To Kiss a King (Kings of California #11)(20)
Author: Maureen Child

Apparently, they were. “There!”

Alex pointed at the shadow of movement in the dark water as it headed toward the surface. The woman on the boat behind her was still screaming and wailing. Alex hardly heard her.

Garrett shot out of the water, shaking his hair back from his face. In his arms, a boy of no more than five or six lay limply, eyes closed. A moment later, the man from the jet boat popped up beside Garrett and tried to take the boy.

Garrett ignored him and swam toward the jet boat. Alex followed his progress, her gaze locked on him and on the pale, young face he towed toward safety.

“Oh, God. Oh, God.” The woman was babbling now, tears streaming down her face, voice breaking on every word. “Is he breathing? Is he breathing?”

Garrett laid the boy on the cut out steps at the back of the boat and tipped the child’s head back. While Alex watched, Garrett blew into the boy’s mouth once. Twice. The waiting was the worst part. The quiet, but for the water continually slapping the hull and the now quiet weeping from the woman who had to be the boy’s mother.

Again, Garrett breathed air into the boy’s lungs and this time, there was a reaction.

Coughing, sputtering, retching what seemed a gallon of sea water, the little boy arched up off the deck of the boat, opened his eyes and cried, “Mommy!”

Instantly, the woman was on her knees, gathering her son to her chest. Rocking him, holding him, murmuring words only he could hear between the sobs racking her.

Tears streaked down Alex’s cheeks, too, as she watched the man in the water grab Garrett and give him a hard hug. “Thanks, man. Seriously, thank you. I don’t know what— If you hadn’t been here—”

Garrett’s gaze drifted to Alex and she felt his fury and relief as surely as she felt her own. But mixed in with those churning emotions, pride in what Garrett had done swelled inside her. He’d saved that child. If not for him, the boy would never have been recovered. His parents might have spent hours looking, wondering exactly where the boy had fallen in, having no idea where to search for him.

“Glad I could help,” Garrett said tightly. “Next time slow down. And give that kid a life vest when you’re on a damn boat.”

“Right. Right.” The man swiped one hand across his face, looked up at his family and Alex saw him pale at the realization of what might have happened.

“Yeah,” he said. “I will. I swear it.”

“Thank you,” the woman said, lifting her head long enough to look first at Garrett and then at Alex. “Thank you so much. I don’t know what else to say—”

She broke off, her gaze narrowing as she stared at Alex, a question in her eyes. “Aren’t you…”

A knot of panic exploded in Alex’s stomach. Would this woman recognize her? Say something?

“You’d better get him to a doctor,” Garrett blurted. “Have him checked out.”

“Yes,” the woman said, tearing her gaze away from Alex long enough to nod, then stare down at her son again. “Good idea. Mike?”

“Coming,” the man said, pushing himself out of the water and onto the boat. “Thanks again. It’s not enough but it’s all I can say.”

Relieved that not only the boy was safe, but her secret as well, Alex watched Garrett swim toward her. She paid no attention when the speedboat owners fired up their powerful engine and took off—at a slower pace than they had been going previously. She was just glad to see them gone. Of course she was happy the child had survived. Happy that Garrett had been able to save him. But she was also grateful that her identity was still a secret. What were the odds, she wondered, of being in the middle of an ocean with a child near drowning and that boy’s mother recognizing her?

She shoved those thoughts away as Garrett braced his hands on the edge of the boat and hoisted himself inside. Then he just sat there, holding his head in his hands. Alex sat down beside him, uncaring about the water sluicing off his clothes, soaking into hers.

Alex wrapped her arms around him and leaned her head on his shoulder.

“You were wonderful,” she said softly.

“I was lucky,” he corrected, lifting his head to look at her. “Saw a flash of the kid’s white T-shirt and made a blind grab for him.”

“You saved him,” Alex said, cupping his cheek in her palm. “You were wonderful, Garrett.”

A slow smile curved his mouth. “If you say so.”

She smiled too. “I do.”

“I learned a long time ago—never argue with a beautiful woman.” He caught her hand in his, squeezed it briefly then leaned in to give her a fast kiss. “But, I think our boating trip is over.”

Her heart tumbled in her chest. She didn’t want the day to end. It had been filled with emotional ups and downs and moments of sheer terror. A boy’s life had been saved and her own life had taken a wild turn in a direction she hadn’t expected.

Alex looked at Garrett and couldn’t even imagine not being with him. She’d known him only two days and he had touched her more deeply than anyone she had ever known. He was strong and capable and funny. He kissed her and her body exploded with need. He caressed her and the world fell away. She had never felt more alive than she did when she was with Garrett.

So no, she didn’t want this day to end because every day that passed put her one day closer to leaving—and never seeing him again.

“Hey,” he asked, brow furrowing, “what is it? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she said. “It’s nothing. I just…didn’t want today to be over, I suppose.”

He brushed a kiss across her mouth and eased back. “Day’s not over, Alex. Just the boat ride.”

“Really?”

“Really. Dress codes in five-star restaurants are a lot looser in California than anywhere else, but…” He slapped one hand against his jeans and looked ruefully at his sodden boots. “I think they’ll draw the line at soaking wet. I need to change clothes before I take you to dinner.”

What he was saying made sense, but the look in his eyes told a different story. It was as if in saving the child, he’d closed a part of himself off from her, and Alex wanted to know why. He was pulling back, even sitting here beside him. She could feel a wall going up between them and wasn’t sure what to do about it.

So for now, she let it go and gave him the answer she knew he was expecting.

“In that case,” she told him, “we’d better get going.”