Chapter One
The usually smooth, golden sands
of Port Emerald Beach stirred with a certain fury, matched only
by the intense quaking of the palm trees above them.
Standing within the relative
safety of a crowded, noisy community center, Jillian Gregory
cringed as she stared out a wide bay window at the spectacle
that was her home.
The normally beautiful azure waves
that defined Port Emerald Bay seemed a furious tempest of wind
and water tonight. Even the seagulls seemed to cower in the face
of the rising storm sweeping through the area at a breakneck
pace.
Jill remained quiet and stoic in
the face of every city manager’s nightmare—a Florida tropical
storm that quickly closed the businesses and offices of Port
Emerald. What’s more, the storm had driven some residents into
the city’s community center, a casual recreation site that had
been transformed into a makeshift shelter.
Compelled to tend to her citizens
during this tumultuous time, Jill had surrendered a long-planned
vacation at a distant tropical haven.
It’s just as well.
She ran a weary hand through a disheveled crop of long-neglected
hair. “After planning a luxury cruise with my fiancé, he up and
runs off with our travel agent to enjoy the trip I helped fund.”
She shook her head and frowned. “When they dock in that exotic
island paradise, I hope they ‘drink the water’¾lots
of it. Even Miss Patty Perfect won’t look so hot as she guzzles
down an hourly ration of maximum strength laxative.”
“Jill!”
Looking sharply upward, Jill’s
eyes widened as they beheld the vision of her chronically
disapproving superior, Mayor Lydia Cone.
“Was I venting aloud again,
Mayor?” Jill raised her eyebrows.
Lydia nodded and patted Jill’s
shoulder. “In yet another attempt to curb your rampant angst,
I’m assigning you evening snack duty.” The petite redhead handed
Jillian a cardboard box overflowing with potato chips, cheese
snacks and chocolate bars. “Have fun.”
Smiling dryly, Jill turned to
distribute her evening’s supply of refreshments among the
refugees of Tropical Storm Blaine, the severe natural phenomenon
that, while thankfully sparing the lives and properties of Port
Emerald residents, had left many with minor flooding and without
electrical services.
While the storm no longer posed a
serious threat to the area and its people, Blaine’s strong winds
still painted a scary picture across Port Emerald Beach,
accented by flying sheets of sand and dirt. An unearthly blend
of ebony and azure tinged with a daunting hint of blood red
colored the angry skies.
Even so, nothing prepared Jill for
the sight that met her disbelieving gaze as she returned from
her evening chore.
Casting a casual glance out a
nearby window, she froze as her eyes beheld a jarring sight: the
fallen figure of a man lying alone on the beach, a tattered
blanket his only defense against the mercy of the battering
winds.
Mouth agape, Jill dropped the
cardboard box and ran from the building with quick, frantic
steps. Ignoring the warning cries of those behind her, she raced
across the beach toward the fallen man, the hard wind like an
unforgiving wall that blocked and slowed her every move.
When she finally reached him, Jill
fell to her knees and gathered his limp form into her desperate
arms. Startled by the power of nature, she gritted her teeth as
the raw violence of the incoming rain drove her sturdy body
backward.
Despite that, she maintained her
hold on the unconscious man, a tall, muscular being who felt
like an unyielding rock in her arms.
“Let’s go, big guy.” Jill cringed
as she struggled to drag his massive form back across the beach
toward a shelter that at this point seemed a distant
destination.
It was only as Jill approached the
open doorway of the shelter that she was able to inspect the
stranger in her arms, a young man whose sandy blond hair
extended in soaked luxury to his waist. His skin held the tint
of sunshine; his face was planed and perfectly sculpted. His
eyes remained unopened.
“Sam!” With a high-pitched
screech, Jill summoned the shelter’s resident medic. “We need
you!”
Nodding sharply, the unusually
solemn older man immediately claimed his new patient and carried
his body to a nearby cot in the shelter lobby. He administered
CPR as a nervous Jill said a silent prayer of hope.
For the next hour, she watched
with uncertainty as Sam revived and tended to the mysterious
visitor, apparently knocked unconscious by some errant debris.
When his eyes finally opened, the
man’s dark-eyed gaze immediately swept the room around him.
“Who?” His words escaped a pair of
full and sumptuous lips in even, honeyed tones. “Who is the
angel that saved me?”
Jill’s own eyes widened
substantially as she heard the stranger’s words. Then she
started laughing. Hard. “Me? An angel? Cha. Good one,” she
smirked.
Her laughter subsided as the man’s
ebony-eyed stare grew deeper and more luminous, reflecting his
apparent awe. Her fiancé certainly never regarded her with such
unbridled, uh, admiration? Yeah. That must be it.
“I’m Jill Gregory, city manager of
Port Emerald,” she greeted. The city manager who didn’t have
time to put on a shred of makeup this morning. Drat it.
The stranger looked at her with
what seemed to be unconcealed admiration, as though she were the
most beautiful woman in the world.
“You saved me.” He gifted her with
a soft gentle smile that was quite angelic.
“Hey!” Sam, now seated at a nearby
refreshment table, totally blew the mood. “Don’t forget me,
buddy. I didn’t particularly enjoy giving mouth-to-mouth to
another guy. Give me some credit here.”
The stranger nodded politely to
the smirking medic then returned his attentions to Jill.
“You are a brave woman.” Although
still strained, his deeply toned voice gained infinite strength
as he spoke. “I am in your debt.”
Shrugging, Jill took a seat beside
the reclining man and squeezed his masculine hand.
“It’s nothing,” she said.
She gasped as the man sat up
abruptly and planted his scrumptious lips on her cheek.
“To my people,” he said, “it’s
everything.”
Jill drew back, blinking.
“Your people?” She cocked her head
curiously. “Are you from a foreign country? If so, where is it,
and how do I get there? I want specific, turn-by-turn
instructions, mind you.”
The man guffawed outright.
“It’s not so far away.” The
handsome stranger extended his hand. “I’m Jaiden.”
