Chapter 10
Ashley
I CLUNG TO THE SIDES of the small craft until the soldier pulled himself up, the boat rocking back and forth with his weight as my lungs inflated and deflated like a bellows. I had to gasp for air between waves moving against the hull, as though I could still feel them pushing against me and breaking over my head.
I’d been on the swim team, competing nationally for most of my school years. I’d even thought about going pro until the pull to become a marine biologist had become too insistent. But that had been almost ten years ago, and now I swam laps for exercise. I hadn’t done that distance at that speed in a long time, and I could barely catch my breath.
Sprawled in the bottom for a moment, just trying to catch my breath, my limbs felt like jelly from the exertion. Shaking the water from my face and my vision still blurry from the seawater, I didn’t see the hand that extended into my vision at first. And even when it became more insistent, gesturing for me to take it, I still took a moment to respond because my tired arms seemed locked into place, the cold curling my fingers around the side of the boat.
I had to pry them off by force of will, taking the soldier’s hand and using the last of my strength to finally haul myself to my feet for a search of the miniscule area. I found the old blankets shoved in a corner beneath the dirty, threadbare canvas cover. They smelled like old boat, must, and fish, but I didn’t care at the moment.
Wrapping one of the blankets around my shoulders, I sat and huddled on one side of the boat, my gaze following the soldier’s movements. The ship rocked as he positioned and secured the oars in the oarlocks. I might have been freezing and exhausted, but I felt a warmth at my core. Never mind that it was crazy to feel that way with the madness of the day, the roller coaster of emotions I’d experienced in such a short time, or the fact that I’d faced death multiple times. But my eyes seemed glued to the way he moved, the way his muscles looked like someone had been chiseled out of stone reminiscent of a Renaissance statue. And the way the wet, clinging fabric of his underwear outlined the muscles of his butt and the prominent bulge in the front.
I shook my head—that was an insane thought. After everything that had happened, there was no way I should be thinking those things, feeling those things.
Then again, maybe it was the day. I was almost delirious from the stress and bone-deep fatigue, and my body didn’t seem to care that it shouldn’t be feeling the way it was. My hormones certainly hadn’t gotten the message.
Still, I looked away quickly as he turned back around, my cheeks warm, and hoped he hadn’t noticed that I had been staring. I grabbed one of the other blankets behind me to cover my embarrassment and other unwelcome feelings.
“Here.” I thrust it at him, but he only glanced at it.
“I’m good.” The soldier was already seated on the other end of the boat, grabbing the oars to begin rowing, though I didn’t know to where.
He started to row, his own strain and fatigue evident in the slow way he dragged the oar through the water, dragging the boat as though it weighed a million pounds. Feeling useless, I wrapped the blanket tighter around myself, tucking one end to the band across my chest, and took one of the oars from his hands. He looked up at me but didn’t protest.
At our first backward movement, the boat lurched forward, cutting through the water at far faster a clip than he’d been making alone. His oar dipped and soared, up and down, back and forth, in a smooth movement. But my eyes weren’t on the oars—they were on the rippling movements of the man’s muscles with each stroke. I had to force myself to look away because, just like before, this wasn’t the time.
I still blamed my near delirium.
With my added power, the boat began to move faster, though not nearly as quickly as we could have had we both been at our full strength. But what I didn’t know was where we were going. Did the soldier have a plan?
As we rowed in silence for a time, I looked out over the ocean. Nothing but water as far as I could see, the sun rapidly sinking towards the horizon.
Would we be out here all night? For days? We had no food, clothing, or water—we wouldn’t last long.
The man rowing silently across from me didn’t seem like the kind not to have a plan. As nonsensical as our flight had been, it had made sense once he’d explained his reasoning. And yet, he’d thrown everything away and told me we would have to “worry about that later.”
Cleary, he was winging it, but did winging it involve rowing out into the ocean where we may or may not ever be found?
I couldn’t believe this trained soldier had no idea where we were going. We were heading east, away from the glowing disk of the sun sinking into the water at the horizon.
My research popped into my head, the information I’d collected before coming here. If I remembered correctly, and if we were going due east, we should see—
I twisted in my seat, the oar faltering for a moment, my heart leaping with hope at the sight of an island rising in the distance, a shadow against the darkening horizon.
If it was the island I was thinking about, it was tiny, remote, and not even technically recognized as an island. At least, not one recognized as part of the disputed lands. It was simply a tiny, unclaimed, empty territory.
“There. An island.” I pointed, then turned around to find the man looking back at me with a look of annoyance, his mouth twisted into that frown again.
“You’re rocking the boat. Sit down,” he said, his tone clipped and flat. Then he reached across me to take the oar out of my hands.
“You’re tired. I can row,” I protested, reaching for the oar.
But he wouldn’t let me take it from him. “I’ve had enough of a break, and I’m feeling better. We’ll take turns if we have to, but I can get us there faster if I row alone.”
I didn’t know whether it was his statement was true or not—I couldn’t tell just by looking—but relinquished the oar anyway. It was challenging to row or crew a boat with two people of dissimilar size and strength.
“So, you said you were a Navy SEAL. Obviously, it was a big, important mission, then.”