Amanda Stevens - Unauthorized Passion

Cassie stared at the bobbing fabric in dismay. Luckily, the extra padding kept it afloat.

* * *

“HO…LY…” JACK’S MUTTERING segued into a low whistle. He’d picked up his binoculars at precisely the right moment to catch a glimpse of a topless Celeste Fortune before she jumped into the water.

Stunned by the flash of skin, he quickly lowered the binoculars, warning himself that he was fast becoming little better than a Peeping Tom. But, pervert or not, he was also a red-blooded male with a half-naked woman in view. How the hell was he supposed to react to that? Ignore her? Look the other way?

He did what came naturally.

Adjusting his cap to keep the sun out of his eyes, he lifted the binoculars again and watched her strike out toward something blue that floated in the water several yards from her boat. Since he’d caught a glimpse of the same color before she hit the water, he assumed that it was her swimsuit top now drifting away on a current.

Man, could that girl swim.

For anyone else, that top would have been halfway to Mexico by now, but Celeste reached it easily. As she turned back to the boat, a wave caught and lifted her, and Jack was given another fortuitous peek before she struggled into her top.

Not bad.

Smaller than he would have thought from her pictures, but not bad at all. In fact, he’d say the view was pretty damn spectacular.

He would wait until she got back in the boat, then he’d make his move. He had it all planned. Every little detail. He would hail her, pretending to have engine trouble, and then when she offered him a ride—

A flare of bright light, followed by a loud boom, caught him off guard, and then the force of the blast knocked him back a step or two.

As Jack watched in horror, Celeste’s boat exploded in flames, and a moment later, the swell of water beneath the hull of his own boat pitched him forward. He had to grab on to the rail to keep from going overboard.

Bracing himself, he lifted the binoculars and stared at the spot in the water where he’d last seen her. He could find nothing now but bits of burning debris floating on the waves.

Sliding behind the wheel, he started the engine and turned the boat sharply, opening up the throttle as he headed for the flaming vessel. Circling the wreckage, he scanned the water, his heart like a drumbeat inside his chest. On his second pass around, he spotted her. She’d surfaced about fifty yards away, and when she saw him, she began to frantically hail him.

Easing back on the throttle, Jack brought the boat alongside her, then leaned over the edge to give her a hand up. She came slithering over the side like a frightened mermaid, all wet and slinky and golden.

If her breasts were smaller than he’d imagined, the rest of her was curvier. Not as lean and toned as in her movies, but sexy, nonetheless.

She wasn’t as drop-dead gorgeous, either, without the makeup and subtle lighting. The harsh glare of sunlight revealed a smattering of freckles across her nose and highlighted an unsightly bruise on her upper thigh. She wasn’t flawless by any stretch of the imagination.

Was he disappointed? Jack wasn’t sure. In some ways, it was a relief to know that she wasn’t quite as perfect as the image he’d seen on the big screen. Because nobody could live up to that.

He knelt beside her. “Are you all right?”

“I…think so. I don’t know what happened…” She lay in the bottom of the boat, not gracefully posed but with arms and legs sprawled all over the place.

Her breasts were barely hidden by her skimpy swimsuit top, and Jack tried to glance away. Honest. He did. But they were right there. Practically in his face. And he’d seen them, in all their glory, just moments ago.

Even though his sunglasses hid his eyes, she must have sensed the direction of his gaze because she quickly covered herself.

Gallantly, he whipped a shirt off the back of a seat and handed it to her. She accepted it gratefully, tugging it over her breasts and all the way down to her knees. Wrapping her arms around her legs, she sat trembling on the floor like a netted fish.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” he asked again.

She swiped a wet strand of hair from her face. “Yes, but…I don’t understand what…happened. One moment I was in the water…and the next thing I knew—” She broke off, her eyes going wide as she stared up at him.

Too late, Jack realized his cap had blown off during the rescue, revealing his shock of bleached hair.

She put fingertips to her lips. “You’re…him,” she said in wonder.

In a matter of seconds, Jack’s carefully laid plans had literally gone up in smoke, but he was nothing if not resourceful. He could improvise with the best of them. “Him?” Yeah, that was brilliant.

“I saw you at Metro. You were—” Beneath the beginnings of a sunburn, her face turned an even brighter shade of red. “What are you doing here?” she asked still in that same tone of awe.

So she’d recognized him, but at least she didn’t seem suspicious. That was a good sign, Jack decided. It gave him something to work with. “What am I doing here? I’m rescuing you. In case you didn’t notice, your boat just exploded. Lucky I decided to go fishing today.”

She pushed herself away from him as suspicion set in with a vengeance. “ Luck? Are you telling me this is some sort of coincidence?”

He hesitated, then decided to go with plan B. “Not exactly—”

“Oh, God, I think I’m going to be sick.” She crawled on all fours to the side of the boat. Then pulling herself up, she hung her head over the rail and retched noisily into the water until there was nothing left in her stomach.

Jack stood by helplessly, not quite certain what to do. The sight of the woman upchucking over the side of the boat was in such extreme contradiction to the woman on the silver screen. He couldn’t get over it.

But far from being repulsed, Jack had the utmost sympathy for her because he’d been in her position more than a few times. Usually by his own doing, but still…

He wet a towel in the water, then held it out to her as her dry heaves finally subsided. She collapsed weakly in the bottom of the boat, holding the towel to her face. “That must have been attractive.”

Jack grinned. “Just consider it your contribution to the Gulf’s ecological system. I’m sure the fish appreciate the effort.”

“That’s disgusting.” But she looked grateful that he’d decided to make light of an awkward situation. “I guess it just hit me all at once…how close I came to…” She shuddered violently. “If I hadn’t jumped in the water, I’d be dead right now.”

Jack had been thinking about that, too.

“How could something like that happen?” She pressed the wet towel to her forehead as she gazed up at him. “How could a boat just explode like that?”

Jack shrugged. “Could have been a fuel leak.” But he didn’t really believe that. He glanced up and quickly scanned the water. Attracted by the explosion, several boats raced toward them. Jack turned and surreptitiously pulled a .38 from his bag, then slipped it underneath a towel on the seat beside them.

The nearest boat, a maroon-and-white cabin cruiser similar to the one that had exploded, began to hail them. A moment later, the craft pulled alongside them. Jack kept his hand on the seat, mere inches from the .38.

“Anyone hurt?” a man called out.

“Everyone’s fine,” Jack said. “We think there may have been a fuel leak.”

“Hell of an explosion,” the newcomer observed. He had three passengers with him, two women and a man. They all gazed at the flaming wreckage in awe. “Anything we can do to help?”