She kicked furiously. Again, something banged into her feet, hard.
Then enlightenment broke across her mind. That was sand dragging against her toes! She tried to stand up, but the bottom past the sandbar was still a bit too deep. She paddled on a few more yards and was able to stand up between waves this time, her chin barely out of the water. She pushed off the bottom and swam a little more. In a few seconds, she was able to walk between sets of waves. When the breakers werent rolling in, the water was no more than chest-deep. But when the angry surf caught them up and flung them forward, she guessed the water was ten-feet deep beneath them.
The good news was the waves pushed the pilots makeshift raft shoreward in front of her. The even better news was a sandy beach stretched before them. They wouldnt be dashed to death against rocks tonight. A violent undertow of waves rushing back out to sea sucked at her legs and lower torso. It was all she could do to hang on to Toms raft and ride the surface waves to shore.
But then she could stand up, no more than thigh-deep. Even when a big wave came in, she was able to jump into it and land mostly back on her feet. She dragged Tom the last few feet to shore on his floating pallet. Without the seas buoyancy to hold him, he abruptly was unbelievably heavy. But she had to get him far enough out of the water so he wouldnt drown.
Using the piece of metal backing still attached to the cushion as a sort of sled, she dug in her heels and leaned back, pulling on his inert form with all her strength. By inches, she managed to wrestle him up the beach to what seemed a safe distance from the water.
Theyd made it.
Relief making her even shakier than she already was, she knelt down on her hands and knees to check him for injuries. Not that there was a whole lot she could do about it even if she had found something wrong with him, but it seemed like the thing to do. She ran her hands over his bare legsthey were muscular and hard. Under the tattered remnants of his short-sleeved shirt, the guy had an impressive set of shoulders. She didnt find any obvious broken bones or cuts.
The guy sure was in great shapeand shaped great. Were she not so exhausted, hardly able to keep her eyes open, shed have enjoyed drinking her fill of the sight of him. As it was, a thrill ofsomethingtingled through her palms and throughout her body at touching him like this. It was terribly personal. Sointimate.
Despite getting felt up by her, he remained unconscious. A head injury, maybe? She pressed her ear to his chest to listen to his heart, and its beat was a slow, steady thump beneath her ear. Stymied as to what to do for him, her own exhaustion finally overcame her. Shivering, she stretched out on the warm sand beside him, pressing the length of her body against his solid, reassuring heat. Mmm. Nice. She laid her head on his shoulder. Whether she passed out or merely fell asleep she couldnt say as the darkness closed in around her, sucking her down, down, into nothingness.
Tom roused slowly. His first sensation was of a splitting headache. And then pain. Grinding slowly through his entire body. He mustve gone on a hell of a bender to feel this bad. He was wet. And lying in sand. He struggled to sort through the fog enveloping him. Something heavy was sprawled across him.
And that something was soft. Curvy. Intensely feminine. Hello. He made a habit of never picking up women when he went on a binge. He hated not remembering anything about them the morning after, not their name, nor where hed met them or even what theyd done together. But apparently hed broken his rule.
He lifted his impossibly heavy arm and looped it around the womans tiny waist. Her toes tickled his shins, and her head rested on his shoulder. She felt small against him. Fragile. That was odd. He never went for the petite, delicate ones. They usually made him feel big and awkward and clumsy.
He cracked one eye open. The sky overhead was black. Turbulent. Looked like bad weather brewing. Groggy recollection swam through his head, half-understood. Something about a storm coming.
His brain might not be working, but his ears were. A sound not of the night registered. The ocean was rumbling like a ticked-off Rottweiler to his left. But this noise came from his right. From the shoreside. A rhythmic whoosh of sand, too slow for someone walking at normal speed. But if that person were creeping cautiously toward a threat of some kind, the measured noises were about right.
Instinct roared through him. Danger!
The man crouched in the shadows, stunned. He couldnt believe what he was seeing! After all the publicity, all the news coverage, this pair in front of him had the temerity to roll around like a couple of savages on a beach?
For the past few weeksever since the last cleansing of souls hed undertakenthe beaches he prowled had been satisfyingly deserted. Pure. This part of the world was unbelievably sinful. Tucked far away from most of the world, the South Pacific attracted people who wanted to hide their dirty affairs.
The woman in front of him moved, draping herself even more blatantly across her lover. Rage exploded behind his eyes, sending ice picks of unbearable agony through his skull. He grabbed his head with both hands to keep it from splitting in two.
Must. Stop. The. Pain.
He fumbled at his waist blindly, feeling for Gods instrument of punishment. His palm caressed the form-fitted rubber grip, his loyal and trusty friend. His vision cleared, and the sinnersall but nakedwrithed before him.
Usually, he waited until they were lost in the throes of their sin, but these two were taking too long, and the pain in his headah, God, the painhe couldnt take it anymore.
He moved farther out of the shadow of the trees, one cautious step at a time.
Tom struggled to rip away the gauze obscuring his brain, to bring himself to full battle alert. But his head wouldnt cooperate. And his body responded even more sluggishly. He flailed against the awful feeling of paralysis gripping him.
Threat! He didnt question the intuition. It had saved his neck and his clients more times than he could count. If only his body and mind would obey himhe silently cursed himself.
With effort, he managed to slit his right eye open enough to make out a pale ankle protruding from a khaki pant leg. It was hairy. Male, then. Caucasian. Easing forward, rolling from heel to toe with each careful step, like a hunter stalking his prey.
The screaming voice of caution in Toms head was deafening. Trouble! Warning! Wake up! But still, his mind and body steadfastly refused to answer the call. He felt drugged, unable to swim free of the haze of it.
The feet stopped maybe six feet away.
Below the crashing noise of the sea, a male voice muttered something just beyond the edge of Toms hearing, syllables that didnt quite form meaning in his sluggish mind. But the tone of voice was unmistakably hostile, dripping in vitriol.
Tom forcibly readied himself for action, ordering his muscles into a state of relaxed readiness. He was probably deluding himself that they would react with any semblance of speed or accuracy to his commands. But his threat-response training had been drilled into him so deeply over the years that even now, barely conscious, mind and body went through the motions.
The woman, perhaps because of his arm tightening about her waist, moved against him, a sinuous, sexy stretch across his sprawled body that would have riveted him had it not been for those feet paused in the sand so close.
The woman, perhaps because of his arm tightening about her waist, moved against him, a sinuous, sexy stretch across his sprawled body that would have riveted him had it not been for those feet paused in the sand so close.
Whore, the voice gritted out. Sinners.
Blank incomprehension was all Toms mind could muster to the unexpected words. But as he regained his senses bit by bit, he became aware of evil radiating from the stranger. Malice rolled off the man in waves as every bit as powerful as the oceans fury beside them.
The guy leaped.
In sheer reflex, Tom exploded into motion, rolling away from the pouncing attack, carrying the girl with him, covering her protectively with his body, presenting his back to the attacker. Something slashed past him, burying itself in the sand where theyd been lying, not a second before. Agonizing pain sliced across his back. His skin melted like butter before a hot knife. A knife. The bastard had just cut him!
Tom surged up onto his hands and knees, driven by the pain, some primitive part of his brain taking over completely. On pure instinct, he leaped to his feet and whirled, dropping low into a fighting crouch, his hands outstretched before him. Killing rage roared through his brain. This wasnt fight or flight. This was kill or be killed. Fury erupted from his throat in a feral snarl.
The attacker was already running, a dark shadow fleeing up the beach and melting into the jungle beyond. Tom lunged forward, intent on catching his prey and crushing him, when a mewl of distress from behind drew him up short.
The woman.
Reluctantly, he turned away from the trees and dropped to his knees beside her. Had the bastard hurt her with that deflected knife slash?
Quick concern sent his hands skimming over her baby-soft skin. No dark welling of blood marred her body anywhere. He squatted on his heels and pushed her wet, stringy hair away from her face.
His mind stumbled. Arielle? No, not Arielle. Not even asleep had she ever looked this sweet. This angelic. Who was this woman hed apparently picked up and made love to on the beach, if her mostly unclothed state was any indication?
He plucked at the scrap of cloth clinging to her slender shoulder. The edge of it was black. Almost charred-looking. No accounting for fashion among the jet-set party girls who came to the South Pacific to play, far from the prying eyes of the paparazzi.
A remembered flash of something black blinked past his minds eye. Sprinkled with round shapes. He frowned. Reached for the vision again. Dials of some kind.
An airplane instrument panel. What did that have to do with anything?
The woman at his feet groaned. He ran his fingers across her forehead and down her cheek to the graceful, elegant line of her neck. She reminded him of an expensive Persian kitten. Even soaking wet and passed out cold, she was stylish. How in the hell had he landed a classy act like her? She was way out of his league these days. He had to give himself credit; hed sure picked himself a looker. Man, the two of them must have painted the town red. He wished he remembered it.
He shrugged, and the movement sent glass-sharp daggers streaking across his back. The pain accomplished more to clear the cobwebs from his mind than anything else, so far. Tom glanced up at the jungle and then back down at the unconscious woman at his feet. They had to get out of here before that sicko came back to finish them off.
Who was that bastard, anyway? And why in the hell had he tried to stab this woman? Or maybe the guyd been after him. Lord knew, he had plenty of enemies of his own who could account for the attack.
He reached down and scooped her up in his arms, startled at how light she was. What were the odds he could stretch their one-night stand into two? And this time he would stay stone-cold sober. Hed give his right arm to remember making love to a woman like this.
Chapter 2
A blinding flash of light, followed in a moment by a giant crack of thunder, finally roused Maddie to full consciousness. Groggily, she reminded herself that she was no longer Maddie Crummby, farm kid from central Illinois. She was Madeline C., world traveler and hotel connoisseur. At the moment, it didnt seem to really matter, though. She feltfloppy. And the universe was moving rather oddly around her.
She blinked her gritty eyes open and was startled to see a solid wall of darkly tanned skin. And muscle. Acres of it. What theShe jerked upright, or at least tried to. Strong arms gripped her tightly, preventing her from actually moving more than her pinkie fingers.
Easy, kitten. Ive got you.
She looked up at the deep, raspy voice. The hunky pilot whod been flying her to Vanua Taru, who yelled at her to bail out of the airplane just before it blew up, whose life shed saved in that interminable swim, on whose chest shed collapsed when they finally reached shore. His name came back to her. Tom.
What a chest. Muscles rippled beautifully over it, not so thick as to be ungainly, but manly in no uncertain terms. She snuggled closer until it dawned on her what she was doing. She stiffened abruptly.
You can put me down. Im fine, she said quickly.
He let her feet slide slowly to the ground, which had the startling effect of pressing her body against his from her neck to her toes for an unforgettable instant. Heat built between them like chain lightning, flashing back and forth, faster and faster until it painted a dizzying chaos of light and heat in her eyes.
She clung to his strength, steadying herself as his hot skin scalded her palms. His dark eyes glowed down at her, the only steady reference point in her spinning world.
Maybe I should carry you, he murmured. His arm tightened around her preparatory to picking her up once more, pulling her close against that magnificently naked chest of his again. She couldnt help it. She melted into him like warm butter soaking into fresh bread. An urge to lick his chest, to see if it was as rich and delicious as she imagined, overcame her.
She drew her tongue delicately across his skin. Salty. Warm. Smooth. Mmm. She liked that. He jolted away from her mouth, swearing.
Shed just licked a total stranger. What was wrong with her?
But then he was back, one arm around her shoulders, the other hand splayed against her lower back, pulling her against him, sending her whirling thoughts tumbling once more. Up and down, left and right, they tangled together, the same way her limbs did with his. Where he stopped and she began, she had no idea.
His mouth closed on hers, sucking the life out of her and breathing his back into her all in one devouring, devastating kiss. Ho. Lee. Cow. Never, ever, had she been kissed like that. She hadnt even known a kiss like that was possible. Stars exploded behind her eyes and unadulterated lust tore through her. She gasped at the sudden throbbing in places shed never throbbed before. It wasnt that she didnt enjoy sex. It was just that she wasfocusedwhen it came to sex. It was something she studied, even when she participated in it. She wanted to be good at it so when she landed the perfect husband shed be able to please him. But thisthis tore anything but wanting more clean out of her mind. She stretched up on her tiptoes hungrily.
Do that again, she breathed joyfully.