Free Breaker's Passion by Julie Cannon

shorts and bikinis filled the racks. Boxes of flip-flops were stacked neatly by the dressing rooms, and Oakley sunglasses flanked the cash register. She was comfortable here. Having grown up in the water with a board tether practically glued around her ankle, this was where she felt most alive.
    The place she had called home before she returned to the island was very different. Cold, sterile, bright lights adorned the rooms. Blips and beeps systematically indicating life and death, hurried voices speaking in hushed tones filled her ears. What she had now had replaced all that.
    In the beginning the silence in her apartment was nerve-racking, almost overwhelming. She kept a radio on continually, tuned to the island’s only talk station to give her the illusion of having other people around. She waxed boards to the chatter of the afternoon hosts and tallied the day’s sales with the night crew. More often than not she fell asleep to the overnight show. Once she hired Simi, she was able to escape the manufactured ambience and relish the reassuring sound of the ocean.
    Locking the door behind her, she headed toward the beach. An early morning swim always cleared her head and often erased her nightmares. She hoped this morning would be the same.
    As she pulled into the deserted parking lot, she forced herself not to look in the direction of the Carlyle. She kept her back to the sprawling resort as she donned her wet suit. She didn’t want to give in to the temptation to search for Elizabeth in one of the lighted windows. She had no idea where her room was and to look would be ridiculous.
    Dawn was just peeking over the horizon when she slid into the water as silently as an eel. She was a strong swimmer, even stronger since returning, but she remained cautious. Stroke after stroke took her farther from shore. The tides weren’t terribly strong this time of the day, but once she had got caught in a riptide that scared the shit out of her. When she was no more than fifty yards from shore she shifted her stroke and started swimming parallel to the beach. Judging from the lights of the resorts along the beach, Elizabeth’s was far behind her. She finally relaxed and swam for another half hour, then turned in the direction she had just come. The sun was fully above the waterline when she stepped out of the surf.
    Elizabeth couldn’t believe it. Of all the minutes in the morning she could walk outside, she chose the exact moment Colby emerged from the ocean. She froze, her coffee cup not quite to her lips. The sight of Colby uncoiling her body, rising from the water like a sea goddess, took her breath. The world stopped. No waves crashing to the shore, no birds welcoming the morning, no low hum of the world around her. Her vision blurred for an instant before she focused on Colby. She saw nothing else.
    Colby shook her head like Elizabeth had seen her do every time she came out of the water. She flung water from her short locks in every direction before she smoothed the dark hair away from her face. The wet suit was like a second skin, leaving very little to Elizabeth’s imagination. She had seen Colby in much less, but the form-fitting blue neoprene covering her from neck to ankle was the sexiest thing she had ever witnessed.
    She continued to stare, unmoving, as Colby strolled across the sand in the opposite direction. She felt every beat of her heart as her blood raced through her veins. She heard every molecule of breath enter and exit her lungs. Her knees grew weak and she was suddenly dizzy. Her fingers tingled and her hands shook so bad her coffee dribbled over the rim of the almost-full cup. Her nervous system was on overload.
    It wasn’t until Colby was completely out of sight that she finally pulled herself together. What in the hell was wrong with her? It wasn’t as if she had never seen a stunningly beautiful woman. But even with the one woman in her past she compared all other lovers to, she hadn’t felt this level