Riptide [Kismet Cove] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Read Online Free PDF Page B

enough time to cough once before a wave crashed over her head. Frantic, Jess kicked herself back up to the surface and gasped in a lungful of air, treading water as best she could. What the hell just happened?
    She couldn’t see over the waves that surged around her, and when she stretched out her legs she couldn’t find the bottom, either. She was in serious trouble.
    Fighting to keep her head above water, Jess managed to wriggle out of her boots one at a time and immediately her kicks grew stronger, lifting her a little higher in the water. Strange instincts kicked in and she had a sudden urge to dive beneath the water, away from the froth and chop to where the water was peaceful. Jess shook her head to rid herself of the odd thought. If she dove down into the water, she sure as hell wasn’t going to come back up again.
    Waves surged over her head time and again, and soon she was choking on sea water. The cold burned at her limbs, and as she struggled to get her jacket and sweater unzipped she couldn’t seem to make her fingers work. Every time she managed to grasp the tab of her zipper a wave would hit her and she’d be left flailing and fighting to breathe past the raw, rasping cough as her lungs rejected the water she’d inhaled.
    The waves around her were growing bigger, but they were no longer breaking over top of her head and she managed to ride to the top of some of them. That was when she realized how bad her situation really was. She was caught in a current of some kind and she was being drawn out to sea with no way to get back. The rocks she’d been standing on were already more than a hundred meters away, and the cold was making her weaker by the minute.
    So much for the majesty of the ocean, she thought to herself in a flash of bitter humor. Her teeth chattered so hard she could hear them clattering, and her hands were now so numb she gave up trying to shed her sodden clothing. As another wave closed over her head, she was filled with a sense of dread that was darker and colder than the sea around her. If someone didn’t find her soon, she was going to die.
     
    * * * *
     
    “Didn’t Nadine say something about that rental cabin having a new owner?” Evan nodded to the log cabin that was tucked into the woods beyond the headland that separated the colony’s land from their nearest neighbor.
    “Yeah, the guy who owned it gave it to his daughter, I think. Why?” Rory glanced up from the deck where he was kneeling beside the open hatch that covered the inboard motor.
    “Because I think that’s her standing out on the rocks.” Evan swiped his bangs out of his eyes and pointed. “At least I think that’s a she, it’s hard to tell with the bulky jacket.”
    Rory got to his feet and stood just as a large wave rolled the boat far to starboard and he had to brace his legs to stay upright as they dropped into the trough behind it. As he turned to look at shore he heard Evan swear and gun the motor.
    “Easy with the throttle, we’re still breaking that engine in!” Rory barked and then swore as he realized what had Evan worried. “Shit! She’s going to get nailed by that wave!”
    “And we’re too far out to stop it,” Evan was leaning into the wheel as if willing the boat to go faster, but they both knew that if he pushed the engine right now, they could damage it.
    Both of them watched as the figure on the rocks turned her back to the ocean just as the wave that had sent their boat rocking broke over the headland in a surge of water and foam. As the water retreated they both swore in unison when the figure in the blue jacket was nowhere to be seen.
    “Fuck!”
    “You can’t get in close enough to get to her, if you try we’ll end up on the rocks for sure!” Rory was already toeing off his shoes and tugging his jeans off as Evan tried to get them in close enough to spot the missing woman.
    “Once we spot her, I’ll get you as close as I can, but then you’re going to have to swim for