Beyond A Wicked Kiss Read Free Page A

fro, sometimes circling back for a short distance. Her progress was marked by clumsy pirouettes and several spills, but she was a game one, getting back to her feet each time, determined to capture the elusive thing that was leading her on.
    Evan's eyes darted back to the guests. Ria's absence was still unremarked. No one turned to look in her direction. No one raised a hand or spoke sharply to call her back. It did not matter that the child's route to the lake was a circuitous one; it was still leading her directly to more danger than she could properly comprehend.
    Evan realized he would have to make himself responsible for her safety. He was the one who saw the peril, and it was incumbent upon him to do something about it. Calling out to the others was out of the question. Precious minutes could be lost while they determined where he was and exclaimed over his hiding place. He would be thoroughly chastised if he were fortunate, boxed soundly if he were not, and it was doubtful they would hear what it was he was trying to tell them. Ria would be at the bottom of the lake by then, her tiny lungs unable to hold enough air to keep her afloat, her sputters and cries unheeded because of the uproar his presence would most certainly cause.
    Evan made his descent quickly. His lithe, athletic body was honed for just this sort of challenge. His fingers and feet touched the branches only long enough to feel them under him, and then he was moving on, always downward, always accelerating, taking the last twelve feet in free fall, dropping to grasp a branch by his fingertips, then swinging to the ground. If anyone saw him now, he did not pause to acknowledge it. The force of his drop from the tree caused him to crouch for a moment. Like a runner at the start of a sprint, he pushed himself up just enough to begin his charge for the lakeside. He did not stay in the shaded wood. There was no time to dodge trees and hurdle the underbrush. He ran to the perimeter of the clearing and kept on running across the open field.
    There were cries now, all of them at his back. There were people yelling at him to stop, to explain himself. Someone hollered, "Thief!" Evan did not know what had prompted this last, but he ignored every call for his return and set his course for the bright dervish that was about to spin over the bank and into the water.
    He launched himself at the child, his lean body stretched taut, no part of it touching the ground for a moment in perfect defiance of gravity. The full-out effort was not enough. His fingertips brushed the child's calico hem but could not grasp it, and the spinning, laughing top that young Ria had become hurtled itself into the drink.
    Evan's breath exploded from his lungs as he hit the ground hard. Someone screamed, but he did not mistake that the concern was for him. He turned his head in time to see Ria disappear under the water. Her hair was not so bright as it had been moments earlier and he understood she was going down for the second time. The ground vibrated beneath his cheek as the guests thundered en masse toward him. Before he could think better of it, he followed Ria's example and rolled down the bank into the lake. The water was deeper than he had expected. He had hoped the ground slope would continue at the same angle underwater. It didn't. The earth dropped away in short order and he found himself blindly thrashing about in search of daffodil-yellow calico.
    It helped, he decided much later, that she was thrashing about as well. Even though she was no match for his length and breadth, Ria's movements were every bit as energetic and urgent as his own. His arms collided with her short ones, and his fingers locked around her wrists. The water bubbled with their expiring breaths, and Evan's feet churned up silt. He pushed off the bottom and surfaced with Ria clinging to his neck. He blinked hugely, though perhaps a fraction less wide than she did, and tossed his head back to clear the curtain of