Sea Haven 01 - Water Bound

authorities, I get this very bad feeling.” That was a calculated risk. She was alone on a fishing boat out in the ocean. A maverick. A loner. One who didn’t frighten easily. She probably had an aversion to authority and police and questions. It was a connection between them, small, but at last he’d found one. He could find more.
    “You need a doctor. What the hell am I going to do with you?”
    Triumph swept through him. His teeth were chattering now, and he could feel the edges of his brain fuzzing over. He held on to consciousness 39

    grimly. “Thanks for pulling me out of the water.” He touched his chest as if it hurt. “You did CPR.”
    She scowled at him. “I used the regulator.”
    It seemed important to her to let him know she had not touched her lips to his, no matter how tempting the thought might be. And—strangely—he found it tempting. She had a very attractive mouth and he mentally kicked himself for noticing. Never allow emotions to come into play. His life was at stake. She was . . . expendable. A stranger. She meant nothing.
    He attempted a small smile, although his face seemed frozen. “From the feel of my chest, the CPR was vigorous.”
    “I’m not good at anything medical.”
    He allowed his gaze to slide over her. She was too thin. He doubted if anyone would call her beautiful—but she had a certain wild appeal, smelling of sea and salt and wet suit. “However you managed it, thank you.” She seemed too fragile to have pulled him on board by sheer strength, so she was resourceful and tenacious. Admiration for her snaked inside of him and settled somewhere he didn’t want to think about.
    She held up her hand. “Don’t try to stab me. I’m just getting you a blanket.”
    Lev noticed she’d used the word try . She still thought she was the one in control. He watched her every movement carefully through half-closed eyes. It didn’t matter that he was in bad shape. He was alert and coiled, ready to spring should she make one wrong move. She was trapped on deck with a dangerous predator—and she moved as if she knew it, keeping her hands in sight as she pulled a blanket out of the locker for him—yet he knew she didn’t accept the knowledge. She obviously didn’t want to get too close so she tossed the blanket to him.
    Lev didn’t disabuse her of the notion that she was safe—out of his reach. He could be on her in a second and he knew just about every way there was to kill someone. He sighed as he wrapped the blanket around himself, still shivering uncontrollably. “Thanks,” he murmured again. He was injured more severely than he’d first guessed because she was definitely getting under his skin. He had the feeling he was just as uncomfortable with her as she was with him.
    “Look. You have a concussion, and if you’ve lost memory, it’s severe.
    You were really battered against the reef before I could get to you. I have to get you help. We can’t just stay out here.”
    “I’m not going to die,” he reassured her. “Can you recover your bags?”
    She blinked. Shocked. He’d definitely shocked her. “My bags?”
    40

    “With your catch. You said you dumped your catch in order to rescue me.”
    She waved that aside. “You need help. That comes first. I’ll come back out and see if I can recover them later.”
    She looked down at the water and for the first time he could read her expression. There was longing. Need. Not for her lost catch, but for something else. His mind, as clunky as it was, as shadowy and hazy, began to form an idea that left him a little shocked. An element? Could this woman be element bound? Where there was one bound to an element, there were at least three others. He’d read about such a thing but had never run across it. It was a miracle of nature. But there was that look on her face, almost loving, certainly in need.
    “Have you always lived your life by the sea?”
    She shrugged. “I don’t like being far from the water. And it’s how I make my living.”
    It seemed impossible to just stumble accidently over something that had the potential for tremendous power. A key to one of the elements.
    Water. He shook his head and instantly his vision blurred, reminding him he was probably hallucinating anyway. He looked her straight in the eye again.
    “I’m not going to a hospital. I can’t afford too many questions, not when I have no answers. Just get me back to shore and I’ll find my way.”
    Rikki scowled, turning away