Page 16 of Pervade Montego Bay

Reaching out, I eased strands of wet hair away from her face. With a sweet expression, she spat out her snorkel and beamed at me with happiness.

“Look.” She opened her palm to reveal a shell. “To remember today.”

I avoided her stare.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I’m having fun.”

Only I was close to turning this day into one she’d not want to remember.

Her smile widened. “Thank you for bringing me out here.”

Damn it, why did she have to be so forgiving…

“I wonder if fish like music.” She peered down into the water and giggled.

My lips were drawn to hers and there was no way I could stop myself from kissing her. My hands wrapped around her waist and I held her suspended above water, my chest pressing her against the side of the boat, my feet treading water as I supported her easily. She opened her mouth wider and my tongue darted inside, searching and exploring. We could have been anywhere, because the world faded from existence when she was in my arms.

Yet she belonged to another man and this dawning realization made me feel like I was committing a sacrilege.

“I’m in love with you,” she blurted against my mouth.

I nipped her lip, trying to distract her.

A jet ski zoomed past us, disrupting our privacy. I went to yell at the teenager riding it, but he had already sped out of earshot.

I snapped my focus back to her. “Emily…”

“I know you still love Xavier,” she said. “I can tell when you’re thinking of him. You miss him.”

“He’s hard to forget.”

“Maybe you and me and him…”

“There can never be anus, Emily. You’re just a girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Why kiss me then?”

It had been impossible not to.

I had kissedhimlike that, too. In this very cove.

Then I’d done the unthinkable to him.

A rogue wave lifted and dropped us. I reached out to steady Emily. She grabbed the side of the boat. Calming a little, she brushed wet strands of hair out of her face, her nervous giggle endearing.

“You okay?”

She grinned.

“Do you want to go under again?”

“Why did you bring me here?”

I gave a careless shrug. “This is where I told Xavier I was sending him away.”

Her eyes filled with tears. “That’s why he left you?”

“He was going to be transferred to Washington.”