“Because if I don’t go back in that water tonight, I may not ever be able to.”
“You plan to go in the lake? Tonight?” Over his dead body.
“I face my fears, Rob. It’s the only way I can look at myself in the mirror and have any self respect.” She placed her hand over his. “Please take me to the lake.”
Rob called himself every name in the book and then a few more as he drove one of the network’s jeeps out to the lake, Jill at his side.
The last thing he needed was to be alone with her. Or to see her in the lake again.
With him or without him, she was going to the lake.
Did he have a choice but to take her? He’d sit in his room, agonizing over knowing she was at the lake, wondering if she was okay.
So here he was, bumping along a dirt road to a lake he could have lived without ever seeing again.
Jill hadn’t spoken since they’d climbed into the jeep. He glanced her way. Although she couldn’t see much in the dim light, she stared out the window with her hands twisted around the towel in her lap.
He had to admire her spunk. Few men he knew would have returned to the lake so quickly after a brush with death. Of course, there wasn’t much he didn’t admire about Jill. Last night she’d convinced him she was close near to perfect.
A new surge of regret filled him. One he had to deal with, as he’d been a fool to give in to her sweet seduction. But only a monk could have resisted.
“You okay?” he asked when he pulled the jeep to a stop next to the small dock that stretched twenty feet into the water.
“Fine.” She turned to him and offered a tight smile. “I just want to get this over with.”
He could relate. “Let’s go, then.”
They walked toward the dock. Moonlight reflected off the inky blue-black surface of the water, belying the treachery that lay hidden.
Crickets chirped around them and a frog croaked in the distance. A breeze rustled the leaves of the surrounding shrubbery. Unease settled in Rob’s soul.
He watched Jill stare out at the water with mixed emotions. He understood her need, yet he’d be lying if he didn’t admit he feared for her safety. He didn’t want her to go in the water. How would he ever find her in the darkness if she cramped in the water?
Then it hit him. He didn’t want to have to go in the water. Period.
Aw hell.
Without a word, Jill stripped down to the swimsuit she wore beneath her clothes. Her lithe beauty momentarily distracted him from his harsh realization. With the moonlight bathing her skin in its glow, she walked down the length of the dock and dived in without pausing at the edge for a single second.
Rob’s stomach dropped somewhere beneath his feet as he ran to the end of the dock. He skimmed the shadowy water surface.
“Jill?” he called. Dear Lord, why had he let her talk him into this?
Chapter Fourteen
Jill dove into the water and prayed this wasn’t the most foolish thing she’d ever done.
Still, she refused to live in fear of water. Confronting the terror that had gripped her every time she’d closed her eyes while in her suite was the only means she had of conquering her fear.
She sank beneath the dark water seamlessly. Shock as the cool water chilled her skin filled her with panic, causing her to go still.
What had she done?
Then her reflexes automatically kicked in and she kicked her legs, propelling herself through the water and toward the surface. Nice and easy, taking time to assure her mind that all was right.
She broke through the surface and flung her hair back just as a loud splash near the dock caught her attention. Rob?
She searched the shoreline for him, but didn’t see him until his dark head rose above the water about ten feet from her.