The Mercy Falls Collection by Colleen Coble

Author:Colleen Coble
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2013-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

NINETEEN

WILL WANTED TO feel those warm lips on his again. The ones that had called him from a deep, cold place. He shuddered as the cold sank further into his bones. He’d been sure he was dead. There was little he remembered other than an eternity of fighting the cold and the waves until he’d given up all hope of surviving. Then he’d felt warmth and passion, a call he couldn’t resist. Katie. He opened his eyes and watched the beautiful woman who had saved his life weeping beside him.

Katie must have seen his involuntary movement because she glanced at his brother.

“Where do you think we could find a blanket?” she asked, wiping her face.

When she moved to follow his brother, Will grabbed her hand. She turned back toward him with her blue eyes wide.

“You kissed me,” he said. “Somehow it made me want to come back.”

Color rushed to her cheeks but she held his gaze. “It wasn’t a kiss. I was putting air into your lungs.”

He clutched her hand more tightly. “Your mouth was warm. I was cold—so cold.” An explosion of shivers shook him. He wanted to pull her down to him and wrap his arms around her, bask in her warmth.

She put her hand on his forehead. “Your brother is looking for a blanket in the hold. We’ll head for shore and the doctor shortly.”

His eyes strayed to the strands of gleaming brown hair that the wind had released from its pins. He’d never seen a more beautiful sight. “You don’t have your hat,” he said.

Though she smiled, the anxiety still stayed in her blue eyes. “So you said. I rushed out with Philip to try to find you and quite forgot it.”

A lady never went out without her hat. He could see a smattering of freckles across her nose and a pink tinge already on her forehead. Miss Katie Russell was no typical lady, only concerned with propriety and decorum. He’d never known a woman to put herself out in such a way for another. He struggled to sit up then bit back a groan. His chest burned when he tried to pull in a deeper breath. His head throbbed and his skin felt as though it had been stripped away.

She placed a warm hand on his chest. “Lie still. I don’t want you to further harm yourself.”

He put his cold hand atop hers. “What is the saying . . . when someone saves your life, it belongs to them?”

She flushed a deeper pink. “Anyone would have done the same.”

When she tried to withdraw her hand, he kept it pressed to the place over his heart. “I don’t think so. You’re a remarkable woman, Miss Russell.”

“It’s Katie,” she said. “You can call me Katie.”

He nodded. “With something like this between us, I think first names are in order. In fact, I thought I heard you call me by name when I was in the water.”

Sparks of awareness pulsed between them. Will told himself it was because she’d given him the kiss of life, but he suspected it was more than that.

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