Free No Quarter Given (SSE 667) by Lindsay McKenna

can attract sharks. I came out to bring you back before you became dinner for one of our great whites, you idiot!"
    Gasping, Dana laughed. "You came to save me? Oh, brother, Lieutenant, that's a real laugh."
    Stung by her ungratefulness, Griff glowered at her and swam closer. "Okay, so you're a feminist and I'm still back in the caveman era. But I'll be damned if you're going to become a steak for some patrolling shark on my beach."
    He was serious! Dana blinked, shoving the hair off her brow. "Your beach? For your information, this is a public beach, Turcotte! I came down here to swim! You had no right scaring the hell out of me! Just who do you think you are?"
    Griff clenched his teeth, impressed in spite of himself at her spunk under the circumstances. "Just because you were swim captain at Annapolis, Coulter, doesn't mean you have an ounce of brains about swimming in the ocean. Did it ever occur to you that sharks are drawn to flailing sounds on top of the water? They signal a meal waiting to be eaten."
    Dana began to laugh. She couldn't help herself. It was all so ridiculous! "You're something else, Turcotte. I was on this beach minding my own damn business. Did it ever occur to you I know what I'm doing?"
    Griff momentarily lost his anger. When Dana smiled, he felt some old, heavy burden buried in his heart dissolve. Her laughter was rolling and contralto, like a song of a beautiful bird. And her eyes... Sweet heaven, but he wanted to capture that smiling mouth and feel her move sensually against him. The water glinted off her neck and arms like jeweled sunlight. The gold flecks were back in her eyes, and he knew now, without a doubt, she was happy. Just the graceful way she moved in the water told him she was ultimately at home within its grasp. Her incredible beauty nullified his anger.
    "I was worried, that was all."
    Her eyes crinkled. "I wouldn't think you'd care if I did get eaten by a shark. After all, you don't want me as a student."
    Griff ignored her comment.
    "Besides," Dana added lightly, stretching out on her back on the water's surface, "I was born by the ocean, Lieutenant. When I was three, I was swimming with my mother in it." She twisted her head in his direction, noticing his straight brows drawing into a frown. "I've had plenty of head-ons with sharks, jellyfish and other denizens of the deep. Once, a six-hundred-pound grouper attacked me. I just hit him with the hammer I carried in my diving belt. I was looking for abalone off the coast of San Diego when it happened. He got the worst of the deal."
    "You're qualified for scuba diving, too?"
    "Up to two hundred feet. I've had diving certification since I was fourteen years old."
    Griff felt heat crawling into his face. He got the message: Dana was extremely capable of taking care of herself in any ocean situation. Embarrassed, he rubbed his jaw where she'd struck him earlier. When he'd seen her dive suddenly, he'd thought she was drowning and had gone in to rescue her. Griff knew better than to own up to that admission. When he looked over at Dana, he expected her to be laughing at him, but she wasn't.
    Dana relented, touched that Griff had cared enough to come after her. "Did you come to my rescue because you thought I was too weak to swim back to shore?" she teased lightly. The water cascading down the hard planes of his face increased his rugged intensity. The color of his eaglelike eyes grew charcoal. She wasn't sure if it meant he was angry or pleased.
    "It's obvious you don't need any help at sea," Griff bit back. "But the air's my domain, Coulter. Not yours."
    She shrugged, silently wishing he'd lose the chip on his shoulder toward her. "The air belongs to everyone, Lieutenant, just like the ocean." She spread her arm out in front of her, fingers lightly skipping across the surface.
    "You made a mistake coming to Whiting, Coulter."
    "Oh?"
    "You'd have been better off staying in the ship part of the Navy—it's obvious you like the