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The beach wasn’t too far away, but the current and waves here at Big Sur were known to be treacherous. Even with my newly acquired swimming skills I’d known it was going to be a trek getting back to land. Especially in my boots and jeans.
She reached me in no time and I took her hand as she helped haul me up onto her board. I slumped over it, trying to catch my breath.
“Thanks.” I eyed her clothes, leggings and an off the shoulder shirt that revealed silky skin. She hadn’t been planning on taking a dip.
“I saw that guy side swipe you. Nearly swallowed my tongue when I saw you go over the guardrail.”
My impending hypothermia was replaced with a growing warmth. My God she really was an angel, jumping in this freezing water for a stranger. Her smile dazzled me. Her blonde hair was wet and streaming down her back. Despite the cold water and the near death experience—not to mention the most heartbreaking thing of all, losing my bike—she was now the center of my entire focus. The fact that she’d just rushed into the ocean to help someone else was baffling to me. Were people really this selfless?
“Good thing I had my very own guardian angel here to rescue me,” I told her with a grin.
She laughed and shook her head. “Definitely not an angel.”
“If not an angel, a siren,” I teased. “But instead of pulling sailors down into the deep, you rescue handsome, charming men in need.”
Her brows shot up, a smile pulling at her lips. “You sure think highly of yourself.”
I shrugged and gave her my best crooked grin. “And why not?”
She laughed and shook her head. “Alright, let’s get back before the surf picks up. This is not a spot you want to be out on a board.”
And yet, here you are.
I shifted and straddled the board behind her. “Lay down. I’ll help paddle.”
She hesitated, but then her pretty brown eyes went to the water behind me. Whatever she saw there had her lying down in a hurry. I laid behind her, my face over her ass and I couldn’t help but smile. It didn’t matter that I was freezing my own ass off, and I could see her shivering as well, she was distracting me from how much my unexpected plunge blew.
Eric was going to pay for running me off the fucking road and destroying my bike, but maybe the day wasn’t a complete loss. At least I wasn’t dead and, as a bonus, I was tucked up behind a gorgeous woman with a phenomenal ass. It was hard to not take a bite. Just a small taste.
Somehow, I knew she wouldn’t appreciate that, and since she’d saved my life, I behaved myself. Between the two of us paddling we managed to make it back to the beach without incident.
Drew was on the sand waiting when we got there and I waved him off. He threw up his hands, as though to ask ‘what the fuck, bro?’
I pointed to my rescuer and waggled my brows.
Shaking his head, Drew started for the stairs that would bring him back up to the road.
“Is that your friend?” she asked.
“Not right now,” I replied.
She eyed my cut suspiciously as I tried to wring it out. A dubious look flickered over her face.
“Fine. It is, but I don’t want to ride bitch behind him all the way to San Francisco. Any chance you’re headed that way?” I motioned for her to go before me on the stairs. One would think I was being gentlemanly, but really it just put me face level with her butt again. I picked up her board and carried it over my head. It was the least I could do.
“I am,” she tossed over her shoulder.
“Care to give a marooned stranger a ride?”
“Wow,” she laughed. “Laying it on a bit thick. Like saving your life wasn’t enough.”
I’d love to lay my thickness on you. I bit my tongue. There were times when I’d been told I could be a bit…much. I wasn’t trying to offend her and drive her away. Quite the opposite, I was desperate to spend more time with her. I knew nothing about her, but it didn’t seem to matter. She called to me like the siren I’d nicknamed her.
For the first time in months, something was on my mind other than catching Eric and making him pay. Everything about her amber eyes drew me in.
She stopped by a car parked on the shoulder, door still hanging open, keys in the ignition. She’d literally dropped everything, snagged her board off the rack on her car, and rushed down the stairs straight into the ocean to rescue me. This really solidified it for me. She was a woman of action and impulse and that spoke to something inside of me.
“What kind of person risks their life for a stranger?” I asked, leaning against her car while she secured her board to the rack.
