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Her skin was pleasantly warmed by the tropical sun, while she remained cool thanks to the water all around her. The sound of her even, deep breathing was loud in her ears and it lulled her into an almost meditative state.
She moved her hands idly, happy to let the water carry her where it wanted. She didn’t know how long she drifted, all she knew was that nothing could hurt her here, she was safe, protected by the ocean’s cool and welcoming embrace.
“Lilah.” She was so relaxed, that she didn’t hear the muffled voice at first.
“Lilah?”
She blinked slowly, her focusing turning outward, as she became more aware of her surroundings. Was that Ben? His voice, distorted by the water, sounded close.
“Lilah!”
He came from seemingly out of nowhere, palms on her torso and back as he sandwiched her midriff in his big hands.
She gasped and swallowed a mouthful of water, and immediately panicked and floundered as she went from horizontal to vertical in a second. Her feet couldn’t find the bottom and she went under for a brief moment. Ben’s grip tightened, and he changed his hold to securely hook an arm around her waist and drag her up until her head was above water. Panicked, she wrapped her arms around his neck, while she gasped for air. They were both treading water.
“What the hell?” she spluttered once she had caught her breath. “Why did you do that?”
“I didn’t mean to startle you,” he growled the words directly into her ear, and Lilah abruptly became aware of the fact that she was wrapped around him like a vine. They were plastered together; their wet bathing suits the only things preserving even a modicum of modesty between them. She could feel every hard, perfect inch of his body rubbing up against hers, and she resisted the urge to burrow even closer.
“Well, if your intention wasn’t to startle me, you failed miserably,” she griped as she reluctantly removed her arms from around his neck and, instead, flattened her palms against his hard, naked chest, exerting enough pressure to get him to loosen his anchoring hold around her waist.
He released her completely and she kicked away from him, until there was about a meter of water between them.
“You were drifting out here for nearly ten minutes. The water is calm, but I was concerned about how far from shore you were.”
A quick glance toward the distant shoreline confirmed his words and she tried to hide her shock from him. She hadn’t realized she’d floated this far out. She was a good swimmer and there weren’t any strong currents, but it had been foolhardy to not periodically check her surroundings.
Still, she didn’t want to—once again—be lambasted about not being able to take care of herself… even though, admittedly, this time she’d been a complete idiot.
“I’m a strong swimmer. I didn’t need you to come speeding to my rescue. I had the situation in hand.”
She chose to ignore his skeptically raised brow and set out toward the shore in a slow determined crawl. He deliberately kept pace with her, which annoyed Lilah to no end because after a couple of minutes of dogged swimming, she needed to stop for a breather. God, how the hell far had she gone? The shore didn’t seem that much closer. But if she stopped, he would know how winded she was.
His hand on her elbow brought her to a halt and they both tread water while they stared at each other.
“I need a break,” he told her impassively. Even though he wasn’t the slightest bit winded.
His blatant lie made her go a little fuzzy inside and she inhaled deeply… okay, more like gulped in a much-needed breath of air.
“You’re such a liar,” she said once she could breathe a little more normally. The wryness in her voice seemed to make his lips quirk. She squinted toward the shoreline, the salt starting to irritate her eyes, and begrudgingly admitted, “So maybe this is a little further out than I’d intended to go.”
He didn’t respond to that, merely quirked his brow in a “ya think” manner.
“I still didn’t need you to come charging in on your white horse though. I would have been fine. I know this is getting old, when so much recent evidence points to the contrary, but I really do know how to take care of myself better than this.”
He reached out and dragged a wet strand of hair from her cheek and tucked it behind her ear. His fingers lingered on the hollow behind her earlobe.
“Let’s get back to shore,” he said, choosing not to respond to her statement. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”
“I thought you told her months ago, Cyrus. You should have.”
Lilah awoke to those urgent words later that night. Something in Ben’s whispered voice told her that this was a conversation he would rather she not hear, and so she instinctively kept her eyes shut and her breathing even, while straining to hear the rest of the muted one-sided conversation.
