The Treasure Hunters (6 page)

“Then you simply didn’t have enough
money.”

His lips compressed together at her
words, but a second later he raised one hand and brushed his knuckles lightly
down her cheek. Goose bumps danced across her skin and her nipples tightened
into hard little buds. She felt her sex grow damp again. What was it about this
man that pulled at her senses? He was handsome and masculine and yes, he
appealed to all her feminine fantasies. But it was like her body came alive
whenever he was near, and that’d never happened to her before.

“You’re very beautiful.”

“So are you,” she replied and then
bit her lip.

She was locked into his gaze, into
a fathomless world that promised heaven. It called to that part of her that was
crying out for her to be brave, the part that was pushing her forward into this
crazy idea of looking for some long-lost treasure. She wanted to kiss him, to
see how he tasted. Would he be shocked? Would he push her away? Somehow she
didn’t think he would.

Gathering her courage, she reached
up to curl her fingers into his cotton shirt and pulled him close. Caught off
guard, his eyes widened in shock before she stood up on her toes and crashed
her lips against his.

She was no stranger to kissing. She
was twenty-two after all, and had wanted to see what all the hype had been
about. Kisses had always been pleasant, but this? This stole her breath and
turned her world upside down.
 

Ruby pulled back and they looked at
each other wide-eyed. She knew he had felt it too, that strange electricity
that arced between them whenever they were close. The kiss had only intensified
it. She let go of him and turned away, hurrying to where Merridie and Eden
slept, beyond skittish from the feelings coursing through her body.

****

Sin watched her leave, grimacing as
he reached down to adjust his hard-on. Bloody hell, the last thing he ever
expected was to get a perpetual
stiffy
for a Yank,
although she was so beautiful he could barely take his eyes off her. She had
guts, gumption, and brains, which made for a lethal combination on his sanity.

Asia stepped next to him, and he
dragged his attention from the door she’d just gone through.

“I know,” he said to the big man. “This
is, perhaps, the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”

Asia shrugged.

“Listen, I completely understand
your hesitation in going along with this harebrained treasure hunt,” he
continued. “My cock might have been doing the talking for me when I agreed.”

Asia gave him a
no shit
look.

“But if we
do
find a treasure? Well, that changes everything, Asia. We’ve got
nothing to lose.”

Chapter Six

Ruby must have fallen asleep
because the next thing she knew, Merridie and Eden were banging the galley
cupboards.

“Morning,” Eden greeted cheerfully.
“Or I should say, afternoon.”

Ruby glanced out the cabin windows
trying to gauge the position of the sun. “What time is it?”

“Almost two,” Merridie answered. “We
just woke up, as well. Now we’re trying to find something to eat.”

The door opened and Sin stepped in,
followed by the big black man from last night. For a moment, the five of them
simply stared at one another. Ruby’s eyes met Sin’s briefly, before sliding
away as heat engulfed her face.

“I hope you don’t mind we’re in
your kitchen,” Eden said.

“Galley,” Ruby and Sin said at the
same time. They glanced at each other again. When their gazes met she had the
feeling of falling, although she knew she hadn’t moved a muscle.

“If you know how to cook then the
galley is yours,” Sin replied, turning to smile at Eden. “Partners, I would
like to introduce you to Asia, my crew and only friend. Asia, this is Merridie,
Eden and Ruby.”

Asia inclined his head in greeting
but he didn’t say anything. Ruby didn’t know quite what to make of him, and it
seemed like Merridie didn’t either. He was really, really big and the lack of any
softness in his face made him seem even fiercer. Eden, however, walked right up
to him and smiled.

“What part of Asia are you from?”
she asked with wide blue eyes.

Asia stared down at her. He stood
at least a foot taller and looked like he could stomp her like a bug. Ruby
didn’t think he was going to answer when, much to her surprise, he said in a clear,
strong voice: “Brooklyn.”

“So Asia and I have been talking,
and he wants to give any one of you of his bunk. It’s the second door on the
right. He’s volunteered to be night helmsman, so he’ll be sleeping through the
day.”

“Thank you, Asia,” Ruby said.

The man only nodded to her and then
headed to his room. Ruby realized he must need to get some sleep now if he was
going to be up and about all night.

“So let’s take another look at that
map,” Sin replied.

Merridie pulled it out of the bag
and rolled it out. Sin disappeared for a moment and came back out with a
journal and a pencil and handed them over to her.

“The
Sweenys
are made up of three islands,” Sin said as he bent over the piece of leather. “This
map shows only one. So which one do you think it is?”

Merridie tapped an almost
indecipherable scrawl in the corner. “You’re the captain. What longitude and latitude
does this tell you?”

Sin went back to his bedroom and
came back with a modern map and began to draw the coordinates. “Looks like the
middle island. Shit.”

Ruby’s eyebrows shot up. “What’s
wrong?”

“That passageway is hell,” he said.
“Very rocky.
I don’t know if I want to chance the
Paradise
going through it.”

“Can we bypass the channel?” Ruby
asked.

“We can swing around the first
island.
Might take us an extra day.”

“Okay,” Ruby agreed. “We can take
an extra day. I’d rather do that then hurt your boat.”

“Then our course is set,” he said
with a smile.

****

That night Eden and Merridie made
dinner for them and Ruby volunteered to clean up. Asia went topside to be the
night helmsman and Sin sat with the girls, playing cards. She could’ve warned
him against sitting next to Eden, but decided it would be more entertaining
when he realized his wallet was gone.

Eden and Merridie laughed, and it
was a much-missed sound. It felt a like a long time since Joyce’s party, the
last time where they had really let loose and had fun. So much had changed in
the past two months. Somehow, it didn’t feel a bit like Christmas.
 
New York City would be a blanket of snow and
ice and here they were, near the equator feeling the warmth.

“Okay, everyone ante up,” Merridie said
as she shuffled the deck.

Eden promptly laid a leather wallet
on the table. Ruby saw Sin’s eyes narrow right before he touched his pocket. Finding
it empty, he snatched it up and looked at it.

Ruby couldn’t help but snicker.

****

Logic told her that it was stupid
to trust Captain Sinclair
Dardon
. They were strangers
thrown together by fate, and yet, Ruby found herself relaxing in his presence. He
would smile, or laugh, and she’d find herself grinning right along with him,
each hour on the boat cementing
their own
little
world. It almost made her forget the reason why they were on the
Paradise
.

But she’d see him watching the
horizon behind them, looking over the ocean as if he was waiting for someone. It
made her nervous as well as reminded her that Sin was a man they didn’t really
know.

At night they’d play cards, or
charades, or something else that had him rolling his eyes. But as much as he’d
groan, he’d play along with whatever game they chose. After that first night,
he always sat next to her, and Ruby couldn’t help but be hyper-aware of his
knee touching hers. Of his body heat, warming up her
own.
. . the brush of his fingers against her arm. The touches drove her crazy, and
yet, she craved more. Sin was fast becoming an addiction.

****

The next day they were due to
arrive at the Sweeny Islands, but Ruby awoke to dark skies and a rocking boat. Through
the day, she helped on deck. When Asia appeared for his shift, she went down
into the cabin and found Merridie swinging in his hammock. She was studying the
map.

“I was checking to see if you were
sill
alive in here,” Ruby said.

“I’ve made a lot of progress on
decoding this thing,” Merridie answered. “There are some parts that are just a
jumble of gibberish. Some of this I won’t understand until we’re right there
looking at it.”

She held out the journal and Ruby
read through the notes quickly. Merridie rubbed her tired eyes.

“The map gives solutions to tasks
we’ll have to face, the first being the protectors followed by flying through
the eye,” she said through a yawn.

“I don’t get it,” Ruby replied as
she shut the journal and handed it back to Merridie, who slipped it and the map
back into her bag.

“Well, I’m hoping that’s one thing
that becomes clearer when we get there.”

“We’re almost to the island,” Ruby
said. “Why don’t you get some rest?”

“Okay,” Merridie replied. She lay
back in the hammock. The rocking of the boat made the hammock sway like a
cradle and she instantly relaxed in slumber.

Ruby pulled a blanket over her and
exited out of the room. Eden was asleep on the cushioned bench, making cute
little snoring noises. When she stepped outside on deck, the boat pitched
sharply to the left and she caught herself.

Sin stood at the rear of the ship,
his eye glued to a telescope as he studied the dark, rolling waters around
them.

“What are you always looking for?”
she asked.

“A ghost.”

“What type of ghost?”

He didn’t answer, and for a moment,
she thought he wouldn’t say a word. Then he ran a hand through his hair.

“The past has a way of catching up.
No matter how far you run, it’s a shadow that’s always attached.”

“That sounds like a guilty conscience
talking.”

“No, far from it.
I have no problem sleeping at night. But that doesn’t mean a nightmare isn’t
following.”

Ruby looked out at sea, trying to
catch a glimpse of the nightmare chasing Sin, but only the rolling horizon
stretched out in infinity.

“Ruby,” Sin said and she turned
back toward him. He reached up and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear
before gently tracing a finger down her cheek. “How did you pick my boat?”

“Perhaps divine
intervention?”

He smiled.
“Perhaps.”

His head dipped lower, his eyes
focused on her lips, and she knew he was going to kiss her. Out here, amid the
great vastness of the ocean, his mouth possessed hers and she instantly forgot
about everything. His arms curled around her, holding her against his strong
body, pressing every glorious inch of himself against her.

She gasped when she felt his
hardness nestled against her belly.

His kiss deepened immediately, his
tongue sweeping into her mouth to lay claim. There wasn’t any hesitation, no
coy reserve left at all. He wanted her and she wanted him so she opened for
him, her tongue meeting and dancing with his. He withdrew and plunged, nibbled
and devoured, until she was breathless.

A raindrop splattered on her face,
rousing her from her kissing stupor. Sin broke the kiss to look upward. The sky
was dark, the sea was choppy, and Ruby became all too aware of how the boat
suddenly bucked beneath their feet.

“Why don’t you get below, Ruby? This
is going to be fierce.” The heavens suddenly burst open and rain pelted them. “Go,
now. I don’t want to worry about you.”

She hesitated for a moment. She
didn’t want to worry about him either. Their gazes clashed, locked, and he bent
his head to capture her mouth with his once more. The kiss was electric,
shooting through her body with a current that zapped all her good sense. Her
arms crept around his neck as he pulled her body firmly into his, and that was
when she felt how big he was all over. He was hard and he pushed his hips into
hers and knowing his cock was hard for her did odd things to her equilibrium.

Or
was that the ship
?

The deck beneath their feet shifted
and Sin broke the kiss with a curse as he flung out an arm to steady them. Ruby
was suddenly scared because it had only been a few minutes since the rain
started. The waves shouldn’t be tossing them around like this so soon.

“The strait is pulling us in.
Ruby, get below!”

“Put on your life jacket!” she
yelled. Suddenly, the sky lit with a crack of lightning.

“Go!” he ordered and pushed her
toward the stairs. “Check on Eden and Merridie!”

She did so, only because he was
right. She had to check in on them because they wouldn’t know what was going
on. She saw Asia’s hulking frame by the wheel, and Sin making his way toward
him. By the time she stood in the galley, she was soaked. The ship rocked
again, causing Eden to roll off the bench.

“Ouch!” she cried as she pushed to
her feet.

Merridie came barging out of the
back. “What the hell is going on?”

“A storm,” Ruby answered, already
moving the bench Eden had just been on. She tossed off the cushions. She lifted
the wooden top and pulled out three life jackets. “Put these on!”

She tossed one to each girl before
hurriedly slipping hers over her head and tying it tightly. Then she made to go
back up on deck.

Merridie grabbed her arm. “Where
are you going?”

“I need to help Sin.”