Going Deep (Divemasters Book 2) (6 page)

“Yes. Like that.” He ordered, “Squeeze my cock with that pretty pussy. Come around it. Let me feel how much you love it when I fuck you deep and hard like this. Take me under with you. Do it. Now.”

As if she needed any additional incentives, he reached between them to roll her pebbled nipple between his thumb and forefinger. The extra stimulation proved impossible to resist.

Or was it his command that tipped her over the edge?

Either way, she obeyed.

Sabine screamed as the most powerful orgasm of her life overtook her. The shimmer of gathering rapture blazed and spread like a firework inside her, illuminating each of the dark corners she’d been afraid to acknowledge in the past.

Miguel wouldn’t allow her to shrink away from her nature.

Instead, he embraced it, and encouraged her to do the same. “Ah. Fuck, yes. You’re even more gorgeous when you’re coming for me. Shattering around my cock like this.”

His praise set off another round of spasms. This time he proved he wasn’t immune to her reactions either.

“I’m going to fill this condom for you.” He grunted as he slammed into her pussy a few more times, extending her ecstasy. “My balls have never ached so bad in my life.”

Sabine hadn’t realized how much of a turn on it could be for a man to express his desires so openly and honestly. She gladly accepted each of his wild penetrations, happy to return even a fraction of the bliss he’d given her.

The tensing of his jaw gave him away.

Sabine clenched around him.

He cursed, then shouted her name as he jackhammered into her. With each slap of his flesh against hers, he growled and shuddered, making her certain he was doing exactly as he’d said he would, pouring his lust into the thin latex reservoir between them.

For a wild moment, she wished she could feel the heat of his release marking her deep inside.

Though no one else might know, she was sure she’d feel the brand he’d left with his possession every time she had sex for the rest of her life. How could anything else be as good as this?

When, finally, they finished jerking against each other, he rolled to his back. Cradling her against his chest, he murmured to her in Portuguese until she regained the ability to think anything other than,
Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit
.

“Hey there,
lindeza
.” He smiled when her eyelids fluttered open and she caught him observing her as they recovered. “Doing okay?”

“Uh huh.” She nodded, rubbing her cheek against the slightly damp plane of his chest.

How had he leveled her completely yet hardly broken a sweat?

“Don’t look so proud of yourself.” She reached up and tweaked his nipple, causing him to laugh and capture her hand. He brought her fingers to his lips and nibbled her knuckles before placing a kiss over the mild sting.

“Truth is, I’m kind of embarrassed.” He shook his head. “I don’t think I’ve ever come so quickly. Especially not when I’m trying hard to impress.”

“If that’s your idea of a premature ejaculation, I can’t wait to see what you consider a marathon fuck.”

“Give me five minutes and I’ll be happy to show you.” He brushed the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip. “Less time if you keep looking at me like my dick is your new favorite toy.”

“As tempting as that may be, hiding under the covers won’t solve my problems or find Heinrich’s cure.” She winced. How could she have let herself be distracted so easily?

Oh, right, Miguel
did
have a stellar cock and the skill to put it to good use. Not exactly an everyday occurrence when it came to guys. At least she tried to convince herself it was only his equipment that had aroused her so thoroughly. Anything else was too reckless.

“Can’t blame a man for trying.” He kissed the side of her neck. “I’ll be more convincing tonight.”

Sabine hoped he held off until then because she could only muster so much willpower when her pussy cheered for a repeat performance.

Damn. She sighed, frowning as she wondered if she’d gotten herself into more trouble than she could handle.

“Hey, I’m mostly teasing.” He kissed her lips softly then climbed from bed, flashing his perfect ass on his way into the bathroom. “We can be in your lab and working thirty minutes from now including a stop in the dining room for some breakfast. I’ll try to focus on something other than your sweet pussy for a few hours at least.”

“Gee, thanks.” Okay, so she liked knowing she appealed to a man as fine as Miguel.

“That’s going to require an incredible amount of restraint on my part, for the record.” When he turned toward her slightly, she could see his rejuvenating cock, already half-hard.

If only she didn’t feel the weight of Heinrich’s legacy she might have done something about it. After the spectacular way Miguel had gone down on her before giving her the fuck of a lifetime, she figured she owed him some payback.

“Tonight.” She nodded.

“Deal. Now get in here and let me jack off to the sight of your soapy tits jiggling in my shower or I won’t even make it to lunchtime before stealing you away for another quickie.”

She laughed, but he didn’t seem to be joking. Not about classifying the best sex of her life as a mere quickie, or about his need to come again so soon either.

The hand stroking his cock was serious as shit.

What the hell had she gotten herself into with him? Something spectacular, and a little scary, if she was being honest. Ah well, there’d be time to worry about that later.

She wondered if he would come faster if she played with herself while under the balmy spray that rained on her from a half-dozen different showerheads.

He wasn’t the only one charged up by their unexpected connection.

Though she didn’t have a baseline to compare his reactions to, her gut told her that her hypothesis had been correct when neither of them lasted more than a couple minutes before climaxing while on display for the other.

In her case, it was a clear result.

Miguel affected her like no one had before. He made her crave things she couldn’t have. Do things she shouldn’t.

At a critical time in her life, she couldn’t afford a distraction that huge. As they dressed and prepared to head out, uncertainty crept past her receding rapture. Had she fucked this up before she’d even gotten started?

Maybe this afternoon she’d take Banks up on those staff quarters after all. Just in case, she tidied her belongings, tucking them into the single suitcase she’d brought.

How would Miguel take the news?

“Don’t even think it.” He seemed to read her mind when he took her hand and guided her from the room before she could finish zipping her bag. “There’s nowhere to run on this ship even if you wanted to. And we both know you don’t. Not really.”

Of course, he was right.

A
fter wolfing
down an assortment of fresh mango, papaya, and pineapple along with a bowl of granola, Sabine drained two glasses of blackberry mint lemonade. Then she toyed with her spoon, itching to go, as Miguel devoured yet another helping of eggs and bacon.

The man could eat.

She was pretty sure she knew how he worked that energy off, too. Between swimming and fucking, he had earned those golden muscles giving his soft cotton T-shirt so much definition.

“You’re antsy to get started. I can be done here.” He wiped his mouth on his napkin before taking one last gulp of water.

“No, don’t rush. Maybe I should go ahead, though. I feel like I wasted a whole day.” She stared out the window hardly admiring the gorgeous scenery, wondering how she could have let attraction—even one as strong as the one compelling her toward Miguel—derail her.

He grimaced. “You weren’t any good for anything yesterday. You had to recharge your brainiac batteries.”

As he was in the middle of being practical and shit, a tall blond man as fit and
nearly
as sexy as Miguel dropped into an empty chair beside them at a long, polished table on one of the upper decks.

“I guess I don’t blame you for disappearing yesterday.” Their breakfast buddy slapped Miguel on the shoulder. “Well done, stealing her away for yourself before she had a chance to meet
me
.”

Sabine laughed, flattered rather than embarrassed given his obvious approval of their affair.

“I’m not an idiot.” Miguel threw a croissant at his friend. “Don’t you be one either. She’s gorgeous and she’s
mine
, so make sure that flirting is as far as you dare go if you want to keep your balls attached.”

The man nodded subtly at the warning before turning to her with a brilliant smile. He offered his hand. “I’m Tosin, one of the divemasters on the
Divemaster
.”

She wiped her hand on her linen napkin before shaking his, awed by how his fingers engulfed hers with a steady yet careful grasp. “One of the owners, you mean? Miguel and Archer’s partner, right?”

He shrugged. “I guess so. Still feels kind of weird. I’m a lot simpler than that, really.”

“Simple is right,” Miguel grumbled when Tosin held on to her palm a little too long for his liking.

Sabine withdrew, her cheeks heating at the effect these guys had on her. What was wrong with her? Or was it them?

Their bond shone through in the way they seemed to know the other’s thoughts and how they read each other’s body language. Tosin even stole a few bites off Miguel’s plate, which his friend didn’t seem to mind in the least. Exactly how close were they? How much had they shared?

Illicit fantasies sprang to life. Ones where she found herself sandwiched between them.

She blinked.

Trying to get her mind back to safer ground she asked, “Is your accent Danish?”

“Close.” Tosin smiled. “I’m originally from the Netherlands. Haven’t been home in ages, though. I heard you studied in Germany.”

“Yes.” She nodded, trying to ignore the sting in her eyes.

“I’m sorry about your mentor.”

Both Miguel and Tosin covered one of her hands then, squeezing lightly. Miguel didn’t glare at his friend for offering comfort, so she gladly accepted it.

Sabine swallowed hard, “Thank you.”

“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I did hear you talking when I sat down, though. Don’t worry about yesterday. As much as I hate to admit it, Miguel is right for once. You must have been exhausted. Besides, it took most of the day for Banks to wave his fairy godfather wand and turn part of the dive bay into a lab for you.” He promised, “You couldn’t have gotten started until today anyway. Banks is good, but even he’s human. I think. Pretty sure.”

“I owe you so much.” She looked to Miguel especially then. He’d given her something equally as precious, helped ground her when she needed to be at her best academically. “I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”

“I bet he’s got a few ideas about that.” Tosin broke the heavy atmosphere, causing her to snort.

“Tosin…” Miguel growled.

“Seriously, though, it’s part of what we do around here. Thanks to Archer and his inheritance. We’re trying to make a difference in the world. What we do is minor. You…well, you have the capability to make an enormous impact. However we can facilitate that, we’d love to be a part of it.” Tosin stood then, grabbing one last slice of bacon off Miguel’s plate. “So I’ll let you get to it. I just wanted to say hello before I set up for the next group of divers.”

Sabine had nearly forgotten about the other guests Marta had explained would be onboard, focused on her own mission.

“Thank you. For everything.” Sabine went with her gut, reaching up to pull him into a one-armed hug, which he returned with interest.

“No problem. If there’s anything I can do to help out let me know. Even if it’s kicking this cocksplatter’s ass for you when he fucks up. See ya later!” Tosin hustled out then before Miguel could retaliate with anything other than the dual middle fingers he flashed.

She balled up her napkin and put her hands in her lap, trying not to fidget.

“Come on, I’m finished.” Miguel stood and scooted her chair away from the table like a proper gentleman. A complete turnabout from the savage he’d proven he could be in bed. Fortunately, both sides of him appealed to her.

He laced their fingers together as he guided her toward the stern of the megayacht then down a set of winding teak stairs. As they curved, she caught sight of a crescent-shaped speck of land jutting from the open ocean. She whipped her head in the opposite direction, spying the southern coast of Maui, then back. “Is that Molokini?”

Miguel didn’t even have to look in the direction she lifted her chin toward. There was no mistaking the islet. Especially since nothing but miles and miles of empty Pacific stretched beyond that. “Yep. We were hoping to take the guests snorkeling and diving at a bunch of the sites within the crater, depending on your plans and whether you’re ready to begin your research this quickly. It’s notorious for its insane visibility and provides a wide range of difficulties that will make it ideal for the groups with various levels of experience already onboard.”

“Oh, that will be perfect!” Sabine felt the first flutters of excitement in her belly. This was what she’d trained for. What she’d dreamed of. Though she never would have hoped for these circumstances, the thought of making a breakthrough discovery still thrilled her. “Marta and I were searching for vessels in range of this area. She found you guys and reached out to the Banks Foundation about the possibility of coming onboard because we know this was Heinrich’s last stop on his collection trip, which wrapped about three weeks earlier than expected. He’d never done that before. I believe he quit looking when he found whatever it was that had him going bananas. I didn’t realize you were already
here
, though. I’m glad I’m not pulling you off course.”

“It wouldn’t matter. Wherever you need us to go, we’ll be there.” Miguel squeezed her hand, infusing his strength into their connection.

He ushered her onto the dive platform and she stutter stepped. He was right there to steady her, keeping himself between her and the ocean lapping at the hull. “Wow.”

“I know.” He chuckled. “I still can’t believe we get to work here.”

She looked around at the pristine gear, so neatly organized across the spacious bay. It had everything you could wish for, more than she’d ever had the luxury of diving with before on a research vessel. Damn.

When she’d picked her jaw up off the decking, Miguel led her to a nook tucked into the back corner. It looked like it had been an open-air study area that they’d enclosed with tinted aquamarine glass especially for her. The space inside wasn’t the largest she’d ever seen, but it was perfect. Whiteboards, centrifuges, microscopes, test tubes, chemical lockers…you name it, they had it.
She
had it at her disposal. Every essential and even a few perks she hadn’t had in her Monterey research facility.

Including a man who was turning out to be the most capable assistant on Earth.

“Will this be okay?” Miguel asked her. “Say the word and I’m sure Banks can arrange for anything else you need. Seriously, just let me know and we’ll make it happen.”

Sabine wiped moisture from the corner of one eye. Who said there weren’t good people left in the world?

She turned to him and flung her arms around his neck. When he caught her, she added her legs to the full body hug.

“Wait until Banks gets
his
thank-you kiss,” Tosin teased from the doorway where he leaned against the frame. Archer and Waverly laughed softly from behind him. “It’ll probably be the highlight of his year.”

“It would indeed,” Banks said entirely too primly for anyone to keep a straight face.

Sabine unwound herself from Miguel and trotted to Banks. She went onto her tiptoes to buss his cheek noisily, causing him to beam as he patted her back lightly.

“Thank you so much,” she whispered.

“You’re very welcome, dear.” He straightened the black ruffles around the neckline of her crocheted cover-up, which hid a modest one-piece suit beneath. His stare caught on her necklace. “That’s beautiful.”

“I think so, too.” She smiled. “Miguel made it. When he was a boy.”

“Really?” Banks shifted his assessing gaze to the man in question, who only shrugged. “It makes you wonder sometimes, doesn’t it, if there’s truly such a thing as fate.”

“I’m a believer,” Waverly said, without taking her stare from Archer.

He rested his forehead on hers and smiled softly before murmuring, “Me too.”

Some other time, Sabine would have to ask Miguel about their story.

“So where do you want to start?” he asked her, drawing her thoughts back to the present.

She drew a deep breath then let it out as she studied the ceiling of her brand spanking new laboratory. “While I was flying here, I reread every email Heinrich sent me during his collection trip and the follow up experiments at his research center. I’m starting to think he was trying to tell me more than I realized at the time. I should have listened closer.”

Miguel tucked one of her unruly curls behind her ear. “Let’s focus on going forward. He wouldn’t want you to beat yourself up. You didn’t have all the information then that you do now. What did you figure out?”

“There was one letter he sent, after they’d been in this area for about two weeks. He’d seemed increasingly frustrated, which wasn’t like him at all. Then one day the tone was totally different. He said, ‘Sometimes you fail to notice the obvious when you’re trying too hard or making things more complex than they need to be. What you’re searching for can be right in front of you. Until you change the way you look at things—blind yourself to what you think you know and dig a little deeper—you might never see it.’”

“What the hell do you think that means?” Tosin rubbed his temple.

She took a deep breath. “As best I can figure, he was letting me know that what he found originated from something ordinary. Probably something he or other marine biologists have studied countless times. As counterintuitive as it seems, I think I want to dive here and collect samples from the most common species around. It could be that he processed them differently than usual, or maybe that something about this location makes them slightly dissimilar—enough to have far-reaching implications—from other forms. Maybe no one noticed sooner because they dismissed those possibilities based on previous results, instead of on the facts alone. I need to blind myself to what I think I know, and start from scratch with the basics.”

“It’s as good a theory as any, I suppose.” Banks hummed his approval as Tosin, Archer, and Waverly nodded in agreement.

“Waverly and I can tell you from experience that assuming you know what’s going on instead of questioning everything can really steer you wrong,” Archer admitted.

“A solid lesson for life as well as this experiment,” Miguel agreed. She wondered what parts of himself he was reexamining at the moment. Could their meeting have shaken him up also?

“So you’ll go with me? Point out stuff you see all the time around here? Help me collect and tag everything while we’re waiting for my tissue samples to arrive? Run tests and track results once they get here?” Sabine asked Miguel. Having him by her side beneath the waves would keep her level. Another pair of hands in the lab would be invaluable, too.

Already she trusted him. If his SCUBA skills were anywhere near as good as his fucking abilities, she had seriously won the assistant lottery.

“Hell yeah. Let’s go diving.” Miguel grinned. “I can’t wait to go down with you.”

For the first time since the explosion that had rocked her foundation from across the world, Sabine felt confident that she could do her mentor justice and complete his research. With this kind of unwavering support, how could she not?

Heinrich’s death—no, his
life
—had to mean something.

If she could give this to the world in his name, it would.

She nodded at Miguel. “I’m ready.”

“I know.” He kissed her, right there in front of his honorary family. She didn’t pull away either.