Beyond the Waves (Pacific Shores Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

gestured in the general direction of the couch.
    Boxes were still scattered everywhere, and he kicked one aside as he made his way into his room. Closing the door, he sank onto the edge of his bed and clutched his head, willing his heart rate to return to normal. The things that woman did to his heart could be enough to kill a man.
    He unbuckled his holster and laid it on his nightstand, where his gun would be in easy reach in the night.
    In an effort to get his mind off of Layne, he thought back over his day. The woman had been taken to the hospital, where he had interviewed her. Her face had been black and blue and so swollen she could barely respond to his questions. But thankfully she was going to be all right.
    Still, even the thought of how he’d feel if anything similar ever happened to Taysia made him feel sick.
    It was pretty cut and dried that the woman’s boyfriend, who had been high at the time, had been the perp, but they hadn’t been able to find him today. Kylen had helped as much as he could, but the lead on the investigation would come from the Sunset Beach office.
    Wearily he began to unbutton his uniform. He wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and not come out for ten hours, but the minute he’d pulled into the drive and seen Taysia, he’d known he would have to go jogging with her before he would be able to sleep.
    He pulled on a pair of navy jogging shorts and a T-shirt, grabbed his tennis shoes and socks, and stepped back out into the living room. Sinking onto a box labeled “books,” he pulled on his socks. He could feel Taysia studying him.
    “You look tired, Ky. You don’t have to do this.”
    He bit the inside of his lip, determined to ignore her and his jumping pulse. She hadn’t called him that since the night he’d first kissed her under her mother’s grape arbor. He distinctly remembered it. He had kissed her and then pulled away with a sheepish smile. Her arms around his neck, she had looked up at him and smiled softly. “I think I love you, Ky. But I still say things are going to be different when school starts.” He had promised her they wouldn’t and kissed her again. That was the one and only time he remembered her calling him Ky, and now she had done it twice in the last ten minutes.
    Finished tying his shoes, he stood abruptly and gestured toward the door.
    “Ky?” She stepped near, concern illuminating her face.
    He chuckled softly, knowing good and well she wouldn’t be calling him that if she knew what it made him want to do. He tapped her nose. “Come on. I’m man enough to stay awake for the next half hour and keep up with you to boot. So let’s go.”
    She arched her brows. “You haven’t stretched out yet.”
    Leaning a hand against the wall, he pulled one ankle up to stretch out his quad. “Ever the instructor, huh?”
    She made a small sound of acknowledgment in her throat, and he glanced at her, noticing that her eyes were fixed on his legs, a blush shading her cheeks. He suppressed a grin, his heart soaring with renewed hope. Even if she did have something going with Pittman, she at least still found him attractive. That was a beginning.
    She had stolen his heart on a long-ago summer’s day, and he had broken hers on a cold, rainy night, but hopefully with a lot of work and a little of God’s help, they could get all the scattered pieces back together again.

Chapter 3
    Taysia woke with a start. It was still dark, and she lay there a moment. What woke me? She held her breath, willing herself to hear over the top of her thudding heart. Could it be Kylen? No. She shook her head.
    The previous evening, she and Kylen had jogged in companionable silence, and when they had arrived back at her house, he’d told her good night with strict instructions to lock her doors. She had done as he asked, baked her cupcakes for tomorrow’s bake sale, then slipped on her usual shorts and T-shirt and gone to bed. Kylen was sleeping soundly in his house next door,