Page 7 of I Can't Even

He grinned at me and the slash of white teeth against his full lips made my throat go dry and this time I knew I went cross-eyed and saw spots. Have mercy!

It was then that an enormous wave came and plowed us into the surf. I went down with a yelp and lost sight of Liam. We were on top of Devil’s Backbone and I was terrified that he’d been slammed into the rocks below. I popped up out of the water as another wave hit, dragging me down. My shoulder scraped a rock but I was able to push off of it and swim to the surface.

When I came up again, I saw Liam face down in the water. His board was loose and being carried on the crest of a wave toward the beach. Meanwhile Liam was headed straight for the rocks. I climbed onto my board and paddled toward him. Another wave separated us, but I kept track of the bright yellow swim trunks he had on and used them to spot him. I grabbed him by the arm before he was pushed into a worse section of rocks and hauled him onto my board. With him unconscious but safe, I turned us toward the beach and paddled as hard as I could.

It took all of my strength to maneuver us in. Once we reached the sand, I ripped off my ankle harness, grabbed Liam under the arms, and dragged him up the beach until we were half in and half out of the surf. His eyes were closed and I couldn’t tell if he’d hit his head on a rock or his board or if he’d just taken in so much water he couldn’t breathe.

“Come on, new boy,” I begged him. “Wake up and open those pretty eyes for me.”

I knew basic CPR as Babs had insisted that I learn if I was going to spend my days on the beach. I think she had grand visions of me being the next Pam Anderson. Yeah, no.

Instinct took over and I went through all of the things I remembered a first responder was supposed to do. I listened to his heart and tried to see if he was breathing. I was so freaked out, I couldn’t tell. I checked his mouth for an obstruction and his eyes to see if they were dilated.

Seeing no other recourse, I figured mouth to mouth was in order. I tipped his head back, closed his nose, took a deep breath and blew into him, trying to inflate his lungs or push out the water or whatever it was this was supposed to do. He remained terrifyingly unresponsive.

I was going in for the third time when I became aware of his hand in my hair, holding me in place while his tongue ran over my lips and he fit his mouth against mine, kissing me with a wicked thoroughness that left me, who had never been kissed before, stunned.

When he ended the kiss, he sat up and pressed his forehead to mine, each of us short of breath as if we’d both nearly drowned.

“I knew it,” Liam said. His voice was gruff. “I knew it would be like that between us.”

After a couple of moments, I sat back on my heels and studied him, uncertain about what had just happened but crazily wanting it to happen again.

“So, it looks like you’re going to live.” I was pleased my voice sounded so much calmer than I felt.

“Yeah.” His deep brown eyes were fixed on my mouth and a flash of heat lit up my insides like a tiki torch.

I didn’t know what to make of that, so I latched onto the much more familiar feeling of anger. My terror about what could have happened came roaring up out of me like a geyser. I punched him on the shoulder. Hard. It barely rocked him.

“Damn it, Liam, you scared the crap out of me!” I cried. “You could have been killed. We both could have.”

He tipped his head and batted his ridiculously long eyelashes at me. “Aw, don’t be mad, surfer girl. Look at it this way, since you just saved my life, you own it now.”

“Huh?” I blinked at him.

“It’s true,” he said. “When you save a person’s life, they are forever in your debt. They belong to you.”

I stared at him for a moment and then I threw back my head and laughed. It was a great big belly laugh, a guffaw if you will, and much to my relief he didn’t look offended so much as amused.

“I’m serious.” He winked at me, then lowered his voice and added, “Now you can do whatever you want with me.”

Well, didn’t that just send a delicious shiver through me. Sadly, for him, I wasn’t an idiot. I shook my head at him and grinned. I could not believe he would waste a move like this on me.

“So, new boy, this fake drowning thing,” I said. “Is that your move? And if so, how’s it working out for you?”

“That depends, surfer girl,” he said. “Will you go out with me tonight?”

My chest constricted and my breath was short. Liam Mahony, Liam hot-as-shit Mahony, was asking me out, not only that but he had feigned drowning to do it. There was clearly only one answer to be made.

“Yeah, sure, I could do that,” I said. I shrugged as if it was no big deal, when, ermagawd it was a big freaking deal!

His grin was blinding. “Well, then I can tell you that since I have only used the faked drowning technique to ask out one girl, you, it’s success rate is one-hundred-percent.”

“You know you could have gotten hurt for real,” I said. The fear came back as I remembered seeing him face down in the water, headed for the rocks. “Devil’s Backbone is out there and it’s a gnarly stretch of rock.”

“Well, I’ve been watching you, and I knew you could get us out of there. I believed in you.”

Yep, my heart pretty much took flight right there.

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