Goddess of the Sea Read Online Free PDF Page A

through the open patio doors and pulled them securely closed behind her.
    Shivering a little in a puddle of sopped carpet she should have felt melted; instead she felt invigorated. CC held her arms away from her body and watched as drops of water, sparkling like diamonds, slid down the soaked cloth of her nightgown.
    â€œI have never been this alive.” She was compelled to speak the words aloud. She shook her head, letting the water float around her, and ran her fingers through her short curls.
    â€œI will let it grow,” she promised.
    And she realized her hair wasn’t all she was ready to change. She was going to break her own mold.
    Walking lightly, she made her way back to her bathroom and pulled a thick towel from the linen shelf. On the short dresser next to her bed she lit a candle that she had bought from a quaint little boutique aptly named the Secret Garden. She breathed deeply, filling herself with the candle’s delicious vanilla-rum fragrance. The sweet scent drifted around her as she flicked the thin, damp straps of the gown from her shoulders and let the fabric slither from her body. Standing in the candlelit room she began to towel-dry, rubbing her already sensitized skin with light, circular strokes. Her hair was almost dry when she slid naked between the coolness of the clean sheets. With fingertips that were on fire, she caressed herself. Closing her eyes she moaned and arched into her hand, delighted and surprised by the exquisitely electric sensations that cascaded through her body.
    As velvet sleep swept her away, CC was sure she heard a woman’s laughter, the same magical laughter she had heard while she danced in the rain on her balcony. CC’s lips curved into a smile, and she slept.
    And while she slept, CC dreamed that a man’s voice called to her in deep, seductive tones. Her dreaming body responded to that call and strained forward, but she felt unusually sluggish. In her dream she opened her eyes. She was surrounded by a veil of liquid blue. I’m underwater, her sleeping mind acknowledged.
    Come to me, my love .
    The rich voice sounded within her mind, and CC’s pulse jumped.
    Yes! She tried to yell her answer, but in her dream she was mute.
    A light shimmered over her head and she peered up, squinting into the brightness. Just above the surface of the water a shape appeared. CC floated up, and the shape took on form and became a man. He was dark and exotic. His hair fell around his wide, bronzed shoulders in a black wave and his eyes laughed down at her. Through the ripples of the crystal waves she could see his easy smile as his outstretched hand beckoned to her.
    She tried to reach up and take his hand, but her arm felt leaden. It would not obey her desire to respond.
    The man’s handsome face saddened. He looked lost and the voice inside her head was filled with longing.
    Please come to me . . .

CHAPTER THREE
    A DIFFERENT kind of light played crimson shadows across her closed eyelids. What an odd dream, CC thought as she stretched luxuriously. The smooth feel of fresh sheets against her naked body mixed with the poignant, unfulfilled seduction of the dream. She still felt super-sensitized and her naked body tingled.
    Naked?
    She never slept in the nude. Why the heck was she naked? She flung her eyes open and cringed at the brightness of her bedroom, then quickly closed them again. It couldn’t be later than 0730. Could it? Hadn’t she set her alarm? Was she late for work? Her heart pounded.
    Memories of the night came flooding back—the two bottles of champagne, the movie, the sudden brainstorm that led to the idea that led to the ritual. Here she cringed and tried to burrow down into her sheets, but her memory was relentless.
    â€œYou’d think I’d had enough champagne that I would have blacked it all out,” she groaned.
    She peeked over the side of the bed. The vanilla-rum candle had burned out. Well, at least she could be