STAY WITH ME
Friends to Lovers High Stakes HEA Romance
The Final Countdown
Jessica Aniston
Copyright © 2019 by Jessica Aniston
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
DESCRIPTION
Karin and Declan reach a breaking point and although they know that giving in at the most crucial moment of the competition would mean not just defeat but humiliation too, the pair decide to risk it. However, what they had not taken into account was the fact that the millions of eyes that were focused on them during the past months wouldn’t automatically disappear. Can Karin and Declan survive the overwhelming scrutiny and will their private lives remain so? Or will their romance be nipped at the bud?
Table of Content
DESCRIPTION
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER ONE
K arin sits on the bow of the speedboat that is taking them to a small uninhabited island about an hour off shore, feeling her skin burn in the sun. She’s lathered on sunscreen thick enough to serve as a second layer of skin, but she knows it’s useless. Even the tan she has gotten from being in the Caymans for nearly four weeks can’t save her from baking under the cloudless sky. It’s not the first day that the heat has seemed to box her in, weigh her down as if she was stuck in cement shoes, but it’s definitely the worst so far. Incidentally it’s also the worst it’s been with Declan. Since the last elimination they haven’t made a single step forward in addressing whatever it is that Declan finds so appalling about her that he can’t stand sleeping next to her anymore.
By the second night, she had gotten really angry at him, because it was unfair that he was treating her like some sort of sex fiend when he’d been the one to make the move. She had felt and still feels appropriately ashamed for getting off while he was there, but she didn’t think it was fair that he kept his distance from her when they were on their own, as if she would force herself on him at any moment. She hadn’t done that, and he wasn’t so damn innocent.
Please, let me…
Those had been his words. His choice. So, while she was getting angry at him, he had gotten angry at her for being angry at him and by the third night, they weren’t speaking in private. Of course, he was still pretending for the cameras, still tactile, still glued to her side, kissing her face and holding her hand. But he hasn’t kissed her with tongue as if he believed fully kissing with her for the cameras would encourage her neediness and whenever they are alone, he takes three steps away from her.
Four days after the incident, once they had been given their new challenge, she was at the point where she barely talked to him in front of the camera too. She knew it looked bad, and the more she retreated into herself, the more Declan pushed, caressed her face, and whispered sweet nothings to her, just loud enough for his collar mic to catch. She felt disgusting, mostly because her body still folded into his whenever he was close. She was furious with him but her skin tingled when he kissed her shoulder like nothing had happened, the traitorous thing. Her stomach still dips when he slots in behind her on the boat, slings his arms loosely around her waist, and puts his chin on her shoulder. She doesn’t have to look to know that Gorman has mounted the camera to film their approach of the island.
“We’re going to have to get some more sunscreen on you,” Declan mumbles. “Your skin is far too hot.”
Karin nods at his pretend concern, moving, despite herself, so his mouth lands on her neck beneath her ear. He pulls her closer. “It’s beautiful,” he says at the view in front of them. The other two remaining couples are approaching the island from other sides, each of them getting a bay to land on and then their own little spot of jungle to film their challenge on. Theirs is particularly pretty, Karin thinks. But then again, she hasn’t seen what they are giving Courtney and Bobby and Kaelan and Kaidan to work with. She wonders how they’ll look in their final challenge before returning home to be judged by the public, wonders who the audience will peg for the couple that has to leave just before making it to the big show-down. She wonders if they are hugging each other as tight as her and Declan- if it feels as hollow.
“Thanks, I got it,” Gorman says and Declan unlatches from her and scoots back, like he’s a dog pulled back by a leash. Karin turns her head and wishes she hadn’t, because what she sees are three faces painted in pity, and that’s the worst thing ever. Gorman has been watching them quizzically all week, while Ralph, the sound guy assigned to their little unit, as well as the PA Claudine who usually operates by the “be neither seen nor heard”-rule, have only started paying close attention to the state of Karin and Declan today. But they already seem to know a lot more than Karin would like. Logically, she knows that all they are aware of is that she and Declan are the pretenders, so they really shouldn’t be giving her pitying side-glances about the way she and her fake boyfriend are having problems, but they are anyway, so what is she supposed to believe they think? She bets she looks like the most ridiculous idiot to them, like everyone can see that she’s in love with Declan and he’s grossed out by her. Fantastic.
Looking to Declan for help is no use. He won’t do anything to save face now in front of them because it would mean getting close to her and he’s made it clear he never wants to do that again, so Karin gets onto her wobbly feet, holding on to the side of the boat as it’s rocked by the waves and staggers to Claudine on the opposite side.
“I like your dress,” she tells her, to start a conversation, and sits down next to the younger woman.
“It’s a jumpsuit, actually,” Claudine smiles, her dark skin shining beautifully, making her lemon-yellow onesie look radiant in its pastel color. “And it’s got pockets.”
“Oh, that’s so great,” Karin nods, feigning slightly more enthusiasm than she feels. “Where did you get it?”
“Got it in Delhi, last time I visited my family,” the girl replies and Karin makes a face.
“Then I can’t copy the look,” she mock-pouts and Claudine giggles politely. Claudine’s humoring her, they both know it. They keep at it until they land on the pearly white beach and help Gorman and Ralph unload their gear before saying goodbye to their boat-crew. Now Karin is trapped on a lonely island with a camera crew and the love of her life who wants nothing to do with her, for an entire night. There’s nowhere to go but forward.
She presses on. The trek into the jungle is harsh, mostly because the humidity in the foliage rises to what seems like a million degrees and she feels like she’s walking through liquid. Her makeup is gathering at the corners of her eyes, her hair is falling out of her top bun, her clothes stick to her, wet and soggy, and the altitude as they move up on the tree-covered hills is making her short of breath. If it wasn’t all so beautiful to look at, she might just drop down and refuse to keep moving. As it is, the jungle is a sight to behold.
The greenery around them is of such a rich green that she is quite certain she hasn’t ever seen proper green before today. Above them, there is only sparse light coming through the large leaves and ferns growing from the house-high trees. Everything is in bloom, flowers in all colors of the rainbow lining the way. Declan walks in front of her with a machete, hacking away vines and bushes so she can pass, warning her about roots in the ground, and helping her jump over a few at a certain point. Behind them, Gorman is filming. Of course he is.
Once they’ve arrived at their designated spot, he also films Karin foraging for berries and Declan
expertly build a fire just like he’s learned in the survival training. Its borderline sexist and they’re all aware but she’s too exhausted to put up a fight. She focuses instead on the positive, on the fact that she gets to be on a tropical island in an actual jungle, listening to the clicks and raps and noises that she only knows from the movies so far. She sees pretty yellow birds in the trees above her head and can pretend for a while that she’s a character on her favorite survival TV series.
It’s beautiful, aesthetically speaking. She can appreciate that. Sure, her heart has been disintegrating for a week now, but maybe getting to experience this is worth it. When would she ever have gone foraging in a real jungle if not for pretending to be Declan’s girlfriend? There’s a sentence she never thought she’d think.
When she gets back to rejoin Declan and Claudine by their extinguished fire, the air is even hotter and more humid than before, if that’s at all possible. Claudine looks worse for wear, her long black hair stuck to her face, and Declan has taken off his shirt. As Gorman and Ralph free themselves of their equipment for a chance to breathe, Karin hands them all a spare water bottle from her rucksack. It was either carrying the water bottles or the tent, and she left that task graciously to Declan and his broad back.
“Stop scratching,” she tells Declan as he goes to town on the mosquito bites on his legs. He’s usually good about it but the heat is getting to him, too. It’s the first thing she’s said directly to him all day.
“It feels like Monsoon season,” Claudine muses, handing Karin an empty plastic bottle, water still running past the corners of her mouth. “There’s a storm coming.”
“Then we should get the fishing bit on camera before it gets ugly,” Gorman muses. “Then I’ll see if I can reach Marietta on getting us out of here for the night. It doesn’t really make sense to be stuck here during a tropical storm.”
The lake in which they are supposed to catch a fish for dinner is even further up the steep hill and once they reach it, their gang of five needs to take a collective break. It’s a truly wondrous, picturesque sight to behold, that little lake with a waterfall at the far end and there is even a cave a few paces up the mountain path that Ralph goes to investigate with boyish curiosity. Declan uses his reprieve for a swim in the lake. Karin watches him absentmindedly as he swims his laps, right until Gorman comes back from a much needed bathroom break to yell at him.
“Declan, get out of there,” he hollers from the side, making Declan stop short where he swims and whip his head around so his locks stick to his forehead all funny. “That dam over there is barely enough to hold the water, let alone a guy splashing around in it. You’d be pulled right out to sea down the river there if it broke - and not in one piece.”
It’s a bit comical how fast Declan scrambles to get out, spasming forward until he reaches the water’s edge and then crawls out on his hands and knees, all the while looking over his shoulders as if the dam had already started breaking behind him. Karin would have laughed if she hadn’t been gripped by a white-hot panic at the potential of him dying from a freak accident involving a broken dam on a deserted island. From pure fear, she’s moved to help him out of the water, wondering half a second before he takes it, if maybe he’ll refuse the hand, she’s holding out for him because he doesn’t want to touch her.
His grip on her is tight and he doesn’t move away for once as she pulls him up and stands close to her, looking down at her while she has her hand wrapped around his forearm.
“You have to be careful,” she breathes and he nods, once again hooking a finger underneath her top strap, the way he had at the store in the city. He holds her gaze and her shirt for a long moment before he breaks away and turns to the rest of their crew, keeping to the sidelines.
“So let’s catch a fish, alright?” Declan says and that’s what they set out to do. He’s terrible at catching fish, but then so is Karin.
In the end they wind up faking it, mostly because the weather is getting more and more precarious and Marietta has phoned in on Gorman’s cool-as-hell field-satellite-phone and said that the storm coming in will be vicious. They’ll be picking them up within the next two hours at the beach so they can make it back to the main island in time. Basically Karin acts very surprised and gleeful about Declan “catching a fish” and then they attempt to make their way back to the site of Declan’s fire to fry the dried salted fish Claudine carries in her backpack having anticipated just this type of situation.
Only they never make it there.
The first boom of thunder takes them all by surprise with how loud and immediate it is. Having walked underneath dense foliage all day, none of them have noticed the sky darkening above them, and so the fact that the storm is already so close is a shocking revelation. They quicken their steps as Gorman trails behind, trying to get a signal on his sat-phone. He groans when he catches up to them, after finally reaching Marietta.
“We have to hurry, everyone,” he calls out, an edge of legitimate fear in his voice. “They can wait at the beach for fifteen minutes, after that it’ll be too dangerous to leave the island. Ralph, we might need to leave our gear somewhere.”
“No,” Ralph says, stubborn. “We got this. Let’s just go. If we cross the river, we’ll make it down to the beach in ten, equipment and all.”
“Fine,” Gorman says, shaking his head at the other man’s stubbornness, and Karin blindly follows them all down the trek.
After another minute or two of stumbling after the crew, Declan comes up from behind her and takes her hand.
“We’ll be fine,” he says to her, eyes cast forward stoically and she isn’t sure that he’s saying it purely for her benefit. She’s concerned, yes, but not scared. He doesn’t seem like he isn’t, though. She squeezes his hand reassuringly and he turns his head to her for a split second. Yes, he’s terrified.
He pulls her on faster. Just not fast enough. The thunder grows louder and more immediate by the minute. Coming upon the river, they finally realize it has started to rain terribly. Where the branches don’t quite meet over the river to make a canopy of leaves to shield them, the water from above batters down hard on them. Soaked to the bones and slippery, they have to climb down an incline of rocks in order to cross the creek. All things considered, Ralph and Claudine are nimble and quick, climbing up the other side with their gear, as Declan takes longer, straining to hand the heavy, unwieldy camera on uneven and perilous footing across the river to Gorman, already a couple of rocks higher up than him. The cameraman has just got the massive equipment when Claudine screams from above them, Ralph towering above her slender frame and pointing at something Karin can’t see.
“The dam broke!” Claudine yells, waving her arms and then Karin can hear the rumble behind her.
The river. The water. It’s coming. That’s the rumble.
“Declan!” she calls, frantic, just when Declan gets back to his full feet after passing over the camera. He has been so single-mindedly focused on the task that he looks at her in puzzlement when she yanks at his elbow. By the time he understands, it’s too late to get up the steeper side of the rocky river-bed, where Gorman, Claudine and Ralph have now found each other.
“Come on, we have to get back to the other side,” Karin shouts and pulls harder at him. He follows tonelessly, his face frozen in horror, and only springs back into action when the water rushing towards them comes crashing around the river bend. Damn it, they’re running out of time.
Declan scrambles, finds a vine hanging from a tree, pulls at it, and rips it from its origin.
“Damn it,” he curses and pulls Karin by her hand to try a second. This one stays anchored to the tree it’s grown around. “Get on my back!” he orders loudly to carry over the rolling waves coming for them. Karin blindly obeys, attaching herself to his back like a monkey just in time for him to scale the side of the river bed with her. Reaching the edge of the precipice, he dives and grabs for the veined tree like a koala, Karin clawing at him for dear life. Just be
neath them, the creek they attempted to cross just before turns into the Amazon. They made it, but only barely.
After the first wave of relief has washed over them and Declan puts her safely onto the pathway, the realization sinks in that they will never make it to the boat in time now. The others will, but Karin and Declan have no chance of making it to the beach.
“What are we going to do?” Claudine cries from the other side, almost drained out by another bout of thunder from overhead.
“Get to the boat!” Karin yells back vehemently. “We’ll wait out the storm and meet you at the beach in the morning!”
“No, we can’t leave you out here!” Gorman argues passionately.
“We’ll be fine! Just find us tomorrow, alright?” Karin shouts, equally as decidedly. “You have to get out of here!”
Gorman visibly battles with himself; it’s clear even from the distance and the murky rainfall between them. But then he seems to make a decision and launches the satellite phone into the air, an impressively wide throw that Declan apparently anticipated, because he stumbles a few paces backward and catches it, even if it’s so slippery from the rain that he nearly drops it right after.
“Call us once you’re safe somewhere!” Gorman bellows from the other side.
“We will!” Declan yells back. “Be careful! Go!”
Karin watches the others pause for another long moment, obviously torn about leaving them there but then eventually they start moving, and not a second too late, Karin thinks, if they want to get out to sea and escape the storm in time. Declan watches them leave, his arm around her from lifting her past the tree, clutching her tightly, still.
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