Dark Abyss by Kaitlyn O'Connor (top fiction books of all time txt) 📗

of the reasons Chance had come after her—aside from the fact that she was one of the very few he hadn’t already nailed! Women hung all over him and openly chased him—except her. It had aroused the hunter in him once he’d finally noticed her and realized she wasn’t disinterested.

She considered turning back at least twice. If she did, she could always make up an excuse for paddling around in the ocean in the middle of the night. She’d just gone out for a little exercise, or fresh air. He didn’t know it wasn’t something she’d ever done before.

She’d spent half the day cooking, though, damn it!

Well! All being timid about men had ever gotten her was being ignored! She’d thought up a perfectly reasonable excuse to see him. All she had to do was have enough backbone to carry it through. She could just give him and Joshua the goodies she’d cooked for them and leave.

Girding herself, she paddled up to the sub and stopped, trying to decide whether to simply wait and see if they’d come out or if she should try to maneuver around to the hatch at the back and knock. It was dark inside, though, and it occurred to her to wonder if they were asleep or maybe just hadn’t noticed her? After agonizing over it for a few minutes, she finally got up and leaned over the edge of the paddler to peer inside through the porthole. Unfortunately, it was lighter outside than inside and she couldn’t see a damned thing. She cupped her hands around her face to block out the light.

The discovery that there was a man standing just on the other side of the glass sent a jolt through her that paled beside the discovery that it was Simon. Uh oh! Busted!

She jumped instinctively, which was all it took to completely overset her balance when combined with the wet glass she was leaning on. She made several futile efforts to catch herself and then went into the water head first.

Chapter Seven

Simon rolled his eyes. “Use the escape tube and go get her … and move that paddler around to the back so it isn’t so damned noticeable! Better yet, give it a shove toward the city. One of us can take her back.”

By the time Anna had managed to surface again and shove her wet hair out of her eyes, she was dismayed to see that the damned paddler was cruising back toward the city without her. How it had managed to get so far away so fast when she’d nearly pedaled herself to death to get it out there was a mystery to her!

It was solved when Ian surfaced almost directly in front of her. Startled, she leapt away instinctively. He caught her arms, halting her retreat, drawing her closer, close enough their bodies brushed and bumped lightly together with the current.

“Hello, beautiful,” he drawled. “What brings you out here?”

Anna blinked at him, trying to remember the lie she’d practiced. His face was dark and shadowy. She could see just well enough to detect the gleam of amusement in his eyes and the faintly sardonic curve of his lips, though, and it occurred to her, forcefully if belatedly, that it didn’t sound nearly as convincing to her now as it had before she’d left her house.

“I was just … uh … tired of being cooped up and … uh … thought I’d paddle around the city a little before I went to bed … so I could sleep better.”

The faint smile broadened to a toothy, and slightly feral, grin. “Well, as long as you’ve blown our cover anyway, you might as well come in and say hello to Simon. He’s anxious for a chat.”

Dismay filled her. “Oh … well, I think I should do that another time. Why don’t you just tell him hello for me? My paddler drifted away and it’s a rental. I need to go after it.”

“I’ll catch it for you … later,” he murmured soothingly, guiding her around the sub.

“Yes … but it really is late! I hadn’t realized it was so late! I should get back.”

“Hold your breath.”

Anna’s eyes widened. She made a frantic grab for him. “Oh! Ian, don’t! I can’t hold my breath very long!”

He dragged her close. “That’s alright, baby. I’ll breathe for you,” he murmured, threading his fingers through her hair and bringing her mouth to his. When she opened her mouth to receive, though, she got more than she bargained for. Ian thrust his tongue into her mouth, throwing her into a state of complete disorder and leaving her wide open to her primal urges. His taste and scent reached right inside of her, leaving molten heat in its wake, sending her mind into a dark, dizzying spiral so that she melted weakly against him.

He broke the kiss. “Whatever you do,” he murmured huskily before he enfolded her lips with his again, “don’t breathe through your nose.”

The words had barely registered, barely begun to be interpreted by her sluggish mind when she felt him drag her beneath the surface. For a split second, panic threatened to tear a hole in the heated cocoon he’d wrapped her in, and then she felt his free hand gliding along her back, fitting her more tightly against his length so that she could feel his body undulating against her. She countered his movements more by instinct than design, felt something brush against her shoulders and then her hips. She was hardly aware that they’d stopped moving until she felt the water receding and Ian’s weight began to bear down on her.

The sucking sound of a seal being broken jolted her enough,