Passions Recalled: Forbidden Passions, Book 2 Read Free Page B

had it veering north into the Panhandle, but the experts were discounting it.
    Iris was a category one storm, so they weren’t even forcing evacuations, just recommending them for low-lying beach areas. She snorted. Wasn’t all of the Tampa Bay area low lying? She hadn’t made it down in a couple of years, but usually she spent time with friends there every summer, even sticking around for a tropical storm one year. She knew her Tampa friends wouldn’t heed those warnings. They’d ridden out many storms over the years, and perhaps their blasé attitude was contagious because eight hours later, she paid her five dollars to enter St. Andrews State Park.
    It was bright and sunny and clear, no sign of the turmoil brewing on the Gulf or the storm that had just blown through. It certainly didn’t mirror the turmoil inside her. Unwilling to confront Jason quite yet, she drove to the public beach, parked and wandered into the gift shop. Her time would probably have been better spent driving into Panama City and finding a hotel room, but she could never resist the Gulf. The rolling emerald water, the pristine white sand. She sighed. This was her idea of heaven.
    She hadn’t brought anything with her, obviously, and on a whim bought a bathing suit, sunscreen and a giant towel. After changing, she dropped her clothes in her car and headed to the sand. She had to think, had to decide what she was going to do about Jason and Derek and her family. If she had any sense she’d walk away from all of them. She was human and couldn’t help but feel both sides were using her. What better place to make a decision than the perfect, pearly beaches of the Gulf of Mexico?
    All right, healthy dose of avoidance and fear there too, Celeste, but way to rationalize.
    She pushed the worry away, spread her towel on the ground and lay down, digging her toes into the warm gritty sand. She’d driven all night. It was still early morning. There were a couple of guys playing volleyball and a few sunbathers, but mostly she had the beach to herself. She wondered whether the hurricane’s predicted landfall site had changed. Was that why the beach was so empty? Even if it had, it was only a category one, and she had plenty of time to drive inland. Safe enough she reasoned. Especially once she found Jason. He might be angry with her, might be indifferent to her, hell he might even hate her, but he’d never let harm come to her. When she’d settled on that conclusion she wasn’t sure—sometime on the long drive down. Exhausted, she sighed as her mind swirled with all of the recent happenings. She drifted to sleep, warmed by the sun and sand, lulled by the pounding surf.
    When she opened her eyes, the sky was dark and ugly, clouds churning as if stirred in a witch’s caldron. The wind whipped her hair, and she felt a moment’s unease. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep or to sleep so long. Standing and dusting the sand off, she looked around. The beach was abandoned. She grabbed the towel and her car keys and sprinted for the parking lot. When she veered around the beach shop, she noticed it was closed up, shutters latched into place. Around the front in the parking lot, a few cars were pulling out onto the road and only two vehicles remained parked and empty. The second one froze her in place a minute. The F150 truck looked exactly like Derek’s.
    Ignoring the fear that bubbled to her throat, she hurried to her car. It was a common truck, and he couldn’t know where she was. Why would she come to Florida in a hurricane after all? It had to be a coincidence.
    She reached her door as thunder boomed over the ocean. The noise startled her so much she dropped the keys. The fine hairs on her arms rose and fear with it, as she bent to retrieve them. Where the hell was Jason when she needed him? She choked back an angry sob. If he hadn’t been around when she needed him before, why did she suddenly expect him now?
    Get a grip, Celeste, and get the hell out