Burned: Black Cipher Files #3 (Black Cipher Files series) Read Free Page A

of my elbows. Then I inhaled and yanked.
    He barely moved.
    “Come on, you big, you big...lug.”
    I yanked again.
    Panicked, I looked up. The water was coming.
    I watched mesmerized, terrified, while my heart pounded, my blood thickened and I wondered if this was how it would end.
    Here and now.
    Sucked in by the beast. Consumed by its power. Destroyed by the terror.
    I refused to let my fear win.
    As soon as the water hit his body, I used the motion of the tide as it rolled in to pull him further inland.
    As the water rushed back out, I held on with a death grip, my fingers cramped against the bare skin of his shoulders. The sea sucked at his feet, trying to take him from me.
    I waited, unable to close my eyes, gaze locked on the water rolling back in. As soon as it hit I had to pull him backwards again.
    A large wave broke near the shore. And I knew this was the chance I needed. I couldn’t think about the water rushing toward me, I had to concentrate on the physics, using the force of the water to pull him backwards, and not think about the black death coming for us, hovering, greedily waiting to suck us both out to sea.
    The wave rushed toward me and lifted his body up. I scrambled backward, with great crab-like steps, his body heavy against mine, his head lolled against my breast.
    That last little push before the wave retreated toppled me over and I fell into the cold wet sand. The damp soaked through my skirt and the bottom of my sweater. I held onto him, my arms curled around his muscled shoulders, my heels dug into the saturated sand as the tide tried to take us both back out into the abyss.
    My blood thundered in my ears.
    I panted with the effort. He was heavy.
    His body lay limply between my thighs, his muscled legs stretched out along the sand, kelp wrapped around one ankle, arms flopped to the outside of my thighs, effectively trapping me on the ground.
    Shivering, I watched another wave roll toward us, praying this one wouldn’t breach our spot. My arms ached with the strain of holding him up and keeping him from being pulled out to sea. To death. To...peace. I didn’t know if I had anything left.
    The water sluiced onto the shore creeping inexorably closer.
    I clenched him tightly, barely registering the slick feel of his cold skin, the sleek bulk of his muscles.
    In the end, the wave didn’t even reach his toes.
    We were safe.
    For a single moment I rested my cheek against the top of his head. His wet corkscrew curls were damp against my skin, soaking through my sweater and bra, chilling me with salty water.
    His body shook with the force of his involuntary shivers.
    I had to get him awake and warm. Somehow.
    There was no way I would ever be able to get him up to my car on my own.
    “Wake up, please,” I whispered. “Please, please.”
    Warm tears rolled down my face as reaction set in. Tremors of relief shimmied through me. I had braved the monster and survived.
    His dead weight held me against the sand and I couldn’t move. I flopped back on the towel, slid my legs out straight, arms out at my sides, palms up and his head dropped into the concave hollow of my stomach. I stared up at the moonlight, the bright silver rays mocking me as I tried to find some measure of calm.
    What now?
    I needed to check for injuries. A thousand thoughts flitted through my mind but only one took root, the interesting, amazing weight of him on top of me. Sort of.
    The inferno of heat from his torso burned through my clothes warming my thighs, making me feel things I hadn’t felt...ever.
    Suddenly, he exploded into motion, flipping over, straddling me, and pinning my arms to the ground, his face fierce, his body battle tense and primed for violence.
    “What the hell?”

Three
    Zeke didn’t remember getting here.
    He stared down at the woman beneath him. Didn’t remember her.
    His body met hers at the juncture of her thighs. His groin in exact alignment with hers as she stared up at him wide-eyed.
    The slant of the