Free Dangerous Love by Teresa Ashby Page B

coming… steady… that’s it. There.”
    He reached up and guided her foot into a dip.
    “Now the other one. Slowly, honey, relax. You’re doing fine.”
    It went perfectly well until her foot slipped and she began to slide. Her knees scraped painfully against the rock and she landed back against Bram, pushing him away from the cliff face and sending them both into a fall.
    She screamed, but it was cut abruptly short.
    They’d only fallen a few feet and she’d landed on top of him, luckily on the sand.
    “Are you all right?” she cried, struggling to get off him. “Did I squash you?”
    “No,” Bram groaned. “It’s my chest. I think you crushed my ribs. I can’t breathe…”
    “Oh, Bram,” she knelt down beside him. “I’m so sorry. I knew I shouldn’t have let you discharge yourself. You’re obviously not fit and now…”
    He began to shake. It took a moment to realise he was laughing. He propped himself up on his elbows and grinned at her.
    “I think you broke my heart, Nurse.”
    “Oh! What? You!” She scrambled to her feet and kicked him in the thigh with her bare foot, which was sore as well as freezing cold, then she wrenched off his jacket and flung it at him.
    She’d forgotten this side of him. The teasing; the way he could wind her up so easily. She’d completely buried the fun and laughter they used to have and had chosen to just remember the serious, determined Bram Fletcher that had scared her to death every time he went out on a shout.
    It had been like a dark cloud over their relationship, shadowing everything they did. Always there at the back of her mind. What if he gets called out on a shout? What if he doesn’t come back? He’d told her she had too much imagination.
    “Regan… wait…”
    “This is not funny,” she said. “We’re meant to be looking for Jay, not all this stupid messing about.”
    He grabbed her arm and swung her back round. His face was deadly serious, his expression as dark as she’d ever seen it.
    “Don’t for one minute think I don’t realise how serious this is,” he said, his voice gravelly. “I want to find that kid safe and well as much as you do.”
    “I know,” she whispered.
    She turned away from him and started to stamp across the rocks, not taking such care as before, then she remembered Georgie’s shoe and turned to sweep it up from the sand where Bram had dropped it.
    Her knees were raw and bleeding, her fingers likewise and as she spun away from him again she caught sight of a little pile of rags standing proud of the outgoing tide. Just a dark heap.
    “Oh, my God,” she whispered. “Oh no… Jay…”
    She ran out. There weren’t so many rocks, but more tiny stones, more areas of sinky mud and more slippery clay flats and she had to fight to keep her balance. All the time she ran, she prayed this was just what it looked like, a heap of old clothes. She was aware of feet slapping on the mud behind her and as she reached the pathetic little mound, Bram was beside her, both of them breathing hard.
    “Oh no,” Bram muttered.
    Jay was a scruffy little boy, smaller and skinnier than the other kids in the class. His hair was too long, always untidy and his clothes were literally coming apart at the seams in some cases. He’d go off to school in the mornings looking neat and smart, but by the end of the day he looked as if he’d been dragged through a hedge. He had the cheekiest little grin and the most sparkly eyes.
    “Oh, Jay,” she sobbed and bit on the back of her hand, tasting salt and blood. His black hair was matted with sand and blood and God only knew how many bones he’d broken when he’d fallen to the rocks and she could only hope he wasn’t conscious when it happened.
    She brushed his hair back from his face. He was so cold. She couldn’t let this happen. She turned him onto his back and prepared to perform CPR, but Bram reached out and stopped her.
    “It’s much too late, Regan. He’s been dead for