Page 171 of Sinful Desires
I wanted to move. I did. But my limbs were dead weight, numb and useless. My head dipped again below the surface. Black. Then light. Then black again.
The waves kept pounding, pulling me back into the mouth of whatever hell I had tried to sink into.
He reached for me. Missed.
Tried again.
“Théo!”
Somewhere above, a beam of light split the storm.
Our yacht.
But it disappeared behind a wall of black water that rose in front of me, swallowing the moon. I barely turned before it slammed into me. It dragged me under.
No breath. No light. My spine cracked against rock, my skull whipped sideways.
I didn’t scream. I couldn’t. The ocean punched the air out of my lungs before I even tried.
“THÉO!”
Another wave rolled, higher this time. Angrier.
And then it hit.
It crushed me, split me open. I felt my head whip back, neck slamming against something unmovable. I heard a scream, I think it was mine. Or his. Or both. I didn’t know anymore.
“THÉO!” My name again, closer now. My father.
I saw him through the blur, fighting through the current, arms outstretched, eyes wide with terror. A wave slammed him into the rocks. The water swallowed him, and that was the last time I ever heard him say my name.
I felt his hand graze mine, then vanish into the dark.
Then the light hit me again, full force.
The water turned red.
I stopped fighting.
And the sea took me.
I woke to light, harsh and white. It split through my eyelids like blades. My skull throbbed, pain blooming behind my eyes as I turned my head and felt the tug of gauze around it.
My body was heavy and slow. Something cold ran through my veins. My fingers twitched against stiff sheets.
A hospital bed.
Needles in my arm. Morphine in my blood.
I blinked hard, my vision still fogged, and tried to remember how the fuck I’d gotten here.
Then it hit me.
The waves.The rocks.My father’s voice.
I lurched forward, ripping the tubes from my arms, stumbling to my feet. The robe hung loosely off my shoulders, the fabric stiff with dried salt and blood. The room spun. Sharp antiseptic clung to the air, thick and sterile.
White walls. Chrome fixtures.
