Illusion (Swept Away #1)(15)
Author: J.S. Cooper

“Bianca, as impressed as I am by your knowledge of movies, I’m afraid I have more pressing concerns on my mind.” His voice sounded superior as he cut me off, and I stuck my tongue out at the sea. “For the record, I don’t think there are cameras watching us.”

“For the record, neither do I. And yes, I do know a lot about movies. I know a lot because I’m a movie critic.” Okay, so maybe I wasn’t exactly a critic. All I really did was watch a lot of free movies and write synopses, but I wasn’t about to admit that.

“Oh?” He sounded impressed for a second. “For the New York Times?”

“No.” I muttered. “They aren’t the only newspaper that reviews movies.”

“Okay,” I could tell that he was trying to be patient with me. “Let’s try to focus on the matter at hand right now and we can talk about movies once we’re out of these ropes.” I could feel my face burning at his words. He was such an arrogant jerk. “Let’s try to stand up.” He continued.

“And go where?”

“We need to walk and see if we can find a rock.”

“I already told you that all I can see is sand and water.”

“And?”

“And so that means I’m not seeing any rocks.”

“Well, if we keep sitting on our fat asses, we’re not going to see anything.”

“Are you calling me fat?”

“Oh my God, you’re not going to be that girl.”

“What girl?”

“Lean back against me and let’s slowly try to stand up.”

“What girl?”

“Bianca,” he groaned. “Please, let’s just try to stand up.”

“You’re not all that yourself, you know,” I blurted out, and he laughed.

“One, two, three.” He leaned back into me and struggled to stand up. “You have to attempt to stand as well.”

“You didn’t say ‘go.’ ”

“What?”

“You didn’t say ‘one, two, three, go.’ ”

“Are you joking?” He sounded exasperated, and I grinned. Take that, Jakob. You’re not the only one who can be difficult.

“Do it like this: One, two, three, go.” I leaned back into him and tried to stand up. At first, I thought we weren’t going to make it, but then he pressed his back against mine, hard and still.

“Lean back into me. Let me act as your support. Trust me, Bianca. You need to trust me.” His voice was gentle. “That’s it. Press your weight against me. Don’t try to balance on your own two feet.”

“If I wasn’t a klutz, I’d take offense to that statement,” I responded as I pressed against him again and shimmied up.

There was a point where I thought I was going to fall right back down, but Jakob seemed to sense it, because he shifted his position to support more of my weight.

“I did it!” I was exuberant as I stood on my two feet. For a couple of minutes, I forgot that I was suspicious of him.

“Yes, we did.” His voice was full of humor, and I smiled reluctantly. “Good job.”

“Thanks,” I said. “Yes, we did.”

“It’s okay. It’s amazing how much help I can be in a pinch.” Then he started moving. “Come on. Let’s see what we can find.”

I was silent as we hobbled down the beach. I turned slightly so that I could see what was on the other side, and my stomach dropped. There was nothing but jungle behind us.

“So do you think this is a deserted island, or are we at the edge of some primitive country?” I asked softly as I took in the lushness behind me.

It was beautiful, really scenic, and I knew that if I’d been looking at a photo of the setting, I would have been impressed. I might even have made a comment about wishing I could visit. Now that I was here, though, there was no place I’d rather not be.

“I have no idea.” He shook his head, and his ass rubbed against my back. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine.”

“So we have two options,” he said, and stopped walking. “We can venture into the bush and see what we find there, or we can go into the ocean.”

“You think we should drown ourselves?” My voice was loud with shock.“No.” He paused. “There may be rocks on the ocean floor.”

“Oh.” I stared at the ocean and nodded. “That’s true. I didn’t think about that. I should have though. The last time I went to the beach, I cut my big toe on a rock. I was so scared, because it started bleeding, and I was scared that a shark would smell the blood and come after me . . .” My voice trailed off as I realized that I was babbling. It was another negative trait of mine—oversharing when nervous. I felt my lips twitching in fear as I thought about how little I really knew about Jakob. This was not the time to let down my guard.

“So, Jakob,” I asked hesitantly. “You seem like you have a lot of knowledge on how to get out of ropes.”

“Yeah, I play with them a lot.”

“You play with ropes?”

“It can be fun.” His voice dropped. “Sexy even. The texture makes for a good way to—”

“I’m not asking about your sex life.”

“We learned a lot about ropes when I was in the Scouts and when I took sailing lessons.” He continued as if I hadn’t just embarrassed myself by bringing up sex. “Though, I’d be down to experiment with them in the bedroom.”

My body reacted involuntarily to his comment. I think the combination of the sun, dehydration, hunger, and closeness was getting to me. My legs trembled as we stood there pressed against each other. I didn’t bother responding to him. I had nothing to say, and I was scared that I’d say something too flirty. I didn’t want to flirt with this man. I didn’t even know who he was. I didn’t know why we were here together. I knew that while my guard was partially down, I couldn’t let it down all the way, not until I’d gotten to the bottom of why we were both here.

“So, yeah,” he continued. “We can either try the ocean or we can see what awaits us in the bush. I’m pretty sure I’m seeing some coconut trees. They have sharp husks that fall off all the time. We can try cutting the rope that way.”

“I don’t know.” I shivered as I stared at the deep, dark trees. “What if there’s something in there?”