Up In Flames Read Free

wave slapped her in the face, water going up her nose, making her choke and sputter. The furious storm continued, almost pushing them under. Would the turbulent water draw the sharks or chase them away?
    Shouting to be heard, Adam said, “The boat is gone. Mel, loosen up, you’re ripping my hair out.”
    She tried, she really did. She’d so badly wanted to make a good impression on him, and this surely wasn’t it. But she couldn’t get her fingers to unknot. “This isn’t happening...this isn’t happening....”
    “Mel, calm down. The idiots on board are either too drunk or too stupid to realize they lost us. We’re on our own until they dock and count heads.”
    If they counted heads. He was right about them all being tipsy, and she’d so deliberately separated herself from them, wanting to be alone, needing the solitude. Would they even notice she was gone? She moaned long and loud. “We’ll drown!”
    “No, we won’t.” His voice was calm, sure, just as she remembered it. “We’re not far from shore. Can you swim?”
    “What about sharks?” She looked around wildly, terrified, not certain if what she saw were shadows in the water or merely waves.
    “There’s no sharks here.”
    Her head whipped back around, and she tightened her hand in his hair, making him wince. “How do you know?” she demanded, shaking his head, wanting confirmation. It would be just like Adam to pull her leg, to play on her fear.
    “Mel, damn it, turn me loose!”
    Through her panic, she read the pain on his face and struggled to relax her grip. Adam circled her waist with his strong arms and held her closer. The contact with his body startled her, despite her predicament. Always, when she’d imagined such a scenario, they’d been on dry land, he’d been filled with abject apologies, and she’d been benevolent in her forgiveness.
    Instead, she managed to make a total fool of herself. Not that it mattered if they were going to die, anyway.
    Speaking close to her ear, he said, “I’ve got a Florida guidebook, The Key to the Keys. No sharks in these waters, I promise. Now can you swim?”
    “Don’t let me go!”
    “Honey, I’m right here. But we need—”
    Something bumped into them. It was huge and...red. She gasped, again choking.
    “A float, surely heaven sent.” Adam smiled at her, his eyes narrowed against the impact of the waves, his lashes spiked with the rain and sea, his blond hair plastered to his skull. But he smiled, and she felt ridiculously reassured as she treaded water. “Mel? Can you climb on?”
    She remembered the float blowing off the deck, and he had offered it to her. Lord love him. She gratefully grabbed the rubber edge and with more panic than grace heaved her body mostly upon it. She gripped it so tightly, there was no way she’d lose her hold until she felt solid land beneath her feet. Her wet, clinging skirts were everywhere, and whether or not they covered her backside, she couldn’t say. She felt too numb to know, too frightened to care.
    She felt Adam rearrange the skirt, felt his hands on her flesh and merely said a prayer that they’d survive.
    “Now just hang on.” Moving to the back, Adam levered himself up over her until his head was even with her derriere. She felt his heavy, sodden leather case placed on the small of her back but didn’t begrudge him that. As long as she was out, she was happy to accommodate him. He began paddling and kicking, propelling them forward.
    She felt like an ineffectual idiot, like a hysterical dolt, but she couldn’t seem to help herself. She continued to look around, watching for signs of creatures of any kind. If she spotted so much as a goldfish eye to eye, she’d lose her fragile grasp on control.
    A thought occurred to her, and she yelled over the storm, “How do you know which way to go?”
    “I’m guessing.”
    “What!” He mumbled something she couldn’t hear and his chin bumped her bottom, then he shouted, “The guidebook,