"You won't. I promise."
"You can't know that. You don't know what's after me."
"Lucy." He throttled back for a minute, and the boat slowed and began rolling slowly on the waves. Eren left the controls and went to kneel in front of her, taking her chilly hands in his. She looked at him in surprise.
"I promise you," Eren said quietly. "Whatever is after you, however dangerous it is, it can't follow you to Westerly Cove. You can rest with us and recover your strength."
"You don'tknow," she said, looking anywhere but at him.
"Well, how about this, then?" He gripped her hands until finally she looked directly at him, her eyes lit with those gray and green agate highlights he had noticed earlier. "Why don't you spend tonight with my family, and in the morning, you can make a decision then about what you want to do next. But at least sleep on it, get some rest and food. How does that sound?"
"It sounds ..." She swallowed and smiled tremulously. "It sounds great."
"It does to me too," Eren said, smiling back at her. He squeezed her hands again. "You feel cold. Hang on."
He unhooked his dad's big canvas coat from where it was stowed just inside the door and draped that over her. It fit her like a tent. Lucy giggled as she found herself enveloped in it.
"No way you can get cold with that on you."
"I don't even think I can find my way out," she cried. A sliver of her laughing face appeared, and Eren was suddenly, powerfully taken with the urge to take her face between his hands and capture those full, flushed lips with his own.
He got up quickly, before he could give in to the urge, and went back to the pilot's chair. "You tell me if you're uncomfortable or too cold, okay? And help yourself to any of the food or drinks on the boat."
"I will," she said quietly, as if sensing the change of atmosphere.
But a little while later, as the boat skipped over the waves, she got up and came over to stand by Eren's shoulder, looking out at the glistening water.
He pointed out a pod of whales to her, and showed her what the boat's various gauges and dials were for.
"I can let you pilot it for a little while, if you like."
Lucy shook her head. "I don't think I'd be good at it."
"Everyone's bad at something when they first start doing it. When I was just a little kid, my dad used to sit me on his lap and let me work the controls. I can show you."
This immediately brought to mind a mental image of Lucy sitting inhislap, the curves of her ass settling against his thighs. Eren swallowed hard and surreptitiously moved his legs a little closer together. Good thing the shadow of the steering console hid the boner he was developing.
Lucy started to raise a hand and then it dropped back uncertainly. "Maybe later?"
"Definitely later," Eren told her, smiling.
She spent the rest of the ride standing beside him, looking out as the sun sank in a cloud-flecked, blazing sunset. The mass of the main island came into sight, and Eren turned and ran the boat alongside it.
"Is this as fast as it goes?" Lucy asked.
He had worried about scaring her or making her seasick, but she was leaning forward, as if the motion of the boat was energizing her.
"No, it can go faster."
He opened it up, and now they were all but skimming. The fishing boat was no speedboat, but it had a lot of power in its big old engine.
Lucy gave a delighted cry. Her lips were parted, and she tilted automatically with the boat's motion, keeping her balance even as they hit heavier waves coming around some of the headlands.
"Have you been on the sea before?" Eren asked her. If not, she was an absolute natural.
"Only a little, a long time ago."
Her shoulder was resting against his. He could feel her warmth even through the heavy coat that was still draped around her, reaching almost all the way to the floor.