Love Bites: A Sugar City Novella (Entangled Bliss) Read online

  But he’d already been rude to her. It wasn’t her fault that she was the one woman in the world who he could not have any kind of relationship with. Of course, as dumb luck would have it, she was also the one woman in the world who stirred something in him he’d thought was dead.

  “This here,” he pointed at the computer, “is a Macbook.” He was going for charm. That usually worked when he wanted someone off his back. Sharona on her back, however…has a nice ring.

  “Hilarious.” She rolled her eyes, loosening up. “I’ve got a list of items I’d like to go through with you. I know how much they cost to buy and repair, but I’ll need to understand their importance and significance. For example…” She swiped a finger across her tablet again. “What is the Bose Nautical Sonar LX?”

  One of the most complicated pieces of equipment we have aboard, he wanted to say. So don’t touch it. “In layman’s terms,” he said instead, after a deep breath, “it measures sound against movement under water.”

  “What is its necessity in regards to this project?”

  She slid on a pair of reading glasses, looking not only sexy but smart.

  “What do you know about this part of the ocean?” he asked.

  She didn’t reply for a moment. “Well, from what I understand, it’s deep. Past the reef and up the coastline, it drops off. Isn’t that where the sharks…”

  Jeff nodded. “Yes, where we’re going is a common area for great whites.” He swiveled around in his chair to face her. “They love cool, deep water. And murky. Hard to track when they go farther than a certain depth. We need special equipment.”

  “I see.” She typed with one finger while chewing her bottom lip. “Deep water,” she said like she was talking to herself.

  “They love warm, shallow water, too,” he added. “In fact, sharks can be found in just about any body of water at any time of year. They’re pretty much unavoidable.”

  He noticed her shudder. “Do you have a problem with sharks, Ms. Blaire?”

  She held her tablet close to her chest and started twirling the rings on her fingers. She had three on each hand; she’d worn none last night. “I’ll admit it’s an irrational fear. I blame Peter Benchely.”

  Jeff couldn’t help smiling. “I reckon he did give sharks an unfair rep.”

  She nodded and wrapped her arms around herself. Jeff felt the desire to hold her and protect her from whatever made her afraid. Where had that come from?

  Pax started to laugh, mockingly. “You’re afraid of sharks?” he said. “Better wear a life jacket, then. Not that it’ll do much good.” He closed his computer, grinned at her, then walked out onto the deck, humming the theme song to Jaws as he left.

  Jeff felt like punching him. Those movies weren’t the only culprits for giving great whites a bad name.

  “Sharks are like any other creature,” he said to her. “They’re on this planet to live and thrive in their own territory. It’s only when man started infringing on that territory that the troubles began. If someone broke into your house, wouldn’t your instinct be to protect it?”

  “I don’t have rows of razor-sharp teeth, a double-jointed jaw, and speeds up to twenty-five miles per hour,” she pointed out.

  Jeff wanted to laugh. At least she knew a thing or two about great whites. “I guess I’m lucky you don’t.”

  She pushed her glasses up on her nose. “I don’t plan on getting anywhere near them,” she added. “I’ll be fine as long as I can keep my equilibrium under control. I sometimes get a little…seasick.”

  “Yet you took an assignment that puts you in open ocean?”

  She turned to stare out the window. “That’s a long story.”

  She was being intriguing again. Like last night. Mysterious. Jeff didn’t like that. Then again, he really liked it.

  Unable to control his curiosity, he asked, “So you didn’t volunteer for this job?”

  “I’m sent where I’m needed,” she said but then began worrying on her bottom lip. “Actually, I did ask for the next assignment that required travel.” She waved a hand through the air. “Another long story; personal stuff.” She glanced at him and lifted an eyebrow. “I don’t do personal.”

  He nodded, remembering that about her from last night.

  Sharona went back to her tablet and asked Jeff about a few more pieces of equipment, what they were used for and if she could see them later. He did his best to give the bare minimum information. Despite his annoying attraction toward her, he didn’t know this woman, and was not going to divulge more than necessary.

  “And what are all these dots?” She pointed at his computer screen.

  “Part of a control group.”

  She pulled back her pointing finger like she was afraid of being shocked. Or bit. “Sharks, you mean.”

  Jeff nodded, again intrigued as to why she was here…why she’d taken a job that put her on the water if she was afraid of sharks and got seasick.

  “O-oh.” She swallowed and seemed to shrink back a bit.

  “These are the animals we’ve been tracking the last few years.” Jeff pointed at each of the seven dots on the screen, getting nearer the farther up the coast they went. “We know they’ve come back to this part of the ocean.”

  “Tracking?” she asked, tapping on her tablet. “How, exactly? I don’t recall seeing tracking devices on my list.”

  Jeff tried not to groan aloud. She’s just doing her job, he thought. It was a nice reminder that he should not be wondering if her red lip gloss was the same flavor she was wearing last night. Strawberry.

  “We attached a sensor to the dorsal fin. May I see your list?”

  Sharona met his eye, her fingers curling around her tablet. “Why?”

  “If you can’t find it on your list, it might be labeled differently.” This wasn’t exactly true, but he did want a look at that list. He held out his hand. “Do you mind?”

  After a pause, she exhaled and handed it over. The list was extensive. He probably didn’t have such a detailed inventory back home at the lab. He ran a finger over the face, flipping pages. “This is one of the older trackers,” he said, handing it back. “A box of them is stowed below.”

  “Thanks.” She entered something into her database. “You mentioned attaching them to the dorsal fin. How?”

  “Is that part of your audit?”

  She shrugged and removed her glasses. “No, but I’m curious.”

  “Scientists have been doing it for decades. There’re many ways to do it. Most common is a kind of combination between a dart and a hole punch.”

  Sharona lowered her tablet and gaped at him. “That sounds brutal.”

  “Actually, it’s not. The dorsal fin is almost 100 percent cartilage, not many nerves. The initial insertion is a shock to them, but after a few seconds, they don’t seem to notice it.”

  “Seem?” She repeated his word, though her tone was filled with skepticism. “They’re helpless animals and you come at them with a spear?”

  “They’re hardly helpless.” He laughed. “Don’t tell me you work for PETA in your spare time?”

  She blinked and gazed toward the water. “Well, no. I just care.”

  So do I, Jeff was about to reply, but was cut off.

  “You say they don’t feel it, but how could you possibly know?”

  “Because I’ve been studying them for a very long time. And before me, others have. It irritates them initially, sure, but it’s by no means brutal.”

  She folded her arms. “Says you.”

  Grrr! Why was her sassy attitude turning him on rather than off? He felt like kissing her just to shut her glossy mouth.

  “Look,” he said, crossing his arms so he would have something to do with his hands. “There’s no law against how we track these fish. Not in Australia, and not in international waters. You’re here to do an audit on how I’m spending the uni’s money—fine.” He pushed back his chair to stand. “But if you think you’re going to catch me doing something inh
umane, Sharona Blaire, plan on a very boring day.”

  He shut his laptop and walked out to the deck to stand in the sun, annoyed with her but mostly with himself.

  A hole-punch? If that wasn’t the definition of inhumane, she didn’t know what was. The blue-eyed man she’d met last night had been so charming and gentle. Was that all an act to get her naked? Working closely with Garry and other biology research teams, she’d known a few scientists who were all about making the next discovery—no matter what the cost to nature. Sharona couldn’t help feeling disappointed that Jeff Cruz was like that, too.

  From her place inside the helm, she watched him through the glass. The ocean wind blew through his short dark hair. She noted the broadness of his shoulders. She’d noticed them last night, too. Had even felt them through his shirt—how muscly they were and how sturdy and strong. He’d been dressed up last night, looking crisp and sharp in a white shirt and pressed pants. Today, he was all casual, and—much to her chagrin—he looked even hotter. Probably because he was more at home on a boat than on land.

  And why was that completely sexy?

  He wore a dark blue T-shirt that brought out the color of his eyes when he turned her way. It could’ve been the light in the bar last night, but she hadn’t realized how tan he was. Maybe from having a career that kept him outdoors. His faded jeans gave her eyes many angles of interest.

  “He’s not usually so abrupt.”

  Sharona forgot Manny was a few feet away, trimming the mainsail or battening down the hatches or whatever captains did. Her experience on the water was pretty slim—unless you counted the swimming pool at her condo—and she knew even less about the workings of a ship the size of the Mad Hatter.

  She cursed herself for not spending more time studying up on nautical life. Then again, if she hadn’t ventured to the bar last night, she wouldn’t have met Jeff or kissed him and felt so alive and brave and wanted all in the space of two hours. She’d needed that…to drum up the courage to make the first move on him. If nothing else, he’d helped her bust out of the comfort zone she’d been trapped in ever since breaking off her engagement. Because of Jeff, she knew passion was still alive in her, and she was grateful for that.

  Too bad there couldn’t be anything more, not with what she was there to do. It was a pretty glaring conflict of interest. Plus, he lived in Australia and she obviously didn’t. Weren’t relationships hard enough without putting a twenty-hour plane ride between you? She bit her lip and set her gaze on him again.

  “Was he abrupt?” she said, turning to smile at Manny, who was smiling back even wider.

  Jeff was suntanned, but Manny was dark. He had a different kind of accent, too. Musical. It made everything he said sound jokey.

  “You being here was a surprise to him,” he said, hitting a button on the console. The boat’s engine made a revving sound and took on speed.

  At the sudden motion, she exhaled a tiny squeak, then gripped the ledge on the front of the console. “I was surprised, too,” she admitted.

  Manny’s eyebrows lifted. “So you do know each other?”

  Her heart slammed. “Um…no, I…I meant—”

  “Yeah.” Manny grinned, turning his gaze forward, a victorious smile on his mouth. “I thought so.”

  Crap. “Please,” she whispered urgently. “We don’t really know each other. We kind of met at the hotel, and before that, there was all that turbulence in first class and the Bloody Mary, but that’s all.” She glanced out the window at Jeff. He was talking to Pax, near the edge of the boat on the right-hand side. Starboard bow, she reminded herself.

  Just then, Leo the reporter walked out on the deck and joined the other two. She shook her head. “Needless to say,” she continued to Manny, “it wouldn’t do Dr. Cruz or myself any good if that information were known. As innocent as it sounds.”

  “As confusing as it sounds.” Manny chuckled. “Don’t worry, I shall be as quiet as the Outback on a Sunday.”

  Sharona exhaled slowly, feeling the muscles in her shoulders release. Though she didn’t completely understand his reference, she decided to believe Manny and not stress.

  “Thank you,” she said. “This has turned into an awkward assignment for everyone, I’m afraid. I didn’t mind taking a last-minute trip to Australia—it’s beautiful country. But my boss was kind of hasty about it. Which is typical, I guess, considering our history.” She felt Manny’s piercing black eyes on her. “To tell the truth, we used to be a couple—engaged.”

  “You’re not anymore?”

  She shook her head. “But I really believe in what we do. I know people think auditors are the bad guys trying to thwart progress, but that’s not what I’m doing. I’m here to help. More often than not, I’ve found ways to save researchers money and I’d like to think we’re all on the same team and—”

  She took a breath when Manny’s laugh cut her off.

  “What?”

  “You sound as passionate as Cruz.” He glanced at her for a quick second. “You two are more alike than he knows, I reckon.”

  Seriously doubtful, she thought.

  Sharona asked Manny a few questions about the mechanics of the ship and he even managed to help check off some items on her list. “Thanks again,” she said and slid her tablet and glasses into her bag and blew out a breath, mentally preparing for the first true test of her sea legs.

  The air felt warm and the wind was crisp. She took a deep inhale, trying to get used to the stingy smell of ocean. The rubber soles of her shoes gripped the deck. It was a good thing she’d Googled the proper ship footwear before she’d left home. Her usual strappy sandals would have sent her overboard.

  She walked toward the unoccupied foredeck. When she stood still, it was kind of a rush, how the waves kicked up spray, shooting up the occasional splash. Only a few times did she find herself teetering.

  Hold on, stomach, she pleaded. Be a good girl for me today.

  “I hope you’re not waiting for someone to hold you from behind and declare ‘I’m the king of the world.’”

  Sharona couldn’t help laughing, as Jeff came up beside her. “That movie always bugged me,” she admitted, happy for the distraction from the rocking waves.

  “Reckon you better not let him hear that.” He nodded toward Leo.

  Another giggle escaped her lips. “So it’s not only last night that you’re charming. I wondered if I’d imagined that.”

  He cocked a brow, looking exactly as he had in the bar when he’d met her eye over their drinks. “Not everything changes when the sun comes up,” he said in a low voice.

  For a second, she hoped she was finally getting the chance to explain what had happened last night…that her chickening out had nothing to do with him. But the moment disappeared when Jeff jerked his head to the side as one of the deckhands approached from behind.

  “Yeah,” Sharona replied, feeling weighed down and deflated. “Um, would you mind telling me what those are for?” she asked, gesturing at a box that Pax was unloading.

  “They’re cameras.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I know they’re cameras. There are ten on the audit list. Are they all used?”

  Jeff rubbed his stubbled yet firm jaw, not answering right away. “We’re here mostly as observers.”

  “Okay,” she said, pulling out her tablet to make a note. “That’s what I was told when I was assigned this, but I have to think there’s more. Especially since Garry—he’s my boss—was hell-bent on me dropping everything and catching the first flight to Sydney.”

  “I can’t imagine why he’s so curious about what we’re doing today.”

  “Right.” Sharona didn’t know Jeff very well, but she knew he was holding something back. He had the same look in his eyes now that he’d had last night when he’d kissed her, pulled away for a second, then really kissed her. Yes, definitely holding back.

  She was about to demand to know what he was trying to hide when Jeff said, “Do you know anything about these an
imals?”

  “Um.” She looked down at her tablet, like it might just happen to contain a shark glossary. “Not a whole lot.”

  He leaned on the gunwale running along the inside edge. “For starters, they’re one of the most mysterious creatures on the planet. Particularly great whites. Because they’re so difficult to track, we don’t know a lot about their patterns. Technology’s grown exponentially over the last decade, so we’re learning more now than ever.”

  “That’s exciting,” Sharona said.

  Jeff lifted his eyebrows. “You think so?”

  She sighed in exasperation. “Look, just because I was sent here to make sure funds aren’t being misspent doesn’t mean I don’t believe in science and progress. Because I do.”

  She hated the way her voice rose to that shrill level that always happened when she got overly emotional. Nonetheless, she did not like the idea of anyone spearing anything through its fin.

  “Nice speech,” Jeff said. His voice had a hint of respect in it. Also a hint of amusement. She didn’t like not being taken seriously, either.

  “So?” She waved a hand. “Continue.”

  “Right.” He ran a hand through his dark hair and looked toward the oncoming waves. “One of the most elusive things about the white shark is their, uh…” His eyes moved to hers and he held them there.

  “Their what?” she asked when he didn’t finish, a bit rapt by his expression.

  He kept his eyes locked on her. “Their mating.”

  “Mating,” she repeated, feeling a flutter in her stomach at the way he was looking at her…then suddenly not looking at her.

  “We don’t know if individual animals spawn in a certain spot every time—kind of like a human might go to a particular pub if she wants some action. Just an example, mind you.”

  She folded her arm, feeing her cheeks heat up. “Pub. Uh-huh.”

  Jeff leaned against the railing, his expression looking smug at her embarrassment. “For all we know, sharks are just, ya know, doing it everywhere.”

  “Like the Kardashians?”

  He stared at her for a beat, then that tight expression relaxed into a smile as he slid his hands into his jean pockets. “And probably just as reckless,” he said. “Or so I’d like to think. That’s one of the reasons we’re intrigued about why we’ve tracked these sharks back here. The gestation period is twelve-to-eighteen months. It’s been about that long since we last saw them in these waters.”