The sun was starting to set. I held the bag of jewels close to my chest as I walked through the jungle towards the stables.
“Mike?” I whispered. “Mike?”
I knocked open the door, but only the big, dark eyes of several horses looked up at me. Disappointed that he wasn’t there, I sneaked through the jungle and made my way to Johnny’s trailer. I knew it was a long shot that he’d be there, considering he was still in character, but it was worth a try. It must have certainly been cooler in there than inside the stuffy stables.
There were three trailers in a row, all of them with their lights off.
Keeping close to the trees, in the shadows, I walked towards the trailer on the left — Johnny’s trailer. I tried the door, but it was locked.
Sighing in frustration, I made my way back through the jungle towards the hotel. The sun had set in those twenty minutes, and it was so dark I could barely find my way. As I walked, I held the bag of jewels tight in one hand with the other outstretched in front of me. The crunching of leaves and rustling footsteps caught my ear. I perked up to listen.
I froze in place.
“Hello?” I asked in barely a whisper, not sure if I should be speaking at all.
Why didn’t I bring a flashlight?
The dark settled in fast. I looked behind me but my eyes needed time to adjust to the lack of light.
Whatever — whoever — was out there could see me. The thought sent a shiver down my spine.
“Who is it?” I asked, louder this time. Fear was starting to pump through my veins. I wasn’t sure what wild animals were indigenous to Bora Bora, but I didn’t want to hang around long enough to find out.
Stepping backwards, I lost my footing and the earth beneath me gave way. I shrieked as my body dropped several feet. Holding tightly onto the jewels with one hand, I put my other hand out, grabbing a fistful of grass. My fingertips reached and grasped, desperate for a grip, but the mud was slippery and I was slowly inching my way down. I wasn’t sure how deep the ditch was and I wasn’t curious to find out. If I fell, nobody would find me until the morning (if I was lucky). Panic set in and my breathing increased. I reached my hand out trying for a better grasp, but the more I tried, the more I sunk deeper.
This was exactly what I was afraid of. This was exactly what I told Whitney I was afraid of: the consequences of being adventurous.
Why did I ever listen to her?
If I wasn’t dangling off the side of the jungle right now, I’d kick myself. My fingers were cramping up and I was ready to let go, but a noise startled me, causing me to grip tighter. I wasn’t sure if it was a human up above ready to help me, or an animal down below, waiting for me to fall.
My heart raced in my chest and just as my fingertips were about to give up, someone grabbed my hand, pulling me up with an incredible amount of strength. My feet were on the ground again and I finally felt like I could breathe. I looked up and saw Mike Shadow’s hat silhouetted in the moonlight.
My heart raced in my chest. What the hell just happened? Did Mike Shadow really just save me?
“Madison,” he said, putting his arms on my shoulders. His soft, caring voice put my nerves at ease. But that voice was not at all like Mike Shadow’s. That voice was Johnny’s.
For some reason, the fact that he broke character made me feel simultaneously sad but comforted. I didn’t want him to go against his nature just for me.
“Mike Shadow,” I said. “You saved me.”
I braced against him, pulling myself away from the edge. In the moonlight I saw a smirk cross his face.
“What kind of trouble did you get yourself into?” Mike Shadow’s rough, deep voice caused an entirely new sensation of excitement to pump through me.
Mike peered over the edge.
“Sinkhole,” he said. “The rain, the mud, the humidity. They all caused the earth to give way.” He inspected the hole. How he could see in the dark, I wasn’t sure. “The drop has gotta be at least thirty feet deep.”
I shivered at the thought of falling that far down.
“Do you think it might have been a trap?” He asked.
“Perhaps. Do you think your nemesis is smart enough to take advantage of local climate to trap you?”
“Absolutely,” Mike Shadow said. “Never underestimate an enemy’s intelligence. To do so only diminishes your own.”
His words sent a thrill through me. I had flashbacks to my teenage years when I used to watch the Mike Shadow movies over and over. I couldn’t help but run my hands over his strong arms and shoulders. Mike slipped his hands around my waist.
“Now where were we yesterday?” He asked as his lips moved closer to mine. “Ah yes, here we were.” His lips were barely touching mine when I felt the earth moving beneath our feet again.
“Not again,” I said.
“Hold on!” Mike Shadow tightened his grip around my waist as we both slipped over the edge of the sinkhole once again. With his free hand Mike pulled out a rope that hung on his belt and swung it towards the nearby trees. The rope wrapped around the trees and pulled taut. This all happened so quick that we barely fell more than a couple of feet.
My heart beat wildly in my chest and I wasn’t sure it was because we were hanging off the side of the sinkhole, or because Mike Shadow’s arm was holding me tight against his strong body. I breathed in his delectable jungle scent.
“Hold tight!” He didn’t have to tell me twice. I grabbed on tight to his body. The rope began to rip.
“We’re too heavy!”
“Climb up the rope,” he said.
“What?”
“I’ll stay here while you guide yourself back towards the landing.”
“I’m not going to leave you here.”
“Serena, you must go!”
For some reason, as he said my fake spy name, I felt powerful and invincible, like a character in one of the movies. Without thinking twice, I guided myself up the rope. Adrenaline coursed through my body, melting away all my fear as I made my way onto the land.
Mike swung out of sight. He was holding on, but slowly sinking. The weight on the rope grew heavier by the second.
“Hold on!” I yelled out, grabbing the rope, but it was slipping through my hands.
“Don’t let go!”
“I won’t.” The rope ripped against my hands, causing a horrible friction. Acting fast, I used all my strength to pull the rope around tree even tighter to create a pulley system. “Hold on!”
“It’s slipping.”
My body instantly felt hot as I pulled harder on the rope. I could hear the Mike Shadow theme music — the drumming heart beat, the rising intensity of the strings, the crashing cymbals highlighting the drama of the scene. But this was real life. If I didn’t pull this rope tighter around this tree, there was a very real chance that Mike Shadow (and Johnny Logan) would fall thirty feet down into the jungle. He could break a limb, or worst.
“Climb up!” I shouted. Using all my strength to pull the rope tighter, I watched as Mike Shadow climbed his way back onto the surface. Muddied and exhausted, he scrambled over onto the grass. I joined him. We were both a mess — covered in mud and sweating from the heat.
As we caught our breath, we both began to laugh. The whole situation was just so bizarre. The moonlight fell over us in the jungle, and even though it was still dark, I could see the appreciation on Mike Shadow’s face.
“Come here,” he pulled me closer, pinning me under his body. His hand slipped around my waist and his lips hovered near mine. My heart raced as he tilted my chin up to look at him. I parted my lips, finally ready to be kissed by Mike Shadow. I waited for his luscious lips to touch mine, but the kiss never happened. His hand slipped away from my waist.
I propped myself up on my elbows and looked at him. The look of lust on his face was replaced with a wave of confusion.
“What’s wrong?”
“Wait a minute,” he said. I followed Mike Shadow’s gaze down to his hand, which held
the bag of jewels. A ray of moonshine hit the jewels, reflecting a silvery light which danced across Shadow’s face.
Mike Shadow’s eyes grew wide. “The jewels. You had them this whole time!”
“Yes, but they’re mine.”
Looking at me one last time, Mike got up and ran out into the jungle.
“Stop!” I blurted out. Mike Shadow was stealing the jewels! I couldn’t believe this! Of all the way I could have lost the jewels, this was the last thing I was expecting.
I got up and ran after him. Mike Shadow was heading towards the waterfall. What he wanted with those jewels, I didn’t know. If this was a part of the realism of the script, then that meant he assumed I was the enemy.
As I ran, I laughed to myself. In all my years dreaming about being in a Mike Shadow movie, I never imagined being the villain. But I wasn’t! That was the funny part. The jewels were my responsibility and Mike Shadow stole them from me. If anything, he was the villain.
I couldn’t see anything but I didn’t care. The adrenaline rushed through my veins, invigorating my body. Leaves scraped across my legs, and my feet sunk into the mud with every step I took, but I powered on, keeping up with Mike Shadow.
“Give me those jewels, Shadow!” I called out.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he called back. He took on new life as he sped ahead. I struggled to keep up.
Finally we were out in the clearing, heading to the top of the hill where we filmed the first scene on day one. The river rushed along, and the waterfall roared just feet away.
Mike Shadow ran toward the rocks and the scaffolding, which was still in place.
So this was going to be a bona fide chase scene, huh?
Mike reached the edge of the rocks, but instead of getting onto the scaffolding, he sprung off the side of the cliff, as he did before. I watched in awe as he put his arms over his head and dove into the water thirty feet below. The bag of jewels dangled from his teeth. I could tell because the illuminated jewels glowed through the material. He dove gracefully into the water, barely causing a splash.
My heart raced in my chest and as I ran towards the edge of the cliff I still hadn’t decided if I’d jump after him or not. After all, he had experience doing this while I had never done this in my life!
“If that’s how you want to play, Shadow, then game on,” I mumbled under my breath.
My heart pumped electric adrenaline through my body. Without even thinking, I ran right off the edge of the rock and fell for what seemed like forever. The jump was higher than I would have liked, as I had all the time in the world to think about what I had just done. Looking down, I saw Mike swimming in the water, making his way towards the shore. The bag was still secure in his mouth.
I squeezed my eyes shut as I splashed into the water like a canon ball. There was a moment of disorienting dizziness as I got used to the cold and the rushing of water which overtook my body. The sensation was exhilarating and refreshing.
Thrashing my arms and legs, I made it to the surface where I took in a deep breath. Mike Shadow was on the shore already. As I swam and made my way out of the water, my clothes felt like they weighed a hundred pounds with the weight of the water.
“You won’t catch me,” Mike Shadow said deviously. “Nobody messes with Mike Shadow.”
My jaw dropped. Did he just use Mike Shadow’s catchphrase on me?
Mike Shadow ran onto the bridge. I followed him.
“I’m not the villain here!” I shouted. “You stole those from me.” I stepped on the trigger halfway through the bridge which caused the bridge to collapse. I saw Mike Shadow’s surprised face for a split second as we both slid down into the water with a splash.
I thrashed my legs and felt him close by. I reached my arms out and grabbed for him.
“Give those to me!”
“Never!”
“They’re not yours to protect.”
“I’m not protecting them,” Shadow said, trying to pull away from me. “I’m giving them away.”
“To who?”
He laughed. “To the people they belong to. To the people you stole them from.”
He swam towards the shore, but I held on tight to him, making sure he struggled. He tried to shake me off, but I managed to grab the bag and held them high up over our heads. He tried grabbing for the jewels, but I pulled away and, in the process, flung them across the river where they sunk to the bottom.
My heart seized in my chest. We looked at each other in shock before we both disappeared under the water and raced after the bag, which sunk deeper and deeper.
The filtered moonshine reflected off the amber glow of the jewels, which became fainter and fainter as they sunk to the bottom.
Mike Shadow and I swam frantically, swatting each other away as we each grabbed at the glowing bag of jewels. However, he was successful and swam away with the prize. Running out of air, I swam to the surface. Looking around, I wiped the heavy, wet hair out of my face, trying to see Mike Shadow. He was nowhere to be seen.
“Shadow?” My words echoed off the tall wall of the cliff face. All I could hear was the rushing water of the waterfall. I ducked through the wall of water, and there I saw Shadow hiding in a rocky cave. He clutched the bag of jewels tightly in his hands.
Shadow laughed as he dipped below the water.
“Where did he go?” I asked under my breath, but I felt his hands on my ankles and he pulled me into the water with him. I let out a shriek before dipping my head below, letting the refreshing water cool my skin.
As I popped out from the surface, I took in a deep breath. I heard him laugh. I whipped around and saw him. His tousled, wet hair made him look way hotter than usual. As we circled each other, our bare legs slipped and thrashed against one another.
“Give me the jewels, Shadow,” I said.
“Do you really think I’d just hand them over without getting anything in exchange?” He looked at me with a devious look.
His words and his daredevil look made me my girly parts feel slippery and warm. I splashed water at him and he kicked out a leg, rubbing it against mine. We both giggled as we played in the water, in the dark.
Pushing against the water, I swam towards him and wrapped my arms around his body, bringing myself closer to him. His dark eyes looked into mine, stirring desire in me. Passion thickened in the humid air between us. He raised a hand to my face, tracing a finger along my jaw line. I wet my lips and before I knew it, he mashed his lips against mine, kissing me as if he had a need that required satisfying now. Our lips slammed against one another in a ferocious kiss. His tongue dominated mine, pushing it into submission. My body slid against his and our legs thrashed against one another as we tread water.
He wrapped his arms around my waist, holding me tight against him so that I could feel his body against mine. He was stronger than I remembered. With a few, strong pushes, he directed us towards the shore, where we made our way onto land. We threw the bag of jewels to the side.
I lay on my back while Mike Shadow crawled overtop of my trembling body.
Oh boy, I thought. This was the moment I had been fantasizing about my whole life.
“Madison?” He looked down at me with his dominating stare and slight smirk.
“Yes?”
“Throughout all my travels and my many adventures, you’re the only woman who has ever challenged me this way.” He stroked my cheek. “I like you. I really like you.”
Desire pooled in my belly. That phrase, though so simple, sounded so intimate, like he had just bared a part of his soul to me. In that instant, when I looked into his eyes, I could tell this was Johnny Logan speaking, not Mike Shadow.
I smiled. “I really like you too.” I stroked his cheek, feeling the soft stubble upon it. “It’s a good thing we met.”
Johnny’s eyes looked deep into mine. His suspiciously devious smile crossed his face as he pulled off his shirt. “Yes it is.”
Leaning down, he kissed and sucked on my
neck. His hands busied themselves as they pulled my wet top down off my breasts, exposing them to the humid jungle air. His lips traveled down and his tongue twirled around my nipples, sucking on my breasts. While this happened, he pulled off my skirt. His hungry lips traveled down my belly until his teeth found the hem of my panties. Fingers crawling up my sensitive thighs, he pulled my panties off, exposing me to the night.
“Now do you believe I’m not a spy?” I asked, lying naked under him.
He smirked and moved his lips next to my ear.
“Even if you were a spy.” His words were hot and cruel in my ear. “You’re mine now.”
He undid his pants and pushed against my body. I could feel his rock hard erection poking against me, making me even wetter. I slipped my thighs against each other, feeling the wet folds between.
Johnny pushed my thighs apart, pushing his hard cock against my slippery folds, gliding inside me. I let out an audible gasp and tensed my muscles. In all the time we had been in Bora Bora, I forgot what he felt like inside me. My body sung loud and hot, pounding in reaction to his abrupt introduction to my body.
As he began rocking against me with slow, hot movements, I moaned loudly, disturbing the peace of the jungle.
With each thrust, he became more powerful, pushing deeper. A roar emanated from his throat, as if he was born in the jungle, and he was the epitome of the wild. His curious hands, which were rough and calloused but still exhibited gentleness, moved around my body, grabbing me, massaging me, and exploring me, just as he explored the jungle. His hands moved down my curves, grabbing my ass cheeks and holding them tight as he pulled me harder on him, plunging into me, deeper and hotter.
“You’re so tight, so wet,” he whispered. “You feel so good.”
I wrapped my legs tighter around him, pulling him in. The humidity caused us both to break out into a sweat as we dug an impression of ourselves into the wet sand. I tried grabbing onto the sand around us but I couldn’t get a grip. My body was winding up tighter and tighter. I no longer had control. Johnny was the one who had control over me.
My thighs trembled. I couldn’t resist any longer. I dug my nails into his shoulders and arched my back. A wave of euphoria crashed through me, rumbling through me like the waterfall roaring into the river. All the tension inside me unwound in spools of pleasure.
The Blind Date Series (Three Romance Stories: Blind Date, Role Play, Pure Fate) Page 11