Lost Wishes Read Online Free

have no intention of taking her back to shore or giving her the deed to Aunt Lulu’s house. Can’t. Aunt Lulu was very specific about the conditions. Shelby’s going to be pissed about it too, but I promised. And, hell, I’ve broken a few of them already, but this one, I intend to keep.
    I swim around for a few minutes, letting the frigid ocean cure my hangover. It gives my body something else to concentrate on—something besides the woman in my cabin, the throb in my head, and the hard-on that didn’t go away after my morning piss. When the sunlight doesn’t hurt my eyes so much and the shit in my stomach doesn’t feel like it’s going to spew out of my mouth, I wade over to the ladder and pull myself up from the water.
    Stowaway is up. Sitting on the bench, she’s found my raft and is trying to blow it up. Lips pursed around the thing, cheeks puffed out, she sees me. Her crystal blue eyes go wide. Man, those eyes are beautiful—fitting for an angel.
    I flick the wet long strands of hair from my face.
    Watching me, her lips pull from the raft as she sucks in some air and then blows. She does it a few more times, her steady eyes following me as I approach her. Gotta hand it to her, she’s determined. She’s getting off this boat any way she can.
    “There’s a pump under that seat.” I point, stopping a few feet from her.
    She looks at me for a second then gets up and lifts the seat. She pulls the pump out, inspecting it.
    “You pump it with your foot,” I tell her.
    “Thanks.” She glances at me with a tight-lip fuck you and sits back down. “Got any paddles to go with this raft,” she asks, brow high and rounded. Fuck, she’s serious.
    “What are you gonna do? Paddle your way back to California?”
    “If I have to.” She squints up at me. “Yes.” Staring into her resolute eyes, I believe her. I smile, and the idle muscles in my cheeks, weak and heavy, not accustomed to the gesture, feel weird. “That is unless you’re going to take me back,” she says.
    “Can’t.” I push my fingers through my hair, a small part of me having a quick remorseful conscience. “I need to get to Avalon.”
    Her eyes slowly move to my neck, my chest, and then back up.  And all the places those captivating eyes touch wash away the chill from the ocean. My skin warms and heat flourishes through me. My dick jumps an inch. Luckily, when it presses against my cold, wet boxers, it pulls back.
    “Okay.” She gives me another fuck-you grin as she starts to take the pump out of the box.
    All right, I half-expected a heel-stompin’ tantrum, some screaming and harsh words. But this, I wasn’t prepared for this. Usually, when someone finds themselves in a predicament that they want out of, they’ll wager, argue, and plead. Not this chick. She accepts and moves on. I take a harder look at her.
    Hair short, just at the shoulders, long strands hanging over an oval face. Nose small, cheeks rosy, and chin stubborn. Just as with her eyes, in her own unique way she’s beautiful. It could also have something to do with her determination; that shit is sexy as hell.
    She drops the pump on the floor of the boat, puts her foot on it, and starts to pump. “Well,” her head lifts and the strands slide back from her stoic face, “are you just going to stand there and watch me?” Her eyebrow arches. “Thought you had somewhere to be?”
    The muscles in my cheek get another workout, the corner of my mouth tugs trying to form a smile. “Yeah,” I chuckle. She’s damn sexy.
    I turn and head down below to put on some jeans. The entire cabin smells of her musky, feminine aroma. It has me changing and guzzling down a bottle of water in a few seconds flat so I can get away from it. That or I’m in a hurry to get back to her. Nah, I give my head a shake at the notion. Like all other emotions, anticipation flew the coop years ago.
    When I get back up on the deck, my eyes snap from the half-filled raft to flesh—creamy, soft-looking