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I held her in place, still pressed up against the wall with my cock inside her. My cum was leaking out of her, but I didn’t care. She lifted her head to look down at me as she let out a ragged breath.
“Mine,” I growled as I nipped at her bottom lip.
“Yours.”
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Want more of Kai and Winter?
Click HERE to read the extended epilogue
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The Tides Between Us is the third book in the Orchid City Series. It is a friends to lovers, disability rep romance that features Giana Cirone and a hot surfer who saves a turtle on the beach one day.
Continue reading for a look inside The Tides Between Us.
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Chapter One
Declan
The lower half of my legs were submerged in the ocean as I floated in the water, just past the coastline where the waves break. It wasn’t a good morning for surfing and the East Coast was nothing like the West when it came to their swells. The ocean gods weren’t paying me any favors this morning, but I technically wasn’t supposed to be surfing anyway.
At least the sunrise didn’t disappoint.
I turned myself around on my board and watched the sky as it began to shift through a series of hues of color. The pinks transformed into yellow and orange, mixing together as the sun began to crest the horizon. It was quiet and peaceful. The ocean had a way of calming my soul.
Sunrise was always my favorite part of the day. The rest of the world was still waking up, but out here, the ocean was always full of life. Dolphin fins bobbed above the surface and a few jumped into the air. The sun poked up above the horizon and it cast its light across the ripples, creating a shimmering essence across the water. My eyelids fluttered shut and I inhaled deeply, filling my lungs with the salt-tinged air.
This was where I belonged.
I stayed out on the water until the sky had shifted into a bright blue, showcasing the sun. there wasn’t a single cloud in sight. Rolling onto my stomach, I used my good arm to paddle until I met the waves and let them push me closer to the shore. Submerging both of my arms into the ocean, I gave one forceful push, feeling the twinge of pain in my left shoulder before I was able to hop off my board and carry it in.
A dislocated shoulder wasn’t a death sentence. It wouldn’t take surfing away from me, but it was undoubtedly an inconvenience. A month ago, I was at the Oahu Pro Classic in Hawaii. The water was choppy as hell as a storm was rolling in. I lost my balance while tube riding. The barreling wave was absolute perfection, but I slipped and tumbled into the water. My shoulder was pulled from its socket as the ocean tossed me around a bit.
It hurt like a bitch, but nothing compared to the feeling when the doctor popped it back in place. When I got back to Malibu, they told me my recovery would be three to four months. It wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t the end of the world. I took the next flight out to Florida to bunker down with my brother in Orchid City. The waves were shit here and it wouldn’t be as tempting and dangerous if I decided to hop on my board earlier than I was supposed to. The physical therapist I had been working with here was hopeful I would be looking at closer to twelve weeks rather than the full sixteen.
My feet sank into the sand as I walked to the shore. The granules scratched at my skin and I welcomed the feeling. I walked a few feet away from where the water met the beach and I turned once more to look back at the ocean. It was killing me to not be out there like I was used to, but I knew I had to be patient. I could not afford to fuck this up.
Something dark and peculiar caught my eye. At first glance, it looked like a horseshoe crab that had washed up, but the shape was different and it wasn’t black. I propped my board up in the sand and began to walk over to investigate. My eyebrows pulled together and I squinted my eyes to get a better look as I closed the distance between myself and the object. There were streaks of bright red washing into the water.
As I got closer, I realized what I was looking at. I noticed the muddy-colored shell immediately, followed by the block-shaped head of the turtle. I didn’t know much about turtles, but this one’s shell was only about a foot and a half in circumference. Based on the way it looked, I figured it was a loggerhead, which was particularly common in this area. Growing up by the ocean, you quickly learned about the environment and the habitants of it.
My eyes traveled from the streaks of blood to the turtle as I began to scan it from a bit of a distance. It stared up at me with fright, but the pain was evident. It didn’t even attempt to move away from me as it stayed exactly where it had washed up. As my gaze reached its front legs, I noticed there was fishing wire wrapped tightly around it, cutting through its flesh.
The damned thing was injured and it needed help.
Typically, you were supposed to call a hotline for someone to come pick the animal up, but as I watched the blood mix with the salty ocean water, I knew I couldn’t just wait here with the turtle in hopes that someone would eventually arrive. A sigh escaped me and I shook my head momentarily before sliding my hands beneath the turtle and lifting it into the air.
It was almost as if the thing was paralyzed by fear, or perhaps the pain. Whatever it was, it didn’t fight against me or try to escape. There was a facility less than a mile away. I just needed to get the turtle into the back of my Jeep and get it there.
“It’s okay, dude,” I told the turtle, like it had any understanding of English. My feet kicked up sand as I lengthened my strides while walking toward the road. “I’m gonna get you some help.”
It was a short walk to the car and my shoulder was throbbing by the time I reached it. I laid down a towel and loaded the turtle into the trunk like it was completely normal. We stared at one another for a few moments before I shook my head to myself. What the hell was I doing?
I quickly sprinted back to the beach to grab my board and ran back to the Jeep. The turtle was in the same spot I left it and I strapped my surfboard to the roof before hopping in behind the wheel. Dust kicked up from the tires as I shifted into first gear and let off the clutch while pulling onto the road. I was careful while driving for the turtle’s sake, but I needed to get it to the rehabilitation facility as quickly as I could.
