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Chal suddenly felt
lonelier than ever. She bit down on the feeling, not wanting to let
weakness change her mind. It was impossible that they should go on
like this; she should have realized that earlier. When they arrived
in Catalonia, she would help Alan become independent and then she
would let him go where he wished. Before then, she would simply have
to stamp out any spark that flared up between them.

Thus decided, Chal
settled down under the towel to sleep. Her heart was hollow, but her
mind was made up. She ignored the tears that leaked from the corners
of her eyes, hiding them from Alan with the towel over her head. It
was tiredness, she told herself, that made her weep. Nothing more.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

When she woke, the
air had a chill to it and the sky was a dark gray. The stars were
just beginning to become visible in the dusky sky and the coast was a
blurred darkness in the distance.

“Despiertate,”
Alan said, seeing her stir under the towel. “Buenas noches.”
He tossed the Spanish dictionary to the side of the boat.

“Mmm,”
Chal murmured, pulling the hat off of her head. Her brain was a
little fuzzy to be speaking Spanish at the moment. She checked the
old GPS unit installed inside the cabin.

“How are we
doing?” Alan called down.

“Twenty-six
miles,” Chal said, slapping the GPS panel. The reading was
jumping back and forth, but stopped flickering when Chal thumped it
hard with her fist. “Make that twenty-two. Damn useless box.”

“Is that
good?” Alan asked.

“Not bad.
We’ll make it in four days if the wind keeps up. Or less, if
this reading is correct,” she said, laughing at the GPS. “It
says we’re doing fifteen knots right now.”

“How fast is
that?” Alan asked.

“If we were
going fifteen knots you wouldn’t be wearing that hat, sailor,”
Chal said, flicking the brim of Alan’s cap with her finger. He
grinned. “Right now we’re going maybe five.”

“
Bueno
.
So what are we doing for the night,
capitan
?” Alan said.

Chal peered toward
the coast.

“We should
anchor closer to shore,” she said. She was nervous that the
coast guard would see them, but there was no getting around it. “I
think we can keep sailing for a while, then find a cove to stop in.”

Her stomach gurgled.

“Hungry?”
Alan asked.

“Incredibly,”
Chal said. It had been hours since she had had anything to eat.

“Take the helm
and I’ll make something,” Alan said.

“I can do it,”
Chal said. A shadow of guilt passed over her face.

“No, let me
get up,” Alan said. “Coast to my right, ocean to my left.
I’m sick of this beautiful view!”

Chal sat down,
taking the tiller from him, and he quickly made his way down into the
cabin. Chal settled back. She shouldn’t feel guilty. It wasn’t
her fault that they had had to escape together, but she couldn’t
shake the feeling that she was his captor, even now.

The view was
beautiful, though, and though the sun’s last glow soon
disappeared, the smell of frying onions greeted her from the cabin,
making her stomach gurgle even louder.

“I heard
that!” Alan said, bringing out two plates. The ocean swells
rolled the boat, but he kept his footing while balancing the plates
on his arm. “Here, take these.”

The fish was
deliciously fresh and smelled divine, and Chal could not help eating
even though it was sizzling hot. There were onions and diced potatoes
on the side, and they fell to with an appetite borne as much from
relief as from hunger.

“Our first
real meal together,” Alan said, once their plates were both
clear. He tossed the fishbones over the side of the boat.

“Cheers,”
Chal said, raising the plastic cup of white wine that Alan had poured
for both of them.

“Cheers,”
Alan replied, taking a sip of his wine and grimacing. “This is
strange stuff.”

“You get used
to it,” Chal said. She had to remember that he was new to this.
New to everything.

They finished their
wine and Alan stood up, laughing at the dizziness he felt. He cleared
the plates and washed up as Chal steered them closer to the coast. It
would be time to stop soon, and she wanted to find suitable cover for
their boat.

“They’re
incredible,” Alan said, staring up at the sky.

“Hmm?”
Chal asked.

“The stars,”
Alan said, pointing up. Chal leaned back. The sky was full of light,
the Milky Way painted brightly across the sky.

“Amazing,”
Chal said. She had lived in big cities for so long she had forgotten
how beautiful the night sky could be when untainted by light
pollution.

“Are they
really millions and millions of miles away?” Alan asked.

Chal nodded.
“Sometimes I forget how small we are compared to everything.”

“Speak for
yourself,” Alan said, flexing his muscles and grinning. “I’m
a big, strong man.”

Chal’s lip
turned up, but she stopped herself from laughing.

“This is
wonderful,” Alan said. He moved closer to Chal, letting his arm
fall over her shoulder. Chal tensed up, her body responding in two
wildly disparate ways. She couldn’t do this to him. But as he
squeezed closer to her, she couldn’t help but feel herself ache
with the desire to lean into him, to give herself over to the
electric thrills of lust that were racing through her system.

“I’ve
got to get the anchor ready,” Chal said, standing up abruptly.
“We’re heading toward that cove, right before the
peninsula.”

“Sure,”
Alan said. He sounded surprised and Chal turned away so that she
wouldn’t have to meet his eyes.
No use getting close
.
She went below deck and poured herself another cup of wine, drinking
it quickly. All of the conflicting feelings inside of her were
blurred by the alcohol, and she steeled herself.
No use.

They arrived at the
cove in minutes and Chal busied herself with the anchor line. There
was a Spanish flag in one of the cabinets below deck and she hung it
up alongside the Portuguese flag. Good nautical manners, although she
hoped there would be nobody around to see the flags anyway.
Better
safe than sorry
, she thought.

The night ocean was
smooth, with only soft swells rippling through the cove. The boat
rocked slightly as Chal lay down. The wine had made her head fuzzy.

Alan came down into
the cabin, his silhouette framed by the moonlight. He took off his
shirt and Chal could see the gleam of the small scar on his chest.
She closed her eyes. The thoughts that were running through her head
were not at all what she wanted to be thinking.

“Chal?”
His voice was close to her and she felt his body moving the
cushioning beside her. She turned away, terrified about the changes
that his presence had on her. Her heart was racing and she could not
think of anything except the man who was in the darkness with her.

“Chal, did I
do something wrong?”

The silence hung in
the air, and Chal felt a lump in her throat. She coughed slightly to
clear it.

“No,”
she said, the word scratching as it came out quietly.

“Good,”
he said. He lay beside her and wrapped his arm around her waist,
pulling her close. She opened her mouth to protest, but his body was
pressed tight against her and she felt the words evaporate as soon as
they were on her tongue. What could she say?

He enveloped her
completely in his embrace, and the heat that swept through her at his
touch only made her more flustered. He seemed completely at ease
beside her, his skin radiating heat through the thin sheet of her
dress. His breath was hot against her neck and she shivered at the
ache of desire that it brought on. She wanted to turn around and
press her lips hard against his, run her hands through his hair, take
him into her.

He took her shiver
for coldness and held her tighter. Even in such dire straits, under
chase, far away from anything and anyone she knew, Chal had never
felt so safe. It was as though his arms were protecting her from the
world. Despite herself, she leaned back into his embrace.

“Buenas
noches,” he murmured, his lips moving her hair. She closed her
eyes and let her body relax against his. Soon they were both asleep,
the boat rocking them in with the inexorable movement of the sea.

***

It was on the third
day that they were stopped by the coast guard.

Chal had been
keeping Alan at arm’s length during the day, although she had
given into his comfort both nights that they had slept together in
the small cabin. The small touches and caresses that he gave her were
hard to ignore, but Chal was focused on getting them to Catalonia,
and she pretended that any longing she felt would soon pass.

That day, though,
they had dropped their sails to take a swim in the ocean. They were
only a day’s sailing or so from freedom, and Chal thought they
could spare a few minutes to rest. Alan stayed close to the boat just
in case the wind picked up. He was like a little boy, doing
cannonballs off of the deck and splashing in pure enjoyment of the
ocean.

Chal lay on her
back, letting herself drift on top of the warm Atlantic waters. Her
hair was like white gold after being in the sun for only a few days,
and although she had taken care not to let her skin burn, the water
was still a relief on her sun-kissed body.

She felt so small,
floating there in the gentle swells. Her legs kicked slowly,
propelling her through the waves. She heard Alan’s voice
through the water as though from far away.

“Chal!”
He was calling her name. She looked up lazily and saw him leaning
over the other side of the boat. He was looking at something. He came
back over to her side and motioned to her.

“Chal!”
She could hear the urgency in his voice now, and as she began to swam
closer to the boat she heard the motor of the other vessel
approaching, although it was still blocked from her sight.

She swam up to the
front of the boat, peering around. It was the Spanish Coast Guard,
and they were close.

“Here,”
Alan said, slipping the snorkeling gear over the side of the boat.
Chal caught the mask and snorkel and put it on quickly. She pressed
her body against the side of the hull and waited.

They had planned out
what they would do if they were stopped by the Coast Guard, but Chal
still felt her heart race in anticipation. All units nowadays were
equipped with ID scanners, and it was routine to do an ID check at
any police checkpoint in most digital nations, including routine
boardings. Although it was a risk to try and conceal a person from
the Guard, they had decided it was better than risk having Chal’s
face come up under an ID search. And if they were looking for a
couple on the run, it would be easier for Alan to pretend to be
alone.

“Hola,”
Alan said as the boat motored near. Chal was submerged at the front
of the hull, her head just a foot or so under the water. She tracked
the motion of the Guard; they were coming around their sailboat. She
circled slowly around the other side, almost panicking when they
continued the external inspection in a complete circle, coming around
the front again.

There was no time to
swim to the back of the boat. Chal took a quick breath and dove
under, using her hands to pull herself down along the hull. The
natural buoyancy of the saltwater pulled her up, and there was one
terrible moment when she felt her hand slip on the algae-covered
wood. Then her fingers hooked around the side of the keel, and she
pulled herself directly under the boat.

Her mask was fogged
and her heart was pounding. As soon as she heard the Coast Guard’s
motor shut off, she let herself float up slowly along the other side
of the boat. Her lungs were burning for air, but she forced herself
to emerge from the water as slowly as possible so that there wouldn’t
be any splashing. She tipped her snorkel to the side, clearing out
the water, then lowered herself again. Her head would just be barely
visible if they leaned over the side of the boat to look. She hoped
that Alan didn’t give them any reason to be suspicious.

“Hola,”
Alan said again. Chal could hear the voices talking loudly in
Spanish, but it was hard to make out what they were saying. She
caught the word
fugitivos
once, and her heart stopped in her
chest. The talking went on, though, and they didn’t take Alan.
She was so frightened that she almost screamed when she heard a
knocking right next to her ear, realizing at once that they were
simply looking through the cabin under deck.

Then there was more
talking on deck, and Chal heard the Coast Guard’s motor rev
back up. She did not let herself exhale until the boat was out of
hearing. Alan was leaning over the side of the boat looking for her
when she swam out from under the hull. She reached up to the side of
the boat and he lifted her out of the water as though she was
weightless. In a half-second she was back on deck, Alan’s arms
wrapped around her.

He kissed her, and
before she could think to protest she was already kissing him back,
her arms coming up around his strong back. The light wind raised
chills on her skin but her body was being heated from the inside. His
hands ran down her back, sliding over the curves of her hips.

Too late, she broke
the kiss, her hands pressing against his broad shoulders. He was
gazing at her with an expression of adoration.

“So they
didn’t notice anything?” Chal asked, choking on the
words.

“They scanned
me but they said I wasn’t in the system,” Alan said. “I
guess it’s happened before, though, because I didn’t even
need to make an excuse for it. They just shrugged and checked the
lifejackets and things.”

“Thank god,”
Chal said, breathing a sigh of relief. It was a blessing that
technology had a habit of malfunctioning.