And when I gripped the railing tightly with both hands, it was already a done deal. I pulled myself up slowly, praying with all my heart that nobody would be on the deck to see me climbing on board.
By some miracle, nobody was.
My God, the thing washuge.And empty, save for the large containers—a row painted dark green, the other blood red. I saw the empty space around them, and not one single person was in sight. My heart galloped in my chest as I waited—I’d been very silent, but someone still could have heard. There could have been magical alarms set all around me for all I knew, and whoever was on this ship would know I was here.
So, I waited, standing there near the railing, for a whole minute. Then two.
Nobody came.
That’s why I convinced myself to move closer to the first row of containers towering over me, making me feel even smaller than I was. My heart was pounding in my ears, and it took me a little while to take deep breaths and calm my nerves. Nobody was here—obviously. All I had to do was get a little deeper and open one of these containers, see what’s inside, and walk away. Easy. It would all be done in about three minutes. I just needed the balls to go through with it.
How easy it was to convince myself of stupid things, but when it came to things that mattered—like my freaking pride every time I set eyes on Dominic—I just dove in without thinking. Like a fool.
Never mind, though. This was different. I was already here, and I was doing this. So, swallowing hard, I pulled the gun from my pocket, and I moved to the side of the containers to go deeper into the ship.
My footfalls were perfectly silent. My ears were sharp, my focus unwavering as I went, crossing the first row of containers to get to the second. How much noise would those handles make when I pulled one open? Was the ship really empty?
Better yet, what if Michael Sullivan had lied through his teeth and I was just wasting my time here?
And if that was the case…
I heard the movement behind me a split second before a hand wrapped around my mouth from behind. My heart all but fled out of my ribcage, but my instincts reacted. The gun was in my hand, and no matter the fear that had my whole body shaking, I tried to push my elbow back and slam my head onto the face of whoever was behind me with all my strength.
Which, unfortunately wasn’t much against the giant who wrapped an arm around my torso and pulled me until my back slammed onto his chest hard.
Dominic Dane.
Don’t even ask me how I knew—I just did. The moment I felt his rock-hard chest pressed to my back, I knew it was him, and everything inside me came to a halt. Even my heart didn’t beat until he whispered in my ear: “Hush, Teddybear.”
Hush.The freaking wolf-ass.
I jerked his arm from around me and pushed myself away. It must have been sheer stubbornness that gave me the strength—or maybe he just let me go. I turned to him, so mad I was seeing red. He was there—right there, looking down at me with those swollen eyes and those red lips parted like he wassurprisedto see me.
Well, I wasshockedto see him.
“What the hell are you doing?” I whisper-yelled because there was no way I could control myself right now. Dominic turned his head back for a second, before he grabbed my free hand in his and pulled me behind the first row of containers, right where I’d come from. He pressed his back to one and held his finger in front of his lips to tell me to keep quiet.
I looked down at my hand, still in his,tinyin comparison. The heat of his skin traveled up my arm like wildfire, instantly reminding me of a time not so long ago. Reminding me how that hand had felt on other parts of me, too.
That’s all it took—all he had to do wasshow upand touch my hand, and I was back to square one.
Jerking my arm away in disgust—for myself—I moved a little closer to the edge of the container and looked to the other side. Nobody was there. If Dominic had heard something, nobody was coming.
So, I turned to him again. “Are you following me now?”
“No. I just came to check this place out and you were here,” he said, his eyes searching the space around us intently becauseof coursehe wasn’t affected by me like I was by him.Stupid body.
“Why are you checking this place out?” I asked, and he shook his head, as if he wanted me to keep my mouth shut. Well, tough luck. “Tell me what you’re doing here, Dominic,” I demanded, and if he didn’t, I was going to repeat that question—onlymuchlouder.
He looked at me, jaws clenching like he wanted to kill me on the spot. It was all I could do not to flip him off.
“Keep quiet,” he said and actually made an attempt to walk around me and toward the second row of containers.
Suddenly, it didn’t matter at all where I was or if there were people out here who could come and kill us on the spot. I just didn’t care if all of this went to shit because Dominic Dane knew exactly how to push my buttons. All. At. Once.
I raised my gun and aimed it at his temple before he could take another step.
“You’ve got two choices,” I forced myself to say, my finger firmly on the trigger. I was obviously not going to pull it, but he’d see it. Maybe it would scare him a little bit. “Either you tell me what the hell you’re doing here right now, or I’m calling this in. It won’t matter if you walk away—I will tell them all about you. Everything. About last night, too.”