Man of Her Dreams by Debra Webb (good ebook reader txt) 📕

fingers in his shirt and flattened her chest against his chest.

He surged upward, breaking the surface of the water without breaking the kiss.

She pulled free, gasped for air.

His struggles to draw in a breath matched hers. He’d almost waited too long.

He listened beyond her frantic gasps, beyond the uncharacteristic pounding in his chest. The enemy had moved farther north, forty or fifty meters.

Altering their course, he started back the way they had come.

She laid her cheek against his chest, her heart still fluttering like a captured bird. Her body trembled uncontrollably from the cold. He wanted to sit down on the bank and hold her in such a way to comfort her, but he couldn’t take that risk.

He pushed forward, all the while keeping his senses finely attuned to their surroundings.

A fork in the waterway presented an additional layer of separation. Instead of continuing in the direction they’d come, he took the other. Galen would expect them to attempt to make it back to the boat.

Aidan smiled. He didn’t need the boat.

He could walk all night and then some.

His training included sensory shutdown. He could go on and on without feeling pain or exhaustion if he chose. The price would be high for a short time afterwards, but he could do it…would do it if necessary.

DARBY DIDN’T KNOW how much time had passed. It felt like hours. Had to have been hours.

Aidan just kept walking with her in his arms.

He had to be exhausted.

“Wait,” she whispered, still afraid to speak out loud.

He stopped and looked down at her, his movements mechanical.

“Yes.”

“I can walk now.” She scrambled out of his arms. It wasn’t as if she would get any wetter. At least she’d stopped shaking. He’d been walking through waist-deep water for…for hours. Again, the idea that he possessed that kind of stamina amazed her.

“We should keep moving,” he suggested.

His tone sounded strangely emotionless.

She tried not to let it get to her. Her nerves were already far too raw with fear.

Her so-called gift had failed her. Here they were, lost in the swamp without any idea which way to go. She hadn’t heard the voices…the children…for hours. Not since those men had come after them.

Your life is in grave danger.

The men in the white coats…she said you would understand.

She stumbled but caught herself as the voice echoed inside her brain. Could those men after them back there have been…

Who else could it be if it wasn’t Jerry Lester, and it definitely wasn’t. She knew that with complete certainty.

And it wasn’t the police…surely they would have called out to them, warned that the police were in pursuit.

She’d dreamed about the men in the white coats all her life.

It had to be them.

She glanced at the silent man at her side.

Could he possibly have any idea just how bad this was?

Yes.

She blinked. Startled by the answer that echoed in her skull.

Of course he knew. That’s why he’d almost drowned them both back there in an attempt to keep them safe.

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly, still a little afraid of being overhead. For all she knew, Lester could be lurking around the next bend in the waterway.

Aidan paused, looked down at her. “Why are you sorry?”

She turned her hands palms up. “For dragging you into this mess. I’m sure you had no idea what this was going to turn into when you were assigned to support this case.”

Even in the dark, she could see the energy burning in those dark eyes. “No apology is necessary. I’m here because it’s my job.”

He started forward again but she just stood there staring at his broad back.

He was here because it was his job?

She stormed after him as best she could in water up to her belly button. The drag of the water slowed her dramatic display of outrage considerably. She grabbed him by the arm and turned him around. Which would have been impossible had he not allowed her to do so.

“I guess that aqua erotic kiss back there was your job, too?”

He looked confused for about two seconds. “No,” he admitted. “It was about self-indulgence. But necessary to survival.”

She told herself that his admission was a compliment, while a tiny part of her still wondered about his sudden mechanical actions, his monotone. “I guess I can accept that,” she allowed when he continued to look at her as if he expected a response.

She sloshed forward with renewed determination. She didn’t know where the hell they were going or why they were still walking through the water. But then, she was no FBI agent. He surely had some plan…some reason.

“You wished for a different explanation?”

She faced him once more. “What?” Confusion joined the other barrage of emotions churning inside her.

“You wanted me to provide an explanation different from the one I gave you.”

How could he do that? Know what she was thinking.

Well, if he already knew what she was thinking, she might as well just say what she really thought.

“Actually,” she braced her hands on her hips, “I was hoping you’d say you kissed me because you just couldn’t resist locking your lips with mine. Or that you were so completely captivated by my beauty beneath the murky swamp water that you just couldn’t stop yourself.”

His fingers were in her hair before the words stopped echoing around them. He kissed her hard, his mouth unyielding, promising whatever she was willing to accept. She melted against him, felt every incredibly hard ridge and contour. His body was magnificent. When she thought about the fact that this man had carried her for hours…had given her the very breath from his lips to keep her safe…she wanted to weep. Instead, she kissed him back.

He pulled away all too soon, his breath surprisingly uneven. Her heart stumbled at the realization that she’d actually gotten to him this time. Shaken him.

“We have to keep moving,” he murmured against her lips.

She nodded.

He started forward once more and she followed, thoroughly contented. A smile lifted the corners of her mouth. They had something