Swamp Magic (Crimson Romance)
Bobbi Romans
Avon, Massachusetts
This edition published by
Crimson Romance
an imprint of F+W Media, Inc.
10151 Carver Road, Suite 200
Blue Ash, Ohio 45242
Copyright © 2013 by Bobbi Romans
ISBN 10: 1-4405-6425-6
ISBN 13: 978-1-4405-6425-3
eISBN 10: 1-4405-6426-4
eISBN 13: 978-1-4405-6426-0
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, corporations, institutions, organizations, events, or locales in this novel are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously. The resemblance of any character to actual persons (living or dead) is entirely coincidental.
Cover art © 123rf.com
To my Belle’s — T, Nikki, Char, Hula and Boo — thanks for always lending an ear for late night ideas.
To Linda — Ditto. :)
Most of all …
To my real life Prince Charming and family who, when others laughed, believed and pushed.
Chapter One
The swamp air sat heavy on her skin, as her water-soaked feet sank deep within the bog’s smelly muck. With each mud-laden step, Beth was certain she would lose one, if not both, of the fugly combat boots her brother had insisted she wear. She’d cursed him at the time, but was now more than grateful to have on the snake-proof boots. Whenever she found Robby’s ass and they got out of this godforsaken place, she’d kill him. No, scratch that. Skin him, then
kill him
.
Damn, but she should have listened to Kara and kept her butt at home rather than gone out traipsing through this mosquito-infested, hot as Hades swamp, trying to track down some elusive-ass bog monster. She’d ignored her best friend, listening instead to her whacked-out brother while her inner Nancy Drew leapt at the prospect of a mystery. Now she was wandering lost, in the swamp … at sunset, no less. She’d rather be at home getting ready for bed, and hopefully another night with her dream man. Her faceless hero, whom though she’d never seen, knew would play some important part in her life.
But no, color me stupid.
She’d let her brother talk her into it. She was hot and miserable as she slapped at yet another mosquito while silently cursing herself.
Irritable, she plucked at her sweat-soaked tee. She didn’t think she’d ever been so stanky in her whole life. A quick sniff to her pits served as confirmation. Good grief, surely the bog monster would hightail it in the opposite direction at the first ungodly whiff of her. So would any other living thing, she prayed, since darkness had fallen, and the night creatures had come out to play.
An owl hooted right when she began to step over a log and right as something tapped her thigh. Her scream hit octaves she hadn’t known she possessed as some fast-paced high kicking had her precariously perched atop the next closest log.
Shaking, it took her a few minutes of squinting through the darkness with only the aid of her fading flashlight before she realized her attacker was just a limb floating by. Whew. She’d feared a gator, or, worse, a slithery snake or lizard.
Beth glanced about, if not for being lost, she’d almost be relieved no one was around to see her right now. Right, like who the hell would see? She was in the middle of freaking nowhere and worried about someone seeing her acting like a big weenie and not the capable self-sufficient woman she was.
Shaking her head, she sat and tried to gather her bearings. Reaching behind her, she grabbed a wad of humid frizzy hair and attempted to plait the jet-black mess enough she’d be able to tuck the end inside the plait itself. The loose tendrils stuck to her back and face, driving her batshit crazy.
Okay, now think, Beth, think. You last saw Robby and his doofus buddies by the old shack. You then, like a dumb-ass, went searching for them heading east … so said shack should be around the bend, a little more west.
Certain of her whereabouts, she cautiously stepped off the log, noting the thick, lily-pad-covered water swirling to her right and said a quick prayer that whatever caused the swirl wasn’t deadly. The last snake she’d seen had her climbing a cypress tree faster than most of the raccoons she’d passed.
Maybe if she moved really fast? No, predators were attracted by quick movements. Fast might not be the best idea. Almost hypnotically, her gaze drew back to the swirling, as the water almost seemed to turn iridescent. She shone her flashlight more toward the center, whacking the dying metal thing on her palm a few times to no avail. Relief washed over her when she saw no evidence of red glowing eyes lurking nearby. The glow, a sure telltale sign of gators lying in wait.
Shit, why the hell hadn’t she paid more attention to those damn survival shows her brother always made her endure? What was the one show,
Man Against Wild?
Well, how about
City Brat Against Wild?
Wild would win, without a doubt.
She scanned the area again and prayed she had indeed headed in the right direction. If not, she faced a long, tedious, and frightening night.
Well, she sure as hell wasn’t getting to the cabin perched up on the damn stump. She wanted out of this godforsaken swamp with the humidity from hell. Not to mention getting away from the prehistoric-sized bugs swarming all around.
The water eerily stilled as the swamp sounds came to an abrupt halt. No screeching hoot owls, no more insanely loud chirps from crickets.
Nothing
. No movement or sound pierced the night. Complete and utter silence greeted her. The loss of the natural sounds terrified her more than anything else. Something had spooked the critters and bugs, and her gut screamed that whatever it was, with her luck, was so
not
a good something.
Time to go. She slid off the log and began wading toward the cabin — or, rather, she
hoped
toward the cabin.
She felt more than heard the water swirling about her calves and whipped around to search for its source. Her heart rate went into overdrive as her palms grew sweaty, making it harder and harder to retain her death grip on the flashlight.
Turning, she began taking cautious steps backwards toward the bend and the hopeful safety of the shanty she’d seen. Her beam was now so dim, the heavy-gauge metal was more weapon than light as she raised it over her head, aiming toward the swirls moving the deeper water to her right. In the midst of the strange whirlpools, the odd yet mesmerizing iridescence came back. Only this time it wasn’t
almost
glowing — it
was
glowing. The eerie, greenish blue spiraled about madly, only visible here and there as it peeked out between the many lily pads, obscuring her view.
Terror gripped her, anchoring her in place as headlights do a deer over the freaky happenings before her. Trembling, her mind screamed to turn and run, but her body refused to heed her mind’s clear warning. Her heart beat with such velocity she swore it would burst from her chest at any moment. She couldn’t even seem to will breath into her body, and her lungs grew heavy. Her breathing became no more than ragged gasps as she began to hyperventilate.
Her eyes widened as the active water began to become more centered. Fear froze her immobile. Though terrified, she continued to be drawn, almost as if in a trance, into its strange murky depths. Her vision zeroed on the brightest point amid the swirls, jaw gaping open as a form began to emerge.
The form of a man.
He rose from the murky depths like some type of Greek deity, Neptune perhaps. Her mouth grew dry as he continued his slow rise, inch by glorious inch. Terror receded as blatant curiosity arose. She tried to lick her parched lips as droplets of water ran down his wet, chiseled chest and continued running until they disappeared into the low-slung waistband of his pants. Pants which, luckily for her, were good and wet and plastered to his magnificent body, leaving little to the rest of her imagination. She nibbled her bottom lip, wanting to lick just one of those lucky, lush little droplets rolling down him.
One jerk of his head moved the long, dirty-blond hair enough to reveal the face of a god. Eyes so intensely green she swore they penetrated her soul. And shoulders, oh, so big, they would devour her if she were embraced within. Bronzed skin that had been kissed by many a sunray, abs that rippled right down his belly. Part of a beautiful tattoo was visible as it spread about his stomach in a unique pattern, seeming to come from his back.
She’d gone mad. She should be running in stark fear, yet here she stood watching a man emerge from the swamp and wondering about being wrapped safely in those huge arms. Her fingers itched to run them over every hard, muscled ridge, all the way down to …
Too much heat — yes, that explained everything. She’d passed out from heat stroke and this was some weird delusion.
One smoking hot sex delusion at that.
It had been quite a while since she’d been with anyone intimately.
Her vivid delusion began heading straight toward her, a severe look drawn on his face, almost hungry and predatory in nature.
Holy smokes, she thought, licking her lips at the sight. Again her eyes drew toward what lay just below those fabulous abs as hip bones sculpted the most perfect V shape she’d ever seen. Her imaginary man would have been better completely and utterly
naked;
however, her luck seemed to have run out in that department.
The delusion seemed to beckon her as it stretched out a hand and one long finger pointed at her and began motioning her toward him. All the iridescent colors coming from him and the water began blending with the night and foggy air, swirling faster and faster in a tornadic display of light and color. Her head swam with it all, until from the heat, shock and fear, she succumbed to the pull of oblivion, and sank welcomingly into it.
Beth Sloan awoke slowly and very groggily to her head bobbing and the knowledge she was upside down. The water seemed much too far away now for her current liking. She threw out a hand to brace herself enough to sit up, and when it contacted warm, hard, living flesh, her eyes flew open at once.
With no other choice, she gripped the rather large biceps her hands braced against and hauled herself into a partially lifted position to better view who the hell’s back she rode on. Her mind flittered to the hunky hallucination from earlier.
“Oh, shit.” The feel of warm, hard, male flesh slid beneath her palms as a musky, masculine scent flooded her senses, which meant one thing. Her delusion was real
.
“Who … who are you?”
she stuttered, craning her neck to discover an incredibly sexy backside. She glanced downward again, and had to admit, her former delusion owned a fantastic ass as well. Now, if she only knew who the owner of said ass was.
As if he’d read her thoughts, his steps faltered and he paused to set her before him. He turned a dark, dangerous gaze in her direction, and she fought the reflex to run knowing it wouldn’t do her any good anyway.
God, she’d never seen eyes quite that shade of green before. Almost swamp green, similar to jade, only much deeper, if such a thing were possible. And those lips. She just wanted to nibble her way up to them. Good grief, but another round of carnal lust surged at a mere glance from the smoking hot hulk of a man carting her off to where? Never Never Land? Maybe she was mentally surfing some Tarzan-type fantasy she hadn’t realized she’d harbored.