Page 40 of The Billionaire Love Match

Already Casey felt sure that was four things too many.

“I’ll still be right here with you, okay?”

“Let’s do this,” she said, trying to channel a confidence she didn’t feel. But her voice sounded flat.

She gave it a good three tries, but every time Ty gently pulled the regulator from her mouth and she reached back to find it, she shot to the surface after about three seconds of searching. They didn’t feel like three seconds, but she knew that’s how long it was.

After that third time, Ty hesitated at the surface and she felt it coming like a breakup.

“One more try,” she said.

“Casey—”

“One more,” she said, grinding her teeth. The last thing she wanted to do was go under again.

No—the last thing she wanted to do was give up on Colt.

Ty looked sad somehow but nodded and went under with her. He gave the okay sign and she gave it back. He knocked the regulator from her mouth. She knew it was somewhere off to the right and swept with her arm, then turned her head to look, which was the wrong thing to do. The only thing she saw was the deeper water of the pool and bubbles from where her tanks had been moments earlier.

She continued to spin, looking, lungs burning. Panic was a sharp needled in the center of her forehead. Her right arm flailed out behind her, reaching.

No giving up.

Fire spreading through her chest and the urge to breathe so potent that she could hardly—

Casey took a breath.

Water filled her mouth and lungs.

The burning intensified as hands pulled her to the surface. She was coughing and sputtering water and not drowning, but her chest hurt and water was coming out of her mouth and nose.

When she was able to stop coughing and water stopped coming out of her face, Casey opened her eyes and realized two things: cameras were just a foot or two away. And Colt was looking at Ty like he might kill him.

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