Wicked Nights (Men of Discovery Island 2)

And there it was...the lecture he’d probably been storing up for the past five years. She didn’t want to hear it now any more than she had back then, when he’d shown up in her hospital room to hear her awkward if heartfelt thanks. She was an adult, not a child he could scold.

“I did. What I did not know was that Lance had spent the morning at the bar taste-testing margaritas. If I had, I wouldn’t have gone near a Jet Ski with him. I’m not stupid.”

The elevator dinged and the doors opened. She was taking the stairs after this meeting. He stepped forward, ever the gentleman, and held the door for her. Since arguing over his good manners would only point out her lack of the same, she started forward.

“Piper.” Had his mouth brushed her ear?

She kept on moving. That was the game plan, both for today and for her life.

“I never thought you were stupid, okay? Just—” He ran a frustrated hand over his head.

“Impetuous? Stubborn? Had a mind of my own?” She gave him the list over her shoulder, still heading toward the conference room. “Check, check and check, big guy. Don’t feel sorry for me, though, because I’m about to kick your butt in there and score your contract.”

* * *

HE’D NEVER ONCE felt sorry for Piper. Not when he’d dived beneath the surface, searching desperately for her body. Not when he’d brought her up, bleeding and unconscious. Not when his mother had mentioned how sweet Piper Clark would never dive competitively again. He’d felt plenty of emotions—anger, frustration, worry and concern heading the list—but pity wasn’t one of them. Her strength defied feeling sorry for her because she’d already picked herself up and forged ahead.

She wore another business-casual number today: a hot-pink shirtdress that—once again—stopped well north of her knees. The neck was unbuttoned low enough to reveal a chunky necklace, some kind of beaded flower thing studded with sparkling stones. He was 100 percent certain he’d never seen a flower like that in nature.

She didn’t look back at him after she delivered her ultimatum, just sashayed down the hall, away from him, leaving him to admire the sassy hitch to her walk. She’d never asked for pity or even a break. After the accident and their uncomfortable meet and greet in her hospital room, he’d given her some space because it seemed like the whole world had been all over her, wanting to know how she felt about losing her berth on the national diving team. Piper had been born to compete, and she hadn’t even had the chance. Lance’s criminal decision to drink and drive had guaranteed that, and the brief prison sentence the man had earned couldn’t possibly begin to atone for what she’d lost.

The trash talking and competitiveness covered up something else.

He followed her into the room. Part of him actually wanted her to win, which was stupid because he needed the cruise line’s business if he wanted to expand Deep Dive’s offerings and bring more veterans on board to help out. Piper, however, clearly didn’t feel like throwing the contest in his favor. He didn’t think it was the chemistry they had between them that made him feel like handing her the win. He hoped.

Ten minutes later, he wasn’t sure what to think. He stared at Sal Britten, who’d just delivered his bad news as though it was some kind of trophy.

“So,” the man concluded, “We’re not sure which direction we want to go in. You’re both equally strong candidates, and to be honest, the competition came down to you two. The other applicants weren’t even close. One of you is earning the contract, but we’re not ready to make a decision today.”

Translation: the guy couldn’t make up his mind.

Cal hated indecisiveness. From the way Piper practically vibrated on her chair beside him, for once she was in agreement with him.

“We’ll have a second round of competition,” Sal continued, oblivious to the tension in the room, “with just the two of you competing. We’re asking you to pick two dives from your sample programs, something new and innovative our cruisers won’t have done before. Then you’ll take us out, walk us through them. Since you’ll be leading the program, we’d like to see how you work in the field and how well you can bring another dive master up to speed, as sometimes one of the ship’s dive masters may be accompanying you. We’ll do a morning dive, followed by a surface interval and then we’ll finish off in the afternoon.”

Hell. Cal had one week to wrestle through his unreasonable reaction to submerging, and that was if he and Piper could actually work together without killing each other. He wanted to believe his diving was possible—he wasn’t stupid enough to bet they could cooperate—but...yeah. He could guess the odds. Piper had won and she didn’t even know it. He slid a sidewise glance at her.