DEAD IN BED By Bailey Simms: The Complete Second Book

PART 13, SECTION 9

I swam to toward the shore as fast as I could in my clothes. When I was finally able to put my feet down, I slogged toward Ian through the thick river mud at a painfully slow pace.

Finally, I reached him and dragged his heavy weight part way up the bank, just enough to bring his nose and mouth above the water's surface.

He wasn't breathing.

I pounded on his back.

Water trickled from his mouth.

I pounded again, harder.

Finally, fluid gushed out of his lungs like a burst water balloon.

I turned him over. I drew in a huge breath, filling my lungs with all the air I could manage. I pinched his nose, placed my lips against his, and exhaled as hard as I could. His chest rose beneath my arms. But as soon as I took my lips away, his lungs deflated. His eyes, as vacant as Jason's had been, stared blankly up into the starry sky.

I don't know how many times I brought my lips to Ian's and forced my small lungfuls of air into his.

Each time, a jackhammer chipped away at my heart until there was practically nothing left of it. I couldn't fathom losing Ian. I simply couldn't conceptualize what something of that magnitude could possibly mean. No matter that Ian and I couldn't have a future, and even though I wasn't even really sure what kind of past we shared, he was more a part of me than anyone else in the world.

He still wasn't breathing.

I would have to somehow say goodbye.

With my lips pressed firmly to his, I poured out one last fierce exhalation into his lungs.

His eyes suddenly focused.

They met mine, and held my gaze.

He was alive. He was alive!

His lips, still pressed against my own, formed a steady smile.

I pulled away.

Ian reached up and gently held my cheek with his muddy hand.

"Did you just save my life?" He whispered.

While his conscious awareness fell back into place, his eyes never wavered from mine, and he never once stopped smiling at me with his unique, irreplaceable grin.

"Ash." He repeated, "Did you just save my life?"

I smiled back at him. I shrugged.

"It's a long story," I said, grabbing his hand and helping him to his feet. "If you're lucky, I'll tell you all about it someday. You just gotta promise to stick around from now on."

Before returning to the park, Ian and I took turns showering in the camper trailer's tiny shower.

While he waited for me to finish bathing, Ian even took the time, at last, to shave his beard and cut his hair. He did an amazingly good job with just the razor and travel scissors and he'd found in the drawer. I couldn't believe it. I'd stepped out of the tiny shower, wrapped in a towel, and it was like the old Ian was sitting there grinning at me. That's not to say that he wasn't still weathered around the eyes, his cheekbones slightly more chiseled, and a little leaner. If anything, though, he was even more attractive than he'd ever been.

Even after the horrors of what had just happened with Jason, there wasn't anything I could do not to imagine Ian's limbs entwined among mine. I cleared my throat awkwardly and shoved the camper curtain closed so I could put on fresh clothes while he showered.

That's when I remembered.

Just before Jason had hit Ian with the oar, Ian had said that he'd needed to tell me something. He'd come all the way to the bend in the river, in fact, just to talk to me alone. What had he been planning to say?

I was dying to know.

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