AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The ocean?
A lake?
A scarier thought…the bayou?
Swim harder.
Arms tired.
Water pulled at her feet, taking her deeper until her nose slipped beneath the surface. She tipped her head back, her mouth and nose breaking free of the water. She gasped, drawing air into her lungs. For several long seconds, she breathed in and out.
The darkness lightened. Black turned to gray. A hand touched hers, gathering her fingers into a warm grip.
She clung to the hand.
“Shelby,” a deep voice said in the shadows of her mind. “Shelby, honey. Please, wake up.”
Wake up?
She was awake.
How else could she swim?
Unless…
The darkness and water were something else…
But what?
The more she tried to recall, the more her head ached.
“Open your eyes, sweetheart,” a deep, sexy voice said. “You know you want to.”
She was awake, wasn’t she? Weren’t her eyes already open? Had she slipped beneath the surface?
She tried to kick her feet to rise above the darkness. Something held her back. Her legs were trapped.
She struggled to fight free, but her muscles wouldn’t cooperate.
“Wake up, Shelby,” the voice sounded again, a little closer this time with warm breath fanning her cool cheek. “It’s a beautiful day. Don’t you want to see the sunshine?”
She nodded and frowned. How could she see the sun in the dark?
“Open your eyes,” the sexy voice commanded.
“They’re open,” she croaked, eyes still shut.
“No, Shelby. They’re closed.” A hand squeezed hers gently. “Come on. You can do it. Open your eyes.”
Shelby focused all her energy on her eyelids. How could they be closed when she was in the water? Or was she?
No matter how hard she concentrated, she couldn’t get her eyelids to move. “Open for me,” she whispered, defeated.
Something touched her face. A hand? Fingers?
One finger rested on her eyelid and slid it upward.
Bright light blinded her. She squeezed her eye closed again.
