by R. R. Banks
"You should probably go back down to the beach," I said, my voice gruff with humiliation and confusion as I climbed to my feet.
Without looking back at her, I continued through the trees and toward the soft rush of water that I heard in the distance. I wanted to rinse off and try to regain some feeling of normalcy even in surroundings that were anything but normal. Wandering through the jungle trying desperately to come up with a viable plan for what we were going to do was bad enough when I felt like I had some sort of connection with Eleanor, even if it was just the type of connection that we had to maintain because of everything that we had gone through together already. Now I felt like that tenuous link had not just dissolved, but had burst into flames and pushed us irreparably apart. I was not only embarrassed by the rejection and frustrated by the situation we had found ourselves in and my inability to figure out how to resolve it, but now I felt totally isolated and alone. I was walking those same damn high school hallways again, albeit with a few extra bugs this time, and I hated every instant of it. I started peeling off my shirt before reaching the edge of the outcropping, but I stopped before jumping off into the water when I saw Gavin already waist deep in the pool below.
Of course. I can’t even take a bath without something going wrong.
Yanking my shirt back down over my head, I stalked through the trees and back toward the beach. I didn’t want to be near either one of the others anymore. I was done with summer camp. I might not know what I was doing or how I was going to get out of this alive, but that didn’t mean that I needed to pretend that this was a bonding opportunity. I needed some time to myself and then I’d help them build a shelter, find supplies, and do what needed to be done, but that was all. Eleanor had made it expressly clear that she had just been toying with me and any guilt that I had felt walking away from her was gone now. Someone had to have noticed that we were missing and be looking for us, and once they came, we’d go about our lives and try not to think about this ever again.
Chapter Ten
Eleanor
Worst. Vacation. Ever.
I picked my way across the hot, coarse sand, knowing that I probably looked like a really pissed off flamingo, but not really caring anymore.
“What are you doing?” Gavin asked from where he was standing in the shallow water watching fish and taunting them with a spear. “You look like a pissed off flamingo.”
Exactly.
“If you haven’t noticed, you are walking around in your boots and I’m barefoot. If you’d like to try digging your feet down into the sand you, too, might discover the delightful little chunks that seem to have been turned into glass by the blazing hot SUN.”
I flailed and kicked at the sand as I screamed the final word, letting out some of my frustration, but still feeling plenty, all bottled up ready to explode whenever it found the right time.
“You’re just like all the others,” Gavin muttered.
I tilted my head at him and took a step closer.
“Excuse me?” I asked. I took another step. “Excuse me? What did you say?” He shook his head and I took a couple more steps, losing some of the impact of my anger as I stumbled through a dip. “No, no, no. That’s not how this works. You don’t get to mutter things at me under your breath and have me not ask you what you said. If you’re going to say something, you’re going to say it to me.”
“Why?” Gavin demanded, turning to stare at me. “Because you’re so entitled that you think that everyone should do exactly what you say, exactly when you say it?”
“Entitled?” I repeated, stunned.
Of course, it hadn’t been the first time that I had had someone say that about me, but it was the way Gavin said it, spitting it at me like it was the worst possible thing that he could think of to say.
“Yes,” he said, facing me now. “What I said was that you are just like all the others, and that is exactly what I meant. All of you rich bitches are exactly the same. You think that everyone either worships you or fears you because your money, and that the more ancestors you have who had money, the more important you think you are. Anyone else is just put here to do your bidding.”
“That’s not true,” I said, tears stinging in my eyes as I looked around, desperately searching for Hunter. “That’s not who I am.”
“Of course, it is,” Gavin said. “You don’t think that I can see the money dripping off of you? You don’t think that I can hear it in every word that you say to both me and Hunter? You might have gotten him all starry-eyed so he doesn’t realize what he’s dealing with, but you’re not fooling me. Whoever you are, you’ve got serious money behind you, and whoever you are pretending to be, there’s a reason. I’ve been working my ass off trying to figure out what we’re going to do here, and all you can do is bitch. It could be a hell of a lot worse. Why don’t you just appreciate your surroundings a little bit.”
“Appreciate them?” I asked, still trying to process the nastiness that he was spewing at me. “I’m not sure what it is that you’re experiencing, but apparently it has stopped you from noticing that we are not in a revival of the Blue-Fucking-Lagoon.”
“That’s a great movie.”
The voice behind me made me jump and I turned around to see Hunter standing on the top of a rock that jutted out into the ocean. A wave crashed at the base of the rock, sending a spray of white foam up to his feet and I felt my knees go a little weak.
“What?” I asked, his words not fully going through my mind.
“Blue Lagoon,” he said. “It’s a great movie. I used to watch it all the time when I was little.”
Oh, dear lord. How old was he?
“A little racy for an evening family movie, don’t you think?” I finally asked.
Oh, shit. How old was I?
Hunter shrugged as he started down the rock toward the beach.
“I don’t honestly remember anybody watching it with me. We had a VHS of it that had been recorded off of the TV and it was one of about three that I could reach where they were kept, so I just kind of watched them in rotation.”
“He probably didn’t even realize that it was racy,” Gavin said and I looked over to see that he was back to stabbing at the water to catch more fish to toss up onto the sand. I hated to see them flopping around the way that they did, but I hated being hungry more, so I was going to deal with it. “Maybe he thought that one of those birds that they show was the stork and that’s how they got the baby.”
“You seem to be going pretty deep into that movie to make fun of someone for watching it,” I snapped.
Hunter was walking toward me and I hoped that he hadn’t been standing on the rock long enough to hear what Gavin had been saying. I had already spilled enough about Virgil when we were in the jungle. I couldn’t let him find out more.
I was thinking about that as he came up, his eyes seeming to purposely avoid me. My heart clenched and I felt a flicker of blended, uncomfortable emotion wash over me. I wish that I understood why I had pulled away from him in the jungle. He had been right there, looking at me with the expression in his eyes that I had been hoping to see the night of the wedding. As soon as that thought went through my mind, I realized that that wasn’t the case, and that that had been exactly why I had pulled away. The night of the wedding all that mattered to me was that Hunter was young, gorgeous, and sexy. He seemed like the perfect man to take care of the stress that I had been feeling and get me on to my new life. He was going to be my sampler, my training wheels, and I just wanted to see the same attraction and desire in his eyes that I was feeling. When we were sitting together in the jungle, however, I saw something much more. There was emotion in his eyes that I didn’t know if I was ready to face. I didn’t even know if I was able to feel that way again. He didn’t know me, and I was doing everything that I could to make sure that he never did. The last thing I needed was to not only admit the deeper attraction that was pricking at the back of my mind, but to see the same in him and have to admit that I had done
something wrong.
“Do you think that we could wrap up the theater review and someone could actually help me with this shelter?” Gavin asked.
He had climbed up out of the water and tossed his spear onto the sand. He would come back for the fish after they had stopped twitching, which was exactly how I preferred them. After this she would never be able to look at a sushi bar the same way.
“I still think that it’s ridiculous that you’re going to all this trouble to build a shelter,” I said. “We’re not going to be here long. They’ll have noticed that Hunter and I are missing from the ship and come looking for us.”
“And miraculously find us on an island that has nothing on it and is who knows how far away from the ship’s route?”
“He’s right,” Hunter said.
“What?” I asked, swinging my head to look at him.
“He’s right,” Hunter replied. “I thought that it was going to be better if I went off on my own, but I’ve been thinking more about it, and I don’t think that it would be a good idea for us to fracture. As much as none of us really relish the idea, we need to rely on each other right now. The reality is that we really don’t know how long we’re going to be here. Of course, we would hope that the people on the ship would have noticed by now that we aren’t there anymore, but that doesn’t mean that they would know how to come find us. And to be completely honest, they might not have noticed. I assure you that those men who were chasing us didn’t go to the head of security and tell him what happened. The people with the wedding on the cruise might notice that we weren’t at the activities, but it’s entirely possible that they would just think that we decided to have more relaxing vacations and were just not going. It could be quite a while before they’re able to retrace their steps, figure out when we went overboard, and then find us.”
“So, we’re just screwed is what you’re trying to tell me?” I asked.
“No,” Hunter said, his tone telling me that he was trying to keep me calm. I wondered if he had seen the flail. “What I’m telling you is that all of us hope that we’re going to get off this island soon, but we can’t let that hope keep us from doing what we need to do in order to stay safe until that time comes. If there’s going to be more bad weather, the last thing that we need is to be just out in the open. We might not be able to build a resort, but we can put together something that will at least protect us a little bit.”
I stayed silent as I stared at him. I knew that there was really nothing that I was going to be able to say that would make any impact at all. It seemed I was the only one who had any intention of believing that we were going to be off the island before they even had a chance to build a shelter, and they were refusing to make any concessions for the optimism that I was quickly starting to believe was delusion. I started away from him, not really knowing where I was going to go, but not wanting to be on the beach with the men any longer. When I reached the edge of the trees, I turned and looked back over my shoulder at them. They were standing in the sand seemingly locked in an intense conversation, and then they broke apart, Hunter stalking toward the trees and Gavin heading for the boxes of supplies that were stacked high enough on the sand that they wouldn’t be caught up by the waves when the high tide rolled in. I was afraid that Hunter was going to disappear again, but instead he reached out and grabbed onto one of the nearby trees.
“These are what you should be using,” he said forcefully.
Gavin scoffed.
“Are you kidding me?” he said. “Do you see how that thing is bending? And under even your strength. That would never be able to support a shelter. We need something far stronger and more stable.”
“It’s bending, which means that it can be curved,” Hunter said, his voice tense as if he were trying to force himself past Gavin’s crack. He bent the tree to demonstrate what he meant. “And what is the strongest structure in the world?”
“The United States military. USA! USA!”
“Charming. No, the geodesic dome.”
There was silence and I knew that Gavin was just as in the dark about that one as I was. I knew that I had heard the term before, but it wasn’t one of those bits of information that I kept filed under “ready to use facts” in my mind. Hunter stared at Gavin and I could almost hear his brain starting to fizz with frustration.
“Geodesic dome,” Hunter repeated. He gave a deep sigh and closed his eyes. “The big spiky ball at EPCOT.”
“Oh, yeah,” Gavin said. “I remember reading about that.”
“Great. Then you know that it is the strongest structure that can be built. Far stronger than any other shape. If we build the shelter as a dome rather than as a square, it has much more of a chance of withstanding a storm or other influences.”
“Other influences?” Gavin asked, putting a voice to the worry that had just flashed through my mind.
“Well, we haven’t encountered any of the wildlife here other than fish, but I would venture to say that with an island this large and with this variety of flora, there are going to be animals. Just because we haven’t seen them yet doesn’t mean we won’t. In fact, chances are the animals that do inhabit the island have been watching us and trying to understand our patterns, and when they are more comfortable, they will make themselves known.”
Fabulous. Something else to be afraid of on this shore excursion of the damned. Somehow, I doubt that he’s talking about the squirrels and deer from my old camping trips.
“I don’t care what shape you think it should be. We just need to start building. Start cutting whatever trees you want.”
I leaned against the nearest tree and watched as Hunter stomped over to the supplies and grabbed at one of the boxes. His hand hit a box next to it, sending it toppling to the ground where the lid popped open. Several items fell out, including a large stash of condoms that spread across the sand, their multicolored foil packets glinting in the sun. Everything went silent, at least in my mind, as I stared at the condoms. I swallowed hard, my mind immediately running wild with thoughts of how I could put those to use.
Hunter cleared his throat, seemingly thrown off by the appearance of the condoms out in the open on the sand. I looked up at Gavin and saw him roll his eyes. He stalked over to the box and scooped everything back into it, bringing along with the stack of foil packets a liberal amount of the beach.
“They’re condoms, Hunter,” he said mockingly. “Don’t you know what those are?”
“You just carry a supply box full of condoms around with you on your boat?” I asked.
He looked at me and I saw an angry look in his eyes.
“I use my boat for more than work. Sometimes I have some company with me and I don’t know their names much less where they’ve been, so I’m not going to risk anything, if you know what I mean.” The words made my skin crawl and it worsened when he looked at Hunter with a vicious sneer. “Don’t worry, Hunter. Go grab a banana and I’ll teach you how to use them.” He looked him up and down. “You might want to go ahead and cut it in half for accuracy.”
I braced myself for Hunter to lash out at Gavin, but he didn’t. Instead, he calmly picked up a knife, turned around, and walked deeper into the jungle toward more of the bendy trees that he had chosen. For a few moments, he cut at them aggressively, tossing the stalks that he chopped down to the side to create pile. As the pile grew, sweat started to bead on his forehead and his shirt seemed to stick to him. He set his knife on the ground and peeled off his shirt. I had to withhold a gasp when it revealed a smooth, chiseled chest, rippling stomach, and tight waist.
So that’s what was hiding behind that suit.
Hunter went back to his work and I watched as his muscles tensed, contracting and releasing with the movement of his cutting. He paused for a second to comb his fingers back through his hair and I felt my body respond with a rush of arousal. He was nothing short of delicious and the fact that he seemed to be the complete opposite of Gavin in how he thought of women made him even more attra
ctive. I had to drag myself away from staring at him so that he didn’t catch me, and headed further into the jungle. I suddenly felt the need for a bath.
The water rushing over the rocks and down into the small, blue pool at the bottom deadened any other sound of the island and sent up a cool spray that was refreshing as it touched my skin. I quickly slipped out of my clothes and stepped down into the pool. My skin was hot from the sun and had been sent to searing by the sight of Hunter without his shirt, and the water sliding up over it brought cooling, relaxing relief. I dipped my head back into the water, rubbing my scalp with my fingers to loosen the sweat and dirt that I felt had collected there. The feeling of my own touch was suggestion enough to my mind for the arousal that I was already feeling to spiral upwards.
I encouraged it, slowly running my hands along my body to clean my skin and increase the feeling of need that was growing between my thighs. Finally, I made my way across the pool to where the waterfall tumbled in. The floor of the pool rose up at this point, leaving piles of rocks that rose up out of the water on either side. I sat on one of the lower rocks so that the level of water was up to my breasts and leaned back against the rock behind me. The water running down into the pool agitated the surface, causing it to bubble and dance across my skin. I closed my eyes and sighed, letting my hand run across my breasts in time with the bubbling. As I touched, my legs opened slowly, as if naturally drawn apart by the promise of the touch of the water. I slid down slightly further on the rock so that I could tilt my hips, opening myself to the rush of the water, and immediately felt a surge of pleasure flow through me.