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He lost track of time until
all he could think about was the bone-numbing coldness of the ocean
and his non-existent chances of survival.
He was cold, so cold that he started to convulse.
Despite the pain in his ribs and shoulders, all he wanted to
do was sleep. He'd already drifted off more than once, dreaming
about his childhood only to jerk awake, coughing and spluttering
from the seawater he'd swallowed. He had to stay awake – he just
had to! He couldn't
succumb to hypothermia and die like this, but if help didn't arrive
soon he knew he'd be done for. What
little reserves of energy he had would soon be depleted, and he'd
slip into the inky blackness not having the strength or the will to
force himself to the surface one final time.
Turning his face skyward
Walker
tried to pick out familiar stars, but that only served to remind him
of the first time he'd tasted Skye's sweet mouth. Skye….sweet sexy
Skye. Could a woman be
both sweet and sexy? His befuddled mind mused.
Surely that was a contradiction in adjectives.
Grammar had never been his strong point, but what did that
matter now? Too late, he
realised he loved her with every inch of his being, but his
stupidity and mistrust had made her turn away from him.
When he closed his eyes he
could see her as she had been that day on his boat, the wind
whipping at her hair, a radiant smile on her face.
She was so beautiful, intelligent and too darned sexy for his
good! But he wanted her,
even more than that he needed her. Although he'd not shown it, she
made his life whole and if she'd have him, he wanted to spend the
rest of his life and have children with her.
And yet in truth he knew he'd lost her…..
…..The
strong currents of
Puget Sound
tugged at him, dragging him along with the changing tide.
The wave strength increased and Walker
found it more and more difficult to keep his head above water. Had a
squall been forecast? He
tried frantically to remember, but the memory escaped him.
Caught in a sudden cross current, a particularly fierce wave
washed over him. The sea
became a white churning cauldron, tossing him in one direction and
then another. He kicked hard but despite all his efforts he was
dragged under, choking and gasping for breath.
His
lungs were bursting from the effort of holding his breath,
Walker
was on the point of blacking out when the submerged tree trunk
slammed into the back of his head.
It was a long time before his semi-unconscious body emerged
on the surface, the sea once more calm as the wave rolled on towards
the islands. He floated
face down in the water, an invisible form in a black sea.
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