Laura was trying to focus on keeping the tiny jumping compass line on track with the distraction of Tex’s mouth at the back of her neck. She barely heard the noise of the explosion over the roar of the ocean and the engine, and she was caught by surprise when Tex’s arms wrapped around her and pulled her out of the chair and over the side of the boat.

The water was shocking, even if it wasn’t cold, and Laura thrashed reactively when she came up again -- until a chunk of railing flew over her head and she realized that Tex was trying to pull her away from the sinking, burning boat, one of his arms around her. For a moment, she went limp, and Tex’s strong strokes drew her away from the blaze. Then she added her own strength to their retreat, as the fire hit the water and turned to explosive steam. The boat gave a death gurgle as it sank, and the sound of it was lost to the endless ebb and splash of the ocean around them.

Laura kicked off her shoes and tread water beside Tex, who had only reluctantly let her go to remove his own boots.

“What the hell was that?” she demanded.

Tex shook his head in confusion. “I have no idea what happened!”

His hat was gone, Laura realized, with a pang, and she never expected that she would miss it so badly.

Debris surrounded them: chunks of decking, engine molding, a large piece of the awning. Her purse had probably sunk like a stone, but Laura suddenly remembered Jenny’s phone, still in her shorts pocket. She’d bought one of those ridiculous waterproof cases for it, but she’d only hoped to save it from being splashed at the beach; she wasn’t sure if it was going to work for a full-body salt-water dunk.

She must have looked awkward, treading water with one arm and reaching for it with the other. A wave hit her square in the mouth while her attention was divided and she spat and sputtered.

The swells that seemed insignificant in a boat were far more malevolent when Laura barely had her head above water.

While she struggled with her soaking pocket underwater, Tex swam into the debris, testing various pieces with his weight. They weren’t going to be able to tread water until someone found them, and swimming back to the mainland seemed as impossible as swimming to the island — both were tiny on the horizon.

Laura was alarmed to see that the sky was beginning to tint red as the sun began its madcap decent for the ocean.

“What the tarnation?!” It was as close to swearing as Laura had heard from Tex, and she looked up from her successful retrieval of the phone to see a small whiskered face poking from the water between them, not even an arms length away.

The otter chittered at her anxiously while Laura backpedaled in alarm.

As quickly as it appeared, it dove down again out of sight, little tail flipping behind it on the choppy water.

It came up a stone’s throw away, chattered noisily, and then dove again, to reappear further out.

“It’s probably scared of us,” Laura guessed.

It scolded them, then made an unmistakable gesture with its diminutive paw, almost capsizing itself with the effort.

“It… wants us to follow it?”

Lacking any other guidance, Laura and Tex exchanged a helpless look and kicked out after it.

It led them unerringly to a chunk from the bow of the boat.

“I thought dolphins were the ones that were supposed to do deep sea saving,” Laura said. “I’ve never heard of otters doing anything like this.”

“I think we could sit on that,” Tex said, testing its buoyancy by pulling on the edge.

He helped Laura clamber aboard first, a strong hand on her rear nothing but professional.

Laura still found it incredibly sexy.

She moved carefully to the far side of the wreckage to balance it as Tex pulled himself up.

It was tippy and water sloshed up over it regularly, but they could huddle together near the center and catch their breath, at least. Tex’s strong arm around her helped Laura calm her racing heart and she let her head rest at his shoulder.

“Couldn’t ask for a more romantic view,” Tex said, in his dear drawl.

The sun was plunging for the water, and all of the waves around them were crimson and gold, glittering with a million facets in every direction. The sky above them was a tapestry of color, rich purple scattered with puffy orange and magenta clouds.

“I think I’d prefer the view from the beach,” Laura laughed, but she had to appreciate the incredible hues.

She was acutely aware that they had just survived something awful, that they were stranded on a shard of a boat that could tip them out into the unforgiving ocean at a moment’s notice, and that darkness was impending. But all she could think about was Tex’s warmth, and the feeling of his muscles through his soaked clothing. She tipped her head back to find that he was bending to kiss her, and captured his mouth with her own.

His hands slid over her salty skin, over her collarbones and down to cup her breasts and pull her closer. He nibbled her neck and caressed her back. If Laura hadn’t already been soaked to the skin, she would have become immediately wet.

Tex kissed her again, more demandingly, and one of his hands drifted down her thigh, touching her lightly between the legs.

Laura shifted, inviting him in, and the decking they were on plunged and rocked. Laura clutched at his arm, and fumbled her hard-won phone, pulling away with a squeak as she recovered it with a lucky catch.

Bless your reflexes, she told her wolf.

One of us has to be useful, her wolf responded, but it was tinged with affection.

“We should, ah, probably save this thought for later,” Laura said breathlessly. “For some time when a good orgasm won’t swamp our precarious boat and send us both into the salt.”

Tex agreed reluctantly, promising, “I’ll save knocking your socks off for when it won’t drown us.”

Then he noticed, “You have a phone? You brilliant angel!”

“Here’s hoping it works,” Laura said, touching the button. How she had hated that water proof case when she first put it on.

The screen was so bright it lit them up like a torch, making Laura aware of how quickly that darkness was descending.

“Come on, signal,” she said, biting her lip.

“There’s a bar! There’s a bar!” Tex squeezed her shoulders and they bounced in excitement until the slosh of cool saltwater reminded them how precarious their vessel was. “Can you call your friend at the resort? I don’t know the resort’s number by memory, but having Bastian come get us will be faster than trying to get the Civil Guard out here to find us. Bastian can tow us back.”

With shaking hands, Laura pulled Fred from the contacts and dialed.

It rang, while the sun finished its swandive and its last rays faded at last.

It disconnected without giving Laura a chance to leave a voicemail, and she looked in distress at the low battery warning that popped up. “Let me text him,” she said desperately, putting the phone into battery saving mode.

She stalled, looking at the text window. “Lost at sea,” she finally typed. “Boat exploded. Contact Bastian.”

Her life had certainly taken a surreal turn.

After a moment of thought, she added, “He’s the lifeguard.” She added the emoticon of a dragon impulsively.

The phone registered them as sent, then viewed, and Laura waited, tensely, for the reply.

Nothing happened.

The bar of signal flickered out and then returned.

She let the screen go to sleep to save the battery life, and settled into Tex’s careful embrace. The dark water lapped around them, and the bow of the boat dipped and ebbed in the swells that even Laura’s night vision could barely make out.