Dangerous Waters. Laurey Bright

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СКАЧАТЬ shore, because she was dangerously dehydrated. After that she couldn’t face a boat again. But Dad lived for the sea. On land he was a fish out of water. I don’t think she ever tried to change him.”

      “Is she…?”

      “She died,” Rogan said abruptly. “When I was nineteen.”

      “I’m sorry.”

      He looked down at the books still piled on the floor, waiting to be cleaned and replaced.

      Camille picked up a copy of Treasure Island. “I suppose you devoured this?”

      “You bet. And this.” He lifted another book and wiped the cover with his hand. “Coasts of Treachery by Eugene Grayland. Great yarns, full of mayhem and murder.” Meeting her level look, he added hastily, “I mean, very well written. Educational,” he told her. “You should read it.”

      “I have.” She read every New Zealand history book she could get her hands on—those aimed at a general audience as well as weighty, heavily referenced tomes and professional journals. “I’m a history lecturer.”

      “Is that right? Where?”

      His eyes were brilliant with interest and, Camille saw with satisfaction, respect. “At Rusden.” It was a small campus in the lower half of the North Island, a satellite of one of the larger universities.

      She couldn’t help noticing again what an unusual blue his eyes were, like the inner curve of an incoming breaker at certain blue-water beaches. And his mouth was quite beautiful in a masculine way, the curves well-defined, his lips firm but not thin. Catching a glimpse of white, straight teeth, she felt her blood thicken. Her own mouth softened and parted infinitesimally.

      Disturbed by a quick heat that made her legs weaken, Camille turned back to the task in hand. She thought Rogan moved closer, her skin signaling a simmering awareness.

      To break the silence she said randomly, “All these books about shipwrecks…not exactly comfort reading for a sailor.”

      Rogan gave a quiet huffle of laughter. “Dad had a dream that he’d find a sunken treasure one day.”

      “I guess my father shared it.”

      They’d been cut from the same cloth. Both had neglected their families to drift about the Pacific, picking up cargoes and passengers, diving for pearls or beche de mer occasionally, working onshore only when necessary. And in between, hunting for an elusive, legendary prize.

      Granger returned with their meal, and they went up to the cool air of the deck to eat. Rogan shrugged back into his shirt, to Camille’s relief. She’d found his bare torso shamingly distracting.

      “Camille teaches history,” Rogan told his brother. “At Rusden.”

      “Really?” Granger looked at her thoughtfully.

      “Mmm,” she confirmed, swallowing a mouthful of cheeseburger.

      Rogan asked curiously, “You enjoy it?”

      “Very much.” Teaching was a nice, steady occupation. If she needed excitement she could find it between the covers of a book about former times. And her salary was enough to keep her in reasonable comfort and help pay the mortgage on the house she shared with her mother. “What do you do?” she asked Granger.

      “I’m a solicitor. And barrister, though I don’t do a lot of court work.”

      “He likes playing with rorts and torts,” Rogan said with a tolerant but puzzled air.

      Granger slanted him a grin, and for a moment the likeness between them was extraordinary. “I bet you don’t even know what they are,” he said.

      “Dead right!” Rogan agreed cheerfully, lifting one of the cans of beer that Granger had brought back from his foraging expedition. He drank thirstily, and Camille stared in fascination at the tilt of his chin, the tautness of his throat.

      When she pulled her gaze away Granger was looking at her, his eyes assessing, attentive. “My little brother is a deep-sea diver,” he said. “Fighting off sharks and giant squid for a living.”

      Rogan spluttered, and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “That’s a load of sh…sugar,” he said. “I’ve never had to fight off a squid, even a baby one. They’re not aggressive anyway. You can stroke them.”

      Camille asked, “Does that mean you’ve fought sharks?” Her skin crawled.

      “I’ve had some close encounters, but they’re pretty harmless underwater as long as you don’t do anything stupid.”

      Granger mocked, “And of course risking your life half a mile under the sea on a regular basis isn’t stupid.”

      “No more stupid than sitting behind a desk all day,” Rogan countered. “You’re just as likely to die from an ulcer or heart attack there as I am putting in piles for a new oil rig or salvaging a wreck.”

      Sending a lazy grin in his brother’s direction, Granger lifted his beer in acknowledgment. Camille deliberately watched him, waiting for a repeat of the small thrill, but it didn’t come. They looked so much alike; in fact Granger was probably the better-looking one—less hard-edged, more sophisticated, well-groomed. And yet he aroused in her nothing more than mildly pleasant appreciation.

      There was no doubt about Rogan’s raw attraction. She was chagrined at being so susceptible to it.

      To distract herself, she spoke to Granger about the first thing that came into her mind. “Do you think your father…and mine, might have discovered some kind of treasure?”

      Granger looked amused. “Do you believe in fairy tales?”

      Camille shook her head. She never had, even as a child. Her mother had taught her there was no such thing as Happy Ever After.

      “To those two,” Granger said, “finding sunken treasure was the gold at the end of the rainbow, the holy grail of the sea. And they had about as much chance of finding it.”

      When they returned to work Camille paused once to arch her stiffening back against her hands, and caught Rogan staring at the jut of her breasts. Quickly straightening, she turned away, hoping he hadn’t noticed the peaks suddenly showing through her T-shirt, as if he’d physically touched her.

      While she dealt with the rest of the books, Rogan and Granger cleaned up the two smaller cabins.

      Then Granger emerged, saying, “Some things of your father’s, Camille.” He put a cardboard carton on the table as Rogan joined them. “There are clothes too. Do you want to—”

      “No.” She didn’t want to look at them.

      After a slight pause Granger said, “We could give them to the Salvation Army along with Dad’s, if you like.”

      “Yes, thank you.”

      He gestured at the box. “You’d better have a look in here. It’s all that was in his cabin.”

      Reluctantly she stepped closer, peering into СКАЧАТЬ