Read Sleep With Me (Be With Me) for Free Online Page B

comfortable. David kept up a gentle, slow stroke as she settled in, letting his own body relax and soak in the heat as he felt her drifting off to sleep in his lap.
     
    ***
     
    Katherine woke to the now familiar sound of crackling flames and wondered how long she’d slept. Opening her eyes, she blinked and then frowned at the daylight surrounding the fire. She pushed up to a sitting position, glancing at the blanket that had been under her head. The last thing she remembered was David pulling her down to lay her head in his lap...
    “Good morning. Sleep well?”
    She looked across the fire at David as he stood staring down at her. Expecting a mocking smile at least, she was surprised and a little uncomfortable to see the genuine concern in his eyes.
    “I think so, thanks to you. I...don’t really know what to say, except to apologize for falling apart last night. Not one of my finer moments.” She looked down at her hands, embarrassed.
    “Don’t worry about it,” he said, moving closer to drop one of the imitation cardboard meal replacement bars in her lap. “I filled the canteen with fresh water too. When you’re done, we’d better get moving. It’s a decent size island, and we need to be on the other end by late afternoon to catch our ride back.”
    Grateful that he didn’t want to make a big deal of it, Katherine washed down her breakfast with cool stream water, wishing for eggs and toast with juice instead. Getting up off the ground, she rolled up her blanket and put it in the emergency bag. Feeling vulnerable in just her bathing suit, she tied the lone towel around her waist and kicked dirt over the last few ashen embers.
    “Ready to go Kat?” David reappeared from the direction of the stream, leaning down to take the bag from her hands before he walked off the way they’d come the night before. She hurried to catch up, torn between annoyance and curiosity.
    “Why are we going back to the beach? I thought you said--”
    He glanced over his shoulder at her. “We need to check on the boat, and see if there’s a ship somewhere out looking for us past the reef. Then we can go, okay?”
    His longer legs were eating up ground and Katherine had to practically jog to keep up. By the time they reached the sand, she was glad she’d taken all those spinning classes.
    “Why can’t we just take the boat around the island?” she asked. “Wouldn’t that be faster? And we’d be able to take the boat back with us too. Or will we come get it when we get picked up?”
    He shook his head. “I don’t think there’s enough gas to make it there. Amy and I can come back to get the boat another day - we run diving excursions over here all the time. It’ll be okay here until then.”
    She followed him out onto the sand, already warm in the late morning sun. Holding a hand up to shield her face, she scanned the ocean, seeing nothing but waves and the dark outline of the reef in the distance.
    “Is that a fin?” she asked, pointing to the water as they walked toward the boat. “It’s awfully close to shore...”
    He nodded. “There are some larger sharks that patrol the lagoon around here. Certain times of year are better than others, and they’re normally quieter now, but with the weather changes lately their time tables could be changing. Did you say you nearly got eaten yesterday?”
    She shrugged. “I may have been a bit dramatic, but there was a school or pack or whatever of smaller sharks following me for awhile. They were on top the reef though, so I figured they were those reef sharks you talked about.”
    He smiled as he checked the knots on the boat’s anchor rope. “Not all sharks on the reef are reef sharks, but you didn’t panic, and that’s the important thing.”
    She frowned as he got a few more things out of the metal gear boxes.
    “How do you know I didn’t panic?”
    Standing up, he grinned at her. “You didn’t get eaten.”
    No arguing with that. “No, I didn’t.” She followed