Total pages in book: 166
Estimated words: 157273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
And then she laughed.
I fell in love with her all over again. Not the quiet, observant girl she’d been, or the friend I’d let down, but the woman she’d grown into, beautiful and strong, scarred and still laughing.
She launched forward, threw her arms around my neck, and pressed her mouth to mine.
I kept us afloat, and then kissed the shit out of her, tilting my head and stroking my tongue into her mouth. I groaned at the taste of her, the delectable scrape of her fingernails along the back of my neck, and the heat of her body pressed against mine.
She whimpered, and the sound had me hard in seconds.
Need barreled down my spine, and I grasped the nape of her neck as she wound her legs around my waist, trusting me fully to keep us above the surface. I’d never wanted anyone—anything—the way I needed Allie. I kissed her like she was air and I’d spent the last decade swimming for the surface.
“Hey! There are kids out here, you know!” Gavin called out.
Allie pulled away, breathing hard and fast.
Fuck the rest of this day, I was taking her straight back to the cabin.
She must have seen my intention in my eyes, because hers flared, and she untangled herself, then swam slowly for shore.
I took off after her and prayed the water would cool my dick down enough to not scar my family for life. It was close, but I was in presentable shape by the time we got there.
Allie and I walked out of the lake and onto the little beach beneath the drop-off, where we were momentarily hidden from view. I pulled her into my arms, and she brought her hands to my chest, but didn’t push me away. “I want you.” I lowered my forehead to hers. “I will do anything to be with you, to keep you, to make this work. I have never felt anything more real in my life.”
She sucked in a breath. “It would never work. I’m going back to New York.”
“I don’t care. You’re here now. Give me your now.” My hands flexed on her waist. “Tell me you feel it.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, then nodded. “I feel it. It’s real.”
Thank you, God.
A shape flew over our heads, and our heads turned as Juniper swung out over the lake, then shouted happily as she let go. She hit with minimal splash as Mason and Melody cheered from above.
“She’s not supposed to do that unless there’s someone in the water,” I muttered, staring at the surface of the lake. My brow furrowed when she didn’t immediately pop up, and I started counting as the hair on the back of my neck rose.
“Hudson,” Allie whispered, her hands falling from my chest when I reached nine.
I turned fully toward the lake, then strode in, making it to twelve by the time the water reached my waist.
“Hudson!” Caroline screamed from above us.
“Stay here,” I called back to Allie, then dove.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Allie
Dancegrl6701: Oh how the crown has fallen. Sorry, RousseauSisters4, but you’re a wreck. Time to step aside.
My heart thundered as Hudson cut through the water like a knife, swimming faster than I’d ever seen.
“If you’re up there, she could use some help,” I whispered to Lina.
Hudson’s head rose, and then he disappeared beneath the surface around the same place that Juniper had.
I wrapped my arms around my waist, like that could stop my stomach from sinking lower with every second he was underwater. He did this every day. He did this in twenty- and thirty-foot seas. If he found that captain who’d jumped off the boat in the middle of the ocean, he could find Juniper in a lake. He had to.
Dirt skidded down the steep path to my left, and Gavin flew past me, racing into the water. Caroline stumbled down the trail and stopped at my side.
“She’s wearing bright orange,” she whispered, lifting her hands to her chin. “Hudson always said she needed to swim in bright colors in case . . .”
I sidestepped and wrapped my arm around her trembling shoulders. “Three hundred and fifty,” I reminded her. “There are only three hundred and fifty people in the country as good as he is. He’ll find her.” I treated the panic like I did pain, shoving it into a mental box.
There wasn’t a world where Hudson would let his niece—our niece—drown. He simply wouldn’t allow it.
“How long has it been?”
“She can hold her breath for a really long time.” I rubbed her shoulder, my eyes locked on the surface. “I’ve seen her do it for over a minute at my house when she’s swimming with Hudson.”
This wasn’t happening. Not again.
“A minute.” She started full-on shaking. “Has it been a minute?”
“I don’t think so.” It was a tiny lie, only because I wasn’t certain. “Hudson hasn’t come up for a breath, so that’s a good sign,” I babbled. How long could he hold his breath?