Tempt (Take It Off #3)(37)
Author: Cambria Hebert

“Monsters,” he said, pulling me up and hooking an arm around my waist. “We gotta go. We’ve been here too long.”

There wasn’t anything else I could do but let him lead me away. I knew I would never see this plane again. Maybe because we would make it home. Maybe because we wouldn’t. I really didn’t know.

But I did know the chances of us dying here were bigger than the chances of us leaving.

We hopped out of the plane, and he wrapped his arm around me again. “Let’s stay in the trees. They offer more coverage.”

We walked to where the mangos grew. Nash loaded some in his cargo pockets and I carried a few in my hands. I wished I wasn’t wearing this stupid dress. I needed pockets. Instead, I held up the hem like a basket and dropped in the fruit.

I could have sworn I caught Nash looking at my legs. But surely he wasn’t looking at something like that at a time like this.

Well, okay, he was a guy.

Once we gathered all we could carry, he glanced up toward the sky. “We need to find some sort of shelter or a place to hide. It’s going to get dark and they will have an advantage.”

“How?”

“Because they know this island. A lot better than we do. They’ll probably still search, even in the night.”

“Where will we go?” I frowned, searching my mind for a place we might have seen where we could hide.

“I have an idea,” he said, taking my hand and leading me back the way we came. We circled around a few times. We passed the same flowers several times. I knew we weren’t lost. He was making sure we weren’t being followed, that no one was watching.

Finally, we came close to the lagoon. Nash picked up a couple rocks and threw them one at a time into the water, each one of them making a distinct plopping sound.

After that, we stood, for what felt like days, and waited. We waited and we watched, nerves stirring inside me that someone was there, that the noise he made would draw out some dirty scoundrel with dreadlocks.

No one came. There were no sounds but the birds and wildlife. None of it ever paused or drew quiet. I took that as a positive sign. Surely, the wildlife would cease to make noise if danger were around.

Right?

Or was that just in movies?

When I got home, I was not only taking up running, but I was going to learn about survival—aka: how not to die.

“C’mon,” he said, leading us out of the protection of the foliage and over to the water. He pressed his finger to his lips and then slipped into the water quietly. He motioned for me to follow so I did, holding close the little bunch of mangos.

We moved slowly. It was hard to tread with only one arm, but I did it because losing our only food was not an option. The entire time we swam, I kept a constant watch on the edges of the water. Every sound, every echo in the air caused my heart to pound and my body to tighten.

If someone showed up now… we would be sitting ducks.

Nash did the same thing, swimming quietly with one arm, holding the pistol and the flare gun up out of the water.

Finally, we reached the waterfall and he went around to the very edge and slipped around it, hunching over the guns to keep them as dry as he could. I waited cautiously on the other side until I heard his whisper that all was safe.

I swam to the rock where Nash was already sitting. He reached into the water and yanked me up, draping my exhausted body over the slippery wet surface.

I dumped the fruit toward the back and stifled a cough, leaning up against the back of the little cove. Nash squeezed in beside me, placing the guns as far from the water as he could.

“Did they get wet?”

“Only a little. I think they’ll still work.”

“This is a good place to hide.”

“It keeps our backs safe. Now we only have to watch one direction, and the water makes a good shield and it will muffle any sounds we make.”

“Now what?” I asked him.

He handed me a mango. “We eat. We sleep and we wait for morning.”

“And then?”

“And then we hope the plane comes back. If it doesn’t, we’re going to have to figure out something else.”

“Like what?”

“Maybe we can make one of those boats work.”

“Maybe we could sneak onto the pirates’ boat and take that one.”

“Maybe,” he echoed.

We ate in silence. My body was starved, but I wasn’t hungry at all. Night fell, and inside the little cove seemed darker than any place I’d ever been. There was no light here at all because the moon and the stars had no way of getting in. I could barely see two feet in front of me except for the movement of the water, which sometimes looked a little silver in the dark.

With the darkness came the cold.

We were inside a dark, damp place that the sun never touched, so it never held any heat. The cold seemed to seep into my skin and go straight for my bones.

I tucked my hands between my thighs, squeezing them tightly together, and tried to keep them from shaking.

Nash reached for me in the dark, pulling me between his legs, pulling his in, tucking them around me. Then he wrapped his arms around my chest, literally wrapping himself around my body. He was warmer and the warmth made me moan a little.

He rested his chin on my shoulder and we sat there together just breathing.

My eyes began to grow heavy and every now and then, I would catch myself nodding off to sleep and I would jerk awake, trying not to give in to my body’s needs.

“Go to sleep, bella,” he murmured. “I’ll keep watch for a while.”

“You can’t stay awake all night.”

“Once I’m sure it’s safe, I’ll go to sleep too.”

“Don’t let go,” I whispered.

His grip tightened.

20

It was still dark when I woke up. I wasn’t sure what caused me to wake, but judging from the fact that my butt was completely asleep and felt like it was being stabbed by a thousand tiny needles, I figured it was because I sat too long in the same position. I was still sitting with Nash, but he was sprawled backward, leaning up against the rock, and one of his legs was under mine and we were sort of tangled up in each other.

But not in a sexual way.

In a your body will make you pay for this later way.

I slowly eased away from Nash and stood, stretching out my arms and back and trying not to grit my teeth against the sting in my rump.

My clothes were still damp and it wasn’t too comfortable, and my hair felt like a tangled mess. A day at the spa sounded like heaven right then.