Read Online Twice In A Lifetime by Jennifer Jakes - Free Book Online Page A

them leave. Make them.”
    Daniel signaled his men and they lowered their guns, falling back into the shadows. He glanced at Ian, then took Alicia’s hand and pulled her inside.
    The lieutenant knelt beside Ian. “Sir, do you want us to take her by force?”
    “No,” he wheezed. “Gather the men. Make ready to sail.”
    “Yes, Sir.” He stood but didn’t leave.
    “Well, don’t just stand there.” Izzy jumped to her feet, panic pumping through her. “Get some men over here. We have to carry him to the ship. We have to stop this bleeding.” She stripped off her coat and pressed it against Ian’s wound.
    The lieutenant’s jaw tightened and sorrow pinched his mouth. He shook his head. “It’s too late.”
    “The hell it is.” She’d carry him herself if she had to. She wouldn’t lose him now. Couldn’t.
    “Izzy, stop.” Ian’s hand clasped hers. Rain drummed down on them, mixing with his blood, a watery red river washing away their second chance. “He’s right. Let me go. There’s nothing you can do.” He squeezed her hand as his eyes slid shut.
    “No!” Tears poured down her face. “I won’t let you go. Not again.” She wasn’t giving up ever again. She’d fight for what she wanted.
    The gris-gris bag pulsed hot. Now. Wish now . Celeste’s voice rushed through the rain.
    Izzy ripped it from her neck and clasped it in her right hand, then wrapped Ian’s right hand around hers. She leaned over his body, her tears dripping onto his face as she kissed his forehead, the tip of his nose and finally his lips. “Come back to me,” she whispered.
    Squeezing her eyes closed, she prayed. “Please God or Great Bondye, please, send him back to me. I don’t care what we have to work through from here on out, just give me back my Ian.”
    The bag grew wet between their palms, but she kept praying. Begging. Stroking her fingers over his whiskered jaw. “Come back to me. Come back to me. Please, come back.”
    Thunder rumbled and lightning cracked high above th e trees, the noise so deafening the ground shuddered.
    “Izzy?” His hoars e voice broke through her fear, his eyes narrow slits of pain. “Darlin’, where the hell are we?”
     
    ***
     
    “Place him here on the bed.” Izzy stepped aside as Ian’s men helped him to the berth, ignoring the urge to throw them from the room so she could talk to him alone.
    Disbelief rippled through her. How had he found her? How was he here? Ian. Her real Ian. Her heart pounded, doubt and hope warring deep inside. Would he stay – or be ripped from her again, replaced by other Ian? Dear God, were there two Ians?
    Damn it, she’d managed to hold it together in the jungle so the men wouldn’t ask too many questions, but now she wanted answers.
    “Shall we remove his wet clothes, Ma’am?”
    “No!” Christ, no. “I’ll see to him.” They couldn’t see the fading gun-shot. They’d never understand. Hell, she didn’t understand. “You go. Anchors away or full speed ahead. Whatever. Just get us out of Jamaica.”
    The lieutenant frowned, then looked at Ian. “Orders, Sir?”
    Ian nodded. “Take us someplace safe for now.”
    “Yes, Sir.” The door clicked shut.
    Izzy flung herself onto the bed and tore off Ian’s bloody shirt, her hands shaking as she ran them over his abs. His smooth, healed abs.
    “How? How is this possible ?” The wound was nothing but a scar. She pressed her lips to it, then trailed up his chest until she reached his mouth, raining sloppy kisses over his skin. “I don’t understand how Celeste got you here.”
    Celeste ’s spell. That’s all he’d managed to say in the jungle, but now everything whirled in her brain, no answers, no explanations, just questions. How? As she prayed with one gris-gris bag, was Celeste casting a spell with another?
    “Hey.” He grinned, the dimple hollow in his cheek. “Aren’t you glad to see me?”
    Tears burned her eyes, an impossible lump in her throat. She tried to smile, forced