Sea Haven 01 - Water Bound

if he anchored her in the same way the sea did.
    If you’re finished playing, come back to me.
    She could hear the pain in his voice, in his mind. Her heart stuttered in her chest and she pressed her palm tight against it. Lev, did you try to get up?
    I wasn’t going to leave you in danger.
    For her. He’d tried to get to her. He could barely stand for more than a couple of minutes, just what it took to get to the bathroom and back and even then he was dizzy. Each day had been a discovery of new bruises from the battering he’d taken, yet he’d tried to get to her.
    You’re not nearly the bad man you think you are.
    Come home and find out. He growled it at her, meant it to be a threat.
    She found herself smiling as she walked back to her truck. Maybe there was something to this telepathic nonsense after all. When he spoke out loud, she basically wanted to hit him over the head, but when he talked to her in her mind, she could sense his feelings. She didn’t pick up nuances of voices or read facial expressions like other people, but she didn’t have to when he projected his voice into her mind. He was there inside her and she knew the feeling behind the words.
    I’m coming. I hope you’re back in bed. I’m getting a little tired of picking you up off the floor.
    If you’d quit mopping it so much, it wouldn’t be so slippery.
    The amusement creeping into his voice made her happy. She knew laughter was even more foreign to him than it was to her, yet for some reason she couldn’t quite fathom, he found her funny. Most people thought her odd, but her strangeness not only didn’t bother him but he seemed to enjoy her company.
    You give me massages.
    She swung into the truck and slammed the door, frowning. I knew it! I knew the moment I let you into my head you’d be trying to go where you don’t belong. My thoughts are not for you to go eavesdropping on.
    You were thinking about me. Satisfaction purred in his voice.
    Well, think about me becoming very angry with you.
    I’d rather think about you giving me a massage.
    She choked on laughter. Doesn’t this way of talking make your head hurt? She had the beginnings of a headache.
    104

    I already have a headache. I can’t tell what’s making it worse or what isn’t. All I know for certain is, I want you back here safe in this house with me.
    She tried to block the rush she got from his words and the way he said them. It was impossible not to feel the heat spreading or the way her body responded to him, reaching out the way it did when she was near water.
    I’m on my way.
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Chapter 7
    “LEV, you need to listen to me.” Rikki glared at his back as he paced around her kitchen. “This is important information. A yacht sank off our coast the day I pulled you out of the water.” She watched carefully, but there was no reaction from him. “It’s a huge deal. They’ve got investigators and scientists swarming all over. Everyone is presumed dead.”
    When he continued prowling around opening all the cupboards, she sighed with exasperation. “Don’t you understand what this means? You had to have been on that yacht. It was just a short distance from where I was when it went down.”
    It had been three days since she’d gone to the village, and this was the first time Lev had been up for more than fifteen minutes. He’d actually showered, and although he’d had to lie down for a half hour, he was back up again and hungry, wanting an actual breakfast, not broth or peanut butter sandwiches. She’d run out of the soups Judith had bought for her, and she was feeling a little desperate, hoping to distract him from eating. And she hadn’t been out to sea in more than two weeks. It seemed like months and the effects of her last little visit to the bluff days ago had already worn off, leaving her agitated and distressed.
    Lev banged another cupboard closed and she glared at him, irritated.
    “Stop that. What in the world are you looking for?”
    “Food.”
    “There’s tons of food. Quit slamming the doors. You need to shut them quietly.” Or better yet, not touch them. “You’re leaving fingerprints all over them and I’ll have to spend hours polishing them.” She touched her throat.
    She’d been wearing turtleneck sweaters for freaking weeks to cover up the fingerprints he’d left on her throat. She didn’t mind tight heavy sweaters, but high necks bothered her because she tended to fall back into an old habit she had of hiding in them.