Love at High Tide
Authors: Christi Barth
Love at High Tide
By Christi Barth
Darcy Trent is lucky Cooper Hudson is on hand to sweep her off her feet—literally—when she nearly drowns while swimming in the ocean. But life-saving aside, Mr. Perfect’s timing stinks: Darcy’s career is about to take her to the complete opposite side of the Atlantic. Still, a little summer loving with the tall, blond and sexy former cop is far too tempting to pass up.
When his plans to enter the Secret Service went south thanks to a bum knee, Coop retreated to the family beach house to mull his future. Romance is the last thing on his mind, until he fishes a curvy brunette out of the sea. Now, spending time in Darcy’s arms seems like the ideal distraction, even if it is just for a week.
But with Darcy’s departure date fast approaching and their careers on the line, can they realize in time that their beach fling might become the real thing?
46,000 words
Dear Reader,
Welcome to our July lineup of books! If I’m not on the beach
somewhere while you’re reading this, there’s something wrong with life (unless
you’re reading this in December—in which case, I hope I’m by a fireplace with a
cup of hot cocoa in my hand). But no matter where you are while you’re reading
this, I can tell you one thing: you’re in for a treat. (Sure, I say that every
month, but it’s always true!) This month brings a fun mix of returning authors
and debut authors, with fun, contemporary beach reads, some troublesome dragons,
a few steps back in time, and characters in a race against time and a fight for
their lives.
Let’s kick off with the perfect beach read. Make sure you
pick up Christi Barth’s
Love at High Tide.
Beach
reading doesn’t get much better than this. It starts with a beach rescue,
continues with a beach romance, and has sun, sand, sexual tension and two
characters you will love.
Maybe the beach isn’t your thing in the summer, but baseball
is. Take a peek at Alison Packard’s
The Winning
Season.
After hitting rock bottom, bad-boy catcher Matt Scanlon is
traded to the team he’s loathed since boyhood, and he must confront a painful
incident in his past before he can rebuild his life
and
his career. Once you’ve fallen in love with Matt, go back and
read Alison’s debut romance,
Love in the
Afternoon.
Continuing in the contemporary romance genre, we have party
planner Tess, who can’t believe that hotel manager Jeremy could possibly be
interested in her. She’s everyone’s BFF, not friends-with-benefits material. But
he’s got more than friendship on his mind in Kate Davies’s
Life of the Party
, book three in the Girls Most Likely to...
series.
Maybe you like your romance with a side of suspense? If so,
check out Anne Marie Becker’s
Deadly Bonds
, and
Betrayed by Trust
from Ana Barrons. Two romantic
suspense books, four characters in fights for their lives.
Or maybe you like your romance with a large helping of sexy
times? If so, Lynda Aicher’s
Bonds of Desire
is the
book for you. Lawyer Allison English never planned to return to The Den—despite
her naughty fantasies about being bound by owner Seth Matthews. But when club
guest Tyler Wysong is injured in a scene, Seth turns to Allie for help. Aroused
by both men, Allie should turn the case down. But she can’t...
Joining Lynda in the erotic romance category this month are
two male/male titles. First up is
His Roommate’s
Pleasure
by Lana McGregor. Adam had no idea that his jock roommate
was gay—and into leashes, paddles, and domination. And Adam, an inexperienced
virgin who’s only ever kissed one guy, is surprised to find himself curious
about submitting... Then Samantha Ann King returns with the follow-up to her
debut romance,
Sharing Hailey.
In
Waiting for Ty
, too many beers and four long years of
denying their feelings for each other thrust two men together in a lip-lock and
a night of no-holds-barred sex that forces them to confront their greatest love
and their deepest fears.
In
Sky Hunter
, the third and
final installment of Fae Sutherland’s male/male space opera romance series,
Skybound, the
Crux Ansata’s
brash and rebellious
ship mechanic, Jeret, finds himself face-to-face with a dangerous past he never
thought to revisit—and the only man he has never been able to forget.
Looking for more books in the paranormal category? Start with
Ruth A. Casie’s
The Guardian’s Witch
and
Desperate Magic
by Rebecca York. And for fans of
historical romance, in Georgie Lee’s
Hero’s
Redemption
, a widow and a war hero brought together by a scheme must
learn to trust one another and accept the tragedy that links them in order to
find love. Meanwhile, historical romance author Susanna Fraser, who can always
be counted on to deliver a unique and unusual historical romance, returns with
A
Dream Defiant
, in which a black British soldier
marries a beautiful English war widow, but he can’t believe she wants him for
himself, and not merely as her bodyguard and protector.
This month Carina Press is pleased to announce three debut
authors. Mystery author Patricia Hale will grip you by the throat with her
suspenseful story of retribution,
In the Shadow of
Revenge.
As children they witnessed horror and created a pact, as
women they planned their revenge and waited.
Also debuting this month is Reese Ryan, with
Making the First Move.
When ambitious HR exec Melanie
Gordon falls for sweet, sexy philanthropist Raine Mason, she discovers that his
selflessness is driven by a dark and tragic secret that threatens to keep them
apart.
And joining Carina Press with her Golden Heart-winning
paranormal romance is debut author Lorenda Christensen. Fans of Katie
MacAlister’s Aisling Grey and Light Dragons series will want to check this one
out, and so will any fans of fun paranormal romances featuring dragons and
heroines with a bit of backbone. In
Never Deal with
Dragons
, the first in a new series, a human mediator bites off more
than she can chew when she agrees to partner with an ex-boyfriend to stop a war
between two dragon monarchs.
I hope you enjoy all of this month’s new releases. There’s
certainly a variety to choose from, to keep you occupied no matter what your
summer (or winter) activity.
We love to hear from readers, and you can email us your
thoughts, comments and questions to
[email protected]
. You can also interact with Carina
Press staff and authors on our blog, Twitter stream and Facebook fan page.
Happy reading!
~Angela James
Executive Editor, Carina Press
www.carinapress.com
www.twitter.com/carinapress
www.facebook.com/carinapress
Dedication
For my husband. He didn’t bat an eye when the first thing I did upon buying a home in Maryland (rather than packing or finding a job) was rent a beach condo. Here’s to twelve amazing years on the shore, and many more to come!
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Stephanie Draven for her constant reassurance that my characters are witty and adorable. Huge appreciation to my wonderful editor, Angela James, for asking the obvious questions I didn’t remember to think of myself. And hugs to Colin Mitchell, who joined us on our Ocean City adventure many times, and helped us make the very best beach memories there.
Chapter One
Finally. Since time immemorial humanity had been searching for it, and she, Darcy Trent, had finally found Eden. This wasn’t merely an educated guess on her part. Raised by an archeologist and an ancient worlds specialist, she’d quite literally cut her teeth (to her parents’ shock and dismay at her reckless disregard for leaving drool on antique texts) on all things dusty, old and priceless. With two degrees in cultural anthropology under her belt—soon to be followed by the coveted third, which would enable her to precede her name forever with the all-important title of doctor—Darcy could quite rightly claim decades of study and research had led her to this all-important, incontrovertible discovery. She closed her eyes to savor the moment.
“A seagull just pooped on my toe.”
Darcy’s eyes popped back open. Trina, her best friend since their matching-pigtail days, sat on a watermelon pink and green towel, surveying the toe in question with a glum look.
Darcy slid a little lower in her beach chair and sighed. “Trina, I’m having a moment here.”
“And you can go back to your magic moment once I rinse off my toe. Come with me.”
Yup, reality had a perfect track record for slapping Darcy in the face the second she let her guard down. Evidently Ocean City, Maryland wasn’t cut out to be Eden after all. But it sure felt like it.
Darcy ticked off the criteria in her head. No dysentery, no lions lurking behind a bush planning their next meal around her, and water as far as the eye could see. After eight months in sub-Saharan Africa finishing her dissertation, this beachside tourist trap fit the bill perfectly. Okay, maybe this stretch of beach covered with oil-slicked teens, screaming tots and a few too many jellyfish wasn’t really the
official
paradise on earth regaled in myth and legend. But for the next week, she literally couldn’t think of anyplace she’d rather be.
“Darcy, come on,” Trina hollered. The noonday sun turned Trina’s hair into a strawberry nimbus. Its bell shape swung back and forth as she made an elaborate production of standing without letting the offending toe touch her towel.
“You’re twenty-seven years old. Why can’t you walk to the water’s edge by yourself?” Darcy asked. Without waiting for an answer, she gave in to the inevitable and pushed herself out of the chair. She ran her fingers over her navy bikini bottoms in a quick modesty check. No thongs for her. Darcy believed at least dinner and drinks were required before anyone saw her naked butt.
“Girl code 101. We go everywhere in pairs to look out for each other.” Trina threw an arm around Darcy’s waist. Sand rubbed in the tiny sliver of flesh between her bottoms and her tankini top. “So if a wave pulls my bikini off my boobs, you can warn me.”
“Or—and here’s a crazy thought—you could wear a suit that actually covers your breasts.” Trina’s tiny white tube top exposed quite a lot of freckled skin. Darcy wouldn’t have felt comfortable using that little fabric for a bandanna. “Built-in safety from flashing.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Trina giggled. She swerved sideways to avoid being barreled into by a shrieking, naked toddler carrying fistfuls of seaweed. “Plus, it’s no fun to spot for hot guys by myself. You’ve got to rate them, too. Beach goggles are just as dangerous as beer goggles. At least fifty percent of guys look hot when they’re shirtless with a steaming fresh tan.”
Darcy flicked her eyes across the semicircle of low chairs in front of them. The motley line of fifty-something men were clearly brothers. They shared similar facial features, identical bald spots, and the same protruding hairy bellies carefully displayed over the tops of their trunks. She had yet to spot anything remotely approaching man candy. Only lots of overweight, middle-aged men with their arms buried up to the elbow in potato chip bags.
“Really? All this is going to happen in a two-second swish in the surf?”
“Oh, that’s right. You haven’t been in the water yet.” Trina led the way, weaving between brightly striped umbrellas. Gradually the sand became more hard packed beneath their feet. The tang of salt in the air thickened and became almost tangible. “There is no such thing as a two-second swish. That’s like saying you can only eat one potato chip and then stop. Nope, we’ll be out here for a while. The ocean is magical. As soon as the tide tickles your feet, you get sucked in.”
“Not literally, I hope.” Swimming wasn’t Darcy’s strong suit. She’d spent her whole life in either the desert or a classroom. Darcy could manage a few laps for exercise in a hotel pool, but the ocean made her nervous. Insanely beautiful to stare at, sure. And she loved the lulling, rhythmic crash of surf against sand.
But for actual swimming, it was too big and powerful for her. Not to mention the possibility of undertow, riptides and sharks. Worse, fish peed in it. Heck,
people
peed in it. Nope, this trip to Ocean City, despite its eponymous name, had exactly three to-do list items. One, laze for hours reading in her beach chair. Two, catch up on celebrity gossip from Trina, who knew everything about everyone. And three, nightly cocktail hour on their balcony with its tiny wedge of ocean view. Darcy saw no actual reason to add going into the pounding surf to her list.
“Don’t be such a scaredy cat.” Grabbing her hand, Trina ran them full tilt, straight into the water.
The cold shocked her. Despite the trickles of sweat that beaded along the back of her neck, all Darcy registered was the icy eddy at her feet. Then it swirled higher, to her knees, and up to the tops of her thighs. Trina tugged her forward until they stood waist deep in the frigid water.
“Are you crazy? There’s nothing magical about this. Unless the reason the water’s so cold is because it came straight from the North Pole.” Immediately Darcy reversed direction, but the force of the retreating tide slowed her steps.
“Just take a second to get used to it,” Trina yelled after her. “I promise it’ll feel refreshing before you know it.”
“A cool shower is refreshing. Running through sprinklers is refreshing.” Already her toes were numb. “This is torture.” The cold constricted her lungs, made it hard to suck in a full breath. One foot in front of the other, Darcy windmilled her arms. When that didn’t work, she tried to use her hands like oars to help steady her balance against the surging water. She squinted at the shore. A row of boogie-boarding children lay between her and the warm sand. Suddenly, what little air she had left whooshed out of her lungs as an arm pressed into her diaphragm. It pulled her back against a steel wall of a chest, then flipped her so she sat, cradled in his arms.
“Hang on,” a low voice rumbled in her ear.
Darcy flung her arms around his neck in the nick of time. Rumbling louder than a freight train, a gigantic wave broke just over their heads. Her mystery man wobbled, but held his ground. The arm under her thighs locked on tightly, while the one behind her back slipped a bit. He readjusted, his palm grazing the side of her breast. If it wasn’t for what felt like an entire swimming pool being emptied onto her, Darcy would’ve enjoyed the sensation. Although it felt like an eternity, in a few seconds the deluge ended. Soon only the tips of her toes dangled in the water.
Coughing and gasping like a beached fish, Darcy loosened her death grip to push her sodden curtain of dark hair out of her face. She wanted to see the face of the man who’d saved her from certain drowning. Without any prior experience in the ocean, she had no doubt the strength of that wave would’ve pulled her under, and out to sea. The thought shook her as the depth of her narrow escape sunk in, and she retightened her grasp on his neck.
How did you begin to thank someone for saving your life? The chances of finding a greeting card that fit the situation were slim. And even with the exorbitant price of stamps today, it didn’t seem like nearly a big enough gesture. It took a couple of blinks to clear the sting of saltwater from Darcy’s eyes. When she focused, a pair of pale eyes the color of the June sky above smiled back at her.
“Sorry for the manhandling, but you looked like you needed help. First time in the ocean?” He strode through the eddying surf with an ease and surefootedness that shocked Darcy. Especially considering the whole extra person weighing him down. Taller than average at five feet eight inches, Darcy worked hard to maintain her trim figure, but she knew she wasn’t exactly a light load. A part of her couldn’t wait to see the muscles that carried her so effortlessly. Most of her, however, couldn’t unlock her gaze from his hypnotically beautiful pale blue eyes.
“Was I that obvious?”
“Yep.”
Embarrassment shuddered through her. How stupid had she looked with her arms flailing? And how many of the hundreds of people dotting the shore had witnessed her panicked run out of the ocean? Made all the more embarrassing by passing by children whose age had to be in the single digits, diving straight into the waves and surfacing with hysterical laughter. “Thanks for the rescue. If you hadn’t grabbed me, I’d still be doing somersaults underwater. In my book, that qualifies you for hero status.”
An unreadable emotion flickered across his eyes so fast she almost missed it. In a low mutter, he said, “Don’t call me a hero.” He hit the hard-packed sand at the edge of the water and stopped walking.
Modest, heroic and gorgeous. And it didn’t take even a fraction of her eight years of training in cultural anthropology to figure out he was attracted to her. They’d long since hit land, and yet he made no move to put her down. Not that she was complaining. She’d happily continue to sit cradled in his arms. It gave her an up-close view of his chiseled cheekbones, sharp enough to etch glass. Her fingers brushed through the salt-spiked tips of his blond hair. No doubt about it: she’d found the man candy Trina had promised. One bite of him would be as sinful and addictive as a chocolate honey truffle.
“Well, I can’t call you Mr. In-The-Right-Place-At-The-Right-Time.” When his lips curled up showing off his dimple, Darcy’s interest kicked up a notch.
“Good point. I’m Cooper Hudson. Coop, to my friends.”
“Darcy Trent.”
“It’s been a long time since I met an ocean virgin.”
“Oh, but
only
in the aquatic sense, I assure you.” What? Why wave her long-vanished virginity under his nose? Now he probably thought she had the morals of an alley cat. But hearing the hottest man she’d ever seen use the word
virgin
threw her for a loop. Not the standard nice-to-meet-you conversation, by a long shot.
He flashed an easy smile. “Don’t worry. I hadn’t planned on delivering you as a virgin sacrifice to appease the volcano gods over at the mini-golf course.”
Okay, now Darcy could add funny to the list of his overwhelming awesomeness. Maybe she really had blacked out and was hallucinating her ideal man while unconscious, underwater. What else could explain such perfection?
“Darcy, what happened?” Trina’s yell preceded her appearance in front of them. After a quick yank upward to her scrap of a top, she rested her hand on Darcy’s leg. “Why’s he carrying you? Did you get stung in the foot by a jellyfish? ’Cause if you did, I’ll pee on it. That’ll take the sting away.”
That certainly settled the whole am-I-hallucinating question. Never, ever would Darcy fantasize about her best friend peeing on her. The situation had to be real. And if Trina in all her adorable annoyingness was real, then her hot hero hunk had to be real, too.
To her dismay, Cooper lowered her to the ground.
“Your friend’s fine,” Cooper announced. “A wave almost rolled her, so she’s a little shaken up, but uninjured.”
“You keep your distance,” Darcy warned with a hand raised to keep Trina at arm’s length. “Don’t even think about peeing on me. Not even if I get attacked by an entire school of jellyfish.”
Trina wrinkled her nose. “Okay, but if the situation arises, just remember that I would be willing to make that sacrifice.”
“Friendship is a beautiful thing.” Cooper’s sardonic tone belied the sincerity of his expression. He stepped closer to the edge of a white and red striped towel, squatted, and picked up a phone. After checking the display he winced. “Ten minutes in the water and I racked up seven missed calls. Unbelievable.”
Getting a better look at his shoulders as broad as a chalkboard, Darcy assumed the calls were all from international lingerie models who’d do anything to be the next notch on his headboard. But instead of stating the obvious, she popped out a platitude. “Busy guy. Work won’t leave you alone on vacation?”
Again, that indefinable shadow slipped across his eyes, as fast as a blip on a sonar screen. “I wish. No, it’s my family. My well-intentioned, overprotective, smothering, annoying family.” Cooper shook his head, sending water droplets in a fine spray across the sand. “I’d better call them back. It’s the only way to stop the madness.”
Family problems? Darcy could not only relate, but she could talk his ear off on that particular subject. Probably a good thing for him to go before she accidentally unloaded that trailer of dysfunction on him. “Thanks again for saving my life.”
“Not a big deal.” He ran a quick hand down her arm, leaving a trail of goose bumps in its wake. “This is my usual spot. Maybe I’ll see you around.” Cooper set off at an easy lope toward the dunes.
“
Not a big deal?
” Darcy echoed. Trina slapped a hand across her mouth and pointed at Cooper.
“Shhh. Watch those muscles ripple across his back. When was the last time you saw a guy that ripped in real life? We need to quietly admire all that flexing, golden skin. You know, like how you make me be quiet when we’re in art museums.”
She had a valid point. They stood, quietly ogling until a few seconds later, Cooper disappeared between the dunes. Trina dropped her hand. “Now you can rant.”
Darcy led the way back to their towels. “I can’t believe he’d be so dismissive about rescuing me. There are cultures all over the world who believe Cooper is responsible for my life, now that he saved it. Or, conversely, that I will owe him until I, in turn, save his life. In fact, it is a very huge deal!”
“Maybe you could offer to buy him a Drumstick the next time the ice cream truck swings by.”