“I live on a sailing yacht and spend a lot of time alone at sea. Clothes aren’t required when I’m drifting and reading a book.” He shrugged.
“Have mercy,” she mumbled below her breath.
Aarav shot Cash another glare, but his gaze didn’t bounce away nor did it stay fixed on Cash’s face. Interesting. Cash smirked.
“You’re going to have to wait your turn,” Aarav snapped at him. “Sola’s going first.”
“No.” She whipped around toward him. “Don’t tell me what to do. I’m fine.”
“It only makes sense. This way I can patch you up while he’s in the shower and keep an eye on you both.” Aarav refused to be swayed.
“I can wait.” Cash smiled at her. “Feel better already without those clothes and a gallon of seawater weighing me down.”
“This is the weirdest fucking day of my life,” she grumbled.
“Same.” He couldn’t believe it, but he actually chuckled.
“Give me five minutes.” She looked between Aarav, his stance wide, arms crossed in his black cargo pants and T-shirt as he hovered over Cash. “You swear you’re not going to kill him while I’m in there?”
“Can’t now. Jordan won’t let me.” Aarav deadpanned it, but the corner of his mouth quirked the tiniest bit. Cash figured that was probably about as telling as a full comedy skit performed by someone else.
Sola disappeared into the bathroom. Within seconds, the sound of spray hitting the shower wall was followed by an audible sigh of relief.
“Didn’t mean to fuck up your plans for tonight.” Cash figured it would be best to get Aarav on his side, or at least less opposed to his presence, if he could.
“Cleaning my gun is fun, but I only do it when necessary.” He glanced up at Cash. Was he trying to reassure him he wasn’t a cold-blooded killer? That was a hard sell. So Cash returned to lighter subjects, or so he thought.
“Is that what we’re calling it these days?” He grinned. “Look, I’d be pissed too if I had intended to spend ten hours in a bed with her on a private jet.”
“Don’t be thinking of her in bed at all.” Aarav practically snarled, so Cash shrugged. They spent the next couple of minutes in absolute silence made no less awkward by the fact that every time his gaze met Aarav’s, the other man was ogling some part of his bare body. His Adam’s apple, his ass, and even his feet.
He was relieved when Sola opened the door and grabbed a brush to detangle her hair.
She flattened herself to the wall. “Go ahead.”
In the tight quarters, Cash still brushed against her as they swapped places. He stepped into the steamy glass enclosure, flipped on the shower, and groaned. The heat was divine seeping into his freezing limbs, yes. But so had been that briefest of contact with the fierce woman who’d spared his life earlier and put him safely in her own harness while she clung precariously to both a stranger and her own existence.
Aarav stood in the entrance to the bathroom. He spoke quietly, as if afraid she would rebuke him again. “Let me help. You’re favoring your right arm and I want to take care of your back before you get dressed. Are you hurt anywhere else?”
She hesitated, then shook her head.
Cash soaped himself ten times more slowly than he would have in his boat’s head, taking every opportunity to spy on his captors.
“It’s not that bad.” She shrugged one shoulder over the white towel.
After only a tiny bit of time with them, Cash could have told her that wasn’t going to dissuade Aarav from tending to her.
“It is.” Cash didn’t hesitate to rat her out. “I can see several scrapes clearly from here. You’re still bleeding in places and bruises are starting to form.”
Aarav bristled, though whether it was because she was injured or because Cash was checking out his woman, Cash couldn’t tell and didn’t honestly care. Aarav strode into the room and spun her around, slipping the brush from her fingers and working it through the wet strands of her hair carefully until they hung straight to her waist. Then he parted her hair in the center and began braiding it with quick, sure motions of his hands. That meant his knuckles caressed her skin. Sola’s eyelids grew heavy as he worked.
Cash took his time lathering his hair, making sure not to get suds in his eyes to obscure the show.
When Aarav moved on to the first aid kit stashed in the medicine cabinet, Sola shot daggers at him in the mirror. “You wouldn’t act like this if it had been Liam or Ace who ping-ponged down the cliff. You can’t let what happened between us last night change things at work.”
Bingo. Cash had known they were lovers. He hadn’t realized they were a fresh matchup, though. Cash spread soap over his abs and along his cock. It wasn’t his fault if he washed it a few extra times.
“This is exactly why we shouldn’t have fucked. Why I resisted it for so damn long. Because you’re going to take risks and if you get hurt, I won’t be able to handle it.” Aarav traced along the edges of the bruises already forming on her shoulder blade, then kissed the area softly before covering it with antibiotic ointment and a bandage.