Page 75 of Silver-Tongued Devil
“Aw, baby,” Blake said. He got another tissue out and did some more mopping up on her face. She was lovely, obviously. “No. I’m all good, and you didn’t do anything stupid. My knee sure is feelin’ it, though. Seems to me you could scoot over a little and let a guy hold you for a minute. Then I could put ice on this knee, and I could pretend I wasn’t resting too.”
He didn’t seem to care about the state of her hair, because he was smoothing his hand down it, kissing the top of her head. And she might have cried some more.
“Yeah,” he said when her head was on his chest and his fingers were threaded through hers, holding tight. “That was a bad deal. You must’ve fought so hard, though. When I found you, you were still kicking. Still trying. Man, I was… it was bad.”
There were the tears, welling again. She said, “I thought…” She had to breathe the terror back, because it kept rising, panicking her as if it were all happening right now. Her chest was raw, her throat like sandpaper. “I thought I was going to die. I would have died. I was too far down. They keep saying I was lucky, but I wasn’t lucky. It was you. But the deputy wouldn’t tell me what happened. He kept asking, ‘And what did Blake do then?’ How should I know what you did? I said, ‘He carried me.’ That’s all I knew. I was stuck, and I couldn’t hold my breath anymore, and the next thing I knew, you were carrying me. Butwhy?It felt like a net, but how could a net trap me like that? Why would it be there anyway?”
“I don’t know,” Blake said. “I’m going to find out.”
“And the part about you… I couldn’tbelievehe was asking me that. I kept saying, no, I wasstuck,and it was like he didn’t believe me. He kept asking things like, ‘How long had you two been swimming?’ ‘Whose idea was it?’ and ‘Where was he holding you when you went under?’”
“Shh.” Blake was still smoothing her hair.
“You think I’m exaggerating. I’m not. They thought you were trying tokillme. I’m notimaginingit.”
“Dakota. Stop.” His voice was so commanding, she jumped. He blew out a breath. “Sorry. I’m trying not to get you any more agitated, but I’m all out of ideas. Look. They asked. We answered. That part’s done.”
“Oh.” She swallowed, and it hurt. “OK.” He was right. She was crying all over him. Way too much emotion. She should… she could…
He ran a hand through his hair, which was sticking up already. He wasn’t groomed either, she realized. He was as tired as she was, and he felt just as bad.
“Oh,” she said. “You were scared, too.”
“Yeah. I was. And I guess you need to—I don’t know, work it out, cry it out—but I hate it. I hate that it happened to you, and that I can’t fix it. I hate that I didn’t get to you faster.”
“Oh.” It took her a minute to process that. “I felt the same thing, I think. Russell said you rescued me, and then I saw your leg, and all those questions… I was so worried.”
“Well, we can stop now. We’re both here to tell the tale.” His arm was so firm around her, and he’d brought the other arm around her front, too, and that was even better, being held that close. She settled her head against his chest, and his hand was there again, stroking over her hair. They were quiet for a while, and then he said, “It was kinda hard, though, you know, because there I was, trying to explain why I wouldn’t have drowned you, and I couldn’t say the biggest reason. You could say I was hamstrung. Yep, that’s exactly what I was. Hamstrung.”
Somehow, she was smiling. “How come?”
“How could I say that I couldn’t possibly have drowned you after I’d had the best sex since… well, for a mighty long time?”
She opened her eyes, which had somehow closed. “Hey.”
“Well. Come on. My first time, when I couldn’t imagine how anything in this world could possibly feel that good, and all I wanted was to do it again?” He sighed. “Yeah. And then there was last night. Nope, not drowning you.”
She was smiling again. “Except now we’re both wounded.” Then she stopped smiling. “And your beautiful boat. I forgot about that.”
“Boat’s all good.” He yawned hugely. “Rescued, just like us. Yep. Luckily, we’re both tough. Except I might need to take a little nap here, darlin’. I took this pill. Maybe you could snuggle up, get me comfortable. Be my security blanket.”
He did sound sleepy, and she could feel the rumble of his voice from deep in his chest, right there under her cheek. It was all very… soothing. “Mm. Maybe.” She’d been cold for so long, but the heated blankets, the warmed fluid dripping into her veins, and Blake’s body against hers… Yeah. She was warmer.
His arm twitched around her, his breathing deepened, and he’d dropped off, just like the night before. Because she was his security blanket, the way he’d been hers last night, the way he was now.
She knew it couldn’t actually feel the same to him as it did to her, but she didn’t need to think about it right now. She could go to sleep.
Blake was underwater, and he couldn’t see. He was groping in the dark, feeling wispy strands under his hands. It was hair, he realized with a surge of terror. Dakota’s hair. But he couldn’t see her, and he couldn’t grab her.
She was drowning, and he had to get her out. She was dying.
He couldn’t find her. Every time his hands touched something—her hair, her shirt—it drifted away before he could grab it. He was lunging in the water, frantic, his lungs bursting. He needed to breathe. He couldn’t find Dakota. He couldn’t get her.
Then he saw her. Her face, white in the dark-green water, her dark hair streaming around it. Her eyes open. Staring.
Her mouth was gaping open. Because she was dead.
“Huh!”He woke up with a start and sat up straight, his heart galloping like it would burst through his chest.
