Her blond hair popped above the surface for a priceless second before a wave dragged her under again, but it was long enough for her to cry out.
“Get help!” I shouted at the fumbling idiot, whose slack-jawed expression suggested he might finally understand what he’d done.
Stepping out into nothing, my arms circled to slow my impact. A deep breath, and I cut into the water, submerging with brutal force.
I scanned around me fruitlessly before I had to get to the surface and breathe. One breath later, a wave came in and pushed me toward the beach, away from where I’d seen her. The hell with that. I wasn’t leaving without her.
The salt water scraped my eyes as I dove, kicking deeper. There she is! Limp, her arms semi-raised, her hair floated in a morbid halo, the blond catching the light from the sun through the water. Fuck. I was not too late. I refused to fail. Not in this.
I swam down to her, looped one arm around her waist, and kicked furiously for the surface, my lungs burning. Give me skates and ice and I’d decimate everyone, but I was mediocre in the water. Mediocrity wasn’t something I handled well.
We burst through to the air. I rolled onto my back, pulled her face up onto my chest, and kicked for the shore. A wave washed over us, sending water rushing up my nose, but I brought us back to the surface, keeping my arm like a vise around her. She wasn’t breathing, but she wasn’t too blue yet.
My legs caught the material of her skirt, and I untied the knot at her waist, letting it wash away. A few dozen sure, solid kicks later, we reached where the waves stopped fighting us and instead pushed us closer to the shore. Just another minute. She could make it another minute.
Stark relief gutted me when my feet touched the sand. I lifted her into my arms, trying to keep her head balanced against my shoulder. Still not fucking breathing.
I pushed my way through the resistance of the water. “Dude! Is she okay?” The juicehead asked from shore. He was lucky my hands were busy at the moment.
“Get the fuck out of my way,” I seethed, pushing past him. I made it onto the beach and put her down, then checked for breath. None.
Lowering my ear to her chest, I caught her faint heartbeat.
I would have thanked God if I’d believed he existed.
I tilted back her head, and for the first time didn’t check out the looks of the woman I was about to put my mouth on. Plugging her nose, I pulled her jaw down, then sealed my mouth over hers, breathing for us both. I counted out the breaths and laid my hand on her chest, checking again for that precious heartbeat.
“Come on, Little Bird.”
The seconds slowed to small measures of infinity before she sputtered, water spewing from her mouth. I rolled her to the side as she forced out the rest with coughing heaves, her slight body convulsing.
All of the adrenaline abandoned me, leaving only exhaustion. She hadn’t died. She was alive. I hadn’t failed. When she finished, I brought her to her back, watching the rise and fall of her chest like it was going to stop any second. I leaned over her as she took a shaky breath.
Damn, her face was as perfect up close as I’d thought. Small, delicate features on top of plump, parted lips. I’d seen her as I ran down the beach, but I figured she’d be a Monet—pretty from afar, but a mess up close—like most of the girls today. I was wrong.
She was beautiful, and not in the fake, made-up way. “Hey, are you okay?” I asked.
“Thank you,” she whispered in a sweet southern accent as her eyes opened wide in shock. Words failed me. Green. Holy shit, her eyes were huge and the clearest shade of pale green I’d ever seen, with a ring of forest green on the edges. My heart skipped and then began to pound. I ran my barbell across my teeth, speechless for the first time since…ever and reminded myself that I did not believe in love at first sight, or that insane voice in my head that clearly said, “Mine.” Her eyes widened. “Mr. California?”
What? A smile broke out across my face. “Not exactly. I’m from Colorado. Luckily they teach mouth-to-mouth there, too.”
She gasped, leaning on her elbows. “Mouth to— I have a boyfriend!”
Indignant. She was offended? “And…he would take objection to me saving your life?”
She blinked several times, her lips parting. Keep your thoughts off her lips. “N-n-no. He just wouldn’t take kindly to someone else’s mouth on mine.” Her chest heaved as she sat up, and her eyes glazed.
I yanked the nearest beach towel to us, not caring that it belonged to Masters, wherever the hell he was, and wrapped it around her, then cupped her face with one of my hands, strangely tender. I was not a tender kind of guy. Hell, no. I was a no-effort, easy-lay, forget-’em-before-morning guy. “Well, next time I’ll make sure to ask him first, okay?”
She nodded, drawing her knees to her chest. “You saved me.”
“You were drowning.”
A shadow fell on us. The idiot was here. “Hey, man, that was so cool how you—” I turned as I stood, my fist taking my momentum into his jaw. He blinked as he stumbled until his ass hit the sand. “She’s fine!” he called over to the small group that had gathered.
“Jerk,” she muttered, wincing, and raised a hand to the back of her head.
“Are you okay?”