Sleep With Me (Be With Me) by Jamie DeBree Read Free Book Online Page B

unstable.” Glancing around, grateful that the moon was so bright, he spotted a large, flat rock sheltered by a circle of palm trees not too far away.
    “Let’s go over there.” He pointed and then held out a hand as he began sloshing forward.
    Kat’s fingers closed around his and she took a tentative step away from the wall. Behind them, the ground sloped down which made forward motion tricky. They were nearly half-way to the rock when David felt Kat’s arm jerk against his wrist. Then he was falling backward, landing heavily on the slick hill as Kat slipped away and gravity pulled him down after her.
     
    ***
     
    Katherine flailed her arms to either side trying to find something to grab in the dark, her hands slippery and caked with thick mud. She turned to her stomach as gravity pulled her faster and faster down the slope, certain that when she finally stopped, it was going to hurt. A lot. Soon the ground beneath her fell away and she hung suspended for what seemed like several minutes before falling, falling, falling.
    This was it then. When she hit the ground, it would all be over. She curled up into a ball, hugging her knees to her chest and praying that it wouldn’t hurt for very long.
    The impact jarred her body, sending a spray of water all around as she plummeted beneath. Disoriented, she broke her position and started to kick before realizing she wasn’t sure which way was up. Forcing herself to still, she began to float, and kicked frantically in the direction her body wanted to go. As her head broke the water, she greedily gulped in air as she heard a second splash somewhere nearby.
    “David?” She tried to swim towards the sound, the current fighting to drag her farther away. “David is that you?”
    Something brushed her leg. Pulled. Her head dipped underwater and she panicked, kicking and flailing to reach the surface again. Fighting to keep her head above water, she felt fingers wrap around her wrist and the pressure on her ankle eased.
    “It’s me, Kat.” David’s voice came from beside her in the darkness, and she breathed a sigh of relief even as she struggled to tread water with just one arm. “I just don’t want us to get separated again. Can you float?”
    She nodded, and then realized he couldn’t see her any more than she could see him. Down in the valley, the moon was completely blocked by the trees.
    “Yes.”
    “Good. Lay on your back, feet towards me so the current is pushing us feet first. I’ll try to get us headed toward one of the banks.”
    Katherine did as he asked, using her free arm to help him steer them toward the left side of the river. The sheer force of the current was shocking, considering it had been a gentle roll when they’d broke camp.
    David’s grip tightened and he felt more...solid, somehow. That’s when she realized they were no longer moving.
    “You should be able to stand here,” he said, helping her as she lowered her feet and caught her balance in the waist-high water. The air was cold as she stood up, and she began to shiver uncontrollably as she waded behind him up onto a small rocky beach. The roar of the ocean was close, and she frowned, turning her head this way and that in an attempt to figure out where it was in relation to them.
    “We need to build a fire, and quick,” he said, leading her farther up the rocky ground. “Unfortunately, I didn’t think to grab the bag out of our little cave up there, so no matches. Not that it would matter, I guess - I would have lost it in the fall.”
    Katherine crossed her arms over her chest, attempting to stop the now-constant tremors that wracked her body.
    “Ho c-c-can w-w-we?” she managed to push out through her uncooperative lips. She felt a hand tentatively brush her arm and instinctively moved toward it. His arm curled around her, drawing her close and encircling her body with the other arm.
    “We’ll figure it out.” He was cold too, his skin like ice as she leaned against him and laid