Read Online Dying For You by MaryJanice Davidson - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: MaryJanice Davidson
Ads: Link
the mouthpiece, along with a mouthful of seawater. “Angel!” she crowed, and only the gulls heard her. They spun overhead, laughing at her. Natch! Angel. Shit.
She dipped her head back in the water, skimming the long strands away from her face (ah, they were like strands of kelpy,smelly seaweed, that was romantic, right?), then adjusted her mask and bit into the big rubber nipple.
Then she dove back down to examine the glory that was Little Cayman Island. She should have gone back and re-slathered sunscreen, but dammit, she was having too much fun.
And soon enough, she’d be out here constantly; Pirate’s Point Resort wasn’t that big—maybe ten guests, total, and most of them on the boat all day. Cathy and Jack, who didn’t dive, would be necking all over the place. Nikki felt like enough of a third wheel at home; she had no intention of feeling like that on her vacation.
It wasn’t their fault, and they weren’t doing anything wrong. Cathy was newly in love, ditto Jack, and after eighty zillion years, Jack was starved for sex, touching, hugging, kissing, even handshakes. A trip to the store to get milk could quickly end up an X-rated straight-to-video incident.
She was nuts to have accepted their invitation—it was their anniversary, for God’s sake.
That said, she’d also have been nuts to turn down a free trip to the Cayman Islands…although why Cathy had a jones on about coming to a place famous for scuba diving, when neither of them dived, was a mystery. It was like deciding to go to Antarctica when you didn’t like penguins, or the cold.
She swam down, wiggling her flippers to get as close as possible to the sea floor. Schools and schools of fish swam by, ignoring her—to them she was just another skinny tourist in a Target bikini. But Christ! It was like being on the Discovery Channel. Fish and coral—live coral, no less—and birds aboveand turtles below. Unreal. Here she’d been going to Disney World every year, with no idea what she was missing.
She saw something out of the corner of her eye and turned to get a better look, then jerked back, startled. Stingray. Nice-sized, too—a six-foot wingspan. It wouldn’t hurt her; rays were huge but gentle, and this one was startled, and as it flinched away from her, the barbed tail whacked her, quite by accident, across the side of her face.
But that was okay, because they were harmless, you just had to watch out for the—for the thing—the thing on the end of their—
Luckily, her face didn’t hurt. And the blood in the water—it probably wasn’t hers. And even if it did attract sharks, there was nothing in these waters that could hurt her. Not even rays—they only stung you if you stepped on them by accident. That’s what her instructor told her, and he knew his shit. Besides, it hadn’t even hurt.
No, nothing hurt; everything was numb. She’d figured on swimming up for another breath of air, but she didn’t need one now.
She brought a hand up to touch her face and missed. Were her lips gone? Or was she too numb to find them? She swam to get to the surface, and bumped into the ocean floor.
This is not good, she told herself, but really, it was impossible to get worked up over it. It was so beautiful here, so peaceful. She was almost a part of it, lying on the floor in the rich silt, a part of the fish and even the saucy ray who had smacked her by accident and gone on its way.
She pulled off her mask and snorkel. Ah! That was better.Now she could breathe. It was a lot harder, breathing water than air, but she was up to the challenge.
It was too bad, though. She herself didn’t mind so much, but her pal Cathy would completely lose it when she heard the news.
Chapter 2
“What do you mean, ‘missing and presumed’?” Cathy shrieked. “What does that mean? Why aren’t we looking for her? Why weren’t you looking earlier?”
“Is she dead?” Jack asked. “I guess you’d better tell us if she’s dead.”
“Of course
She dipped her head back in the water, skimming the long strands away from her face (ah, they were like strands of kelpy,smelly seaweed, that was romantic, right?), then adjusted her mask and bit into the big rubber nipple.
Then she dove back down to examine the glory that was Little Cayman Island. She should have gone back and re-slathered sunscreen, but dammit, she was having too much fun.
And soon enough, she’d be out here constantly; Pirate’s Point Resort wasn’t that big—maybe ten guests, total, and most of them on the boat all day. Cathy and Jack, who didn’t dive, would be necking all over the place. Nikki felt like enough of a third wheel at home; she had no intention of feeling like that on her vacation.
It wasn’t their fault, and they weren’t doing anything wrong. Cathy was newly in love, ditto Jack, and after eighty zillion years, Jack was starved for sex, touching, hugging, kissing, even handshakes. A trip to the store to get milk could quickly end up an X-rated straight-to-video incident.
She was nuts to have accepted their invitation—it was their anniversary, for God’s sake.
That said, she’d also have been nuts to turn down a free trip to the Cayman Islands…although why Cathy had a jones on about coming to a place famous for scuba diving, when neither of them dived, was a mystery. It was like deciding to go to Antarctica when you didn’t like penguins, or the cold.
She swam down, wiggling her flippers to get as close as possible to the sea floor. Schools and schools of fish swam by, ignoring her—to them she was just another skinny tourist in a Target bikini. But Christ! It was like being on the Discovery Channel. Fish and coral—live coral, no less—and birds aboveand turtles below. Unreal. Here she’d been going to Disney World every year, with no idea what she was missing.
She saw something out of the corner of her eye and turned to get a better look, then jerked back, startled. Stingray. Nice-sized, too—a six-foot wingspan. It wouldn’t hurt her; rays were huge but gentle, and this one was startled, and as it flinched away from her, the barbed tail whacked her, quite by accident, across the side of her face.
But that was okay, because they were harmless, you just had to watch out for the—for the thing—the thing on the end of their—
Luckily, her face didn’t hurt. And the blood in the water—it probably wasn’t hers. And even if it did attract sharks, there was nothing in these waters that could hurt her. Not even rays—they only stung you if you stepped on them by accident. That’s what her instructor told her, and he knew his shit. Besides, it hadn’t even hurt.
No, nothing hurt; everything was numb. She’d figured on swimming up for another breath of air, but she didn’t need one now.
She brought a hand up to touch her face and missed. Were her lips gone? Or was she too numb to find them? She swam to get to the surface, and bumped into the ocean floor.
This is not good, she told herself, but really, it was impossible to get worked up over it. It was so beautiful here, so peaceful. She was almost a part of it, lying on the floor in the rich silt, a part of the fish and even the saucy ray who had smacked her by accident and gone on its way.
She pulled off her mask and snorkel. Ah! That was better.Now she could breathe. It was a lot harder, breathing water than air, but she was up to the challenge.
It was too bad, though. She herself didn’t mind so much, but her pal Cathy would completely lose it when she heard the news.
Chapter 2
“What do you mean, ‘missing and presumed’?” Cathy shrieked. “What does that mean? Why aren’t we looking for her? Why weren’t you looking earlier?”
“Is she dead?” Jack asked. “I guess you’d better tell us if she’s dead.”
“Of course
Similar Books
