Page 12 of Dante
Hitting the water had knocked all the breath out of her as she made herself fall like she had passed out instead of properly jumping off. But that certainly wasn’t all, because she was certain she could swim as a kid.
All thoughts, however, were beginning to escape her, except for one, as water started to fill up her mouth and fatigue started to set in.
Fucking Florida!
She had taken one long dunk underwater, afraid this might be the end, when she felt a strong grip on her arm pulling her back up. Coughing up water from her lungs, she found her arms placed on something that floated, and she was able to put all her weight on it as she tried to catch her breath.
“Are you fucking crazy?” Dante’s harsh voice cut through the end of her coughing fit. “You could have hit your head and killed yourself falling off the boat like that!”
“Well, I was trying to get away from you!” Her hoarse voice cracked as she yelled back at her rescuer, who was still holding her to the floating device.
“Yeah, well, you were doing a great job at that.” His sarcastic tone couldn’t be missed over the sound of the water lapping against them.
She tried to push her wet hair out of her face. “Well, I swam this far, didn’t I? I wasn’t expecting anyone to jump after me, let alone that person being a faster swimmer than me.”
“Swimming?” He laughed sardonically. “Is that what you call what you were doing?”
“I went swimming as a kid once, and I thought I was going to be a much better performer than th—”
“Once?” He caught what she had said and seemed like he was reaching the end of his rope on dealing with her bullshit. “You’ve swamoncein your whole life, and you still fucking jumped?”
She matched his tone. “Well, I decided to take myfucking chanceswith the water instead ofOne-Shot!”
It was like when she said the mysterious name, she could feel the mob boss’ presence completely change.
He took a deep breath, his anger dissipating as he took his hand off her to push his own hair out of his face. “I suppose that was smartest thing you’ve done all day.”
“Wow, thanks,” she quipped, slightly wishing he had just let her drown if One-Shot was as horrible as he was making them out to be.
“Listen, Ms. Brooks”—Dante caught his own breath while giving her complete honesty—“if you’re scared of One-Shot, like you should be, than the safest place you could be is on that boat for the weekend.”
“Okay, fine.” She finally gave in to him, defeated.
“So, we have a deal, then, Ms. Brooks?” This time, he removed his hand from the floaty instead of the one attached to his arm that held her to it.
She stared at the tanned hand, wondering if she should take the deal with the devil in the middle of the ocean or take her chances with the one out there … But, hell, this man had jumped in to save her, after all. She supposed she could give him a couple of days.
Finally, she took his hand. “We have a deal, Mr. Caruso. But, please, call me Nadia.” There was no point in keeping up the pleasantries, as she had a feeling this was going to be the longest weekend of her life.
“Nadia,” he repeated her name before asking her to do the same. “Dante, then.”
“Dante,” she agreed, their hands still clasped together, but she suddenly found her hand being dropped as he motioned for them to be pulled in.
“Just promise me one thing.”
Nadia looked at him curiously, wondering what the hell he wanted now.
“Don’t ever try to swim again.”
FIVE
DRAMATIC EFFECT THIS—
The sound of water dripping on the deck could be heard from both her and Dante, from being drenching wet as they were finally pulled back onto the yacht.
“Have a nice swim?” Amo asked her with a smile.
Nadia shivered, too cold to get her smart comeback out before Leo’s remark.
