Tattered Innocence Read Online Free PDF Page A

stroked,
until he glanced over his shoulder at her. Eons later, he coasted
up beside her.
    He grabbed her forearms and hauled her into
the boat, his lips zipped into a white line of anger. Rachel landed
in a lump on the bottom of the dinghy. Jake braced his legs and
yanked the pole from the ocean in one heave. The pole clattered
where he dropped it—one end extended over the bow, the other oozing
mud into the water behind the dinghy.
    Rachel wrapped herself into a ball and
narrowed her eyes at Jake as he skimmed an oar through the water
with powerful strokes, spinning the bow back toward the Queen .
    Before the thought fully formed in her mind,
she threw herself at Jake, soaking him with her sodden hair, suit,
and skin.
    He fell back off the seat and caught himself
before hitting his head on the bow of the boat. “What the―?”
    She untangled herself from his limbs and
squatted on the bottom of the boat. “There. See how you like being
a cryogenics experiment in this wind.”
    Jake pulled himself back onto the seat,
squinting at Rachel as though she’d come totally unglued. She
lifted her chin and stared over his shoulder toward the
horizon.
    Jake peeled off his T-shirt and flung it at
her. He jerked his head. “Come here.” He slid to one side of the
bench.
    Rachel pulled Jake’s damp shirt over her
head, poked her arms through the sleeves, and crawled onto the
plank.
    Jake rubbed her arms as if he were trying to
sand off her gooseflesh with his callused hands. “This will warm
you up.” He slapped an oar into her hands. “Stroke… stroke… stroke…
stroke….”
    Rachel gritted her chattering teeth and
rowed. He acted like such an oaf. But maybe she’d warmed a tenth of
a degree.
    Applause ruffled across the afterdeck as
they approached the Queen .
    “You’ve got a feisty one there, Cap’n. Yes
sir.” George heckled. “I wouldn’t get into a fight with her if I
were you. Bet she keeps you in line.”
    The others laughed with George while Katie
clung to her grandpa’s hand, staring at Rachel as though she’d come
back from the dead. Cole flashed his dimples at her.
    Holding fast to the Queen with one
hand, Jake propelled Rachel up the ladder with an iron grip under
her armpit.
    “Would it have killed you to join this
century and spring for an electronic depth sounder?” she muttered.
She kicked at him, wishing for a better angle as her toes barely
connected with his ribs. The brute. She’d sport a collection of
bruises by tomorrow.
    Tremors of embarrassment or chill―she
couldn’t tell which―shook her body, forcing her lip between her
teeth as she bumbled up the ladder and ducked into the nearby
after-cabin. Later, Jake climbed down the ladder into the room.
    She ran the brush through her wet hair,
temper cooled, chagrin settling in. “Jake?”
    He grunted through the clean T-shirt he
pulled over his face.
    “Sorry about all the drama.”
    He sat on the edge of his bunk and pulled on
a sock. “Evidently, our guests find hysteria entertaining.” He
finished tying his shoe and stood to leave.
    Rachel studied the pinpoints of black in the
brown of his eyes. She knew the whole episode had been an accident,
but Jake’s disdain still stung. “Gabrielle wouldn’t have put on a
show?”
    He climbed up the ladder. “Gabrielle’s not
here.”
     
     
    After cleaning up the galley from supper,
Rachel dangled her legs over the gunwale, swinging her feet back
and forth over the orange-tinted water rippling against the
hull.
    Jake’s voice drifted toward her. “Story from
the Captain tonight, kids?”
    Maybe Jake would roll out another facet to
his taciturn personality, one she wanted a front row seat to watch.
The anchor chain creaked as she stood. The last day of their first
cruise sizzled into the Atlantic as she followed Jake’s green and
gold University of South Florida Sailing Team T-shirt through the
open hatch.
    Jake flicked the label that curled under
Cole’s chin. Cole’s inside-out,