9780373277865

Summary

A man-only, much more powerful... ...rescues filmmaker Sunny Jordan from certain death on the high seas. Someone wants her dead, but her mysterious savior, Aiden McKay, seems intent on guarding her life-and keeping his emotions at a distance. Sunny never imagines the sexual chemistry involved in being saved by a godlike man, a chemistry the man seems determined to ignore. He has secrets about who he is and how he can navigate oceans with the ease of an underwater killer. Swept up in an adventure, Sunny falls hard for this man whose love runs deep but is potentially deadly....

Ankle deep in salt water, Sunny Jordan stared in dismay at the silent diesel engine in her boat
It was dead, and all her plans were dead in the water with it
An urge to cry washed over her
Her documentary film was dead, her goal of exposing the more egregious operators in the commercial fishing industry was dead
She didn't dare think about the porpoises and sharks and sea turtles that would die without her expose to rouse the public to save them
She yanked the hand starter on the bilge pump
At least it coughed to life, and sluggishly began to suck in water and spit it overboard
The New Dawn had a slow leak somewhere, but she'd been unable to locate it so far
Wearily, she closed the engine cover and slogged over to the ladder
She climbed through the cramped cabin that contained all her worldly possessions and up on deck to stare at the horizon
A slow, three-hundred-sixty-degree check revealed nothing but water and more water stretching away to infinity along the earth's faint curve
No wonder ancient sailors thought it was possible to sail off the edge of the world
Not the smallest bump of land or even another boat marred the smooth line of the horizon
She was marooned in the middle of nowhere-literally
If she had half a brain she'd be worrying about her own life and not the helpless little fishies below
But no one had ever accused her of being overly bright when it came to matters of self-preservation
She ducked inside and turned up the volume on the UHF radio
Static crackle filled the tiny space
She checked her position near the junction of the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, not too far south of the Yemeni archipelago of Suqutra
She jotted down the location coordinates off her GPS before picking up the microphone
"This is the New Dawn requesting assistance. My engine has failed and I need a tow. I am currently located at eleven degrees, twenty-five minutes, thirty-six seconds north latitude and fifty-four degrees, four minutes, seven seconds east longitude"
She repeated the message twice more
Now she simply had to wait
Despite its desolate appearance, this stretch of water was crisscrossed by plentiful shipping lanes and fishing grounds
And it was the rule of the sea that any ship who heard a distress call must respond to it
Nobody might own these international waters, and nations might fight like dogs over them, but sailors stuck together
The sun set in a brilliant splash of crimson and faded into the violet hues of twilight without anyone responding to her periodic radio calls
As the utter blackness of night at sea fell around her, she sighed and settled down to wait out a long, uncomfortable night
She needed to preserve her battery for radio calls and had turned off all unnecessary equipment, which meant no air conditioner or even an electric fan for her tonight
She must have dozed off because the stars had wheeled around in the sky overhead and the night was balmy when she blinked her eyes open
The New Dawn bobbed on light swells, pulling against the sea anchor she'd deployed to keep from drifting too far from her reported position
A faint rumbling caught her attention
She looked about eagerly for the running lights of her rescuer and gasped as a massive black shape loomed off her port side
The sharp point of a ship's prow was bearing directly down upon her
Fast
Yikes
That ship was really bearing down on her fast! Her sleepy mind exploded to full consciousness as the deadly danger of her situation registered
"Hey! I'm here!" she shouted, waving her arms frantically over her head
As if anyone would hear her over the roar of the much bigger vessel's engines
A white V of water sliced away from the black blade of the prow
The ship displayed no lights whatsoever as it raced at her like an attacking shark closing in for the kill
Panicked, she scrambled backward, stumbling and falling over her waterproof camera bag
She hit the deck hard and her head smacked the cabin wall painfully
She flung herself toward the railing, every survival instinct screaming at her to get out of the way before that ship sliced the New Dawn in half
Clutching her camera bag in one fist as she rolled, she plunged over the side and into the icy water
The Pacific Ocean closed in over her head, entombing her in a dark so cold and heavy, she felt as if she'd been buried alive
Panic gave way to shock as every muscle in her body clenched at the frigid grip of the sea
She kicked hard for the surface, but it was as if she attempted to swim through concrete
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem to get anywhere
Assuming she was even headed in the right direction
She tried to feel which way the bubbles racing past her skin were headed, but who knew if she'd gotten it right
For all she knew she was kicking down toward Davy Jones's locker with all her strength
And then a new threat registered-a deep throbbing noise that pounded through her body rhythmically, growing in volume and intensity with every beat
Oh, God
The larger ship's propellers
She kicked like a madwoman, praying her random swimming would carry her clear of the rotating blades before they made bloody chum out of her
The water grew violently turbulent, tossing her head over heels in a chaotic swirl that left her so dizzy she wanted to throw up
Probably not a good idea with the single breath in her lungs already running painfully low on oxygen
Little sparkles of light erupted behind her eyelids
The ocean calmed around her as abruptly as it had gone mad
She was farther than ever from knowing which way the surface and air might be
Perhaps her best bet was to quit fighting and let her natural buoyancy and lungful of air lift her to the surface
But would it be in time before she passed out?
In a few seconds she wouldn't be able to hold her breath anymore and she would inhale a single, lethal lungful of salt water
And then in twelve to fifteen seconds, as the last oxygen in her brain was used, she'd lose consciousness
Without the buoyancy of air in her lungs, she would slip down into the depths of the sea, lost in its cold embrace forever
Vague curiosity about whether or not there was life after death passed through her mind
Guess I'll know one way or the other pretty soon
Who'd have imagined she would end up like this? It seemed like such a waste to die so young
She was only twenty-seven
She'd assumed she had so much more time
So much more to experience
Her parents' faces flashed through her mind
Her sister's face-Chloe was going to be furious at her for dying
Sunny reached deep and fought one last time
It was simply not in her nature to give up
She'd go down trying to save herself
But her kicks were feeble now, and to no avail
As she used up the last of her strength and oxygen, the darkness claimed her
Aiden McKay scanned the ocean through binoculars from the bridge of the Sea Nymph, one-hundred-forty feet of pure yachting luxury on loan to him from billionaire Leland Winston
"Do you see her?" he asked the Nymph's captain, Steig Carlson
"Negative. We are exactly at the last coordinates the girl transmitted, though"
Aiden frowned
The sexy female voice had been making periodic calls throughout the day asking for assistance with her marooned vessel
He'd been annoyed at having to break off his mission to respond to the call, but it wasn't as if he had any choice
He was one of the good guys, after all
"Large vessel off to port," Steig announced
"Must have responded to the New Dawn 's distress call, too"
Aiden snorted
Every vessel within a hundred miles had probably set course at full speed toward that girl's sensuous voice coming across their radios
Sailors were nothing if not a lonely bunch
He swung his binoculars around to port
It was a dark night, but he made out the bulk of a good-size ship
"That vessel's moving fast," he commented, frowning. Looked to be pushing twenty-five knots or more. Why would a ship searching for a small boat be tearing along like a bat out of hell? Wouldn't they be trawling slowly like the Sea Nymph, searching the waters quadrant by careful quadrant?
He swung his binoculars to the next quadrant of his search, in front of the speeding boat, and lurched
He thought he'd caught a glimpse of-
He swore as the Nymph rolled and he momentarily lost his target
He scanned left and right with the binoculars and caught sight of it again
A small vessel bobbing like a helpless cork in the swells directly in front of the racing ship
"Sweet Mother of God," he breathed
"Those bastards are going to ram her"
Steig swore beside him
"They're going to smash her boat into matchsticks at that speed"
He reached for the throttles and threw the sleek yacht's twin diesel engines to full power
Aiden shouted into the radios, "Unknown rider, alter course! You are about to collide with a small craft. I say again, alter course immediately!"
But the black hulk in front of him either didn't hear or didn't care
Or worse, it knew good and well that it was about to sink the disabled cabin cruiser that could only be the New Dawn
Aiden watched in helpless horror as the blacked-out ship slammed broadside into the smaller boat
With a terrible grinding noise audible even from here, the big ship's prow crashed through the New Dawn 's hull
The little boat lifted up in the air like a toy in a bathtub and then all of a sudden disappeared underneath the larger ship, dragged below the water like flotsam in the ship's path
The girl with the sexy voice was on that boat!
He kicked off his deck shoes frantically and reached for the swim goggles that were always in his pocket
"Don't do it," Steig bit out
"The water will be full of debris and it's too dark to find her"
"This is what I do. Who I am"
"But, sir-"
He was already shirtless, so he merely tore off his pants and dived directly off the bridge of the yacht to the sea below
"Aiden!" someone shouted behind him as his body knifed through the air and into the welcome embrace of the sea that was his true home
He swam with powerful strokes toward the last position of the New Dawn
The silence and pressure closed around him, and with them came the peace he always found in the ocean
A jagged piece of white-painted timber came into view
He surfaced near where the boat went down and shouted, "Hello! Where are you?"
No response
The Sea Nymph 's spotlights came on, illuminating the wreckage in harsh light
He made a quick visual search of the debris field
No sign of any human clinging to a piece of the New Dawn
He took a big breath and dived under the surface
His ears popped as he reached a depth of fifteen feet or so, but the rest of his body absorbed the crushing weight of the water with something resembling relief
No sign of the girl
He swam in a wide circle that encompassed most of the debris field
She had to be here somewhere
He kept a time count in a corner of his mind
Two minutes
Three
He widened his search area, worry setting in
If he didn't find her soon, it wasn't going to be a search and rescue anymore
It would be a corpse recovery
He kicked harder
Spotted a flash of white waving softly in the current like a piece of fabric
He pulled powerfully toward it
A shirt
A pale face flashed in the scant light from overhead
The girl
Unconscious and drifting down toward the depths
Angling deeper, he came up underneath her, catching her slender body in his arms and kicking mightily toward the light above
Four minutes
He swore mentally
If she'd been down here four minutes, she could be very close to brain death
He stopped kicking to plaster his mouth against hers tightly
Angling her head down so he was directly below her, he blew into her mouth enough to clear the water out
Then, he exhaled hard into the air pocket he'd created, forcing air into her lungs
Underwater mouth-to-mouth wasn't exactly the ideal way to prevent drowning, but he couldn't just hold her in his arms and let her die!
He closed her mouth with one hand, while his free arm went around her once more
He resumed kicking hard toward the surface and air
After sacrificing his own oxygen reserves to the girl, he actually began to feel the burn of it in his muscles
Thankfully, his body was extraordinarily efficient at processing oxygen
Although he was getting close to his limit, he had enough gas left in the tank to save the girl
They burst up out of the depths, and he took a long, gasping breath
He looked around frantically for something big and flat and buoyant, and spotted a portion of the destroyed boat's hull not far away
Pinching her nose shut, he breathed another lungful of air into the girl's mouth
Then he dragged her over to the hull and quickly up onto the makeshift raft
He clambered onto his knees beside her and commenced CPR
"Come on," he growled
"Don't you die on me"
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Excerpts

Ankle deep in salt water, Sunny Jordan stared in dismay at the silent diesel engine in her boat. It was dead, and all her plans were dead in the water with it. An urge to cry washed over her. Her documentary film was dead, her goal of exposing the more egregious operators in the commercial fishing industry was dead. She didn't dare think about the porpoises and sharks and sea turtles that would die without her expose to rouse the public to save them.

She yanked the hand starter on the bilge pump. At least it coughed to life, and sluggishly began to suck in water and spit it overboard. TheNew Dawnhad a slow leak somewhere, but she'd been unable to locate it so far.

Wearily, she closed the engine cover and slogged over to the ladder. She climbed through the cramped cabin that contained all her worldly possessions and up on deck to stare at the horizon. A slow, three-hundred-sixty-degree check revealed nothing but water and more water stretching away to infinity along the earth's faint curve. No wonder ancient sailors thought it was possible to sail off the edge of the world.

Not the smallest bump of land or even another boat marred the smooth line of the horizon. She was marooned in the middle of nowhere—literally. If she had half a brain she'd be worrying about her own life and not the helpless little fishies below. But no one had ever accused her of being overly bright when it came to matters of self-preservation.

She ducked inside and turned up the volume on the UHF radio. Static crackle filled the tiny space. She checked her position near the junction of the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, not too far south of the Yemeni archipelago of Suqutra. She jotted down the location coordinates off her GPS before picking up the microphone.

"This is theNew Dawnrequesting assistance. My engine has failed and I need a tow. I am currently located at eleven degrees, twenty-five minutes, thirty-six seconds north latitude and fifty-four degrees, four minutes, seven seconds east longitude."

She repeated the message twice more. Now she simply had to wait. Despite its desolate appearance, this stretch of water was crisscrossed by plentiful shipping lanes and fishing grounds. And it was the rule of the sea that any ship who heard a distress call must respond to it. Nobody might own these international waters, and nations might fight like dogs over them, but sailors stuck together.

The sun set in a brilliant splash of crimson and faded into the violet hues of twilight without anyone responding to her periodic radio calls. As the utter blackness of night at sea fell around her, she sighed and settled down to wait out a long, uncomfortable night. She needed to preserve her battery for radio calls and had turned off all unnecessary equipment, which meant no air conditioner or even an electric fan for her tonight.

She must have dozed off because the stars had wheeled around in the sky overhead and the night was balmy when she blinked her eyes open. TheNew Dawnbobbed on light swells, pulling against the sea anchor she'd deployed to keep from drifting too far from her reported position.

A faint rumbling caught her attention. She looked about eagerly for the running lights of her rescuer and gasped as a massive black shape loomed off her port side. The sharp point of a ship's prow was bearing directly down upon her. Fast.

Yikes.That ship wasreallybearing down on her fast! Her sleepy mind exploded to full consciousness as the deadly danger of her situation registered.

"Hey! I'm here!" she shouted, waving her arms frantically over her head. As if anyone would hear her over the roar of the much bigger vessel's engines. A white V of water sliced away from the black blade of the prow. The ship displayed no lights whatsoever as it raced at her like an attacking shark closing in for the kill.

Panicked, she scrambled backward, stumbling and falling over her waterproof camera bag. She hit the deck hard and her head smacked the cabin wall painfully. She flung herself toward the railing, every survival instinct screaming at her to get out of the way before that ship sliced theNew Dawnin half. Clutching her camera bag in one fist as she rolled, she plunged over the side and into the icy water.

The Pacific Ocean closed in over her head, entombing her in a dark so cold and heavy, she felt as if she'd been buried alive.

Panic gave way to shock as every muscle in her body clenched at the frigid grip of the sea. She kicked hard for the surface, but it was as if she attempted to swim through concrete. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem to get anywhere. Assuming she was even headed in the right direction. She tried to feel which way the bubbles racing past her skin were headed, but who knew if she'd gotten it right. For all she knew she was kicking down toward Davy Jones's locker with all her strength.

And then a new threat registered—a deep throbbing noise that pounded through her body rhythmically, growing in volume and intensity with every beat. Oh, God. The larger ship's propellers. She kicked like a madwoman, praying her random swimming would carry her clear of the rotating blades before they made bloody chum out of her.

The water grew violently turbulent, tossing her head over heels in a chaotic swirl that left her so dizzy she wanted to throw up. Probably not a good idea with the single breath in her lungs already running painfully low on oxygen. Little sparkles of light erupted behind her eyelids.

The ocean calmed around her as abruptly as it had gone mad. She was farther than ever from knowing which way the surface and air might be. Perhaps her best bet was to quit fighting and let her natural buoyancy and lungful of air lift her to the surface. But would it be in time before she passed out?

In a few seconds she wouldn't be able to hold her breath anymore and she would inhale a single, lethal lungful of salt water. And then in twelve to fifteen seconds, as the last oxygen in her brain was used, she'd lose consciousness. Without the buoyancy of air in her lungs, she would slip down into the depths of the sea, lost in its cold embrace forever. Vague curiosity about whether or not there was life after death passed through her mind.Guess I'll know one way or the other pretty soon.

Who'd have imagined she would end up like this? It seemed like such a waste to die so young. She was only twenty-seven. She'd assumed she had so much more time. So much more to experience. Her parents' faces flashed through her mind. Her sister's face—Chloe was going to be furious at her for dying.

Sunny reached deep and fought one last time. It was simply not in her nature to give up. She'd go down trying to save herself. But her kicks were feeble now, and to no avail. As she used up the last of her strength and oxygen, the darkness claimed her.

Aiden McKay scanned the ocean through binoculars from the bridge of theSea Nymph,one-hundred-forty feet of pure yachting luxury on loan to him from billionaire Leland Winston.

"Do you see her?" he asked theNymph'scaptain, Steig Carlson.

"Negative. We are exactly at the last coordinates the girl transmitted, though."

Aiden frowned. The sexy female voice had been making periodic calls throughout the day asking for assistance with her marooned vessel. He'd been annoyed at having to break off his mission to respond to the call, but it wasn't as if he had any choice. He was one of the good guys, after all.

"Large vessel off to port," Steig announced. "Must have responded to theNew Dawn's distress call, too."

Aiden snorted. Every vessel within a hundred miles had probably set course at full speed toward that girl's sensuous voice coming across their radios. Sailors were nothing if not a lonely bunch.

He swung his binoculars around to port. It was a dark night, but he made out the bulk of a good-size ship. "That vessel's moving fast," he commented, frowning. Looked to be pushing twenty-five knots or more. Why would a ship searching for a small boat be tearing along like a bat out of hell? Wouldn't they be trawling slowly like theSea Nymph,searching the waters quadrant by careful quadrant?

He swung his binoculars to the next quadrant of his search, in front of the speeding boat, and lurched. He thought he'd caught a glimpse of—

He swore as theNymphrolled and he momentarily lost his target. He scanned left and right with the binoculars and caught sight of it again. A small vessel bobbing like a helpless cork in the swells directly in front of the racing ship.

"Sweet Mother of God," he breathed. "Those bastards are going to ram her."

Steig swore beside him. "They're going to smash her boat into matchsticks at that speed." He reached for the throttles and threw the sleek yacht's twin diesel engines to full power.

Aiden shouted into the radios, "Unknown rider, alter course! You are about to collide with a small craft. I say again, alter course immediately!" But the black hulk in front of him either didn't hear or didn't care. Or worse, it knew good and well that it was about to sink the disabled cabin cruiser that could only be theNew Dawn.

Aiden watched in helpless horror as the blacked-out ship slammed broadside into the smaller boat. With a terrible grinding noise audible even from here, the big ship's prow crashed through theNew Dawn's hull. The little boat lifted up in the air like a toy in a bathtub and then all of a sudden disappeared underneath the larger ship, dragged below the water like flotsam in the ship's path.

The girl with the sexy voice was on that boat!

He kicked off his deck shoes frantically and reached for the swim goggles that were always in his pocket.

"Don't do it," Steig bit out. "The water will be full of debris and it's too dark to find her."

"This is what I do. Who I am."

"But, sir—"

He was already shirtless, so he merely tore off his pants and dived directly off the bridge of the yacht to the sea below.

"Aiden!" someone shouted behind him as his body knifed through the air and into the welcome embrace of the sea that was his true home. He swam with powerful strokes toward the last position of theNew Dawn.

The silence and pressure closed around him, and with them came the peace he always found in the ocean. A jagged piece of white-painted timber came into view.

He surfaced near where the boat went down and shouted, "Hello! Where are you?"

No response. TheSea Nymph's spotlights came on, illuminating the wreckage in harsh light. He made a quick visual search of the debris field. No sign of any human clinging to a piece of theNew Dawn.He took a big breath and dived under the surface. His ears popped as he reached a depth of fifteen feet or so, but the rest of his body absorbed the crushing weight of the water with something resembling relief.

No sign of the girl. He swam in a wide circle that encompassed most of the debris field. She had to be here somewhere. He kept a time count in a corner of his mind. Two minutes. Three. He widened his search area, worry setting in. If he didn't find her soon, it wasn't going to be a search and rescue anymore. It would be a corpse recovery.

He kicked harder. Spotted a flash of white waving softly in the current like a piece of fabric. He pulled powerfully toward it. A shirt. A pale face flashed in the scant light from overhead.

The girl.Unconscious and drifting down toward the depths. Angling deeper, he came up underneath her, catching her slender body in his arms and kicking mightily toward the light above. Four minutes.

He swore mentally. If she'd been down here four minutes, she could be very close to brain death. He stopped kicking to plaster his mouth against hers tightly. Angling her head down so he was directly below her, he blew into her mouth enough to clear the water out. Then, he exhaled hard into the air pocket he'd created, forcing air into her lungs. Underwater mouth-to-mouth wasn't exactly the ideal way to prevent drowning, but he couldn't just hold her in his arms and let her die!

He closed her mouth with one hand, while his free arm went around her once more. He resumed kicking hard toward the surface and air.

After sacrificing his own oxygen reserves to the girl, he actually began to feel the burn of it in his muscles. Thankfully, his body was extraordinarily efficient at processing oxygen. Although he was getting close to his limit, he had enough gas left in the tank to save the girl.

They burst up out of the depths, and he took a long, gasping breath. He looked around frantically for something big and flat and buoyant, and spotted a portion of the destroyed boat's hull not far away. Pinching her nose shut, he breathed another lungful of air into the girl's mouth. Then he dragged her over to the hull and quickly up onto the makeshift raft. He clambered onto his knees beside her and commenced CPR.

"Come on," he growled. "Don't you die on me."

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

We're the #1 textbook rental company. Let us show you why.

Breathless Encounter; Breathless Encounter\The Dark Side of Night

0373277865

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials

Excerpts

Rewards Program