Riptide [Kismet Cove] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) by Susan Hayes Page B

those days may well be coming to an end. Rory had kept part of himself a secret, and he wasn’t sure how Evan would feel after he knew the truth about the darkness in Rory’s soul. Finding Jess might be the answer to their prayers, but she could also destroy what they already had. He hoped like hell that she was strong enough to deal with all the changes that were coming, and then he amended that thought. He hoped they were all strong enough to cope with the changes her arrival heralded.
     
    * * * *
     
    Jess woke up and found herself cradled between her rescuers. They were still, but the moment she moved she felt both tense and she realized they were awake.
    “Hi,” she whispered, feeling shy despite the fact she had already traded toe-curling kisses with one of them and the other had actually undressed her not very long ago.
    “Hey, sweetheart, welcome back.” Evan’s sky-blue eyes gleamed with warmth as he lifted his head enough to smile down at her. “Feeling better?”
    “Well, at least this time she didn’t wake up and start screaming.” Rory rumbled from behind her and she blushed at that memory.
    “Sorry about that, but, well…can you blame me?”
    Rory laughed and his voice flowed over her like melted chocolate, dark and sweet.
    “Not really. I’m still glad you seem calmer this time.” He feathered a kiss to her bare shoulder. “And warmer. I swear you were halfway to being an icicle by the time I got you back to the bo—” He stopped talking for a second. “I mean by the time we got you into the boat.”
    Jess frowned as she tried to remember the details of her rescue, but it all seemed like one big blur of cold and fear and waves. “I don’t really remember much after the wave hit me. I just remember thinking that I was going to die, and then Evan was pulling me up into the boat.” Another fragment of memory popped into her head. “And there was a seal, there, too.” She rolled onto her back and glanced at Rory. “Did you see a seal?”
    “A seal?” He got an odd look on his face and then nodded. “Now you mention it, I think there was a seal out there. They’re pretty common around here.”
    “Is it common for seals to grab people and pull them around, too?” she asked.
    “What? No. Seals don’t do that. They’re playful sometimes with divers, but they’re not aggressive.” Rory shook his head. “And I didn’t see a seal pulling you around.”
    “Well, it did.” Jess folded her arms over her chest. “And that’s not the first time it’s happened, either.”
    The two men looked at each other and then down at her with such intense expressions that Jess wondered if she’d said something wrong.
    “What do you mean, it’s happened before?” Evan asked, his usually gentle voice rife with tension. “When? Where?”
    “Here, when I was a little girl.”
    “You’re from here ?” Rory interjected.
    “Well, no, but my cabin has been in the family a couple of generations. We used to come here for summer vacations when I was a girl. We stopped coming when I was six or seven. The last year we came was the year I saw the seals. I remember thinking they wanted to play with me. They were pulling on my life jacket like the seal today was doing. It’s strange that I didn’t remember that until recently. I never remembered why we stopped coming out here. I guess my parents got a little freaked out. And here I am twenty-odd years later, and my first time in the water there’s another seal. Weird, huh?”
    “I’d say so.” Evan grinned. “Maybe it’s your perfume?”
    “Ha-ha.” She stuck out her tongue at him, only realizing her error when she saw the flare of lust in his blue eyes.
    “If you stick that out at me again I’m going to put it to good use, sweetheart. As I see it, you still owe me a kiss. Right now Rory’s one up on me.”
    Arousal collided with panic somewhere in the vicinity of Jess’s chest and suddenly it was very hard to breathe. She managed to