That Carolina Summer (North Carolina) Read Free

looked at the dark-haired swimmer opposite her and the cleaving strokes of his muscled arms.
    At the end of the first lap she did a racer's turn, not trying for speed. She was a half length in front of him, the maneuver catching him off guard. This time Annette didn't try to take advantage of it as he quickly caught up with her. When their eyes met briefly on a mutually timed breath, there was a gleam of respect in his. Annette turned her face into the water and effectively hid her smile. He picked up the tempo slightly and she stayed with him.
    She counted the laps, concentrating on her stroke. Past experience had taught her that she lost her kick after a mile. She waited until she had only two lengths of the pool left to go, then she made her move, putting everything she had into the turn and launching herself off the side of the pool. She was more than a length ahead of him when she surfaced and struck out for the other side at race tempo.
    Before Annette made the final turn he had caught up with her, as she had known he would. But she had his full attention. Nothing attracted it quicker from a man than to have a female challenge his male superiority. She would have thrown the race in order to let him win, but it wasn't necessary.
    On the last lap he was easily outdistancing her. Annette used every ounce of her reserve strength to keep respectably close. The instant her hand touched the side of the pool she stopped, even though he continued. Her lungs felt ready to burst.
    With the assistance of the water's buoyancy, she levered herself out of the pool with her arms, swinging her legs out of the water to recline at fight angles to the edge. Annette drank in gulps of air, her breasts heaving with the effort to fill her lungs. Pulling off the swim cap that had kept her hair half-dry, she leaned backward on her elbows. Her head was thrown back, exposing the curve of her throat and catching the sheen of the sunlight in her blond hair.
    “Are you quitting?” It was a taunting challenge, and Annette half turned, one elbow supporting her weight. Josh Lord was treading water, eyeing her exhausted state with male complacency, even white teeth showing against sun-bronzed skin.
    For a brief instant she was irritated to see he was barely breathing hard at all, but the feeling was forgotten as his gaze traveled over the curves of her figure, lingering a scant second on the swell of her breasts.
    “Yes,” Annette admitted in a voice that was attractively breathless. “A mile is my limit. Thanks for the workout."
    “Anytime, kid.” He turned in the water and swam leisurely away, missing the look of shock, then anger, that swept through Annette's expression.
    Kid! With a sudden surge of energy she rolled to her feet and crossed to the lounge chair next to Marsha's. Her temper was simmering at a low boil. So he thought she was a kid! The light of battle stormed in her gray eyes.
    “What happened?” Marsha recognized that look and inwardly trembled at what it might mean. “Did it backfire?"
    “Not exactly.” Annette stretched out in the lounge chair to let the sun dry her, closing her eyes. “I accomplished what I set out to do.” Namely, to get Josh Lord to notice her, and she had succeeded in that. But at the moment, this “kid” had to do some rethinking. It would be simply too immature to tell him that she would be twenty in just a few days.
    Through slitted eyes Annette observed him climbing out of the pool a few minutes later. His wet hair gleamed almost black, its burnished highlights temporarily hidden. The sheen of moisture on his flatly muscled body gave his deeply tanned flesh a polished look. His hard male physique started a quivering sensation in her stomach as Annette imagined what it would be like to be next to it.
    He draped a towel around his neck but made no effort to dry himself. When he cast a glance in her direction, Annette was glad her eyes appeared to be closed. She didn't want to be caught watching