Tracy didn’t know nearly enough about boats, considering she’d just relocated her life to an island nation whose economy was driven by the sea. Navigating through a harbor filled with other boats on their way back from partying at sea in the dark kept her heart in her throat until they were well away from shore. She was grateful that Johan was such a good seaman.

“You’re a natural at this,” she complimented him once they were speeding along open water.

It was the first time either of them had spoken since he’d taken her hand and led her out to the private dock where Mack’s boat was kept. Even in the near pitch blackness, Tracy could see the tension in Johan’s face. The scant light from the dashboard behind the ship’s wheel gave his face an eerie glow.

“I’d rather not have to investigate my aunt’s criminal activity at all,” he said at last in a sullen grumble.

Tracy’s mouth twitched. “No, I mean you’re a natural at boating. Although you are kind of a natural at investigations too.”

He glanced sideways at her, and his tension softened a bit. “We all spent a ton of time out on the water as kids, and now whenever we can as adults.” He let out a breath, squinted forward into the dark, checked the marine satellite navigation device on the dashboard, then said, “Sometimes I think Mack and Kristoff are the smart ones, spending as much time out here as they do. It sure beats being cooped up in a government office all day.”

Tracy shrugged. “I thought you liked your job.” She scooted forward on the bench where she sat across from the captain’s seat.

“I do like my job,” he insisted. “But a life spent behind a desk doesn’t hold a candle to a life on the water.”

“Ah.” Tracy nodded, then glanced out into the darkness ahead of them. It felt only right that she couldn’t see anything in front of them. Even the thin line of lights running along the southern coast of Sweden had disappeared behind them. She wasn’t sure how long they’d been zipping through the darkness. It was already way past her bedtime, and time seemed to have stopped.

“I should have noticed something sooner,” Johan said without warning. “I should have detected illegal activity, bank accounts that weren’t what they should be. I should have noticed Marina acting suspiciously all this time.”

“Because of your job?” she ventured a guess.

“Yes, but also because Marina is family.” He paused. “She was always so involved with family business. She was always there. You think some of us would have noticed things weren’t right.”

Tracy let out an ironic laugh. His thoughts mirrored everything she’d dealt with over a decade ago. “Deceptive people who have reasons to hide what they’re doing get really good at manipulating others into believing they’re innocent.”

Johan glanced to her, understanding and sympathy in his expression. “Sorry. You’ve been through that too, I guess.”

She nodded in response, then narrowed her eyes to study him. “Is that what this is about? Do you feel guilty because you didn’t catch on to your aunt’s schemes sooner?”

Johan frowned, keeping his eyes on the water ahead of them.

“It is,” Tracy said, full of sympathy. “This isn’t you taking a risk or trying to protect the rest of us, it’s penance. You think this is your fault.”

“No, I don’t.”

He was lying, but she didn’t have the heart to call him on it. Why else would someone so risk-averse put themselves in danger? Oddly enough, knowing how hard Johan was beating up on himself and how far he was willing to go to take responsibility for something that wasn’t his fault made her love him all the more. And it made her beyond glad she’d muscled her way onto the boat to go with him. He needed her in so many ways.

She turned her heartfelt smile out at the black water. Several silent minutes went by before she said, “How far out is this oil rig anyhow?”

Johan checked the sat nav again before saying, “It’s pretty far out there. Even at the speed we’re going, it’ll take another hour to get there.”

Tracy let out a disbelieving breath, then tilted her head to the side. “I guess if you’re going to attempt to conceal an illegal oil rig in the middle of the ocean, you wouldn’t put it smack up against civilization.”

“No,” Johan answered with a sideways smirk.

Tracy let out a breath. His one-syllable answer had far less tension in it than anything he’d said since they’d set out. Maybe if they kept talking, they could break through all the things that had gotten in the way of all the good stuff they had going on.

“Hey,” she said after a few more minutes had ticked by, getting up to inch close enough to squeeze his arm. “Everything will be all right, you’ll see.”

He sent her another sideways glance. “Will it?”

“Yeah. Take it from me. I’ve been there.” She gave him a weak smile. “Everything will suck for a short time when the news gets out and people react, but I guarantee that the heart of your family will come out of this stronger than ever.”

“Did yours?” he asked.

“Absolutely. Me, Mom, and my siblings are closer now than we would have been. You’ll see when they all manage to find time in their busy schedules to come over here for a visit.”

He smiled, his shoulders relaxing a little more.

Tracy moved back to her seat. There wasn’t much to see as far out on the water as they were, so rather than squint into the darkness, she lay down on the cushioned bench and closed her eyes. The drone of the boat’s engine and the rocking motion as they cut across waves quickly lulled her into a stupor of half-sleep. She only came to sometime later when Johan cut the engine and the boat glided to a stop. She heard him talking softly on the phone to someone—probably Viggo—telling him where they were and that all was well as she shook herself awake.

“Are we there?” she asked groggily, sitting up.

“I think so.”

Johan stared straight forward. Tracy followed his line of sight to what looked like a strange, sci-fi-like structure that glowed with low-level lights. She’d seen pictures of oil rigs, but she’d never seen one in person. It was a lot smaller than she imagined a rig would be. She’d imagined a massive, floating skyscraper on the water, like pictures of some of the rigs in the Gulf of Mexico she’d seen. This one looked like a three-story industrial office building on stilts, as far as she could tell. Though it was hard to tell for sure in the dark.

“So what do we do now?” she asked, standing at Johan’s side as he stood from the captain’s chair.

He rubbed his face, eyes narrowed at the structure. “It’s not safe to go charging in right now, in the dark, without any sort of reconnaissance. We don’t have a clue what we’ll find there.”

“But we did manage to find it in the first place,” she said. “That’s a step in the right direction.”

He hummed in agreement, still studying the structure. “We’ve got no way to tell if Marina and Lindqvist are there.”

“Someone has to be there,” Tracy figured. “They left the lights on.”

Johan turned to her. “Unlike whoever sabotaged the arena during the concert?”

The reminder of their first meeting sent a warm shiver through Tracy’s chest. She smiled at him. “I guess they aren’t being as careful this time.”

“If they’re even there.”

They turned back to study the outline of the rig in the darkness. As hard as she squinted, Tracy couldn’t see more than the basics of size and shape. “If someone else is there, wouldn’t there be another boat docked around it somewhere?”

“That’s just what I was thinking,” he said. “But we won’t be able to see that until morning.”

“Unless we take the boat closer to the rig.”

He shook his head. “I stopped here because I figured it was far enough away that they wouldn’t see or hear us. If Marina and Lindqvist are there, we don’t want to advertise that we’re coming. If what I’m thinking is right, they know that rig, know their way around. In the dark, we’d be sitting ducks.”

“In other words, you don’t want to take any risks,” she said, trying not to smirk and failing.

He turned to her with an expression that said he was willing to argue his point if she pushed him. “In this case, risk could be deadly.”

She reached out and touched his arm. “In this case, I agree with you.”

He relaxed. “Good. In that case, we should drop anchor, then go below-deck and try to catch a few minutes of sleep before we charge in.”

“I’m not going to argue with that either,” Tracy sighed, pushing herself into motion.

She had no idea how to anchor a boat so far out to sea, but Johan knew what he was doing. Once he got things settled, they moved into the small but comfortable cabin in the center of the boat. It contained several cupboards, a small galley, but most importantly, a neatly-made bed.

“Do you want something to eat? Some coffee?” Tracy asked, glancing toward the galley as she made her way to the bed.

“Not right now,” Johan replied, kicking off his shoes. “Maybe in the morning.”

She paused to watch him, shoulders sagging, dark circles under his eyes, as he sat on the small bed, then lay back with a defeated sigh. Her heart went out to him. In the short time that they’d known each other, she’d come to admire Johan as a hard worker with a strong moral compass. She’d also learned that he loved his family and his country, all of which were qualities that made him irresistible. But there was a strain of innocence in him—or maybe it was just idealism—which she could see was making the whole situation hard for him to swallow.

“Hey, we’re going to make it through this,” she said, sitting on the side of the bed and taking her own shoes off. “Everything is going to be okay.” She tossed her shoes aside, then stretched across the bed, fitting her body against his and resting her arm over him in a comforting embrace.

“Are you sure about that?” he asked, adjusting so that he held her against his side.

The sudden intimacy of their position sent excitement swirling through her. Whether it was exhaustion interfering with her ability to make rational decisions or the lingering adrenaline of the situation, instead of pushing those warm, fuzzy feelings aside, she embraced them. “I’m a hundred percent sure.” She fiddled with the buttons of his shirt. She’d changed clothes when he attempted to dump her at home, but Johan was still wearing the formal shirt and trousers from his dress uniform, even though he’d left the jacket somewhere.

He tensed under her touch. She felt his heart rate kick up. “I want to believe that’s true,” he said, twisting to lie on his side, gathering her more intimately in his arms. “I want to believe that there’s an explanation for everything Aunt Marina has been up to. I want to believe that we’ll all have a good laugh about this tomorrow morning.”

“But you don’t believe that,” she said, reaching around to rub her hand down his back. She wanted desperately to tug the hem of his shirt free from his trousers and to explore his body more fully.

“I don’t,” he said. “I know Marina is guilty. We don’t have irrefutable proof yet, but we have enough to build a case on, and I’m sure more things will come to light.”

“It will be okay,” Tracy repeated, meeting his eyes. She wanted to kiss away his worry so badly that she could barely keep still in his arms.

Johan raised a hand to stroke the side of her face. “If you tell me it will be okay, then I believe you,” he said softly. “I know you’re the expert here. I’m sorry that you are, that you’ve been through this.”

“I know.” There was nothing else she could say that she hadn’t already said, even though she had the sense that Johan would never get tired of hearing that he and the entire royal family would survive this. Instead, she surged forward, closing her lips over his in a reassuring kiss.

He let out a breath as though he’d been waiting for that kiss his whole life. His arms tightened around her, need rippling off him. He kissed her back with a heat and vulnerability that squeezed Tracy’s chest. Her heart beat so hard for him that it made her dizzy. Or perhaps the dizziness came from the rush of desire that had every nerve in her body tuned in to him.

“I meant what I said earlier,” he whispered between kisses, sliding his hand under the soft fabric of her t-shirt to spread against her skin. “It was stupid of me to blurt it out the way I did, but I love you.”

Her heart knocked harder against her ribs, and the ache that had been steadily forming in her core pulsed harder. “I know.” She kissed him back, going for broke and tugging at his shirt the way she’d been longing to. “And I love you too.”

She felt a ripple of delicious tension course through him. He shifted their positions so that she was on her back. With one hand and her help, he tugged her t-shirt up over her head and tossed it aside, then he dipped down to kiss her with a passion that left her feeling like a particularly electric jellyfish.

“Is it crazy that we’re saying I love you so early in our relationship?” he asked between kisses, breathless. His hand skimmed her body, cradling her breast, then reaching around her back to unhook her bra.

“Probably.” She arched so that he could remove it, then reached for the fastenings of his trousers. “But I don’t care. I’ve never felt this way with anyone else.”

She loosened the front of his trousers and slid her hand against him. He jerked and groaned with pleasure at her touch. The sounds he made stirred her blood even more. She had to get out of her jeans or she’d go crazy.

“Sometimes you just know,” he echoed her thoughts as they stopped trying to be smooth and did whatever it took to get naked fast.

She giggled as she pushed her jeans and panties down, kicking them to the end of the bed. “Sometimes you do.”

He stroked his hands down her sides to her hips, then drew her into an intimate embrace. Their bodies slid together, skin against skin. Tracy moaned shamelessly at the sensation. Johan had an amazing body. It felt perfect for the two of them to be wrapped up in each other. The gentle rocking of the boat only enhanced the sensuality of the moment. Every part of her ached to be filled by him, not only then, but forever.

Just as things were getting desperate between the two of them, Johan stopped, panting heavily. He twisted to the side, reaching for one of the closed cubbies along the wall beside the bed. “I’m going to kill Mack if he doesn’t keep his boat well-stocked,” he managed to say.

A moment later, he let out a wordless cry of triumph as he pulled a short strip of condoms from the cubby. As fast as lightning, he tore into one without detaching it from the strip, then rushed to put it on.

“Remind me to send Mack a politely-worded thank you note later,” Tracy laughed.

A moment later, her laughter turned into a deep moan of pleasure as Johan plunged into her. She’d been waiting for ages for that moment, waiting her whole life, and he didn’t disappoint. Their bodies fit so well together, and his movements were so smooth and masterful that in no time, she felt herself teetering on the edge of orgasm. She wanted the moment to last much, much longer, though, and did everything she could think of to hold back. At the same time, she couldn’t stop herself from wrapping her legs around him and digging her fingertips into his backside as if there were no tomorrow. She wanted everything about him so badly that it robbed her of all thought, leaving her nothing but a flaming ball of longing.

At last, just as his body tensed in release, she gave in to the throbbing pleasure that had been building inside of her. She came with glorious force, filled with wonder as the two of them hit their climax at the same time. That had never happened to her before. She didn’t even think it was possible. But the two of them were so synced that it seemed only natural. And it was beautiful.

Slowly, with gentle rocking, and gasping for breath, the two of them tumbled into a spent pile of arms and legs.

“We should have done that much sooner,” he panted, removing the condom and settling her into his arms.

“We’re going to have to do that a lot more going forward,” she agreed, snuggling against him.

“If you insist,” he said, a hint of laughter in his voice.

She smiled as she rested her forehead against the side of his head. There would be time for all that and more soon. As soon as Marina and Lindqvist were taken care of. But even that seemed distant and unimportant with the two of them dozing off in each other’s arms. There was time for a few hours rest, just as there would always be time for love.