Sea Haven 01 - Water Bound

definitely running out.
    Lev walked back much more slowly to Rikki. She was drenched from the downpour, but she didn’t seem to notice or care. She walked the entire circle around her house twice, allowing the rain to distribute much more evenly, so the water had a chance to soak into the ground. The wide swath of blackened ground was now mud, a large moat circling her home.
    When she looked as if she might start a third time around, he dropped his arm around her shoulders. “It’s out, Rikki. Come back to the house.”
    She looked up at him, her eyes as drenched as her clothes, a dark pool of relief, of horror. “I didn’t start those fires, Lev—Levi. Someone killed my parents and Daniel. It wasn’t me and now I know for certain.”
    A small sob, somewhere between joy and sorrow escaped. “All these years of not knowing ...” She trailed off, her shoulders shaking.
    He simply lifted her, cradling her to his chest, striding back across the rain-soaked ground to the porch. Blythe had rushed back into the house and she emerged with a large, thick towel. He set Rikki on the porch and dried her off gently.
    “Of course it wasn’t you. We all told you that.”
    “I know.” She sounded a little shell-shocked. “But not for certain.
    There was this little part of me that still was afraid.”
    She went into his arms and he held her close. “You’re soaked, Rikki.
    Go take a warm shower.”
    “You’re wet too.”
    He kissed her forehead. “We’ll spare your sister this time. You know what happens when we shower together.” He pressed his body close so she could feel how aroused her performance with the rain had made him.
    Rikki tilted her head, a small smile breaking through. “You can have the towel.”
    He took it, more to cover up than to get dry. He watched her as she moved into the house. The fluid, easy step was gone and she walked a little awkwardly, as if, back on land, without the water, she was out of her world.
    “Did you know she could do that?” Blythe asked. “My cousins can do things, but that was pretty darned incredible.”
    He rubbed at his dripping hair. “She’s pretty darned incredible.”
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Chapter 17
    RIKKI returned, showered and warm in a soft pair of sweats, and snuggled down into her favorite chair beneath her weighted blanket. Clearly, she still was in a state of shock, although her color looked better.
    Blythe pushed a cup of coffee into her hands and picked up her teacup, looking at both of them with cool, steady eyes. “We have to call Jonas,” she announced into the silence.
    Rikki gasped, nearly spilled her coffee, and put down the cup, shaking her head. “No. No, Blythe. We can’t do that. You can’t do that. He’s the sheriff.” She began to twirl her fingers in agitation, rocking back and forth.
    Lev put a hand on her shoulder to calm her, but she continued to grow more agitated. He lifted his eyebrow at Blythe, warning her off. Rikki had been through enough. Pushing her any more would only cause her to retreat into herself, in his estimation.
    “Exactly,” Blythe said, ignoring Lev. She leaned toward Rikki.
    “Honey, not everyone with a badge won’t listen. I’ve known Jonas since he was a boy, and he’s a good man.”
    Rikki bit her lip. “I know that he thinks I started those fires, Blythe. I can see it when he looks at me.”
    “We have proof that you didn’t,” Blythe said calmly.
    “I know he thinks I did,” Rikki insisted, “and I don’t want him here. I don’t trust him.”
    “None of us has ever discussed your past with anyone,” Blythe said.
    “He has no reason to think that. He has no reason to know anything at all about you.”
    Rikki turned dark, haunted eyes on her. “Jonas is the kind of man who would investigate anyone who came near his family. And you’re family to him whether you like to think so or not. He’s looked into my background and all of our other sisters.”
    Blythe sighed. “That may be true, but it doesn’t negate the fact that he won’t automatically think you’re guilty because investigators speculated that you were. And now we have irrefutable proof that you’re not guilty.”
    251

    Rikki continued to rock, her fingers twirling in her lap. Her eyes went a little wild, her gaze darting around the room as if looking for an escape. She kept shaking her head. “I don’t want him here, Blythe. I can’t have him here looking at me like he does.”
    Lev crouched down in front of her, putting his