Passionate Choice

Chapter 6.3

   "I'll dive with you this morning, show you where wreck is and we'll see if we can get inside it." Keith continued.

   "But Heather has come to make sure you don't dive," Selena exclaimed.

   "I don't really see how she can stop me," he drawled. "Do you?"

   "She said she'll report you to the government of the islands and also the authority which issued your diving license."

   "So what?" He shrugged. "I'll report her and Hunt for piracy."

   "Piracy? But what evidence have you got? What have they stolen?"

   "Wait until you've been with me to that wreck," he murmured leaning his head close to hers, his hair touching hers, his lips very close to her cheek. "I bet seeing Bill Davis shook you up."

   "Oh, it did." She moved a little along the rail away from him, sending a quick glance up at the wheelhouse. When he came after her and leaned close to her again, she whispered, "Keith, please don't come so near. Heather is watching."

   "Let her watch." He rubbed his cheeks against hers. "You smell good in the morning, Selena. I bet you taste good, too." His lips nibbled her cheek.

   "I... you... told me yesterday that you didn't care for cheats," she pointed out as he put an arm around her waist.

   "I know I did. That was how I felt yesterday about you. Today, I feel differently. I realized in the night that I only pushed you away from me yesterday afternoon on account of the poor old professor. But why should I deny myself some pleasure if you're willing? Why should I worry about him being cheated when you obviously don't care a hang whether you cheat him or not?" His voice soft and deep, had an unpleasant undercurrent of contempt.

   "Wait, wait. Listen to me, please." She oushrd his hand away from her waist and while facing him, backed away from him. "Last night, I told Ben that I had met you before and that I spent some time cruising with you. I told him because well, because I was finding pretending too much of a strain and also, I suppose, because I couldn't have Bill Davis coming back and saying that he had remembered where he had met me before after he had seen you yesterday evening. He did remember me when he saw you, didn't he?"

   "He sure did. That was why I kept him with me for the rest of the evening. I warned him you wouldn't like it if he spilled the Ben's about you and me in front of Hunt and Heather." He stepped close to her again. In the breeze created by the passage of the ship, his sun-streaked hair lifted and his eyes were blue flames. "So you came clean with Hunt. Was he upset, as you expected?"

   "Not is much as I had expected. He said it wouldn't change anything, wouldn't change how he feels about me. We're still going to be married when we return to England."

   "I see." The words hissed softly between his teeth. No longer ablaze with desire, his eyes were icy.

   "Now you and I won't have to pretend we don't know each other," she went on.

   "Then let's celebrate, shall we?" Too quick for her, he scooped her into his arms and kissed her hard and thoroughly. Unprepared for such an attack, her lips responded to the rough, rather contemptuous pressure of his. Her hands clutching his arms to push him away and yet to hold him at the same time, she kissed him back vigorously, giving in to her frustrated desire to be close to him and make love with him.