his lips turning a strange shade of purple as his gaze moves over my face, assessing me. “It’s the only way we’re getting out of this water.”
“Oh, okay,” I say, barely able to move my arms as the ice water slows my blood to molasses, going uphill, on a winter day—in Canada.
His brow furrows. “Can you do this?”
I nod and, through chattering teeth, ask, “How…how…long does it take to freeze to death in this water?”
“I am not going to let you freeze to death, and something tells me you’re not the kind of girl to go down without a fight, anyway.” Despite the situation, his steady composure and belief in me calms my jagged nerves. It’s sad, but that’s about the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.
“Thank…thank you,” I say.
“You’re ready to get moving?”
“Yes.” Even though I’m not a strong swimmer, I kick my legs out. This might be easier without my Louboutins, but I don’t have time to unbuckle them, and let’s face it…Louboutins.
“Have…have you done this before?” I ask.
His head jerks my way, as we push through the choppy sea. “You mean fall off the rocks?”
“Ye…ye…yes.” I grow breathless, fast.
“No.” He pauses for a second. “Here.” He drags me to a jutting rock and holds me there to give me a minute to catch my breath.
“Thanks,” I say again and gulp air. “Maybe this wasn’t so bad.”
Water clings to his lashes as he blinks at me—like I’m insane. “Not so bad?”
“You did seem a little hot under the collar a bit ago. An icy swim was just the thing you needed to cool you down.” I’m not sure why I’m trying to get a smile out of him.
“What I’m hearing is that I should be thanking you.”
“Yup, and now your day will be all uphill from here.” I force my frozen lips into a smirk. “I probably should have said upstream. With us being in the water and all.”
This time he does laugh but takes in a mouth full of seawater while he does it. He coughs, clears his throat. “We need to stop talking and use our energy to swim again, okay?”
He scans my face a second time. Despite the frigid water, a measure of warmth races through me. His visual assessment, combined with the genuine worry marring his features, hits like a shot of determination and prompts me to shut up and swim faster.
“Okay,” I say. “Let’s do this.”
We head toward the boat, which has turned toward us, and even though he’s bigger and stronger and could get to the fishing vessel a whole lot faster than I can, he stays by my side, and for that I’m grateful.
A big wave splashes over my head, and it’s my turn to cough. But the slap to the face is a good reminder that I can’t let anything distract me. I blink to clear my blurry vision, and by the time I can see again, the boat has reached us.
“You two okay?” the captain of the vessel asks as he hauls us onboard. I reach the deck and nod, my teeth clanging too hard to talk.
My swim mate peels his shirt off, and for a second, I think I might have actually died in the ocean because ohmigod… His body is like a damn Plinko game. I could drop a quarter between his pectorals, and it’d hit all the hills and valleys as it made its way to the V leading to damp pants that hug his hard thighs.
“Take your clothes off,” he commands in a shaky voice as he continues to strip.
My gaze flies to his. Yeah, I might have been checking him out and got caught in the act, but I’m not about to get naked with him. Not with the captain watching, anyway.
Really, Alyson?
I plant a hand on my hip, but the effort of moving costs more than the effect I was going for. “Excuse me?”
“Clothes.” His icy fingers fumble with the button on his jeans. “Off.”
“Do what he says, lady,” the captain pipes in.
“Her name is Alyson, and I’m Jayden Andrews. My friends call me Jay,” the man says. A crewman comes up from below deck with blankets. “Listen, you need to get out of those clothes and get warmed up,” Jay adds in a softer tone.
“O…kay. Right. I…I wasn’t thinking. My brain is frozen.” I glance around. I’m not a prude, but getting undressed in front of these three men… I don’t know. It’s all weird. Then again, after the day