Page 46 of Reset

Sarah wanted to fan herself at the sight. The man was cut. Lean, muscled torso tapering down into a narrow waist before those V muscles disappeared into tight, wet jeans. And his thighs! His thighs alone made her mouth water. Thick, strong. She was going to swoon. It was like watching a real-life version of one of those Levi commercials from the ‘90s. The ones she’d, ahem, researched many times on YouTube. For work, of course…

“Like what you see?” the devil drawled.

“Yes.” Sarah sighed, her eyes still on his pecs. “Sweet heavens, yes.”

A deep, wicked chuckle snapped her out of her lust-induced daze, and she smacked a hand over her own mouth and prayed that wasn’t drool she felt at the corner of her lips.

Ryan wanted to kiss Sarah all over again, and this time do it thoroughly. But she was skittish and they had a hurdle ahead of them. No matter; unlike the woman in front of him, he had patience.

“Now that I have your attention on other things”—he grinned at her—”we need to talk about the pool. First, it isn’t a channel someone dug out, although they did refine this edge some. It’s a natural underground pond. Which means, no straight lines down there.”

It was clear she was paying close attention to every word he said. No doubt recalculating odds with every new piece of information he gave her.

“The other thing you need to know.” He pointed at the wall above the water. “That isn’t a wall. It’s a huge mass of rock that goes back several feet. Right under the middle of the rock, the pool splits off into about half a dozen passageways. I found one that looked good on my third try.”

She nodded slowly. “But?”

Damn, this was hard. Ryan knew what he was asking of her, and it wouldn’t be easy. “It’s about a two-and-a-half-minute swim to the other side.”

She tucked her hair back with a shaking hand. “Underwater all the way?”

“Yeah.”

There was a long, heavy pause before she replied. “I can’t hold my breath that long, Ryan.”

He’d already figured as much. “Which is why we’ll practice before we go for it. I’m going to give you a crash course in military techniques for underwater missions.” Well, the part that would help her to get into the right headspace anyway.

Her hand fluttered to her throat, and she forced a smile. “Do you remember the techniques well enough to pass them on?”

The woman had a reservoir of strength if she was able to make jokes of this. “Cheeky arse. I’ll have you swimming like a seal in no time.”

“Do they hold their breaths when they go underwater?”

Huh. “I actually don’t know. They’re mammals, so they’d have to. And you don’t hear of many drowned seals, which means they have to be pretty good at it.” He grinned, pleased with his reasoning. “I’m gonna go with yes. You’re cleared to swim like a seal.”

“I’m so reassured.”

She was also a smart-arse. “Let’s eat the rest of the cereal bars and drink some water. The bars’ packaging won’t survive being underwater anyway. Then I can take you through some breathing exercises up here before we get in the water to practice. Sound good?”

“No, Ryan. The whole thing sounds very far from good. But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?”

“Or leaves you in a coma,” he felt the need to add.

“That too.” She got up, grabbed the bag, and came to sit beside him, handing him the untouched cereal bar while taking the partially eaten one for herself. “You’re bigger than I am and need more energy,” she explained.

“We can split them evenly. I might be bigger, but I’m also trained to go long periods without food and still function.” Of course, his belly decided that was the perfect moment to remind both of them that it was sorely neglected. The rumble echoed off the stone wall and made it sound like there was a bear in the dark along with them. “Just ignore it,” he said wryly. “I am.”

“Eat the bar; I’m good with this piece. My stomach is a little upset right now. Plus, I’m used to going long periods of time without food and I honestly won’t notice whether I ate or not.”

“To hell with that.” Ryan snapped his bar in two and handed half to her. “We’ll both survive a little hunger and can afford to share the nutrition we have. And what do you mean you go hours without food? Please don’t tell me you’re doing some weird starvation diet because those things are bad for you. It isn’t natural to not eat. And you don’t need to lose any weight either. Trust me on that.”

Her cheeks turned that pinky peach color that made her hair glow and her eyes look molten. “I’m not on any sort of diet. It’s just that up until after university, when I got a steady job, food was unreliable. Some days I had it, some days I didn’t. It was better once I was able to fend for myself though.”

Oh, he didn’t like the sound of that at all. “What do you mean it got better when you started fending for yourself? You mean once you had a degree and a job?”

“Yes, then too, but before that as well,” she said between nibbles of the bar. “I told you about my parents’ drinking? Well, sometimes they’d forget to buy food. Or forget they had a child who needed to eat. There wasn’t a lot of money kicking around anyway; Dad couldn’t hold down a job and Mum was too wasted to try. Food was a low priority for them. When I turned sixteen, I left home, and things got a bit better then.”

The way she spoke, so matter-of-factly, made his hackles rise. She might not feel fury at her parents’ neglect, but he sure as hell did. “I’m sorry you had to live like that.”