by Lily Harlem
“There’s no snakes.”
“There might be.”
“Jeez, you’re as bad as Raul and the sharks.”
“Am not.” She gave him a shove.
“Hey, watch it. There might be bears in here.”
“There’s no bears.” She laughed.
“Could be.” He suddenly spun around and set his hands on her waist. He gave her a quick shake. “Whoa!”
She screamed. “Argh! What? What is it?”
“Nothing.” He laughed. “Nothing at all.”
“You’re an idiot, you know that.” She slapped his upper arm. As she did so something over his shoulder caught her eye. The sunlight was penetrating the dark space and shining on the cave wall. “Look.”
“What?” He turned. “Fuck, what is that?”
They both stepped up to the wall and stared at the reddish-brown images drawn there. Some were hard to discern but most were clearly humans, fish and birds. There were spears, and strange wavy lines going sideways and upwards.
“We’re not alone,” Olivia whispered. She didn’t quite know how to feel about the cave art and glanced deeper into the darkness, wondering if the artists were still there.
Watching them.
“They’re real faded.” Harry ran his finger over an image of fire. “Could have been done years ago, thousands of years.”
“You think?”
“I have no idea, but they’re not proof of other people on the island now, only that there have been.”
“True.”
“But.” He nodded outside. “It does make me all the more eager to get up this damn rock and see what we can see. Their village might be right next door.”
“If so, let’s hope they have cell phones and signal.”
“Hope and pray.” He headed outside again. “Cool cave though, might come in useful.”
They walked, ducked and hacked another fifty meters then the cliff suddenly dropped down and the trees thinned.
“What do you think?” Harry used the knife to point up the side of the rock.
“Steep, but we can climb up on hands and knees if we have to.”
“Think I’ll have a drink first.” He pulled his bottle from his pocket and drank.
Olivia did the same, stomping through a jungle was thirsty work, and climbing a cliff in the rising heat was going to be even harder.
“If you need to stop and take a break just say.” Harry stepped onto the first ridge.
“Same goes for you. I’m happy to wait while you rest.” She poked out her tongue.
“Sorry for caring.”
She stepped up beside him, then past him. “Follow me.”
“Well okay, but only so I can look at your cute tush in that sinfully small bikini.”
“Hey no ogling my goddamn tush.”
“Not much you can do about it.”
She tutted, but she didn’t really care. Harry could look at her tush and more if he played his cards right.
But soon that was the last thing on her mind. The cliff was hard going and her heart pounded with the effort of making her way up it. She swiped at perspiration on her forehead and looked at how much farther they had to go. She figured they were half way.
“Nearly there,” Harry said. “Let’s push on.”
“Absolutely.” She pulled in a deep breath and continued to navigate the easiest route possible with Harry close behind her.
Finally they reached the top. She was breathing hard, so was he, and she took off her t-shirt to wipe her forehead and the nape of her neck with it.
“Phew, we’re high,” Harry said, taking her t-shirt and shoving a wad of it into his back pocket to save her carrying it.
“It’s bigger than I thought, the island.” Olivia turned three-sixty, taking it all in. “Ours must be one of several beaches.”
“Yeah, it’s at least fifteen square acres, wouldn’t you think?”
“I’m not very good at guessing acres, perhaps the same as about ten football pitches.”
“You mean soccer pitches?”
“No, I mean football.”
He grinned and took another slug of drink. “What do you think that is over there?” He pointed north.
“Another big rock, like this one.”
“Has it got something on the top?”
She peered closer. “Nah, just another tree.” She slapped her hand on the trunk of the lone tree she was standing next to. “That one looks like it’s been struck by lightning though, don’t you think?”
“Yeah?” He was still studying it.
“Anyway,” she said, sitting on a flat grassy area well away from the sheer drop to the sea. “This will be a great spot to set up a beacon and there’s dried wood over there so we won’t have to carry it up.”
Harry sat next to her and peeled off his t-shirt. “And we can see the ocean around the entire island. If a boat or plane comes into view, if there is a shipping lane, we can signal with smoke as well as radio.”
“Smoke signals, I like your style.”
“Do you now?” He reached out and lifted a strand of hair from her cheek. Her skin tingled where his finger had brushed her skin. “That’s good ‘cause I like yours, Liv.”
“No one else gets away with calling me Liv.”
“I’m honored.” He grinned and his eyes sparkled. “Very honored.”
She was quiet, then, “I’m not your usual type, am I?”
A small line etched between his eyebrows and his grin dropped. “And what’s my usual type?”
“Come on, Harry, I’d have to have been living under a rock to miss all the pap shots of you with beautiful, glamorous women on red carpets, beaches, and yachts. They all have carefully coiffed hair, false nails, fake tans, fake boobs. I mean just look at that woman…Fawn Deer.”
“I barely know her and I hate it.” He huffed.
“You hate it?”
“Yeah, the assumption the public always make about the type of women I like. Who I go out with.”
“The public… as in me?”
“You know what I mean, people who don’t know me.”
Olivia was silent.
“I’m not a player, never have been,” he said. “I smile, have my photograph taken when I’m asked to. Most of the girls in those shots are friends, friends of friends, or actresses who want a picture with me because they think it will boost their career.”
“Most of them?”
He glanced away.
“Harry,” she softened her voice. “Are you sure there isn’t someone special in your life?” She thought of the kiss they’d shared on the beach. She would never have done it if she’d thought there was a woman in LA waiting for him.
He sighed and plucked up a blade of grass, twirled it in his fingers.
“Harry.”
“There was someone.”
She sensed there was more.
He swallowed and stared out to sea. “Her name was Candice… Candy.”
“And you loved her?”
“Yes, but… not like that. We were friends, great friends. Her father is a business associate of my father’s. We’d known each other for years, since we were kids.”
“It sounds like you don’t stay in touch with her.”
He closed his eyes and pushed his hand through his hair. “I’m not. She died.”
“Harry, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
“How could you have?” He looked at her and smiled sadly. “It was two years ago now. Candy was a very private person, and the family, despite being in society circles, didn’t speak publicly about it. The funeral was for close friends and family only.”
Olivia could feel the pain coming off him and it made her heart ache. “You went to the funeral though?”
“I was a pallbearer.” He flicked the piece of grass to one side. “So yeah, I went.”
“That must have been hard.”
“It was.” He narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “But do you know what was the damn hardest thing
to face?”
“What?”
“All that fucking money, all of it.” His voice had risen. “That her family have and we have. Billions upon billions if you put it together and we couldn’t fight the damn cancer. A few shitty cells killed her and there was nothing me or anyone else could do about it. Not one damn thing.”
“Cancer is indiscriminate where it spreads its poison.”
He took her hand and cupped it, then traced his fingertip over her palm.
She sensed him calming as he watched his repetitive movements on her skin. “So that’s why you’re donating the cash to cancer research,” she said.
He nodded.
She brushed his hair from where it had fallen forward and covered his right eye a little. “What you’re doing is a great thing, Harry. The amount of cash The Challenge is raising will make a difference.”
“Except we’ve failed, haven’t we?”
“No, no we haven’t, we’re alive. Failure would mean we were all shark bait.” She paused. “No reason why we can’t carry on in another boat. We’ll still get to Sydney, just you wait and see.”
“You think?” His eyes brightened a little.
“Yes, it doesn’t have to be a half a million dollar yacht. Hell we could do it in a cheap old catamaran. I’d like that.”
“Mmm…” He looked thoughtful. “Maybe once we’re found.”
“Yes. Once we’re found, we’ll carry on.”
“You’re good for me, you know that?”
“I’d say we’re all good for each other.”
He leaned a little closer, so close she could feel the heat from his face on hers. “Except you’re not like the others.”
“Well no.” She glanced down at her chest. “That’s obvious.”
“I’m not talking about the guys down there, I’m talking about the women in LA. The ones you seem to think are my girlfriends.”
“Well I agree with your friend, the one who said vanity was an unattractive quality. I try to just be me, nothing more, nothing less. I can do makeup and fancy evening dresses but I’m equally happy not to bother.”
“That was Candy, who said that about vanity.”
Olivia smiled. “She was a wise woman.”
“She was.”
“I’m sorry you went through that, Harry.”
“Thank you.” He paused and swallowed. “I struggled for a long time. It was one of the reasons my father did this whole thing. It’s hard, you see, to find direction when money for yourself isn’t a motivation.” He paused.
“Go on.”
“I’ve never wanted for anything material in my entire life and I never will with the family money we have. So it’s hard to get out of bed some mornings. After Candy died my get up and go just got up and went. I guess I was grieving, depressed, I don’t know.” He shrugged.
She pressed her hand to his chest wishing she could heal the ache there. The soft hair on his sternum tickled her palm.
“So he, my father,” Harry went on, “came up with The Challenge. It was a direction for my energy to get you guys together with Riley’s help, buy Temptress, polish my sailing skills. And then with the promise of five million to cancer research, I felt I really was doing something to help others, and maybe even stop others experiencing the loss I’d had.”
“And it worked. It got you out of bed in the mornings.”
“It was damn good motivation to get my act into gear, so yeah, it worked.” He laughed, but it was a strange tense sound. “Well, it worked till we lost the boat, eh.”
“But we didn’t lose each other.” She cupped his cheek and brought his face closer to hers again. “Perhaps it even meant we found each other.”
Chapter Twenty
Harry pressed his lips to hers. His dense stubble abraded her chin, a sensation that heightened her desire.
She clung to his hard, wide shoulders and dragged him closer, pushed her breasts against his chest. She wanted his kiss, the feel of him and to be close to the real Harrington Vidal.
This man was an enigma, she saw that now. Everything she’d presumed about him was wrong.
Well almost everything. He was still a bossy git with multiple noughts on his bank balance.
She found his tongue with hers, but he immediately took control, sweeping into her mouth and wrapping his arms around her.
He lowered her flat onto the ground, still kissing her, and with his big body resting over hers.
Olivia made the most of being able to touch him and ran her hands from his shoulders, down his back, to his butt. She roamed over the shape of his ass, enjoying the chance to finally touch it.
He moaned and pulled back, stared into her eyes. “I want you so bad.”
“I want you too, Harry.”
“Can you handle me?”
“I reckon so.”
“I… sometimes.”
“Yeah, you’re kinky right. You already said that.”
He grinned. “I’ll make it so damn good for you, Liv.”
“I know you will.”
He kissed her cheek, her neck, then down to her collarbone. He sought out her right breast and over her bikini cupped it, his fingers catching her nipple in a tight grip.
She moaned and ran her hands into his thick hair.
“You taste amazing,” he said. “The sea, the air, honey.”
“We kissed yesterday, did you taste that then?”
“Yeah, just goes to prove one bite of the apple is never enough.” He set his mouth over her left nipple, catching it through the material of her bikini top.
“Harry,” she gasped as it puckered and twisted.
“Temptress,” he said, his dark eyes glistening.
“So give into temptation.” She spread her legs on the grass.
“I intend to.” He wriggled lower, setting his body between her legs as he explored her stomach, dipping his tongue into her navel.
She kept her hands lodged in his hair and arched her back, giving herself up to him. The sun heated her face, beneath her the grass was warm. But between her legs she was hot and aching, desperate for him to bring her to boiling point. With his fingers, his tongue, his cock. She didn’t mind which. She just wanted Harrington Vidal.
He slipped his fingers into the waistband of her bikini bottoms and tugged.
She released his head and propped up onto her elbows so she could lift her hips. As she did so she glanced over his body to the horizon.
Her breath caught. Her heart skipped a beat.
In the far distance, on the horizon, a huge orange container ship, stacked high, was slipping past their island.
“Bloody hell. Fuck. Harry. Stop.”
He looked up at her, frowning, and paused in tugging at her bikini bottoms. “What?” Hurt and confusion crossed over his face. “I thought you—”
“I do, I do. Jesus Christ. Harry. But…” She scooted away from him and jumped up readjusting her bikini as she did so. “But… There’s a boat. Look!”
“What?” He sprang up and spun in the direction she was pointing. “Fuck. Yes.” He ran several steps toward the route they’d come up, then paused, turned and raced back. He grabbed her hand. “Come on. We’ve got to try the radio, send up a flare.”
“Yes. Go. I’ll follow.”
“No. We’ll go together.”
The sense of urgency in her doubled as they raced back down the steep path. A few times she lost her footing and if Harry hadn’t had a hold of her she’d have skidded onto her butt.
She was slowing him down. She knew that. “Go ahead. You’ll be quicker on your own.”
“I’m not leaving you out here.” He paused and helped her down a particularly steep slice of rock.
“I’ll be okay.”
“No.” He gripped her shoulders, his expression stern. “If Evan had left you yesterday when you’d gone for water, out in this jungle, I’d have kicked his ass into the damn sunset.” He paused. “You stay with me.”
“But—”
“Me.”
“Exactly, you can’t go back on that.”
“Okay.” There was clearly no way to persuade him. “Okay. Come on then. Move.”
They started up again, Olivia put all her energy into keeping up with him, and after a few more minutes they reached the base of the cliff.
“Can you run?” he asked.
“Yes, of course. Go.”
She was panting, and her skin was coated in sweat, but as Harry took off at a fast pace, she raced after him. Each step required her to push leaves and branches out of the way. Several swiped across her cheeks, a sharp twig caught the skin on her arm. She ignored it and kept on pushing forward.
Within minutes they were out in the open and pelting along the beach.
“Go ahead now,” Olivia said. She was a good runner, but knew Harry’s long legs would cover the ground quicker. “I’m okay, really.”
He glanced at her, his cheeks were red, then he upped the pace.
As he sprinted ahead, sand flying up from his heels and her t-shirt dislodging from his back pocket, Olivia slowed, she was out of breath, from excitement as much as exertion.
“Hey! Hey!” Harry yelled, waving to attract the attention of the camp. “Hey! Boat! Boat!”
Raul emerged onto the beach. He stood, feet hip width apart and stared at Harry.
“There’s a boat,” Harry yelled as he pointed out to sea.
Olivia scooped up her t-shirt and looked at the horizon. The boat had gone, or maybe it couldn’t be seen from where she was now. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t in radio distance.
“Get the damn radio,” Harry shouted.
Raul raced to the rock. He reached it the same time Harry did.
When Olivia arrived a few seconds later, Harry had it in his hand and was fiddling with the dial.
“The antennae,” she said.
“Fuck.” He pulled it up then held it to his mouth. “SOS. SOS. This is Harrington Vidal of Temptress. Come in.”
Nothing.
“What’s going on?” Evan walked from the shadows. His eyes were narrow slits as if he’d only just woken up.
“We saw a ship… out there… a container.” Olivia pressed her hand to her chest. She was struggling to catch her breath. “It was a long way off, only just visible.”