Timeless by Teresa Reasor Read Free Book Online Page B

beat of his heart. His skin felt tight, his face flushed, and his cock painfully stiff. What the sodding hell was he going to do about this Regan woman? The beeping alarm offered him a distraction from his response to her.
    Six computer monitors were mounted on the wall above a counter cluttered with electronic devices. The dark screens reflected his image as he flipped the alarm off and reached to depress the radio mic button to identify himself.
    Site foreman Fergus Fraser’s voice came over the unit. “There have been several lightning strikes on the site, Quinn. We need a quick look at the cofferdam to make sure ‘tis still sound. And the pumps are down. Could you check them and see what the problem is?”
    The comment he had made to Regan had come back to bite him. He pushed the button down. “All of them?”
    “Aye, all of them. It must have been an interesting storm this morning.”
    “Aye, it was.” He paused. “I’ll be sending Rob and Logan to check the dam while I see to the pumps. One of your archeology students decided to dive to the stones yesterday and had a wee spot of trouble. I had to retrieve her and it hasn’t been twenty-four hours since my dive.”
    “Which one?”
    “Regan Stanhope.”
    “Is she all right?” Quinn heard tension in Fraser’s tone.
    “Aye. She’s fine. Just a bit tired and sore from the way she’s moving this morning.”
    “Perhaps that will be lesson enough, eh?”
    Quinn gave a wry grimace. He doubted it. “We can hope.”
    “I don’t know how wise it was to bring these students here. They’re the cream of the crop and thus extremely competitive. I suppose we may have more than this one incident before the whole thing is over,” Fraser commented.
    “I’ve told her that all dives are approved through me. If they have to slip around to take a dip, maybe ‘twill act as a deterrent,” Quinn said.
    “If you truly believed that, there’d be more conviction in your tone.” Fraser attempted a bit of levity. “Make it ASAP, Quinn. We’ve got a couple of geese trapped in the mud here as well. We’ll attempt to rescue them before we have any local officials breathing down our neck charging us with animal cruelty or defiling the environment.”
    From the stress in the foreman’s tone, Quinn could tell the problems were mounting. “You can hurry things along by calling Logan and the others at the bungalows. They stayed ashore last night. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
    “Aye, I’ll do it,” Fraser said and signed off.
    Thirty minutes later, Quinn and Rob checked the harnesses and regulators of the eight sets of double tanks.
    “No problems here,” Rob said and wandered over to stand with Regan and Henry as they leaned back against the starboard railing side-by-side. Even dressed in her dry suit, the lass looked fragile between the two tall men. Once again, Quinn experienced a protective urge. He had gotten up several times in the night to check on her, each time contending with a deep sense of anxiety and curiosity. He didn’t believe in second sight or premonitions, but the thought of her diving again had worry clenching like a fist beneath his ribs. It was none of his business, but he couldn’t seem to shake it.
    Rob rubbed his beard-stubbled jaw as he listened to something Regan was saying. He laughed and made a reply pointing at the picture of the rock band on the front of his t-shirt. He pulled the upper part of his dry suit up and slid his arms into the sleeves.
    Quinn had never known his brother to be conversational in the mornings. In fact, he had a reputation for being taciturn as hell when first awakened. He seemed content enough to spend time with Regan, though. Irritation worked tension up between Quinn’s shoulder blades. Rob should be doing the pre-dive check of his equipment, not jawing. He approached the three of them.
    “’Twould do no harm to check the rest of your equipment before Logan gets here,” Quinn suggested.
    “Aye,