Deep Blue Read Online Free PDF Page B

sessions and cheating on boyfriends. Multiple yeses to the former—no to the latter.
    Then I remember we’re supposed to be fishing. “No.”
    “I’ll bait your hook.”
    “Excuse me?” Why does everything he says sound like a pick-up line?
    He raises an eyebrow and pulls a wiggling worm from a Styrofoam container. He spears the worm on the end of a hook the size of my pinky.
    I throw up a little in my mouth. Why am I here again?
    Gen’s boat drifts farther away. I can’t hear anything from them now.
    “Here.” Jaeger holds out the fishing rod with the worm still wiggling on the end. “Press the button on the reel and drop the hook.”
    I’m trying to concentrate on his words, but I can’t stop staring at the impaled worm. I gingerly take the reel, holding it so Mr. Worm doesn’t touch me, or get knocked against the side of the boat, adding insult to injury. Lowering the tip of the pole, I let him float on the lake’s surface. Maybe the little guy will get lucky and escape his torture device while Jaeger finishes his instructions.
    “After you drop the line, press the release when I tell you.”
    Bossy, are we? But I press the button and the line sinks, whistling as it descends. Now the worm is drowning. Fishing cannot be humane.
    Jaeger gives the signal and I press the button to stop the reel. I grip the rod as if it were an ax and stare at the end, with no clue what I’m supposed to be waiting for.
    Jaeger pulls another worm from the Styrofoam container and I look away. I know what’s about to happen. I can’t watch this one’s fate at the end of Jaeger’s hook.
    Why does that bring to mind my own destiny?
    At the sound of his line going into the water, I peer over. He locks his reel and reaches for a small cooler he loaded before we boarded. He pulls out a Budweiser and pops the top, passing it.
    Cheap beer at five thirty in the morning? I will gladly take said beer and drink it like it is mother’s milk. The carbonation might settle my stomach. At the very least, a light buzz could dim the sexual tension and sense of doom in the air—or make it worse. Jesus, that’s all I need.
    If I’m the only one with dirty thoughts, I can deal, but if Jaeger is attracted to me, too … we have a problem.
    “How will I know when I’ve caught a fish?”
    He shushes me and glances over like I’ve been naughty, which I have—in my mind. “You won’t catch a fish if you scare them away,” he whispers.
    I lower my voice. “Are you going to tell me how this is done, or what?”
    His mouth twitches. Without looking at me, he says, “They nibble.”
    A tingle shoots down my chest and past my thighs. I squeeze my legs together. Again with the dirty fishing talk!
    “It will feel like a vibration, maybe a few quick tugs. Don’t react right away. Let the fish take a nice bite, then jerk your hook. If you feel more movement, you’ve caught something.”
    He pops open a beer for himself and we sit in silence, me chugging my beer and waiting to be nibbled, he as still as a stone two feet away.
    After a few minutes, I hold out my hand for another beer and my line vibrates. I don’t react right away, but my rod has all my attention. Taking the second beer he hands me, I wait, sipping carefully and white-knuckling my pole.
    Another small jerk and rattle. With his gaze on his own line, Jaeger doesn’t seem to notice.
    The next tug from the mysterious creature below the surface has my rod slipping a fraction from my fingers. I lurch the pole up and wind the reel a couple of times to take up the slack. The end jerks like crazy. I’ve caught something for sure.
    Spinning the reel with quick, uncontrolled strokes, I fight to bring in the wild animal, my adrenaline kicking up a notch. I’m getting this fishing business now. Woman versus beast!
    What exactly is down there? Are there freshwater sharks? Because I think I caught one. This fish is a wily bugger. I’m straining and not making much progress.
    Jaeger scoots