Free Marooned with the Rock Star (A Crazily Sensual Rock Star Romance, with Humor) by Dawn Steele

around on a slippery deck like this? The whole
ship is quaking and listing from one side to the other, and I feel
like I’m stuck in a ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ reel.
    “Rebecca!”
    I dash after her, but I think I have lost
her in the dark now. I step over a pile of rope and almost trip
myself up. A particularly furious gust of wind howls on the
surface.
    I hear a scream all the way towards the
railing.
    “Rebecca!”
    I blink against the rain and wind. I rush to
the railing. I can make out a flailing figure in the dark churning
waters.
    “Rebecca!”
    Another scream tears from the figure. At
this rate, she will drown or be crushed under the ship’s
propellers!
    Frantic, I scan my immediate environs for a
lifebuoy. There are a couple of buoys tethered to a triangular stop
in the railing. I quickly pull them from the railing and fling them
into the sea.
    “Rebecca! I just threw a buoy!”
    I doubt she heard me.
    Shit. I’ve got to do something.
    Without stopping to think too deeply about
this, I wrench my shoes and socks off, as well as Manny’s dinner
jacket. Then I clamber over the railing and dive into the furiously
churning waters.
    Oh shit.
    I forgot I can’t swim.

KURT
     
    I bob in the water, gasping for breath and
flailing with my hands.
    “Rebecca!” I try to cry out, but water
rushes into my mouth.
    Waves crash into my face, sending salty
water into my mouth and nostrils. Every time I try to gulp for more
air, water slams into my face.
    And then something else.
    The lifebuoy lifts on the crest of the waves
and delivers itself to me in what can only be described as an act
of God. My cold and wet hands cling on to it and I hook two
grateful arms around its ring.
    “Rebecca!”
    Both my stomach and lungs are sloshing with
seawater. Why is the sea so damned choppy? (Oh right, there’s a
storm.) I can’t see where she is in the dark and the only light we
have – from the ship – is getting dimmer and dimmer.
    I swing my head to the ship. Alas! It’s
moving away from us, oblivious to our plight.
    “Hey!” I call after it. “Don’t leave
us!”
    But the waves are sweeping us from it and
the ship’s engine and turbines are determinedly going against the
current.
    Rebecca!
    I swing my head wildly again to look for
her. There she is! Clinging to the lifebuoy I threw her. She seems
to be coping better than me, it appears. Maybe she can actually
swim.
    “Kurt?” she cries.
    “Rebecca, I’m here!”
    I don’t know how to swim properly, but I can
actually paddle with my legs on a lifebuoy. I kick my legs to
propel my body in her direction, and she seems to be doing the
same. Her hair is plastered over her face, and occasionally, her
form is lit up by lightning.
    Strange that we are unable to hear the
thunder for the roaring of blood and water in our ears.
    “Rebecca, are you all right?” I say as I
come closer.
    We finally come close enough for me to reach
my hand out and hook my right wrist around her buoy. Our clammy
skins brush against each other’s. There is so much water splashing
around that we can hardly make each other out.
    “Just tide this over, OK?” I say to her.
    Breathless, she nods. Our hands clasp each
other’s between our bobbing buoys. Thank goodness we are in the
tropics. The water could be a lot colder than it really is.
    Not having the energy to do or say anything
more besides cling to our buoys and to each other, we let the waves
carry us to wherever they are going.
    Which might be nowhere.

KURT
     
    Blackness.
    My dreams are filled with seawater. There’s
water, water everywhere. Water in my eyes, water in my ears, water
in my soaked pants which are weighing my down, water in my mouth,
and water in every other orifice that I have.
    Fuck.
    I don’t think I’ll ever have a bath for the
rest of my life.

REBECCA
     
    I open my eyes and see the clear blue
sky.
    That is the first thing I see.
    A bird wheels against this sky, its black
silhouette stark against the pale