Stolen Chances by Elisabeth Naughton

popped the regulator in her mouth and barrel-rolled backward. “And don’t purposely kill him even though he deserves it!” he called after her.
    A tiny splash echoed. Drummer looked down at her curvy body already gliding through the water and cocked his head. “How big is her husband? Is he like Rambo big or just average?”
    “I don’t know,” Thad answered. “Why?”
    “Because I’m trying to decide if she and I should have our hot love affair before or after he gets here.”
    Thad couldn’t help it, he laughed. Regardless of what Lisa thought, Drummer was harmless. An equal-opportunity flirt, but harmless. And, Thad realized, much-needed comic relief on a day like this. “God, you’re a piece of work. Go already, horndog.”
    Drummer smiled, popped his regulator in his mouth, and stepped off the boat. His fins hit the water with a slap, as loud and obnoxious as Lisa’s barrel roll had been smooth and graceful.
    Maren walked out on deck just as Drummer disappeared into the water. She handed Thad a mug of coffee and took a sip of her own. “Darn, I missed the big send-off.”
    “Thanks.” Thad took the mug as they watched the two swim away, his skin already warming with Maren so close again. He really needed to get in control of his body’s reactions to her. “Trust me, it wasn’t that big a send-off. Right now I’ll just be happy if Drummer makes it back in one piece.”
    “He is quite a character.”
    Thad sipped the hot brew. He couldn’t even see them anymore. They were already diving deep. But he could feel Maren. And God, she smelled good. “Time will tell.”
    She didn’t answer, and the silence stretched between them like a taut rope. Since he and Maren were alone on the boat for at least the next hour, he figured he needed to do something to put her—and himself—at ease. “You could have partnered with Drummer. I wouldn’t have cared.”
    “Lisa doesn’t like to dive with you. Says you cramp her style.”
    Thad feigned shock as Maren turned back for the cabin. “What exactly does that mean?”
    “I don’t know,” Maren said, moving down the steps into the salon. “Something about bossing her around, mothering her to death. I think she chose to dive with Drummer because he’s still a little afraid of her at this point.”
    “Doubt it’ll last,” Thad huffed, following. “Sideshow Bob’s obviously warmed up to her.”
    Maren smiled over her shoulder, and the look was so sexy, Thad’s pulse sped up, and he had another insane urge to drag her close and feel those lips of hers against his own. “Drummer’s all talk. But Lisa’s not the hard-ass she used to be either.”
    Thad had noticed that about Lisa as well. He leaned against the counter in the salon. “She’s softened considerably.”
    “Yeah, she has.” Maren set her mug on the counter and pulled out a chart from underneath, then moved to the large table in the middle of the room and unrolled it. “I guess falling in love will do that to a person.”
    Her words hung in the air, and Thad remembered when she’d first shown up at that dig nine years ago. He’d thought she was window dressing, only there because of Patrick. She’d set him straight right away. And they’d gone toe-to-toe more than once before she’d softened too. Before she’d fallen for him.
    He watched as she slipped on her glasses and leaned over to study the coordinates. A silky lock of hair slipped free, and she reached up to tuck the blonde strand behind her ear in a graceful little move. And in the silence, he had a quick flash of her standing in the small kitchen of her hut nine years ago, doing the same thing. When he’d gone to talk to her about something she’d done wrong on a dive. When she’d been swaying to Bruce Springsteen’s rugged voice coming out of the stereo. When his heart had lurched hard in his chest, just as it was doing now.
    Man, the woman was a looker. Today she was wearing denim cutoff shorts and a black ribbed