In Hot Pursuit (15 page)

"Sorry,
this is as far as I go," Nellie said. "But maybe the boundaries could
include talking about our fantasies, as long as we don't act on them."

"What made
you come up with that idea?" Will asked. The fantasy he was having was
definitely X-rated, and what Nellie was doing with her finger was making him
rise up to meet it.

"Being
alone in that big bed with thoughts no decent woman should have," Nellie
replied.

Will laughed
lightly. "Yeah, well, I know what you mean. To keep myself awake tonight
I've been thinking about all the X-rated things I want to do with you. It
worked. There's no way in hell that part of me you're steering clear of is
going to settle down tonight, at least not without some serious
attention."

Nellie giggled
and moved her hand under his shirt to rest on the bare flesh below his ribcage.
"Is this better?" she asked.

Will kissed her
on the cheek then whispered into her ear, "Not better. Just safer."

"So, what
indecent things were you thinking about?" Nellie asked, snuggling closer.

Will grinned.
"Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yes,"
Nellie replied. She tipped her head up and kissed him on the chin. "I
admit I'm goading you into revealing your fantasies, but I've been lying awake
in bed with my own, and I want them to become a reality, if only vicariously
through our words."

Will arched a
brow. "Well, since you insist… I was thinking about how much I wanted to
strip off all your clothes and mine, and stretch out with you on that big berth
in your stateroom, and explore every forbidden inch of your beautiful naked
body until you were writhing in ecstasy and tingling in places you never knew
existed. And after you're completely satisfied and smiling like the Cheshire
cat, I'll lay back and let you do whatever your wayward mind can conjure up,
and I hope it includes a lot of very close attention to the big ugly beast,
who's straining at his binds to be free. So, now it's your turn to tell me your
fantasies." He gave her a wicked grin. "And you can be as X-rated as
you want."

Nellie laughed.
"They're pretty naughty."

"I'm
listening."

"Well, my
fantasy started out pretty much like yours, but when it came to my turn, you'd
be stretched out on your back, naked as the day you were born, and I'd be
sitting up so I could see what I was doing. I'd start with a hands-on study of
your chest and concentrate on all the little sensitive areas. Then I'd give
some serious attention to your belly button before checking out that little
line of hair that makes its way down your tummy, which would obviously bring my
attention to the big ugly beast, which I suspect is really not ugly at all, but
very appealing in a perverted way. I'd spend quite a bit of time with him actually,
teasing him, stroking him, taming him, and giving some attention to his two
round jowls. And if I was satisfied that everything was in working order, I'd
straddle you and prove to myself that it was."

Will groaned.
"To hell with boundaries." He pulled her into his arms and covered
her mouth with his, and while his tongue dueled with hers, one hand came up to
palm her breast while the other pressed against her spine, wanting to be
closer. Needing to be closer, to be one with her. Moans of sensual pleasure
reverberated from Nellie's throat, and as the kiss deepened, Nellie moved her
hand down his belly and slipped it beneath his sweats...

Through the
chaos of his mind, Will heard the depth finder bleeping.…

They
immediately broke apart, and Will focused on the display again, where he saw
that the
Isadora
had drifted
precariously close to the shallows at the edge of the channel. He gave the
wheel several quick turns, pulling the
Isadora
back on course, and said, "So Eve tempted Adam with her luscious fruit, and
Adam grounded the ship. That was pretty close—" he arched a brow "—in
more ways than one."

"I'm
sorry," Nellie said. "I never should have distracted you up here. And
I can see that boundaries won't work with us." When Will didn’t respond,
Nellie saw that his eyes were fixed on the radar, and the look on his face was
intense. "It’s those two vessels, isn't it?" she said. "You
really do think they're following us."

"Maybe,"
Will replied. "I’ll keep an eye on them. And you’d better go back to bed."

"What about
you? When are you going to sleep?" Nellie asked.

"I'm okay
for a while," Will replied. 'When we anchor in Beaver Bay, I'll sleep for
a couple of hours. Maybe you’ll let me stretch out on that nice long berth of
yours and we can finish the job you started. You have a nice touch. We were
about a millisecond away from some serious action when the depth finder
bleeped."

"We we're
also being way too careless again," Nellie said. "If the depth finder
hadn't gone off, we could have ended up on the floor, making a lot of animal
noises, and Mike could have found us there and that would be kind of hard to
explain away." Bracing her hand on Will's arm, she kissed him on the jaw,
and said, "Good night, Will. I hope you're not too uncomfortable."

"I
am," Will replied, "but it will keep me awake. Good night,
babe." After Nellie descended the ladder, Will focused on the radar screen
again. One of the boats was closing in fast.

***

Nellie awakened
to the sound of engines reversing and opened her eyes to the pale blue-gray
light of dawn. Glancing at her watch, she saw that it was not yet six. She
dragged herself out of bed, dressed in flannel sweats and a hooded sweat shirt,
and went to look for Will, intercepting him as he was climbing down from the
bridge to the salon. "You must be half dead," she said.

"I'm on
remote right now," Will replied, heading through the salon for the deck.
"But I'm sure I'll crash in a few minutes."

Through the
salon window Nellie watched
Will
operate the levers of
the hydraulic winch that lowered the anchor, then he returned to the bridge and
cut the engines. When he crawled down the ladder again, Nellie saw, from the
droop of
his mouth and the redness in his eyes, how tired
he was. "Do you want breakfast before you sleep?" she asked.

Will gave her a
weary little smile. "No. I'll catch some sleep first, but I don't want to
sleep more than a couple of hours," he added. "And if any of those
boats come near us—" he pointed toward the array of fishing boats dotting
the water "—get me up immediately."

Nellie looked
at him with apprehension. "You think we've been followed, don't you?"

Will studied
the boats in the distance, which seemed to be anchored, and said, "Yeah.
There's a good chance. Two boats trailed us all night, but early this morning,
other boats appeared on the screen. I don't want to take any chances
though." Stifling another yawn, he kissed her lightly on the lips and
wandered into her stateroom and closed the door.

Forty-five
minutes later, Nellie called Mike to a breakfast of eggs, dry cereal and toast.

Mike glanced at
the vacant spot where Will usually sat, then settled questioning eyes on
Nellie, and said, "Where's Mr. Edenshaw?"

Nellie gave him
a nervous smile. "He's sleeping."

"No he's
not," Mike said. "I just left my cabin."

"He's in...
my stateroom," Nellie said, hesitantly, then added quickly, "He was
up all night running the boat—he had to go through the narrows between Campbell
River and here—and he can't fit in the berth in your cabin very well so I told
him he could use my berth since I'm not using it right now and he's very tired
from being up all night and he didn't want to disturb you in your berth and
besides you usually turn on your Walkman when you get up and I was afraid you’d
wake him up if he managed to get to sleep and—"

"Geez,
Mom," Mike broke in. "I don't need a sermon. Besides, I never said
anything."

Nellie realized
she had been going on, but she didn't want Mike to jump to any conclusions.
"I just want you to be quiet," she commented. "Will was up all
night driving the boat."

Mike nibbled on
a strip of bacon and took a bite of toast, then glanced through the porthole
and asked, "Where are we?"

Nellie set a
bowl with a soft-boiled egg in front of Mike, and replied, "Beaver
Bay."

Mike looked at
her, curious. "How come we left Campbell River? I thought we were gonna
stay there all night."

"Will
decided to keep going so you could see the whales sooner," Nellie replied.

After a long
stretch of silence, Mike's brows pulled together, and he asked, "Did you
go through my dresser drawers?"

Nellie looked
at him, puzzled. "No, why would I do that?"

Mike shrugged.
"You did the time Ernie and I had the magazine."

"Well, I
didn’t this time," Nellie said. "But what makes you think someone
did?"

"Everything
was all messed up, and my scout knife’s gone."

Nellie set a
glass of orange juice in front of Mike. "Maybe Will was looking for
something and the knife slipped out of the drawer and got misplaced."

"No,"
Mike said, "he hadn’t even been in the cabin yet. It was right after we
got back from town when I saw that things were all messed up."

Nellie looked
at Mike in alarm. "Are you sure you put your knife in the drawer? Maybe
you only thought you did."

"I know I
did," Mike insisted. "It was right on top of everything."

"Maybe it
slipped down to the bottom," Nellie said.

Mike shook his
head. "I emptied everything out. It's not there."

"Well...
finish your breakfast," Nellie said, alarmed that someone had clearly been
looking for something. Yet, nothing of value seemed to be missing. Will had thousands
of
dollars worth
of sonar and other equipment aboard,
but it wasn't touched.

"What
about my knife?" Mike asked.

"I don't
know," Nellie replied. "I have no explanation."

Mike mopped up
the yolk of his soft-boiled egg with his toast, chewed thoughtfully, and said,
"You and Mr. Edenshaw were talking last night about the door to the boat
being open. Maybe someone came aboard and took my knife."

Nellie gave
Mike a tight smile. "Don’t worry, honey. We'll get another knife when we
get back. Now, finish your breakfast."

"But if
you or Mr. Edenshaw didn’t go through my dresser, then someone else did.
Everything was real messed up." Mike fixed his eyes on her and waited for
a reply.

Nellie
shrugged, and said, "Your drawers are always messed up."

"But I know
everything was straight before we left because I… uh… took everything out and
put it in my backpack in case I decided to… well, you know. But I put it all
back real neat like, so you wouldn’t know. But it’s a mess now."

"Maybe
some neighborhood kids, who were up to no good, came aboard looking for iPods
and pocket knives and CD players and things like that," Nellie said.
"Don’t worry. I’m sure it’s nothing. And we will get you another knife the
first chance we get."

After Mike left
the galley, Nellie deliberated over what he’d said, not about the missing knife
and messed up dresser, but that he’d put everything in his backpack
in case he decided to
… Clearly, he still
had it in his head to run away. And up in the wheelhouse, less than four hours
ago, she and Will were doing precisely what it was that would give Mike the
impetus to carry out his threat. And she, not Will, had been the one to start
things. But now, with Mike's threat still an issue, setting boundaries just got
easy. No relationship. No boundaries. It was as simple as that.

Two hours
later, she went into her stateroom to awaken Will and found him stretched on
the bed, shirt off, one arm flopped over his eyes, and the sheet tangled around
his waist. He looked so peaceful she decided to give him a few more minutes to
sleep, which she’d use to check her own belongings. After what Mike told her,
she wanted to see if anything of hers was missing.

Quietly she
tiptoed to the locker and pulled open the door and was shocked to find her
clothes shoved to the side, some hanging askew.

"You don't
have to be quiet," Will said. "I'm awake." He dragged himself to
a sitting position and leaned back against the headboard.

Nellie told him
about Mike's missing knife and messy drawer, then opened the door to the locker,
and said, "As you can see, whoever came aboard went through my closet as
well. But there doesn't seem to be anything missing."

Will’s brows
gathered. "Well, if it's the guy from the marina, he's very selective, not
your run-of-the-mill burglar. There's lots of expensive equipment he could have
taken and didn't," Will verbalized Nellie's thoughts of earlier.
"We'll just have to wait and see what happens."

"What if
he comes on board again?" Nellie said, anxious at the thought of facing a
man with a gun, maybe others as well, yet not knowing what they wanted with
them. With her, she corrected, with a sinking feeling. She'd been the one
followed from Oregon, so it wasn't Will they were after.

"He'll
have me to deal with," Will said. "I don't plan to leave the
boat." He took Nellie’s arm and pulled her to him, but before he could
kiss her, she braced her hand on his chest and said, "Last night was a
mistake. It absolutely can't happen again." She had just turned to leave
when they heard Mike yell,
"They're
out there... the whales!"

They rushed
onto the deck to join Mike. Off the starboard bow, the dorsal fins of several
orca cut through the water as the animals circled in unison. Will motioned for
Nellie and Mike to stay quiet. "Give me a few minutes to set things
up," he said, "and we'll see if we can get them to come over."
He dragged his boxes of sonar equipment across the deck. Plugging the
headphones into the console, he lowered the hydrophone and amplifier into the
water, and a few minutes later, the hydrophone began picking up clicks and
high-pitched squeal-like calls. Then the sound of heavy breathing seemed to
dominate all.