Shadow's Lady (A Pajaro Bay Cozy Mystery + Sweet Romance) by Barbara Cool Lee Read Free Book Online

told him. "But no sitting down."
    He placed both hands against the sandstone wall in front of him and dropped his head.
    She pulled back her sleeve to look at her watch. "Okay, one minute starts now."
    He glanced at her. "You're timing me?"
    "45 more seconds," she responded, trying to look stern. If he sat down she'd never get him up again.
    "There," she said when the secondhand had completed its circle. "Now we're ready to go on."
    He had no response to that.
    She grabbed his wrist. It didn't take a medical degree to know his pulse was beating too quickly. He was shaking uncontrollably now.
    She gave him one more minute, then felt his forehead. Clammy. Sweaty. Pain was written all over his face.
    Those deep brown eyes looked worriedly at her. "Are you okay?" he asked. "You look exhausted."
    She was shocked by his concern. The guy was half-dead and he was thinking about how she felt? She probably did look awful. Her usual post-seizure headache roared in her ears, and she wasn't a hundred-percent sure she wouldn't throw up on him before they got through this.
    She looked him in the eye. "We don't have a choice. You've got to climb the path up the cliff. I can help, but I can't do it for you."
    "Lori, you are a very sweet girl," he said, completely irrelevantly.
    "I know," she said. She wrapped her arm around him again. "Now get moving."
     

chapter four
     
    Somehow he did it, hopping, scrambling, clinging to exposed tree roots. Sometimes she grabbed his arm and pulled him up with all her strength. Sometimes she got behind him and pushed till her legs ached.
    Finally, all six-foot-three, 180 pounds of him was at the top of the hill. He collapsed on the muddy ground while she sprawled next to him. He clung to her hand as if he didn't want to let go.
    The rain poured down on them unrelentingly. Far off, she heard the rumble of thunder. It was getting closer. They were too exposed out here. They had to get inside before the lightning reached the island.
    She sat up, disentangling her hand from his. She brushed the hair back from his face. He looked terrible—skin blanched pale beneath his tan, pulse beating wildly in his throat. Had she done the right thing, forcing him to climb the cliff? It didn't matter; it was too late to undo the damage now.
    His dark, rain-soaked lashes fluttered against his face as if he hadn't the strength to open his eyes. "Shhh," she whispered. "Rest just a bit longer."
    She leaned over him, sheltering him from the downpour. The raindrops glistened on his face. She brushed them away from his full lips that were tinged a frightening blue with cold, from the stubble of dark beard at his cheek. Surfing. What had possessed him to go surfing in this weather?
    She realized to her surprise that she was cradling one of those gorgeous dumb jocks she had mooned over in high school. The kind of guy who made her tingle all over every time he passed her in the hall; the kind of guy who was so busy fighting off bubbly cheerleaders he never noticed she was alive.
    She had always comforted herself with the thought that guys like that ended up pot-bellied has-beens by the time they were 30.
    This one—acres of rock-hard muscle—appeared to buck that stereotype.
    She brushed the raindrops from his face with her sweatshirt sleeve. The thunder was louder now.
    His eyes opened.
    "Only a few more yards," she said gently. "It's all flat from here. But we have to get out of the storm."
    Silently he gathered himself up and struggled to stand. He leaned heavily against her, apparently exhausted beyond any attempt at walking on his own.
    "Just a few more yards," she repeated. "This way."
    She turned to face the house and noticed to her surprise that the "dog" was back. Odd how even from this angle yards away from the lighthouse the ghostly image could still be seen. Also odd that the illusion was visible in this dull, gray downpour when before it had appeared as a reflection in the semi-darkness before the dawn.
    She looked