Page 6 of Joel (Guardians of the North #6)
JOEL
“You’re looking for The Esmerelda?” I ask, scanning the charts, pictures, and articles spread out across her bed. My gaze snags on a neon orange bikini tossed on her pillow and it almost distracts me from my initial question. Almost.
I’ve heard about the legendary pirate ship that may or may not have sunk off the coast of North Haven over a century ago. Everyone around here has.
It’s a legend .
A tragically romantic story that the locals love telling tourists. A pirate who’d spent too much time on the sea in search of his big score finally on the way home to his true love in North Haven. Except he hit an iceberg and sank with the treasure before he could reach her. Or so the story goes.
No one has ever found the wreckage.
It’s a myth.
“I’m not just looking for it, Joel.” She holds out her hand, uncurling her tightly tucked fingers. In her palm sits a worn gold coin with markings I’ve never seen before. But it looks old, and dare I say, real .
“I found it.”
“You’re kidding.”
She shakes her head. “To be honest, I almost wish I was.”
It’s the heaviness in her tone that trips me up. She doesn’t sound excited. She sounds…weighed down.
“Kylie, what’s going on?”
“If I tell you, will you promise not to arrest me?”
“Arrest you? I’m not?—”
“What I’m doing is…illegal.” She clears the bed, setting everything but the bikini on the desk. When she bends over, I get a glimpse of her bare ass. Is she…naked under that shirt? Focus, Joel.
She turns to me, those amber eyes filled with pleading.
It occurs to me that she could probably get anything she wanted from me if she just pinned me in place with those beautiful orbs.
Her hard nipples poke through the cotton fabric, confirming her nakedness beneath her shirt.
Yeah, she could warp me around her little finger with very little effort.
“If you’re willing to listen, I’m willing to tell you. Everything .”
About to take a seat on the edge of the bed, I realize my swim trunks are still damp. “I don’t want to get your bed wet.” Just you, sweetheart.
“I’d offer to take them off, but we should probably clear the air first,” she says, her words a gentle tease despite the tension that’s clearly hanging between us. “Let me get you a towel.”
“Why?” I ask.
“Why am I getting you a towel? Or why am I not ridding you of your shorts altogether?”
I let out a laugh. I can’t help it. Fuck, I love her sense of humor.
“Why are you telling me any of this?” I ask.
“Because I’m tired, Joel. So fucking tired.” I sit down on the towel she spreads on the edge of the bed, and she sits down beside me, her thigh brushing mine. Skin on skin.
My dick starts to harden, and it takes every ounce of willpower I have to focus on anything but the electric current the contact is creating between us so I don’t go full mast beside her.
“I’m listening.”
“Ten years ago, my mom married Todd Mercer, and my life hasn’t been the same since.”
I stay quiet as Kylie tells me everything about her treasure hunting life, borrowing money from her stepfather for college so she could pursue a marine biology degree, and the way the asshole has a stranglehold on her now because of that loan.
She tells me how he used to be a great guy, but how greed and getting mixed up with the wrong people has changed him.
Her mom divorced him, but Kylie is stuck until her debt is paid in full.
It’s caused a complete strain on her relationship with her mom, and they haven’t talked in years.
“This is the last treasure hunt I owe him, and I’m free.”
“He sent you to Alaska, by yourself, to dive for a treasure no one has ever confirmed even exists?” To this day, no one has verified The Esmerelda ever actually sank this close to North Haven.
Most believe the wreckage is lost somewhere, a hundred miles or more from shore.
It’s been dismissed as legend. And somehow, this curvy beauty dove into frigid water—by herself—and retrieved proof that everything we thought we knew was wrong.
“I usually have a partner, but?—”
“You could have died , Kylie.”
The rage inside me is sudden and intense.
I don’t know who this asshole stepfather is, but he better fucking pray I never meet him.
Who the hell sends a young woman out on the Bering Sea by herself ?
And the fact that he rented a skiff from Gus Thorton only angers me further.
He’s the cheapest one to rent from at the marina in North Haven, but it’s because his boats are barely to code.
I make a mental note to make a call about a surprise inspection.
“I didn’t die,” she says, her smile sweet. “You saved me.”
I know she means to lighten the mood, but I’m too wound up.
“The Bering Sea is not for the faint of heart. Seasoned fishermen get lost at sea. I know you’re a badass, but it’s fucking dangerous.
” I reach my hand to her thigh and squeeze.
“And make no mistake. I may have given you a lift back to shore, but you saved yourself. You’re the strongest, bravest woman I’ve ever met Kylie Robinson. ”
A blush heats her neck, and suddenly I’m reminded of the bikini on the pillow. A bikini I would be untying in my hot tub right now had her piece of shit stepfather not killed the mood with his utter selfishness.
“That is my real name,” she says. “In case you were wondering.”
“I wasn’t.”
“So what now?” she asks, her gaze locked on my hand.
I should move it away, but the damn thing seems cemented in place. As though my eager fingers are determined to find out what is or is not beneath her T-shirt.
“Are you obligated to report me?”
“I’m not reporting you, Kylie.”
“You’re not?”
“No.” Todd Mercer? Now that’s another thing.
But it’s nothing Kylie needs to worry about.
I would go to the ends of the earth to protect her.
Keep her safe. The last fucking thing I’m doing is letting her go down for something she was forced into doing.
“Your secret is safe with me. On one condition.”
“Does it involve a hot tub?” she asks, the sparkle returning to her eyes.
“Correction. Two conditions.”
“What’s the first?”
I reach my hand to her neck, turning her face toward mine. It’s not lost on me that we’re in a hotel room, on her bed. But I won’t do anything she doesn’t want to do. And after having to deal with her asshole stepfather tonight, I suspect she’ll need time to decompress.
“You don’t go back to look for the treasure. Not alone. It’s too dangerous, Kylie.”
She licks her lips, distracting me for a moment.
“Kylie?”
“Okay,” she says, her word a mere whisper. There’s turmoil in those amber orbs I wish I could wrestle for her.
“I mean it, Kylie.”
“I know,” she says, letting out a heavy sigh. “It’s just Todd…”
“Do you trust me?” I ask.
“I just told you about my illegal treasure heist plot,” she says, letting out a gentle laugh. “Is that not proof enough?”
I could kiss her.
I want to kiss her.
So I do.
I lift her chin, meeting her lips halfway. When I imagined our first kiss earlier, it was a savage, hungry kiss. One where she’d be in my lap grinding on my cock as I devoured her pretty mouth. One hand on her throat, the other gripping her plump, perfect ass.
But this kiss is the opposite.
It’s a sensual promise that I’m not going to abandon her no matter what. That I’ll protect her at all costs. Even if that means risking my military career to do it.
The kiss deepens, and Kylie lets out a soft moan against my parted lips.
“Joel?” She says my name in a gentle whisper, pulling back.
“Yes, sweetheart?”
Her hand slides from my shoulder to my elbow, her touch blazing a trail of heat in its wake. “Would it be okay if we postponed our hot tub date?”
“Of course.” I press a kiss to her forehead and start to rise from the bed. But she reaches for my wrist, capturing it before I fully stand. “Did you need something else?”
“I know it’s a lot to ask after everything I just told you, but will you stay with me tonight?”
“Why is a lot to ask?”
“Because I’m not really in a place for…”
“You think I’d only stay if there was sex?”
“Well, yeah. And I get it?—”
“Though I know we’d both thoroughly enjoy making each other come, it’s not all about sex, Kylie.” I thread my fingers with hers. I may not fully understand what’s happening here, but it’s become undeniable that what I feel for Kylie goes beyond lust. “I’ll stay, sweetheart.”