Illusion (Swept Away #1)(25)
Author: J.S. Cooper

“So you’re saying that appearances can be deceiving?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” His eyes narrowed as he stared at me, and his expression changed. “All that glitters is not gold.”

I looked away then and concentrated on eating my banana. I gobbled it down greedily, eager to have some food in my stomach. I quickly peeled a second banana and starting eating it just as voraciously.

“Don’t eat a third one.” Jakob grabbed the rest of the bananas from my hand. “You’ve had enough for sustenance. If you have any more, you’ll become thirstier.”

“I’m still hungry.” I stared at the bananas in his hand.

“No more. Not now.” He shook his head, and I wondered if I had enough energy to push him down and grab the bananas back from him. “Don’t even think about it.” His eyes narrowed, and he took a step toward me. “I’d have you pinned to the ground in five seconds flat, and I wouldn’t care if I winded you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I took a step back from him, my face flushing at the thought of him holding me down.

“I’m very strong, Bianca.” His lips curled up as he leaned forward to whisper in my ear. “And I wouldn’t be averse to getting you underneath me.”

“Well, I’d be very averse to that.”

“Are you ready to go looking for water?”

He took a step back, and I noticed that his hands were clenched into fists. That wasn’t a good sign. His body language had me off-kilter. I couldn’t figure him out at all. Was he friend or foe?

“Shh.” He turned around, his eyes wide and his nostrils flaring. His hands reached out to me, and his fingers gripped my shoulders. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” I whispered, and tried to listen carefully. All I could hear was the sound of the waves in the ocean and a few distant birds. Jakob’s body was tense as he stood next to me, and he closed his eyes.

“There’s someone else here.” His eyes opened again, and I could see anger and an emotion close to fear in his irises.

“What do you mean?”

“There’s someone else on the island with us.” He let go of my shoulders and looked around hurriedly. “There shouldn’t be anyone else here.” He shook his head as he paced up and down.

“Are you sure?” I walked over to him, my heart beating fast. “I don’t hear anything.”

“I’m sure.” He nodded. “Close your eyes and listen carefully.”

I closed my eyes and listened. At first, all I could hear was the sound of my own heart beating rapidly. Then I could hear Jakob breathing next to me. Then I smelled him. Masculine, virile, sweaty. I ignored the smell and tried to focus. It was then that I heard the sound of an insect I’d never heard before. It sounded like a very low buzzing. I tried to concentrate harder. I could hear the birds whistling and chirping. Wait. I froze. The birds were chirping, but someone else was whistling. That wasn’t a bird. My eyes flew open and darted to Jakob’s.

He was staring directly at me, his nose a mere couple of inches from mine. “We’re not alone.”

I swallowed hard then. My fingers reached for him of their own volition and I held on to his arms. He moved in closer to me, took me into his arms, and rubbed my back. His chest was warm and comforting. All of a sudden, he didn’t seem like the enemy. I’d seen the look in his eyes. He’d been as taken aback as I had. There was someone else on the island with us. And neither of us knew who—or why.

“What are you doing?” I reached for his arm as he pulled away from me.

“We need to go see who’s here with us.”

“Shouldn’t we hide and wait to see who comes to us?”

“Cowards wait to defend. The brave know the fight is won on the offensive.”

“Huh?” I stared at him blankly. “Were you in the military?”

“No.” he shook his head. “Have you heard of The Art of War?”

I shook my head. “No, what’s that?”

“It’s a book. It was written by Sun Tzu. He was a military general and a Chinese philosopher. A great philosopher. Sun Tzu said, ‘If ignorant of both your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril.’ ”

“We don’t know if the person is our enemy.”

“We don’t know that they aren’t.”

“What shall we do?”

“Come.” He grabbed my hand and then stopped me still. “You have to trust me, Bianca. We’re going to have to pretend that we know each other, do you hear me? We can’t let anyone know that we are strangers as well. That will make us weak and easier to take down.”

“But we don’t know each other.” My eyes widened at the urgency in his voice. “I don’t know you,” I whispered.

“We cannot show any division.” His fingers squeezed me tighter. “It will be easier to take down two enemies than two friends.”

“Sun Tzu again?”

“No, that’s just me.” He grinned weakly, and I watched his face transform as his eyes lit up for a brief second. He looked like a completely different man when he wasn’t all intense.

“I see.”

“And my answer is yes, by the way,” he whispered as he let go of me.

“Your answer to what?”

“Your unspoken question last night.” He stretched and stood tall, his shoulders back and strong. “I could kill someone if I had to.” He looked at me, his eyes dark again. “There are many things I could do if my life and the truth depended on it. I need you to promise me one thing, Bianca.”

“What’s that?”

“We need to talk later. You need to tell me everything that you know about why we’re here.” He leaned forward and whispered in my ear. “It might be the only chance we have at survival.”

And then he walked away toward the jungle.

I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to follow him. Part of me wondered if I was following him to my death. How did I really know that there was someone else in the jungle? All I’d heard were a few whistles. Maybe it was a bird after all. Maybe it was a parrot? Parrots were supposed to be able to mimic human sounds. I stood there frozen, not sure what to do. However, time doesn’t always wait for us to make a decision. My decision was made for me when I saw Jakob freeze. I looked at his hands and watched as they tightened into fists. I took a couple of steps back in fear. This was it, then. We were about to find out who was on the island with us.