“I can’t swim,” She says, eyeing the water.
“Of course you can’t.” I sigh and then bend down and wrap my arms around her thighs, tossing her over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry. I feel a small, stinging pain from the cut I got earlier and a wet feeling where my shirt meets the cut. I ignore the pain because I feel her nails dig into my back, and that feels fucking good.
“Wait, can we talk about this? I really, really don’t want to go into the water. I can’t swim! What if you fall? I’ll drown. I’m a rock in the water.”
“I’ll catch you,” I huff, letting the cold water cool my body. It’s October and for Florida it has been unseasonably cool.
“That’s great, Mad Max, a perfect plan, except you will have already fallen into the water?”
I ignore her and slog on through. She starts beating my back, kicking her legs. My prison-issue shoes have slick bottoms, and I start slipping. The water is up to my waist, and I’m doing my best to keep her under control.
“Max! I’m going to drown, switch me around! The water is close to my face!”
I don’t see how since she’s barely over my shoulder, but I shift her so that I am cradling her against me. I like having her weight in my arms. I bury that thought. My life is over. I can’t go back and wouldn’t even want to. I’m about to get her settled when she tilts too far to the right and my foot slides against the rocks underneath. I shift the opposite way, but can’t correct quickly enough, and we fall into the water.
It takes me a minute to get my bearings and before I can, Tess’s foot, still wearing the pointy ass heels, pushes into my side and she’s swimming back the way we came. I try to catch her, to keep her from getting away from me, but I fall back down. Fucking hell! I finally get back up and manage to grab hold of her leg and pull her back to me. Her head goes under, her arms beating against the water as she flails and tries to break free of me. Back over my shoulder she goes, and I don’t bother being gentle this time. I’m mad, and she’ll know exactly how mad as soon as we get to the other side. Can’t swim my ass! Afraid of the water! Damned little liar.
She squirms harder against me, and my anger is already amped up high. I brace my feet against the sandy bedrock of the lake. Then I shift her back against my chest, but not in a protective sense this time. I use one hand to grab her hair, most of which has fallen from the clasp she had it in. I wrap it around my fingers and pull her head back hard, so she’s looking at me. She inhales from the pain, her eyes open wide as she looks at me. Lucky for her, she keeps her tongue in her mouth.
“You’ve just bought yourself a world of trouble, Kitten,” I growl, pulling her hair even tighter just to get my point across.
5
Tess
My heart is hammering in my chest. I’m breathing hard from the exertion of trying to get away from Max, but the fear rising in me has more to do with the look in his eyes. Still, there’s another reason. The feel of his hands in my hair, the clinching of his muscles around my body as he holds me to him, and the forceful way he has grabbed me, they all combine to excite me. How can anything about this excite me? How can I still have any kind of feelings for Max? What in the hell is wrong with me? He kidnapped me during a prison break. Kidnapped! I am a grown woman, with a history of working in the law field. I know better than most, what kind of people get put away in jail. Yet, I still managed to get infatuated, with a man I didn’t know. Infatuated with a convicted felon who kidnapped me and is threatening me. That reminder should wake me up. I find it doesn’t.