Tuck's Treasure (5 page)

“Listen, buster, I’m done with you. I’m not going to stay on this boat any longer than I have to if you’re going to continue to threaten to spank me. Take me back to the Keys. Now.”

“I bought chips instead of fries, because that’s what I like.” He leaned down to pick up his pants, slipping them over his still-wet shorts. “And I bought a bottle of wine, because you seem more like a wine girl than a beer girl. I hope I bought the right stuff. I bought red, because I thought you would like it a little sweeter.”

“Take. Me. Back. To. Land.”

“I’ll cook and you can sit up here and sulk because you’re stuck in the middle of the ocean with me.” He stepped toward the stairs. “You like your burger well done?”

“It’s amazing to me that you’re cook, since you have a horrible idea about keeping woman in the dark ages.”

She watched his eyebrows lift in surprise, then he frowned. “What?”

“Any man who thinks a woman needs spanked refused to move into the 21st Century. Or is it just that you’re not secure enough in your masculinity that you have to deliver pain?”

His laughter rang out, making her seethe with anger. “Is that what you think? Wrong. Spanking serves a purpose. You’ve lied to me. Twice.”

When she started to talk he held up his hand. “Before you say anything, lying by omission is the same thing as lying. Did it ever occur to you that I needed to know Max Ives was interested in the map?”

“Why?”

“Because of that.” He jerked his thumb out to where the boat was moored. “Think about it, why don’t you? He wants the map, he sends a boat to follow us. What’s to stop him from killing us on the island and dumping our bodies in the ocean? Who would know?”

This time it was fear that raced through her. She hated to admit it but Dylan was right. If Max wanted the map that badly…

“All the more reason we should go back to land.”

“No, I’m not running from him. He hasn’t made a move yet, but that doesn’t mean that he might not once we find the island. Which means we stay put and see if he leaves at dark, or if he sticks around to see what we do next. Now, I’m going down below for a while. It’s too soon to cook dinner, but we should relax. Read a book, why don’t you? Take it easy. It could prove to be a long night.”

*
*
*

Charlene felt as if she were a sitting duck. On the one hand there was Dylan, who kept threatening to spank her every time she turned around. On the other hand she had a boat that belonged to Max Ives, who meant her harm, lurking not far away. It hadn’t moved from its station in the last two hours.

Of course she hadn’t seen Dylan for the last two hours, either. He’d gone below deck and she’d sat up top, reading a book she’d pulled from her bag. About fifteen minutes into her reading she realized that sitting under the sun wasn’t a very good idea, so she’d looked around and found a large umbrella stored inside one of the seat compartments.

She’d set it up so that she could stretch out under the shade. At first she’d been able to read, but then her mind had wandered and she’d found herself reading the same page over and over.

This day definitely wasn’t turning out as she’d planned. In her mind they would find the island, dig for a little while and find bucket loads of treasure to take back and sell, making them both rich.

Well, she would be richer than he was. After all, Tuck had left the map to her. She’d give Dylan a nice share, but not half, not by any means. Maybe ten percent—or fifteen, if he promised to stop threatening to spank her all the time.

Her mind wandered to what the treasure would be. Would it contain strings of pearls and diamonds, maybe tiaras like they had in the pirate movies that she’d watched? There were always mountains of jewels, and old coins that could be sold to collectors. She imaged herself lying down on them, rolling around in the piles, smothering herself in jewelry, gold and silver.

The idea brought a smile to her face, until she thought of Dylan Cray standing behind her, threatening to spank her if she didn’t quite playing with his treasure. Would he try to claim it for himself? After all, he was saying this was “his boat and he was the captain.” Would he similarly say, “I’m the captain and this is my treasure?”

She wished she’d thought about that before she hooked herself up with him. Of course she’d done that because of the dream she’d had that featured Tuck. She sure hoped her uncle wasn’t leading her in the wrong direction. He wouldn’t do that, would he?

Charlene dismissed the idea. No, he wouldn’t. Just because he and her mother didn’t get along didn’t mean that animosity would pass on to her after Tuck’s death. Thinking about her uncle and the carefree life he had lived made her sad. She would like something like this, spending her days on the ocean, fishing or just enjoying being outdoors.

Not that she didn’t love teaching. It was a lot of fun, and she loved shaping young minds for knowledge. That made her job very rewarding. But it was a stressful job, full of structure. Sometimes she thought being your own boss would be absolutely fantastic.

Unless you turned out like Dylan. That would be crappy. He obviously didn’t get the better end of being your own boss, considering the questions he’d asked her when they’d first met. Was she a bill collector? Was she associated with his ex-wife? She snorted and then jumped when his voice sounded right behind her.

“Have they moved at all?” She’d been so focused on her thoughts that she hadn’t heard him come up the stairs. Of course she hadn’t heard him when he’d come back up from taking a dip in the ocean, either. He was right about being quiet as a church mouse.

“No, I haven’t seen them move. Well, any more than a stationary boat in the water moves.” She picked up the book she’d taken aside and opened it. “Besides, I’ve been reading.”

“Yeah, I always read a book that’s sitting next to me; and then, when I pick it up, I read it upside down.”

Charlene glanced at the book, then turned it right side up. “Go away.”

“Oh, come on now don’t be like that.” He sat down next to her and she pointed across the way.

“There’s seats over there.”

“Yeah, but they’re not under the umbrella. Smart idea, by the way.”

“Humph.” She put her nose back in her book, wondering what page she’d been on when she’d put it down. The bookmark was not in it so she had to guess. When she realized she had chosen a spot that was way ahead of where she’d been reading she frowned. She wouldn’t turn back, though, and give him the satisfaction of seeing she’d just picked up the book so she would have an excuse to ignore him.

“Are you mad about your spanking? It was just a little thing.”

“To you maybe,” she spat the words at him. “To me it was a huge thing. You had no right to put your hands on me like that.”

“You’re on my boat.”

“Oh, so if one of your fishing customers used the wrong bait would you spank them? Would you?”

“No, they’re not the type that needs to be spanked. You’re the type that needs to be spanked.” He leaned back and crossed his feet at the ankles and Charlene couldn’t help but notice that he looked pretty smug. What a jerk.

“Because I’m female?”

“Not all females need to be spanked,” he replied, winking at her. “Just the ones that get my blood going.”

Charlene wasn’t quite sure what to say to that, since the statement could be interpreted two different ways. The first being that she angered him and that wasn’t a good thing. The second was that she got his blood pumping and sent it…south.

Her gaze flickered down to his crotch and he laughed. It was obvious that, while she hadn’t been looking him in the face while she pondered his statement he’d been looking at hers. And he’d caught her checking out his family jewels, which was not the treasure hunt she’d had in mind for this trip.

“That’s right,” he said softly. “You get my blood pumping in a good way. You did it when you walked onto my boat yesterday, and it’s been that way since you walked onto it today. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing, or not, seeing as how I don’t think you return the sentiment.”

Oh she returned it all right, but she was damned if she’d let him know. She didn’t want to hook up with a man who thought spanking her was something he had the right to do.

“So what do we do now?”

“Well, we could go downstairs and play around with the sentiments I’m feeling. Or we could…”

“I mean about our friends.” She pointed toward Ives’ boat. “Keep it in your pants, buddy. You’re not getting anywhere near my…sentiments.”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that.” He stood and walked to the edge, picking up the binoculars as he went. He pretended to scan the horizon, then turned toward the other side of the boat to do the same. “We’ll wait to see if they leave when it gets close to dark. If they do, then we’ll motor up and head for our destination. If they don’t then we’ll go downstairs and cook some dinner, eat and enjoy each other’s company…without sentiments.”

The last part was said with a smirk and she wanted to slap him. “And after dinner?”

“Then we take a midnight sail. It will be dark enough that they won’t see us leave, and we’ll head toward our destination in silence.”

“And run right into them when we go the wrong way,” she said, laughing.

“Oh ye of little faith.” He thumped her book. “I can sail by the stars. Your uncle taught me.”

His words made her heart clench. “I wish I’d known him better. The last time I saw him I was just a kid.”

“I’m sorry that you didn’t,” Dylan said. “You would have liked him.”

She had no doubt that she would have. “My mother is stubborn, and she’s a woman who didn’t like to be without the finer things in life. It irritated her that her brother, and I quote, lived like a bum.”

Dylan’s deep laughter shocked her. She would think that the words would have pissed him off. Instead he seemed more than a little amused by them.

“Let me tell you, your uncle was someone who didn’t give a damn what other people thought about him. He lived on this boat, and he lived his life the way he wanted to.”

“He lived here?” She pointed down. “On this boat? He didn’t have a house?”

“This was his house,” Dylan said. “This is a 55 foot sailboat and it has everything you need, trust me.”

“I can’t imagine living on the water,” she said, looking around.

“I can’t imagine living anywhere else.” He leaned back against the cushion. “I had an apartment, but most of the time I stayed here, sleeping on deck out under the stars. I love the water, and I love being outdoors.”

“How did you meet him?” She may not like Dylan, but he could give her information about her uncle, a man she vaguely remembered from when she was a child. He’d seemed to always be happy, and that was something she’d like to try to do in her life.

“I was looking for work on the docks one day, asking people if they needed a hand in taking our charters. When the guy parked next to Tuck turned me down I headed toward Ives’ boats. He had more than a few and I thought maybe, just maybe, he would give me a job.”

Dylan stopped talking and focused on the area where Ives’ boat still rested. “Your uncle stopped me and said that going in that direction would be a bad thing to do. He said Ives wouldn’t be a pleasant employer, but if I wanted to go out with him that day he’d give me fifty bucks for helping him with a fishing charter.”

“Fifty bucks? For a full day’s work?”

“Hey, I was a kid who needed a job,” Dylan said. “That was about nine years ago. Fifty bucks was a huge amount of money to me.”

“And things worked out?” She hoped the prompt kept him talking.

“Yes, they did. Tuck and I got along great. He invited me back the next day, and when things were slow here we’d go to the Caribbean. I got to travel and work and things were just perfect.”

“And he left you his boat,” she said, softly.

“Are you mad about that?”

“Not at all,” she said, holding up her hand. “I think you deserve it. Heavens knows he shouldn’t have left it to me, someone he hadn’t seen for fifteen years, or more.”

Dylan’s nod made her feel better. She may not like the fact that he spanked her, but she liked him, a little. And she didn’t want him to think she was mad that he got the boat. Maybe, just maybe, if she kept him talking they would get along enough that the thought of spanking her again, which he’d mentioned earlier in the afternoon, wouldn’t come up again.

“He left you the map,” he said.

“Yes, and he left me knowing I needed to contact you to find the treasure.” She laughed softly, then looked out over the edge of the boat. “Are they still there?”

Dylan picked up the binoculars and looked out. “Yup. And it’s getting dark so I guess that leaves us with one question.”

“What’s that?”

“Do you want mustard or mayo on your burger?”

Charlene thought life just couldn’t get any better than this. Discounting the men who were following them, that was. She was on a boat headed toward an island, sailing along in the middle of the night.

Stars twinkled overhead and the breeze was light, brining cooling winds in off the ocean. This was definitely absolutely perfect, right down to the fact that she and Dylan hadn’t argued since they’d eaten dinner. That in itself made things almost perfect.