Wild Swans Read Online Free PDF Page A

I’m of legal age?”
    “That won’t matter. Not to her.”
    “Are you not going to fight for me at all?” Althea asked, the color in her face rising. “Am I worth fighting for?”
    Jake groaned and rolled his eyes. “Please. Stop.”
    She closed her eyes and rested her head against his shoulder, listening to the soft sloshing of water against the bank, and the raft creaking beneath them. She could smell the wisteria and feel gentle petals dropping like rain against her smooth skin.
    “I do love you,” Jake whispered in her ear. “I know you think this place is awful, but I love it here and don’t want to leave. And you’re going to be married in a few weeks. Can’t we just make the most out of what time we have?”
    “Then I might as well let you then,” Althea said as she traced the outline of his groin with her finger. “At least that’s one choice I can make of my own free will. And maybe after that, my prospective husband won’t want me after he finds out I’m not a virgin any more.”
    Jake hovered over her, pulling up her blouse and gently caressing her breasts. She moaned, her heart hammering. She slid her hand between their bodies, and unbuttoned her shorts. Jake lowered his head to sample her breasts. She held the back of his head, the hair soft and fine between her fingers, her body hot and starved. He stopped, his body rigid. He turned his head and looked away from her.
    “Jake?”
    “Hush.”
    In the sultry afternoon, dragonflies buzzed and water spiders skimmed along the water’s surface. A squadron of yellow swallowtails flitted just above the water. Hummingbirds abandoned the honeysuckle and disappeared into the willows. Somewhere out of sight a catfish broke the surface. Jake’s face was turned aside, and all she could see was his profile. His jaw was working, the tendons expanding and relaxing, showing his inner agitation.
    “What’s wrong?” she asked, rising. “Who’s here?”
    Jake clapped his hand over her mouth. Jake’s breath caught, his face white, his eyes wide.
    “For God’s sake be still,” he whispered, his breath hot against her ear. His body was rigid against hers, and she knew beyond a doubt that whatever he was feeling didn’t have anything to do with her. He took his hand from her mouth and whispered, his lips barely moving as they brushed past her ear, “Don’t move, whatever you do. You mustn’t let it see.”
    “But—”
    “—Quiet.”
    “Jake, let me up, I can’t breathe.”
    Jake put his hand over her mouth again, his eyes wide with terror. He slowly shook his head.
    The bayou was still and quiet. Even the water ceased to flow. The air was stifling hot and heavy. Falling wisteria and crepe myrtle stopped in mid dance toward the water and stayed suspended in the thick air. Althea’s eyes widened, shocked, as a hummingbird, no more than a few inches away, it’s throat ruby red, its wings a brilliant green, moved in slow motion. The sun seemed oh so much brighter, the hummingbird’s colors too vivid to view. Althea swallowed hard and turned away. She felt her fingers digging hard into Jake’s sides, her heart taking the express elevator to her bowels.
    A thick, profoundly black shadowy -thing glided above the glistening water. It moved as if it were searching for something. It reminded Althea of how hound dogs search for drowned bodies of foolish fishermen who come to the bayou when the river that fed it was at flood stage. The creature moved silently, the bottom edge sliding just above the surface, yet not leaving a reflection. It stopped, and seemed to regard them as they hid amongst the flowers.
    Althea felt something rush through her, like heavy water, cold and as pure as ice. Tendrils of flashing lights obliterated her vision. Her head pounded as if she were in the midst of a cataclysmic migraine. She held Jake tighter, her heart hammering in her ears, her mind paralyzed, too terrified to think, in too much pain to cry out.
    The headache