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I still couldn’t see him. Panic flooded me and I yanked off my coat and threw it back onto the beach, not very far by the time the wind caught it, and I waded out as quickly as I could against the wind.

The water sloshed up to my waist, stealing my breath in its icy grip, but I carried on, through the breakers then up to my shoulders, shivering uncontrollably. I tried to strike out over a swell before it broke but mistimed it, and the crest of a wave crashed over my head, forcing me backward. But I kept going as salt water stung my eyes and nose, swimming for the next one and making it over, then scanning again for Kerr. I thought I saw his head bobbing again farther out and I raised my hand to wave. “Kerr!”

He turned his head, eyes widening as he saw it was me. Thank God.

But I’d gotten too distracted and hadn’t realized that I wasn’t quite past the swells. Another one had started and I was too late to swim over it. It lifted me up with it, then crashed down over my head as it broke, sending me right down to the seabed.

*

“Grab the towels.”

“Got them. What else do you need?”

“I’ve got it from here. But can you go to the van and call an ambulance, please? We need to get her checked out.”

I knew that deep, velvet voice. And the other one, but not quite so well. It was the first one that soothed me immediately, warming my insides.

What was that vibrating? I opened my eyes and realized I was being carried in someone’s arms—​outdoors, it looked like. On a beach. And the vibrating was coming from me as I shivered uncontrollably.

I looked down at my drenched body, scrubs clinging to my skin, the exposed parts of which sported goose bumps so big it looked like I had an allergic rash. And I was so cold. Then I looked up and saw a broad expanse of wet suit–​covered chest, a handsome face on top sporting a snug-​fitting swim cap.

Oh. So that was why it had looked like he didn’t have a hat on.

He glanced down, his dark eyes warm and full of concern. He has his mother’s eyes.

His voice rumbled through his chest into my cheek. “It’s okay, Nisa. The tent’s just here.”

He bent down and bundled me into the tent, zipping it up to protect against the wind, and although I noticed an iota of difference without it whipping at my icy skin, I still shook uncontrollably.

Kerr set to work stripping the clothing from my body, a determined look on his face, all the while uttering soothing phrases such as “You’ll be all right, love.”

Love was the term of endearment that Anna used for me. And she’d used the same proverb Kerr had. What’s for you won’t go by you. I almost couldn’t believe I hadn’t worked it out before.

It was hardly any time at all before I was fully naked, but he didn’t bat an eyelid, the determined look still on his face as he wrapped a couple of warm, fluffy towels around me, giving me a gentle rub, and also my sodden hair. Then he knelt and stripped off his swim cap and wet suit. Despite shivering, I kept my eyes on his as his muscular torso and legs were revealed, the muscles in his arms flexing as he bent to strip the wet suit from his calves. Then he shucked off his swim shorts and picked up a tiny hand towel—​all that was left after I’d stolen the rest, I assumed—​to get the worst of the moisture off. Finally he shoved on a pair of joggers and a jumper, grabbed a woolly hat and put it on my head, and bundled me tightly into his arms.

I sighed with relief as the heat of his warm, hard body eased into mine, burying my face in his chest to get a big lungful of his scent. Seawater and musk.

He stroked my woolly hatted head. “What on earth were you doing out there, Nisa?” he asked, his voice a low hum.

“Looking for you,” I chattered out through my teeth.

“Why?” he said, his warm lips finding my temple.

“I had something important to tell you.” I paused, reassessing that statement. “Actually, I have about three important things to tell you.” And I didn’t know where to start. Probably best to start with a question. I lifted my head to look at his face. His handsome brow was furrowed as he looked at me, no doubt thinking I was crazy. “Did you see Drew at my house this morning?” His body stiffened under mine, pain flashing in his dark eyes, and there was my answer. I managed to snake a hand out of the towel to touch his cheek, and bless him, he didn’t flinch even though my fingers were still like blocks of ice. “I thought it was you at the door. When I opened it I nearly vomited at the sight of his smug face. I couldn’t speak at first because I was so shocked to see him there. And he tried to kiss me but I shoved him right off, gave him a piece of my mind, then shoved him again so hard that he fell into the snow and I told him I wanted a divorce.”

Kerr’s eyebrows rose as understanding dawned on his face.

“I didn’t kiss him back, I swear,” I said, searching his eyes for signs that he believed me. “He was talking some shit about not being sure about the pregnancy, like a total arsehole. I was so taken aback to see him there—​especially after I was expecting, and hoping, it was you—​that I was shocked into silence. Then he went in for the kiss and I—​ugh,” I said, my body shuddering, and not from the cold this time.

He tightened his arms around me and I stopped speaking as I took in his expression—​eyes like stormy black pools of rage, dark brows knitted tightly above them. My heart stuttered in my chest. Shit. He doesn’t believe me.

He opened his mouth, and his voice was so low I felt it thrum into my skin. “He kissed you against your will?”

Oh. “Yes. But I made him regret it.”

The muscles in his jaw ticked and I was convinced that if his primary goal hadn’t been to prevent me from developing hypothermia, he would have driven right to Drew’s and punched him into next year. He took a sharp breath, as if attempting to gain some control. “How hard did you shove him?”

I lifted a hand to stroke his face in reassurance. “Really hard.”