The Pirate & The Adventurer & The Cowboy

realized she'd been had. Jared's dark lashes lifted lazily to reveal his wicked anticipation.

    "Gotcha."

    "You rat." She sighed, fully aware that Jared was going to enjoy whatever happened next.

    "Hey, Dad, you were just joking, right?" David's expression skipped from worried to delighted in the blink of an eye. He stood up. "Are you going to show Ms Inskip some of your self-defense stuff now?" He turned to Kate and said proudly, "Dad knows some tricks, too."

    "No kidding?" Kate twisted her hand in Jared's grasp and discovered there was no way on earth she was going to pull free.

    "I'll be delighted to show you a trick or two, Ms Inskip." Jared rolled over and surged to his feet, dragging Kate up beside him.

    "Now, wait just a minute," Kate gasped, aware that pleading was useless but desperate enough to try it, anyway. She was curiously torn between laughter and outrage, and for some odd reason the laughter was winning.

    "Hey, Dad, what are you going to do with Ms Inskip?"

    "She wanted a lesson, right?" Jared caught Kate around the waist and tossed her lightly over his shoulder. He started toward the water.

    "Right," David agreed, trotting along beside his father.

    "Put me down this instant," Kate ordered, very much afraid she was wasting her breath.

    "So what do you say we give her the lesson she's been asking for since last night?" Jared concluded, ignoring Kate's struggles.

    "Don't you dare," Kate yelped as she saw water foaming around Jared's feet.

    Jared waded out until he was knee-deep. He didn't seem to care that his jeans were getting soaked. "The first thing you do when you go snorkeling," he said in an instructional tone as he slid Kate down off his shoulder and into his arms, "is get wet."

    "You're doing this because of last night, aren't you? This is very petty behavior, Jared."

    "I just like to keep the scales balanced. Any man who lets you get the upper hand too often is asking for trouble." He waited three more seconds until the next wave peaked and then he opened his arms and let Kate fall.

    The pirate's grin on Jared's face was the last thing Kate saw before the roiling water closed over her head. It was also the first thing she saw when she surfaced again a few seconds later. She managed to get to her feet only to be sent spinning by a wave she hadn't seen approaching behind her. She gasped, kicked forward into shallower water and stood up again.

    "Dad, wait, she didn't get a chance to put on her mask," David said, splashing toward Kate with the snorkeling equipment.

    "Heck," Jared said, "I knew I forgot something. You want to try it again, Kate?"

    Kate slicked back her hair and held up one palm in surrender. "Not your way, thanks. I think David will make a much better instructor."

    "This is your lucky day, Kate. You get both of us." Jared unfastened his jeans to reveal a pair of swimming briefs. He waded toward shore and tugged off the wet denim and his soaked shirt while David helped Kate put on the mask.

    Jared took over the instruction when he returned, giving orders in a crisp, efficient manner.

    A few minutes later, all three of them were swimming toward the reefs. Jared and David kept Kate between them as they guided her through the underwater wonderland.

    Kate forgot all about Jared's teasing revenge as she came face-to-face with one spectacular fish after another. The colors were glorious. Jeff Taylor had been right when he said swimming around the reefs was like swimming inside an aquarium. Each amazingly tame fish was more outrageously beautiful than the last.

    The morning sun danced in the crystal clear water, creating a fabulous underwater garden of coral and sand. Kate lost track of time as first David and then Jared drew her attention to yet another beautiful scene. When Jared finally tugged her ankle and motioned her to surface, she did so with reluctance.

    He raised his mask and grinned down at her delighted expression as they stood waist-deep in the water. "You like that, huh?"

    "It's fantastic. I've never seen anything like it. Absolutely beautiful. You're so lucky to live in a place where you get to do this every day."

    Jared eyed her for a moment and then nodded. "Dave and I like it, don't we?" He looked at his son, who was standing in shallower water.

    "Yeah, it's great. But I like Disneyland, too. Dad took me there last year."

    "I'll take this, even over Disneyland. Well, I thank you both for the lessons, though I will do the polite thing and