Stepping out into nothing, my arms circled to slow my impact. A deep breath, and I cut into the water, submerging with brutal force.
I scanned around me fruitlessly before I had to get to the surface and breathe. One breath later, a wave came in and pushed me toward the beach, away from where I’d seen her. The hell with that. I wasn’t leaving without her.
The salt water scraped my eyes as I dove, kicking deeper. There she is! Limp, her arms semi-raised, her hair floated in a morbid halo, the blond catching the light from the sun through the water. Fuck. I was not too late. I refused to fail. Not in this.
I swam down to her, looped one arm around her waist, and kicked furiously for the surface, my lungs burning. Give me skates and ice and I’d decimate everyone, but I was mediocre in the water. Mediocrity wasn’t something I handled well.
We burst through to the air. I rolled onto my back, pulled her face up onto my chest, and kicked for the shore. A wave washed over us, sending water rushing up my nose, but I brought us back to the surface, keeping my arm like a vise around her. She wasn’t breathing, but she wasn’t too blue yet.
My legs caught the material of her skirt, and I untied the knot at her waist, letting it wash away. A few dozen sure, solid kicks later, we reached where the waves stopped fighting us and instead pushed us closer to the shore. Just another minute. She could make it another minute.
Stark relief gutted me when my feet touched the sand. I lifted her into my arms, trying to keep her head balanced against my shoulder. Still not fucking breathing.
I pushed my way through the resistance of the water. “Dude! Is she okay?” The juicehead asked from shore. He was lucky my hands were busy at the moment.
“Get the fuck out of my way,” I seethed, pushing past him. I made it onto the beach and put her down, then checked for breath. None.
Lowering my ear to her chest, I caught her faint heartbeat.
I would have thanked God if I’d believed he existed.
I tilted back her head, and for the first time didn’t check out the looks of the woman I was about to put my mouth on. Plugging her nose, I pulled her jaw down, then sealed my mouth over hers, breathing for us both. I counted out the breaths and laid my hand on her chest, checking again for that precious heartbeat.
“Come on, Little Bird.”
The seconds slowed to small measures of infinity before she sputtered, water spewing from her mouth. I rolled her to the side as she forced out the rest with coughing heaves, her slight body convulsing.
All of the adrenaline abandoned me, leaving only exhaustion. She hadn’t died. She was alive. I hadn’t failed. When she finished, I brought her to her back, watching the rise and fall of her chest like it was going to stop any second. I leaned over her as she took a shaky breath.
Damn, her face was as perfect up close as I’d thought. Small, delicate features on top of plump, parted lips. I’d seen her as I ran down the beach, but I figured she’d be a Monet—pretty from afar, but a mess up close—like most of the girls today. I was wrong.
She was beautiful, and not in the fake, made-up way. “Hey, are you okay?” I asked.
“Thank you,” she whispered in a sweet southern accent as her eyes opened wide in shock. Words failed me. Green. Holy shit, her eyes were huge and the clearest shade of pale green I’d ever seen, with a ring of forest green on the edges. My heart skipped and then began to pound. I ran my barbell across my teeth, speechless for the first time since…ever and reminded myself that I did not believe in love at first sight, or that insane voice in my head that clearly said, “Mine.” Her eyes widened. “Mr. California?”
What? A smile broke out across my face. “Not exactly. I’m from Colorado. Luckily they teach mouth-to-mouth there, too.”
She gasped, leaning on her elbows. “Mouth to— I have a boyfriend!”
Indignant. She was offended? “And…he would take objection to me saving your life?”
She blinked several times, her lips parting. Keep your thoughts off her lips. “N-n-no. He just wouldn’t take kindly to someone else’s mouth on mine.” Her chest heaved as she sat up, and her eyes glazed.
I yanked the nearest beach towel to us, not caring that it belonged to Masters, wherever the hell he was, and wrapped it around her, then cupped her face with one of my hands, strangely tender. I was not a tender kind of guy. Hell, no. I was a no-effort, easy-lay, forget-’em-before-morning guy. “Well, next time I’ll make sure to ask him first, okay?”
She nodded, drawing her knees to her chest. “You saved me.”
“You were drowning.”
A shadow fell on us. The idiot was here. “Hey, man, that was so cool how you—” I turned as I stood, my fist taking my momentum into his jaw. He blinked as he stumbled until his ass hit the sand. “She’s fine!” he called over to the small group that had gathered.
“Jerk,” she muttered, wincing, and raised a hand to the back of her head.
“Are you okay?”
Her nose scrunched. “I think I hit my head on the pier.”
I brushed her hand and hair away to see the swelling goose egg. “You need to get checked out. Let me get you to the doctor, okay?”
She shook her head, her hand hovering above her heart. “No, no doctors.”
She muttered something that sounded like, “My parents will kill me.” She looked too old to care what her parents thought, but with that sweet-as-honey southern accent, I bet she was raised pretty old-fashioned. The opposite of my fend-for-yourself upbringing.
“Do you want to call your boyfriend?”
She grimaced. “Will wouldn’t understand. God, it was silly of me to come here.”
“Who are you here with?”
“My friend Morgan, but she’s out on the WaveRunner…”
We both scanned the coastline, but I didn’t see anyone.
She shrank in on herself, becoming even smaller, if that was possible. She was already fucking tiny, over a head shorter than I was, but rounded in every place I worshipped on a woman. She was…well, damn, she was as perfect in her body as her face.
Her cough dragged my horny mind out of her pants. What the hell was wrong with me? The girl almost drowned five minutes ago. “You need a doctor, just to check you out. I’ve heard too many stories of people who drown hours later from the fluid in their lungs.”
She rested her hand on her chest, her forehead wrinkled like she was thinking, before she nodded. “Okay, I’ll get Morgan’s keys and find an urgent care.”
My mouth dropped. “You’re not going to drive yourself. I’ll take you…” I wanted to pull some Jedi mind shit to get her to say her name.
“Paisley,” she answered. Jackpot. “And I don’t get in cars with strangers.”
I grinned. “I’m Jagger, and since I’ve had my mouth on yours, I’d hardly call us strangers.” A pretty blush crept over her face. She was enchanting. Enchanting? Just start spouting poetry and shit while you’re at it.
“I guess if you were going to kill me, you would have left me to drown, not pulled me to shore.” A devilish gleam sparked in her eyes. “But you did kiss me without consent.” Damn. That smile. Killer.
“I promise, Paisley”—I called her by name just so I could feel it curl around my tongue—“if I kiss you, you’ll know it.” Her smile faltered, and something intangible passed between us. I cleared my throat. “Let’s get you to the doctor.”
“Okay.”
I stood and helped her to her feet. She pulled the towel closer to her. “I need my cover-up.”
“I may have cut it loose while I was pulling you ashore.”
“Oh. Right.” She sighed and led me to her beach spot, then slipped shorts and a T-shirt over those curves. Shame, really. She grabbed her bag. “Ready.”
We crossed the sand wordlessly, washed our feet at the little shower sprayer on the octagon deck, and headed to the parking lot.
I unlocked the passenger door of my Defender and held it open. Paisley tossed her bag inside, sa
nk her teeth into her lower lip, and then looked at me. “I can’t get in here.”
What? “You’re going to the damned doctor.”
She laughed, and I immediately wanted to hear it again. “No, I mean, I physically can’t get up here unless you have a ladder.”
“No problem.” I put my hands on her waist and lifted her in. Do not think about sex. Don’t do it.
Too late.
I slammed her door home, climbed into my side, and had my GPS find the nearest urgent care. “Let’s go, Lucy.”
“You named your car?”
I turned the key, and she purred. “Absolutely. She’s the most dependable woman in my life.” Lucy had been my mother’s last gift to me and the lift kit a to-me-from-me present, my reward for getting the hell away.
Five minutes and a red light later, we were there. She signed in, and I settled into the uncomfortable plastic waiting-room chair. At least I’d remembered to throw a shirt on, but my trunks dripped water down my legs, forming puddles on the linoleum floor as she took the seat next to me.
“Why would your parents kill you?”
“Oh, I’m sure they’d really be okay.” She picked at the leather of her purse.
“Let’s make a deal. I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. We’ve got a few minutes where our lives overlap, so let’s agree not to lie to each other. Don’t worry about what I think, just tell the truth.”
A blush crept up her neck, coloring her skin pink. “They’re just a little overprotective. They don’t like it when they don’t know what I’m up to.”
“They don’t know you’re at the beach?”
She tucked a wet strand of hair behind her ear. It fell beneath her collarbone. “They think I’m unpacking my new townhouse. I have my debit card, so if I pay cash and keep it off my insurance, they won’t know I was here. This is what I get for lying, right?” She sighed. “We start classes next week, so it seemed like good timing to get away. No homework yet, and I have the week off of work, and… Oh, I’m rambling.” She forced a fake smile and examined her knees.
“I like rambling.” Shit. I did when she was the one rambling. “What are you majoring in?”
“You’ll laugh.” She stole a look sideways at me, and those green eyes chewed me up and spat me out.
“I won’t.”
“Guess. Go ahead. Guess the most boring major you can think of. Of course, I find it fascinating.” She blinked at me all too seriously.
“Underwater toenail painting.”
She laughed, and there went that word through my damn head again. Enchanting. “No. Try again.”
“Antigravitational basket weaving?”
“Oh, you’re just about hopeless.”
I may be hopeless, but you’re smiling. “Tell me.”
Her eyes narrowed, like she was judging me, deciding if I was worthy to know her secret. “Okay. Library sciences.”
“A librarian.” I couldn’t stop the images playing in my head: pressing her petite body against the books in the stacks. Shit.
“See, you think it’s lame.”
“‘Lame’ is the word furthest from my mind, trust me.”
Her smile returned, this time genuine, and I struggled to find anything else to say that wouldn’t make me sound like a moron.
She pulled out her phone and sent a text. “Morgan’s going to worry when she gets back and can’t find me.”
“You should call your boyfriend, too. I’m sure he’d want to know what happened.” The image of finding her was burned into my brain. Pale, not breathing, lying limp on the bottom of the ocean floor.
“Oh, no. Will wouldn’t want to know. He’d be furious.”
“Furious that you came to the beach?”
Her fingers flexed across her sternum. “That I came to the beach, that I moved out of my parents’ into my own place, that I’ve had a job now for six months that he doesn’t know about… It’s going to be an interesting conversation, let’s just say that.”
“How long have you two been together?” Why the fuck do you care?
“Almost a year.”
“You in love with him?”
Her head whipped toward mine, her eyes narrowed. “That’s none of your business.”
Ah, there was some fire beneath that honey exterior. “Well, either you are, but you’re a private person, or you aren’t, but you don’t lie well, and I thought we weren’t lying here…so which is it?”
She crossed her arms in front of her chest. I was good at that, finding someone’s trigger, setting them off for the hell of it, but that hadn’t been my intention here. Fuck.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”
Her shoulders relaxed, and her eyes softened. “No, it’s just that we were apart for so long while he was at—”
“Paisley?” the nurse called.
“That’s me.” She raised her hand and stood. “Would you mind waiting here?” she asked, something like fear flickering across her face.
Like I was going to leave her? “Yeah, I’m good. I’ll wait for you.” I grabbed the magazine next to me and pretended to read as I watched her walk away. I could do that all day.
It took her an hour, but by the time she came out, I’d convinced the checkout lady to tell Paisley it was a free clinic, and I’d handed over my card to cover her. Hell, it wasn’t really my money anyway.
“All clear!” she said with a smile, but she looked pale again.
I forced a smile and held open the door, something I always did out of habit, but for Paisley, I wanted to.
The Florida humidity closed in as we walked out of the clinic.
“Morgan?” Paisley called out as a girl came running across the parking lot, all legs and cleavage behind a mess of brunette hair, my usual type. Usual? When did I start thinking usual?
“Oh my Gawd.” She drew out that last word in a deeper accent. “I never thought he would do that!” She threw her arms around Paisley and burst into tears. “I’m so sorry!”
Paisley patted her back but didn’t cry. She hadn’t shed a tear through any of it. “It’s okay, Morgan. I’m okay.”
Her friend pulled away and smacked her shoulder. “You have to learn to swim!”
“Okay,” Paisley placated her. She turned toward me with a shy smile. “Besides, Mr. California here pulled me out, so some good came of it, right?”
“That’s an insult to a Coloradan. You know that, right? And it’s Jagger.”
Morgan took a long sweep of me with her eyes, something I was pretty used to, but it annoyed me instead of setting off my usual seek-and-fuck response. “Aren’t you the hero?” She used a breathy tone of voice I was sure frequently worked like a charm. She swayed over to me, running her fingers up my chest. “Anything I can do to say thank you for saving my best friend?”
Over Morgan’s shoulder, Paisley stiffened, and I pulled away. “Yeah, you can thank me by teaching her to swim. It was close.” Too close.
“Absolutely!” She hugged Paisley again. “Let’s get home and unpack?” She skipped across the pavement to a white sedan.
Paisley nodded, then walked to me slowly, her eyes darting across the ground like she couldn’t focus or think of what to say. She looked at me when we were a foot or so apart. We stared at each other in charged silence for a moment, and then she flung herself up, jumping slightly.
I caught her tiny frame easily, and she wrapped her arms around my neck, laying her head over my shoulder as her feet dangled. “Thank you for saving me. For seeing me.”
I held her tightly, savoring the only time I’d feel this girl against me. She smelled like salt water and Florida sun. “I saw you way before you went into the water, Paisley. I’d say you’re welcome, but I’m just thankful I got to you.” She loosened her hold, and I let her slip to her feet. Letting go sucked, plain and simple.
She retreated toward the car, keeping her eyes locked on mine. It was everything I could do to let her go, not to demand her phone number, he
r address, a way to see her again. After all, she’d come to the beach to escape, not to get stalked by me.
She paused with her hand on the door. “I love Will. He’s my best friend, a part of my family, and he…he knows what I need. He’s good for me.” She gave me a smile that about sent me to my knees. “I’m so glad I met you, Jagger.”
She opened her door and moved to get in. “Paisley!” I called out, unable to stop myself.
She turned her head with raised eyebrows.
“He’s a lucky bastard, and I hope he knows it.”
Chapter Three
Paisley
8. Keep some semblance of peace in my life.
I parked at my parents’ house on Fort Rucker and did a double take. Was that…? Yes, it was. Daddy was going to be frosted when he found out, if he hadn’t already seen it. Maybe I should skip breakfast this morning.
The fifteen-foot-tall polar bear statue that kept watch across from the museum now stood guard in Daddy’s front yard, wrapped in dozens of PT belts. That thing was at least fifteen hundred pounds, and I tipped my hat to whoever had moved it.
At least this wouldn’t be boring.
I grabbed my handbag and headed for the house. As flight school class pranks went, this was a pretty good one. This new class had just started, and they were already at it.
Good for them.
I heard Daddy from his office before I even shut the door.
“I don’t care what your goddamned schedule says! Get that thing off my lawn! And you’d better handle the responsible party!” His voice echoed through the foyer, but our golden retrievers, Layla and Clapton, didn’t move from their prone position, only thumped their tails when they saw me.
“Y’all are some great guard dogs.” I bent down to pet them.
“It had better be gone by lunch, Major. Damned polar bear.” The phone crashed in its cradle a moment before the French doors opened. “Lee-Lee!” Daddy embraced me lightly. I missed real hugs, the ones so tight I thought my ribs might break. “You ready for breakfast?”
“Famished and wasting away,” I joked, patting my belly.
“You girls, all worried about your figures. A man likes curves, my gal.” His arm around my shoulders, we crossed through the living room to the kitchen, where my mother finished the gravy.
Eyes Turned Skyward Page 2
