AI programs he’d created, then maybe it was better to earn it with action instead of meditation and self-reflection.

But none of that mattered right here, right now. Right now, he wanted to go diving with Cole. Jade would stay on the yacht. She wasn’t fond of being underwater.

Cole glanced over the side at the waves. “Anything particularly interesting down there?”

“Shipwrecks.”

“Dangerous.”

“You’re experienced. I’m experienced. There should be no worries.”

“All right. I’m assuming you have equipment to fit me?”

“You’re my size. My spare set of gear will fit you fine.”

Cole glanced at the bridge where Jade was. “Is Jade coming too?”

“Unfortunately, no. Even though she looks absolutely stunning in a swimsuit, she doesn’t like deep water.”

“My loss then.” His grin was engaging. “Any particular reason she stays out? Or is that just a quirk?”

He shrugged. “Sharks. The bends. Stonefish. Jellyfish. Poisonous snails. I could go on.”

“Yeah. Please don’t. If you need me, I’ll be hiding below deck with the covers over my head.”

“Don’t be like that,” Maxim said, slapping a hand down on his shoulder. “This is an adventure.”

“Fine. Let’s adventure.”

Maxim grinned. After this, he’d invite Cole to stay the night again. Or at least invite him to have dinner with them again. This distraction from routine had been the first new and exciting thing to happen to him in a while. He didn’t want it to end.

Cole Ward had certainly shaken things up. But maybe it was long past time for things to change.

COLE

Diving happened to be one of Cole’s favorite activities. It was a skill he’d picked up while he was active duty military. Unfortunately, he’d rarely had the opportunity to dive for pleasure. If Maxim wanted him along, he sure as hell wasn’t going to turn the man down.

Besides, this all fit into the next phase of his plan. Even Jade was warming up to him. A little bit. She hadn’t shot him, kicked him, or thrown him out this morning. In his book, that was a good start to the day.

And last night…after that smoking-hot kiss with Maxim, the memory of his little confrontation with Jade still stirred his cock.

Damn, she was sexy. Naked, she’d been absolutely unforgettable.

Her sitting on top of him had been even better, her body pressed against him, and their kiss had rocked his damn world.

His only regret was that she’d sent him on his way. But she was the lady. She called the shots. So he had gone…regretting it every step of the way.

At least she seemed to believe he’d been looking for her and not for the data drives. So he was lucky. Otherwise, she really might’ve shot him, and who could blame her?

The longer he was with Maxim and Jade, the more he cared about them, and the more he came to believe that successfully implementing phase three of this operation would involve exactly what he’d suggested to her last night.

A ménage. A threesome. The thought of his cock buried in her pussy or her ass while Maxim was in her too turned him on so damn badly that he could barely concentrate as he was gearing up. It was tough not to be sporting a raging hard-on right now.

By the time Maxim and Cole were geared up, equipment tested, and ready to go, it was mid-afternoon. The wind had died down a little, although the currents had grown stronger. They both flipped backward into the clear blue water as Jade watched from the bow.

The cool water enveloped Cole. He felt an immediate sense of calm as bubbles rose all around them. It was another world down here. A secret one that most people never experienced in their lives.

They were missing out.

He spotted Maxim just to his left and used his flippers to propel himself in the direction his host indicated with hand signals.

Both men moved smoothly through the water.

Schools of colorful fish darted past, and the sunlight filtered through the water to illuminate their path.

The wreck of a yacht or some kind of pleasure vessel sat on the ocean floor not far from their yacht on the surface.

They’d located it with sonar and set down the anchor.

A wave of eagerness had Cole propelling himself ahead of Maxim.

The ship was fairly large, and its hull was covered in barnacles and sea plants.

The name on the hull was nearly obscured by plants and silt.

Cole gently pressed his hand to the slimy mess and brushed it aside in order to read the name. ENAMORATA.

Maxim signaled that he wanted to head inside the wreck, and Cole made the OK sign with his fingers.

They swam over the railings and headed below deck through the open companionway.

Maxim continued swimming forward, but Cole slowed, staring around him at all the fancy wreckage thrown around the cabin or floating at the top, trapped against the hull.

Sealife had gradually taken over what had once been someone’s very expensive yacht.

It was strange to see, but fish swam in and out of his diving lights, curious about the human invader.

A liquor bar sat at one end of the wildly tilted space in the main cabin.

The remains of a piano had slid toward the bottom and crumbled in a tangle of strings and keys.

The wood was rotting away, and the entire scene seemed surreal.

He looked around for Maxim but didn’t see him. Frowning, he began swimming forward.

A long hallway stretched off deeper into the huge pleasure yacht.

The space was located beneath the bulk of the vessel in one of those dangerous areas that could lure a diver to his death.

Wrecks presented their own set of hazards very different from creatures like poisonous jellyfish.

You always needed to be aware of your surroundings.

Still searching for Maxim, Cole headed for the topside of the ship.

The wide, airy space afforded windowed views of the outside world and a debris field of bric-a-brac and clutter pulled free of the ship when it sank.

He was looking over the devastation when a strange noise echoed through the underwater world.

It was a groaning, thrumming noise that seemed to shake the hull.

Whipping about, Cole glanced left and right but spotted nothing.

Using the motion of his arms to turn himself in a complete circle, Cole strained to hear the noise again.

Wearing a mask and a wet suit that covered your head was enough to drown out or dampen many sounds.

But adding the regulated hum of air in the tanks created white noise that obscured everything but the loudest noises.

There it was again! He didn’t know what the noise as, but his heart began to hammer against his ribs. He hadn’t seen Maxim since their initial entry to the ship. Diving in pairs was safest, but Cole had slowed up and allowed them to become separated. Damn it.

Speeding back toward the music room and the ruined piano, Cole bypassed the already explored region and slipped into the treacherous hallway underneath the bulk of the wreckage.

It was a tight squeeze. Cole had to take care not to disturb the sides of the narrow passage or slam his equipment into the walls. Time and the weight of the vessel had begun to collapse the byway.

A sense of urgency pushed Cole toward the far end of the tunnel. He could see darkness there. Darkness and a single beam of light. A diving light. The beam twisted and moved as though the diver wearing the light was thrashing about.

After emerging from the passage into a large room, Cole found himself briefly disoriented. Books were everywhere. They lay on what had once been a wall of windows that now held sand instead of glass. There were tables upended in the mess, and in one corner, a desk sat at an odd angle.

The light blazed from under the desk. Cole felt his heart leap into his throat as he realized what must’ve happened. He swam forward, gripping the corner of the large desk. It was heavy, made of solid wood. Even when immersed in water, it felt like it weighed a ton.

Maxim was beneath the desk, trapped under the L-section of the furniture.

Not good.

Cole reached down to him. A surge of relief swept through him when Maxim reached out and took his hand. His grip was firm. Trying to maneuver an unconscious diver back through that tunnel would’ve been next to impossible.

Maxim was riding the edge of panic but still holding it together. He was trapped, but Cole was here now. He needed to move the desk off Maxim but also keep it from damaging the room around them. He didn’t want the rotting hull to come down on top of them both.

That was when the ugly thought hit him. It was a cold, completely merciless thought, and absolutely unlike him.

Leave him. Leave him and finish your job.

It would’ve been simple to leave Maxim trapped here until his air ran out.

Then, while the recovery operation was going on, he would have the villa all to himself.

Jade would certainly never leave Maxim’s side, even in death.

Cole could’ve found the code or the drives, dumped them on his client, collected the rest of his payment, and headed for the Cayman Islands.

Mission accomplished. Money paid. Time to retire.

But he couldn’t. Watching Maxim struggle under the weight of the desk was already ripping him up inside.

And thinking of Jade was like a slap against his face.

She would be crushed. Desolate. When she wept for the man she’d lost, those tears would destroy Cole.

Because Cole would’ve been the one to hurt her.

With icy fury, he shoved that evil thought out of his mind forever. He was no hero, but that wasn’t who he was. Not even close.

Cole reached out and took hold of Maxim’s diving mask. He stared down into the other man’s mask for a moment, locking eyes with him and trying to get through to him, to let him know it was going to be okay.

It was a strange moment. Powerful. Unforgettable.

But Cole knew the exact moment he managed to reach Maxim through his fear and rising panic.

Maxim stared right back into his eyes through their diving masks, bubbles rising all around them.

Then Maxim relaxed. He accepted the help.

His body seemed to flow with the water currents as he waited for Cole to free him.

Cole let him go. He used a tall lamp stand as a fulcrum beneath the desk. Putting his full weight and strength against it, he managed to lever the desk off Maxim.

At once, Maxim pulled himself free. He swam clear of the desk and debris, placing a shaking hand on Cole’s shoulder, letting him know that he was out.

Cole did his best to carefully lower the desk back to the hull. Once it was resting in its new semi-permanent place, Cole turned to follow Maxim out of the library through the narrow passage to the music room.

His hands were shaking with adrenaline, his heart pounding fast, but they had been lucky. Maxim was a little banged up, but nothing was broken, and he wasn’t sporting any major wounds.

The two of them quickly left the cabins behind for the wide-open decks above.

Soon they were both rising toward the surface.

Cole caught Maxim by the ankle, tugging him as a reminder that it was never a good idea to surface so quickly.

They needed to surface at the rate recommended by the dive tables.

Maxim obligingly slowed down, and for a moment, Cole and Maxim stared at one another in the clear blue beauty of the Mediterranean undersea world.

Cole didn’t regret freeing Maxim. Not for an instant. He was ashamed the ugly thought had even flashed through his mind, however briefly.

But there under the waves together, Cole knew something had changed. Something big. He simply didn’t know what, exactly, that change might mean for him and his objective.

Right then, he didn’t care. It was enough that they had both escaped unscathed.

Sometimes you lost the game but still had a chance to walk away. Today, Cole would gladly accept that and count himself lucky.