Irresistible Read Online Free PDF Page B

done.
    But no. This battle was for her life, and she would not, could not, be bested while she yet breathed. Terror stoked by the cold breath of looming oblivion gave her a last burst of strength. Quick as a cat she lunged forward, sinking her teeth into that imprisoning hand.
    "Eeow!"
    He howled, snatching his hand away, and suddenly she was free. Still hanging on to the jug for dear life, she leaped for the side. The boat pitched, fortuitously this time, and through no further effort of her own she was suddenly overboard, tumbling headfirst into the icy depths of the frothing sea.

 
    Chapter 4
    The water was so cold that for an instant after the sea swallowed her it seemed that every system of Claire's body was suspended. Then her heart gave a great reviving leap. Warm blood began to race through her veins. Her eyes popped open and she could move again. A surge of exhilaration gave her renewed energy. She had done it! She had escaped.
    Her joy was, unfortunately, of extremely brief duration. Struggling against a sucking current that seemed determined to drag her down, hampered by the weight of her soaked skirts as they wrapped about her legs, she found herself at the mercy of the sea. Air became an increasingly urgent necessity; she clawed and kicked for the surface. Though her eyes were open, she could see nothing; in the impenetrable darkness, up and down were, horribly, one and the same to her.
    But the jug, filled with air, was bent on rising. It was, as she had known it would be, her salvation. Clinging to it with desperate strength, she rose with it. Her head broke the surface, and she was weak with relief. She gulped air like a starving man might food— and then a wave rolled over her and sent her choking and tumbling to the depths again.
    Once again the jug sought the surface, taking her along. Then, without warning, her frozen fingers betrayed her: They could not maintain their grip on the slippery surface. One minute her fingers were curled around the handle. The next, the jug shot from her grasp like a greased pig.
    Terrified, Claire snatched after it, but it was gone as quick as a blink, disappearing into the swirling darkness above her head. Panic-stricken, floundering, she tried desperately to swim, and her limbs valiantly reconstructed the motions from memory. But she was fighting without substance, and to her despair she realized that her struggles were puny useless things against the might of the sea.
    I'm going to die, she thought, still not really grasping the truth of it although now, as if to prepare her, the words formed crystal clear in her mind. Without the buoyancy of the jug to counteract it, the current, like some giant sucking mouth, pulled her down. Her heart pounded. Her lungs began to ache and burn. She needed to breathe, but there was no air. Water was all there was. Water everywhere, surrounding her, in her eyes, her ears, trying to push into her mouth and nose, freezing her, suffocating her…
    She had to have air. Where was the surface? In that chaotic liquid darkness she became totally disoriented, unable to tell up from down. Not that it mattered. Try though she might, she could not swim in such a sea. Her efforts to defy its force were pitiable. It would do with her as it would, chewing her up and spitting her out at its whim. She was as helpless against it as a babe.
    The funny thing was that she was not even really afraid any longer, she mused as her frozen limbs grew heavy and clumsy and her struggles grew weak. She was light-headed, woozy. Her still desperately beating heart felt heavy and swollen, as though it might burst at any second. Her lungs throbbed. It was all she could do not to respond to their urgent need by inhaling and having done with it. Inhaling water… that was to drown. Vaguely she wondered, Does drowning hurt?
    With a fresh burst of terror, Claire realized that she was close to losing consciousness, to succumbing to the cold, the lack of oxygen, the darkness,