LITMIR.BIZ

      The six-wheel van lumbered across the ice shelf, and Zeke hoped like hell that the dive would go smoothly without any kind of hitch. Having only two divers and one tender wasn’t the norm down here, but he’d done it before. So why did he feel this niggle of worry?

      The answer was obvious. He wanted today’s dive to be a special experience for Jordan.

      He glanced across the seat at her and wondered if the hum between the two of them as they drove was palpable even to Bob, who sat in the back seat. Then Zeke wondered if maybe it was all one-sided and he was imagining the connection between them. A connection, if it was real, that he shouldn’t encourage, anyway.

      “I can’t believe how incredible it is out here,” Jordan said, turning to look at him. The awe on her face made him smile, though he’d known all along she was the kind of person who would appreciate this crazy southern world of intense blue sky; barren, snow-covered mountains and the slow ice melt over beautiful blue-green waters as much as he did.

      “It is incredible. The way it changes from day to day, even hour to hour sometimes, is like nothing you’ve seen before.” He worked to keep his voice even and not warm and intimate, the way he couldn’t seem to help feeling toward her ever since they’d packed up in the hangar earlier. Since yesterday, working together in the clinic. Since the moment they’d met. “Wait until the hours-long sunsets. Crazy storms. And, if you’re lucky, the aurora australis—though that might not happen during your trip here. Once it’s twenty-four-hour daylight, in another week or so, it’ll be too late, and I don’t know how much solar activity there’s been lately to make them visible.”

      “I so hope I get to see it. But even if that doesn’t happen, just being here is so much more amazing than I ever dreamed.”

      He took in her shining, excited eyes and wide smile as she scanned the expanse of white in the clear air, the iceberg chunks floating far out in the water, the Adélie penguins waddling along in groups of over a hundred, and hoped she’d be just as pleased once they were actually diving.

      “Was it you who placed all these flags along where we’re driving?” she asked. “I assume they mark the route?”

      “Yeah,” Bob chimed in from the back seat. “Zeke and I spent a day getting the markers placed before he and a few burly engineer types came back to cut the dive holes. A couple trips ago, I learned how important it is, believe me.”

      “What happened?”

      “We were at a small station with a group that got the holes placed, but didn’t post flags. A nasty storm blew up and we couldn’t see a thing. Barely made it back. I thought for sure we were goners, our bodies about to be buried under the snow before being eaten by a leopard seal.”

      “Bob is a little melodramatic, as you can tell. I always get the flags in first, so stop trying to scare her.” Zeke sent a frown back to Bob, not wanting him to worry Jordan. It was true that getting lost in a blizzard was no joke, and preparation was critical.

      Also true that no matter where you were, Antarctica or anywhere else, if you didn’t plan for the worst-case scenario it could result in a tragedy you would never forget.

      Zeke’s chest tightened, and he battled back the familiar and unwelcome anxiety that would come from nowhere and that was beginning to well in his chest. Slow, calming breaths, in and out, usually pushed it away now, and he breathed and focused on the white road in front of him.

      “How much farther to the dive hole?”

      He turned to look at her, and seeing her beautiful face smiling and calm managed to help him relax, too. “See that speck of red in the distance? That’s a tent set on top of the closest hole we cut. As we get deeper into the summer we can usually do without the tent and leave it open. This early in the season, though, it helps protect us from cold wind and snow as we’re getting in and out of the water.”

      “I admit it’s amazing to me that you dive here at all.”

      “Are you feeling nervous about it?” He reached for her hand, wanting to show he was there for her. “You don’t have to go in. With both you and Bob as tenders, I’d be fine, especially if I stay fairly close to the hole.”

      “No, I want to experience it. Test the earplugs. But I’ve heard people feel claustrophobic under the ice sometimes. A little worried about that, to be honest.”

      “I don’t want you to worry.” He tightened his hold on her hand, and when she twined her fingers with his, his chest felt that strange expansion thing again. Hopefully, her holding on to him meant that she trusted him. “It’s not that common with experienced divers, which you are. But if it happens to you, just like in any other dive situation, it’s important not to panic. We’ll attach a rope to your weight belt, so if you get weirded out, you know you can always follow it back up.”

      “I won’t need a rope.”

      “Do you always try to act so big and tough and overconfident?” His heart jerked, wondering if she was going to pay attention to everything he said, or feel a need to show her independent self. If she did, he’d end the dive early, period. “Most divers here use ropes every time they go out, especially during midsummer, when the phytoplankton bloom and the water’s murky. It’s easy to be exploring and getting samples and not realize how far you’ve gone until you can’t figure out where, or what direction, the hole is. That’s when people freak, and bad stuff can happen.”

      “I promised you I’d stay close to you, didn’t I?”

      “You did. And I want you to keep that promise.”

      “I promise I’ll keep my promise.”

      She said the words in a light joking tone, and gifted him with a smile that stole his breath. He squeezed her hand before he had to let it go, stopping the vehicle next to the tent.

      “Here we are. Ready?”

      “Ready or not, here I come.”

      “I haven’t been a tender on one of these trips for a while, Zeke, so you’ll have to remind me what to do with the equipment,” Bob said.

      “Okay.” Since the whole reason they were here was to dive and get work started, and they needed a tender to do that, Zeke shouldn’t feel slightly resentful of Bob’s presence. He couldn’t seem to help that he did a little, anyway, wishing he and Jordan could enjoy being here together all alone, even though that made no sense at all. “I’ll explain as we get it set up by the dive hole.”

      Zeke shoved open his door and went to the back of the van, with Jordan and Bob following. After getting everything inside the tent, he turned to Jordan to talk with her about what was necessary for cold-water diving, because it was crucially important she understood how different it was from whatever diving she’d done before.

      “Getting the gear on right matters. First, the dry suit goes on over your long underwear, then a jumpsuit on top of that. So, let’s get it on you before we go to the next step.”

      She took off her snowsuit, boots and thick pants, folding and stacking them in a pile on the ice, and Zeke couldn’t seem to keep from staring at her. He’d been on dozens and dozens of dives and never once had he thought of anything but work when everyone got their gear on, until today. That she could look so sexy in black long underwear that closely fitted her slender body had him imagining what she’d look like in scanty undies.

      Or

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