by Banks, R. R.
“It wasn’t like it was a hostile takeover that involved months in court and a military coup,” Noah said, walking toward me. I could feel my mouth watering as my eyes traveled over his body. “He had been planning on selling the company to my father for a long time. Mr. Royal was ready to retire. All the nastiness with Lucille was just a hiccup.”
“That was one hell of a hiccup,” I said, shuddering just to hear the woman’s name. “I still get a little twitchy when I smell smoke.”
Noah nodded and reached out to wrap his arms around my waist, pulling me closer to him.
“I know,” he said. “It makes it a lot more difficult to create a romantic honeymoon suite when I’m not allowed to light candles. Those little battery-operated things just don’t have the same effect.”
“But they have a realistic glow and flicker,” I said, bringing my arms up to loop around his neck.
Noah grinned as he shook his head and leaned forward to kiss me. I sighed into the taste of his mouth and the feeling of his lips on mine. I was never going to get tired of that kiss.
“So, the future safety of the advertising industry and our company in it aside, what’s so important on your phone?”
The question brought me slightly out of the joyful stupor that I generally went into when he touched me and I stepped back away from him so that I could bring my phone back in front of me and read the screen again. It had gone dark and I poked at it with my finger, muttering at it as the article that I had been reading jumped in response to my touch and I lost my place. When I found it again, I turned it toward Noah.
“This says that two people went missing off of a cruise. It doesn’t say who they are, but the ship was about where I thought that their cruise would be.”
“When was this?” Noah asked.
“They noticed that they were missing about three days ago, but they think that they could have been missing for longer than that.”
“Don’t you think that if my aunt went missing on the cruise that she bought for our friends as a wedding gift to us, that someone would have thought that it would be important that they get in touch with me? Just a little heads up?”
I knew he was right. I was just being overly worried. I had never been one to trust cruise ships after the string of “people who went missing on cruise ships and never showed back up because they are probably abstract sculptures gradually becoming coral at the bottom of the ocean” specials shown during Shark Week. The fact that three of the biggest and supposedly most popular ships that sailed the big blue sea had experienced massive power failures that resulted in days of being giant floating tins full of seasick people with no reliable food refrigeration or bathroom facilities in the last year hadn’t given me much more reassurance. It was that particular dis-ease with cruises that had convinced Noah to let us bow out of the wedding celebration cruise and just head directly to our honeymoon villa. Part of me had felt like rejecting the offer from Noah’s favorite relative hadn’t exactly been a fantastic way to get started in my life as part of his family, but now that I was seeing that more passengers had just vaporized from the decks of a ship, I was feeling better about my decision.
“You’re right,” I said. “I’m sure that I would have heard from Robin by now, if for no other reason than to gossip about what all of our friends are doing on the ship.”
“Does being on a ship make a difference to their behavior?”
I nodded.
“Of course,” I said. “International waters. No drinking age. No jurisdiction. Nobody needs to know.”
“That’s a bit of a disquieting thought considering who we sent out there,” Noah said.
“You’re telling me.”
“Wait,” Noah said. “Didn’t you make Robin swear that he wasn’t going to bother you during our honeymoon?”
“No,” I said. “ You made Robin swear that he wasn’t going to bother me during our honeymoon. I only went along with it for the sake of marital harmony.”
“So, he wouldn’t have gotten in touch with you.”
“I have a feeling that people disappearing from the cruise that he’s on, especially if it just happened to be your aunt and one of our closest friends, would take any promises of communication restraint off the table.”
“So, we’re good?” Noah said. “No worries?”
“No worries,” I said.
“Good,” Noah said, taking the phone from my hand and tossing it to the chair that he had recently vacated. “Then I think that you are wearing just a bit too much clothing.”
I looked down at the robe that I had thrown on after my shower and back up at him.
“Oh, really?” I asked.
He nodded, biting his bottom lip as he untied the belt at my waist and let it fall away, then pushed the sides of the robe open. I felt the soft warm breeze from outside touching my skin and a tingle of arousal rushed through my body, settling between my legs where I felt my core starting to get hot and wet. Noah’s fingertips brushed over my nipples, causing them to harden beneath the gentle stimulation, and I moaned lightly. In one movement, he pushed the robe the rest of the way off so that I was as naked as he was, and tightened his arm around my waist again, yanking me up against him so that I could feel the hard pressure of his growing erection against my belly.
We hadn’t spent much time out of our honeymoon suite since arriving here two days after our wedding, but I really didn’t care. An island was an island. There wasn’t anything out there that I couldn’t see in the water globe that Robin had brought back for me after his vacation to Hawaii, though I’m sure that view would lack the fine black ash that settled over the tiny little tiki village when the globe was turned over and that I had always found just a touch distasteful. Alright, so there probably was a lot beyond the grounds of the resort that I would really enjoy seeing, but nothing had caught my attention nearly as much as my naked, ever-ready husband and the massive bed in our suite.
And the shower. And the floor. And the bar.
I wrapped my hand around his thick, hard shaft and gave it a few encouraging strokes. He tipped his head back and groaned, and I leaned forward to run my tongue along the side of his neck. In an instant, he had me in his arms and was carrying me toward the glass doors to the balcony. The sun felt warmer on my skin as he carried me out onto the balcony and then settled me to my feet beside the railing.
“Noah!” I gasped. “There are people—”
He silenced me with another deep, intense kiss and ran his hand down my body to tuck it in between my thighs. His fingers found my clit and the sensation rocked through me. I parted my legs a little more to make it easier for him to touch me and kissed him with the same growing intensity of the feelings he was creating within me. I reached down and ran my fingers up his cock again and felt him rest his hand to my shoulder to ease me down to my knees. I felt the railing on my back as I knelt in front of him and wrapped my hand around the base of his shaft to hold it in place. Cupping my other hand around Noah’s balls so I could feel them hanging and swirling in my palm, I opened my mouth and guided his thick, delicious erection in. My lips closed around it and I felt Noah’s hand come to the back of my head, gently guiding me into the rhythm and depth that would give him the pleasure that he sought.
After a few moments, I opened my eyes and looked up at him. I noticed that he was staring off of the side of the balcony, seeming to enhance the experience that I was giving him by taking in the beauty that surrounded us. Suddenly he lifted his hand and gave a wave, a wide smile on his face. I withdrew him from my mouth.
“Did you just wave at someone?” I hissed.
He looked down at me and nodded.
“Our very friendly neighbors,” he said. “Come see.”
Before I could protest, Noah reached down and grabbed me by my upper arms and pulled me to my feet. He whipped me around so that I faced away from him, my breasts crushing to the railing so that my nipples were just covered. I gasped as I felt him pull my hips back slightly
so that he could push into me. His mouth came to the side of my neck and he nibbled at my skin before whispering into my ear.
“Wave hello to our neighbors,” he said.
I looked down and saw a few people scattered across the sand. Two of them glanced over their shoulders at us and I smiled, waving down at them. Though I knew that they couldn’t see anything through the intricate scrolling of the railing, the thought that they were looking at me standing on the balcony, Noah’s cock deep inside me, sent a thrill through by body and sent my arousal spiraling even higher. I wrapped one hand around the top of the railing and brought the other down between my thighs, letting my fingertips play across my tight, wet clit as Noah’s thrusting grew harder and more intense. It was all too much for me. I threw my head back against Noah’s shoulder and bit my lip against the scream that tried to come out as my body crashed into an orgasm that made my knees weak and my head swim.
The powerful contractions of my walls around him pushed Noah to the edge and I felt him push me forward so that he could grab onto my hips and pound into me at an almost furious pace. My breasts bounced against the railing and I felt sweat trickling between our bodies before Noah leaned down and bit into my back to muffle the growl that came from his chest as his cock hardened and I felt him pour into me.
“See?” he muttered against my skin. “Very friendly neighbors.”
Chapter Fifteen
Eleanor
“I seriously don’t understand where he could have gone,” I said, walking out onto the beach and scanning the ocean as if I was just going to see Gavin pop up on the surface like a cork and bob his way back to shore.
“Well, we haven’t scoured the entire island,” Hunter pointed out. “There’s still a lot of the jungle that we haven’t gotten to, and the rock formations over on that end of the beach could lead to another water source. Like I said earlier, there could be wildlife on the island that-”
I held up my hand, shaking my head.
“Please don’t say it again. I am just not in that place where I can deal with thoughts of animal-eaten people spread out across the island.”
“It wouldn’t really be people,” he pointed out. “Just one person.”
“That makes it so much better.”
“We should check the boat. I know that he said that nobody should be on the boat when the weather got bad, but if he might have changed his mind when things got really serious, or he might have already been on there and not been able to do anything about it. Something could have fallen on him and knocked him unconscious.”
I nodded and we rushed toward the boat. My raft had been destroyed and the water was much higher around the boat than it had been. I looked at it for a few moments, hoping that somehow my glare would make it recede. Of course, it didn’t. In fact, it seemed to swell just a little bit higher as if in mockery of me.
“You’ve been on this island for a week now,” Hunter pointed out. “I think that that qualifies you as roughing it. You can wade through the water.”
“Maybe you should be the Cub Scout leader,” I said, glaring at him sideways.
“Nah,” Hunter said. “I never could light a fire with nothing but rocks and sticks.”
“Well, then you are fired. All of the three-year-olds can do that.”
“Those are some very young Cub Scouts.”
“Start ‘em young. That’s what Virgil always used to say.”
That one wasn’t entirely a lie. He really did used to say that. Well, except for the “’em” part, and he most certainly wasn’t talking about Cub Scouts.
I hadn’t realized it, but as we were talking, Hunter had guided me into the water and suddenly we were most of the way to the boat. The water was up to my chest and I started to flail, screaming as I felt my legs buckle and slipped down beneath the surface. Hunter grabbed me by my arm and yanked me up.
“Stand up,” he said. “Stand up!”
I got my feet under me and realized that the sand was still solid beneath my feet, and the water was only to my shoulders at its highest point. We took the final few steps to the boat and Hunter guided me up onto the ladder ahead of him. I scrambled up onto it and turned to glare at him.
“That was a mean trick,” I sputtered at him.
“It wasn’t a trick,” he said. “I just figured if I could distract you I might be able to get you to the boat without you realizing that you were in the water it might not be as traumatizing for you.”
“Well that worked out exceptionally well, didn’t it?”
“If you had held off noticing for just a few more minutes it would have been fine.”
“I don’t think that leading someone into water that is up to their chests when they don’t realize that they are doing it is a very helpful thing to do.”
“It would have been if you hadn’t noticed.”
“I noticed,” I hissed.
“Apparently.”
Turning away from him and the futile conversation that we were having, I looked around the boat. It was definitely the worse for wear since the storm, but it was still lodged in place and I had another flash of the sea creature that I just knew had a hold on the broken vessel and just wasn’t going to let go.
I was going to need to go back to therapy.
“Do you want to look in the cabin?” I asked.
“Sure,” Hunter said, walking past me toward the door that was now barely hanging by one hinge.
I was so grateful that he agreed to that. I wasn’t fond of Gavin, but just as I hadn’t wanted to think about him being torn apart by the storm or shredded into little survivalist pieces by strange island monsters, I didn’t really relish the idea of being the one to find him floating around in the cabin. As Hunter walked past me I noticed the way his pants cupped to his ass and memories from the night before created a surge of desire within me.
Oh, this is so not the time.
Hunter pulled the rest of the door open and took a peek inside. When he pulled his head back and shook it at me, I let out a sigh of relief.
“OK, good. He’s not dead in the boat.”
“But that still doesn’t tell us where he actually is.”
“True.”
I turned slowly and looked around the boat. Suddenly something caught my eye and I crossed the deck. There was a narrow metal box hanging on the side of the boat and the top was open, revealing nothing but a single life jacket inside. I immediately knew what it was.
“Holy shit,” I muttered.
“What is it?” Hunter asked, coming toward me.
I wanted to kick the box, but in my current shoeless state, that wouldn’t have been a good idea. I didn’t know if I would be able to fashion a splint for myself out of twigs and dried banana leaves.
“It’s an emergency kit,” I said, gesturing toward the box. “Well, it used to be. This box had a life raft in it.”
“A life raft?” Hunter asked, coming to my side and looking down into the box.
“The son of a bitch left us,” I said. “When you were unconscious he told me that he was going to come get some supplies, but he didn’t come back. Turns out he just jumped ship.”
Hunter looked at me with a pursed face.
“That’s probably not the best choice of words.”
I looked at him.
“How could he do this to us? How could he find a life raft and just leave by himself?”
“Does that really surprise you?” Hunter asked. “He hasn’t exactly been the most civil to us throughout this experience.”
“He saved your life when the snake bit you.”
“I don’t think that that necessarily counts as civil. I think that that is more along the lines of human.”
“Where do you think he went?” I asked.
“Well, it depends on when he left. If he left long enough before the storm, there’s a chance that he might have gotten somewhere, but even before the storm hit here, it would have been out in the water. Something as flimsy as a life raft would
n’t have been able to withstand the kind of water conditions that would have been out there. In that case, he probably went to the bottom of the ocean.”
“So, what do we do?” I asked.
“I don’t think that there’s much that we can do,” Hunter admitted. “Him leaving doesn’t really change anything. We’re still here and we still don’t know how we are going to get away, which means that we still need to figure out how we are going to survive here. That’s our first priority.”
“Stay alive.”
“Yes.”
“Good priority. Where do we start?”
“I guess we clean up. We’ll find the supplies and salvage what we can, clean up the debris from the shelter, and then…”
“Rebuild the damn shelter.”
“Rebuild the shelter.”
“Fantastic. I suppose we’re going to try the geodesic dome this time?”
“Gavin isn’t here to tell me no, so unless you are going to stop me for some reason, I still think that that’s the way to do it.”
“I’m sorry that he was so awful to you,” I said, realizing that I hadn’t said that to him yet.
“You have no reason to say that you’re sorry,” he said. “You didn’t do anything.”
“I still feel like I should apologize for him. There was no need for him to treat you like that. And I did plenty. I haven’t exactly been helpful since we got here.”
“You’ve been dealing with a lot,” Hunter said. “You did what you could.”
“Complained and asked stupid questions?”
Hunter laughed, but shook his head.
“You did more than that.”
I felt heat shook between my legs, settling into my core as I thought about exactly what I had done the night before. We stared at each other for a few long seconds before he stepped up to close the space between us. He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me up against him, staring at me for a moment longer before leaning down to touch his mouth to mine. It was soft at first, almost hesitant as if he was trying to remember the way that we had kissed the night before, and I rose up slightly on my toes to encourage him. This seemed to give him greater confidence and he deepened the kiss, holding me tightly against him.