Air Bound (Sea Haven/Sisters of the Heart 3)

Baby, if I let you drown, you won't have to haunt me, I'll

be right there with you.

He slipped noiselessly beneath the water, sinking far deeper than he'd taken her before. The boat was nearly on top of them. He felt the wash of it as he sank and knew they'd just gotten under in time.

They have scuba divers in the water, Maxim. There was definitely panic in her voice.

I expected that. They have tanks, we don't. He kept his voice even and as matter-of-fact as possible. The more she panicked the less air she'd have to stay under. He swam toward the reeds rippling back and forth with the current.

I'm going to anchor us down in those reeds just ahead. We'll just sink to the bottom. We're close to shore and we're not deep here. Getting to the surface will be fast and easy.

Airiana nodded her head against his back to indicate she understood. It was dark beneath the water, but lights shone around them from several directions. She had to know what that meant.

They descended down into the reeds, and Airiana let go of him to sink into the soft powdery floor of the sea. Maxim took her hand, squeezing it to give her confidence. She clung for a moment but then turned her head, looking behind them.

Maxim spun around, drawing his knife, nearly tangling his legs in the cord binding his war bag to him. He kicked hard and met the diver chest to chest, crashing into him, gripping his arms and propelling him backward. They rolled over and over, struggling for supremacy, each controlling the weapon in the other's hand.

The diver had the advantage with his air tank. He could stay down longer than Maxim, and he knew it. Maxim felt a sudden drag on his body, and glanced down to see Airiana coming toward them. She had caught the cord of his war bag and was using it to pull herself toward the two combatants.

Maxim's heart stuttered. She couldn't swim. Was terrified of water. She had to be running out of air, but she moved right up to them, pressed the dart gun against the diver's leg and pulled the trigger.

Maxim held on to him until the body went limp. Airiana held tightly to the cord, but signaled frantically that she had to rise. He tore the tank from the diver's body and thrust the breathing regulator at her. She shook her head. He put it into his mouth to show her how to use it again. He knew she could, she'd used one before when they swam to the submersible.

She shook her head again and let go of the cord to kick to the surface. He wrapped his arm around her waist and yanked her up against him.

Don't be crazy. Breathe.

I killed that man. I can't put my mouth where his was.

He caught her face in his hands and, staring into her eyes, breathed air into her mouth, forcing it into her lungs. He gave her as much air as possible and returned to the tank so that he wouldn't get dizzy. He slipped the tank on.

I'm the one using the tank now, not him. It's my mouth on it. The next time I give you air, you take it. He used his most intimidating, commanding voice.

I will.

She sounded young and vulnerable and he felt like an ogre. She'd shown courage and he'd had to be tough with her instead of comfort her. He took her away from the area as fast as possible, sharing the air in the tank with her, moving away from the searching boats and hopefully their divers as well.

Having the tank meant they were much more mobile beneath the water. He could feel the position of the boats and divers and avoid them. They didn't have to make a straight line for shore.

Are you all right? You're being very quiet. He didn't like the silence between them. She had to be traumatized by the events of the past seventy-two hours.

She gave him a thumbs-up but she didn't reply. He didn't like that at all. He struck out strongly for shore, towing her, the war bag and guilt. For the first time in his life that he could remember, he was terrified for another human being.

All he wanted to do was gather her into his arms and hold her, showing her she was safe with him. All he could do was force her to stay beneath the surface in the dark waters and swim with him until he felt they were a safe enough distance to get to shore and find a place to rest.

15

AIRIANA'S feet were killing her. She was bone tired. Exhausted beyond all comprehension. She couldn't think, and that had never happened before in her life.

"Your feet are going to bleed if you keep insisting on walking. Let me carry you," Maxim said for what seemed like the millionth time.

He didn't understand why she didn't want to be carried--why it mattered so much to her. She was small and she didn't have the best figure in the world. Her face looked young--although maybe not so much all battered--but that wasn't the point. She was a grown woman. It was important to her that he saw her as a grown woman as well.

She supposed that sitting down right in the middle of the path they were on would be childish. "I can walk, Maxim. You're not any better off than I am."

She'd been a bit appalled that she'd been clinging to his back while they were underwater when she got a good look at him. "But we're not passing up any more places to sleep. No matter what, we're taking the next one. I don't care if every single one of Evan's men is camped out there. I'm about to launch a mutiny."

He glanced down at her and her heart skipped a beat. There in the moonlight, his face appeared more ruggedly handsome than ever. She was a mess. Black eyes didn't look good on anyone, and hers was swollen with an ugly cut above it. She definitely wasn't the glamorous type.

"If you're seriously thinking of mutinying, it's important that you know I singlehandedly stopped a couple of serious rebellions in foreign countries. I'm just saying you might want to rethink." His voice was droll and his fingers tightened around hers as though she might try to bolt at any moment.

She found she could still laugh, and it felt a bit like a miracle. There wasn't a place on her body that didn't hurt. Her bones hurt. She couldn't imagine how exhausted he was. She had slept a little on the submarine but he hadn't slept at all. He was bleeding in half a dozen places.

"You know, if we meet anyone, they're going to think we've been in a war," she said. "That and our clothes are wet--well, damp now." He'd blown warm air on her clothes and they were mostly dry now.

She was thankful it was a warm night. Still, she was shivering uncontrollably and her teeth were beginning to chatter.

"I'm good at talking. We'll be fine."

She sent him a look from under her lashes. "You mean you're good at lying."

He smiled at her, and his smile was worth the last hour of torture. "Excellent at it. And I'm especially adept at knowing when someone else is lying."

He'd be great to have around when she was raising the children, but she kept the thought to herself. "Maxim. I don't want to be a whiner or anything, but I have to stop. I don't care if we sleep under a bush, I have to lie down." If she didn't, she was going to fall down.

"Just ahead is another resort. I've been there before and it has a few cabanas on the beach. If I remember correctly the cabanas were set a good distance from one another. I'll be able to see anything coming at us. You can sit outside and rest while I go in and negotiate."

"So you knew where you were going all along," Airiana said. Sometimes she wanted to kick him. Hard. "You could have just said you knew where you were going so I knew there was an actual destination instead of thinking we were wandering around lost."

His eyebrow shot up. "You thought I'd get us lost? Seriously, Airiana, this is me you're with. I always have a plan and then at least two more backup plans. I don't ever think things are going to work out perfectly, that would be ludicrous, so I have contingency plans for my contingency plans."

She did kick him. His calf felt a little like an oak tree, and it hurt her bare toes. She glared at him, certain it was his fault. "Have you ever considered communicating? Sharing your plan with your partner?"

"Did you just kick me?" He sounded shocked.

"There you go again. Your communication skills suck. Clearly I'm annoyed with you. You could at least pretend it hurt." She hopped the next three steps, keeping the blackest scowl on her face that she could, although

her sense of humor was kicking in. "Pretend it hurt. That, at least, would give me some satisfaction."

"I'm beginning to think you were underwater too long and it's affected your brain. Stop hopping around like a rabbit. I'll have to pick you up and then you'll start with your attitude."

"I don't have an attitude, Mr. I've-Got-My-Bossy-Pants-On." She took three more steps, trying to ride on her sense of humor, but there was no more fuel in the tank. "I'm sorry. I'm going to sit down right here and wait for you to do your thing." She stopped walking and would have sunk down into the strip of sand they were crossing, but he caught her around the waist, preventing her from doing so.

"See that little patio to our right?" Maxim swung her into his arms. "I'm going to put you in a chair. You'll be in the shadows. Wrap yourself in layers of air to distort your image just in case anyone comes near." He strode across the sand quickly, blurring their image as best he could.

Working with air was easy enough if one was still, but blurring a moving image was difficult and took concentration. Looking down at her stark white face with the swelling and bruising actually hurt. She didn't belong in his world. He cursed himself for ever bringing her into it in the first place.

Her hand came up and caressed the shadow on his jaw. "Sometimes you look so lonely and sad, Maxim, it breaks my heart."

She lifted her face and brushed a kiss across his mouth. Soft. Barely there. He nearly stumbled. His heart turned over. It was impossible not to respond to her. No matter how hard he tried, she was already inside him. There was little point in fighting it anymore, he was just thrashing around, making a fool out of himself. Love had found him in the form of a small, ethereal woman who didn't have the sense to run.

"I'm not alone anymore." He managed to get the words out around the lump in his throat, sounding more gruff than pleased. "I've got you."

She laughed softly and nuzzled his throat. "That's my grumpy man. You always have the best declarations of affection. You make me sound like a pain in the ass."

"You are a pain in the ass," he admitted. "But you're my pain in the ass." He toed a chair into the deepest shadows and placed her in it, leaning down, one hand on either armrest to cage her in. His eyes met hers. She looked absolutely exhausted. "Don't leave this chair for any reason. Don't fall asleep. You have to stay alert and warn me if there's trouble coming. It will be difficult, I know you're tired, but I need you to do this."