He folded his arms across his bare chest and shook his head in bemusement. “I am caring, Charlie. I’m looking out for you.”
“You don’t give a shit about me. Half the time you act as if you hate me.”
He barked laughter. “If I hated you, you would know about it.”
“That’s funny, ’cause I feel like you’ve made your disdain for me pretty clear.”
He pressed his lips together and stared at her, his eyes narrowed.
She raised her eyebrows. “What?”
“What are you doing here anyway, Charlie?”
“Err, as far as I was aware, pretty much the same thing as you.”
“I mean what were you thinking going on a show like Survivor?”
“It was just a job.”
“Couldn’t you have found something better to do with your time than expose yourself on national television?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t feel like I had too many choices.”
“How could someone like you not have choices?”
Charlie bristled afresh. “What do you mean, ‘someone like me’?”
“Privileged. You could have done something special with your life. You’re young, pretty, loads of money—”
“I had loads of money,” she corrected. “My father—the only family I have—was locked up for fifteen years for fraud. Everything he owned was taken in the bankruptcy.”
“Fine. You had loads of money. You could have done something special with that, but instead you spent the whole lot partying it up in clubs and throwing money away on clothes and fast cars.”
“I was in my early twenties. I had nothing else in my life. What else was I supposed to do? I was just having a good time.”
“And not thinking about anyone else.”
She was baffled. “Like who? I just told you I didn’t have anyone else. I barely had my own father. He was away more than he was home.”
“So the daddy’s girl didn’t get to spend enough time with daddy. Am I supposed to feel sorry for you or something?”
She shook her head. “No! I’ve never asked you to feel sorry for me. I’ve never asked anything from you! We’ve ended up in this situation because of an accident.”
“No. I’ve ended up in this situation because I was hired to take care of your sorry ass.”
She gasped as though he’d slapped her. “You blame me for you being here?”
“I had no other reason for being on that plane.”
“So go! Leave me alone and I’ll fend for myself. I don’t need you anyway.”
He laughed, a cold sound. “You’ll never make it on your own. You’d probably poison yourself within the first day.”
“Well, what the hell would you even care if I did? You know what, you can keep your bed and your fire, and everything else, too.” She grabbed a couple of the palm fronds. “I’ll sleep on another part of the beach tonight, out of your way so I don’t screw things up any further.”
“Don’t be stupid, Charlie. We need to stick together. Survival will be a whole heap harder if we’re separated.”
Angry tears burned the backs of her eyes. “I don’t care. I don’t want to spend another minute in your company.”
She turned and marched away from him, fury and misery bubbling inside her in equal measures. She heard Tyler’s feet hitting the sand behind her, and she increased her pace, almost breaking into a run. But his hand closed around her upper arm and he spun her back around. She glared at him, a challenging stare.
“You can’t go anywhere, Charlie. It’s my job to take care of you.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Consider yourself fired.”
Charlie wrenched her arm out of his grip and continued to march down the beach, blinking back hot tears. She refused to cry, not over him. Of all the things she had to cry about right now, some pumped-up knucklehead wasn’t one of them.
Where the hell had that come from? A few hours ago, he’d been kissing her, and now she felt as though he was attacking her. Did he really think it was her fault he was here? Surely it wouldn’t matter who’d been on the plane. If she’d not taken the job, another celebrity would have, and Tyler would still have been employed to look after them.
Unless he felt obliged to take care of her more than he might someone else—say, if he’d been stranded with another guy? Yes, she figured he would feel more responsible then.
Charlie pressed her lips together, determined to be as self-sufficient as possible from now on. She was a grown woman and didn’t need looking after, even if Tyler was trained for these sorts of survival situations. Perhaps she was spoiled and had come from a privileged background, but that didn’t mean she needed a babysitter. She’d show Tyler she could manage without his help.
A crunch of footsteps on the sand behind her caught her attention. “Charlie, wait up. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said those things.”
She drew to a halt and turned around. “Just leave me alone.”
“No. I can’t and I won’t.” He lifted his hands in surrender. “I’m sorry I snapped. I’m hungry, and that does bad things to my temper.” He risked a smile. “I think they call it hangry.”
Her lips twitched at the phrase.
“Look,” he continued, “if you really can’t stand to be anywhere near me, then I’ll sleep over there, and you have the bed. I never meant to upset you. I am just trying to make sure we get off this island in one piece.”
The raging flare of her indignation and anger started to die down. She felt stupid. Her emotions had been dented by his earlier rejection, and she’d taken things too hard. She had overreacted, just as he had. They were in a difficult situation. Tempers were bound to be frayed.
She shook her head. “No, it’s fine. We’ll sleep together.”
Immediately, her choice of words made her cringe.
She had to admit she was exhausted.
“Okay, good,” he said. “I really am sorry.”
“It’s fine. Forget it.”
“No, it’s not. I want to explain.”
Something about his tone made her soften inside, and she lifted her gaze to his face, his features unreadable. This is hard for him, she realized, whatever it was he was going to tell her.
Her shoulders slumped. “Okay, explain.”
Tyler pressed his lips together and nodded. He took a deep breath, as though preparing himself for what he was about to say. “You and I couldn’t have come from more two different backgrounds. I grew up in one of the rough boroughs in New York. My dad left when I was tiny, and my mom worked every evening in a bar to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads. But it meant in the evening, me and my brother would be left to fend for ourselves. We’d sit in the apartment—he was only seven, I think I was no more than five—and listen to people fighting outside our door. People yelling, bottles smashing, even gunshots on occasion. My mom didn’t want to leave us, but she had no choice. My main memory of my childhood is being frightened.”
She bit her lower lip in remorse. “I’m so sorry. Didn’t your mom have anyone she could get to watch you and your brother?”
He shook his head. “No one she trusted. She was on her own.”
“Not even a neighbor?” she asked, thinking surely even a neighbor would be better than letting small children stay on their own.
“I guess she felt she couldn’t rely on them not to be involved with drugs or firearms.”
“Wow,” she said, blinking with shock.
“So you see why your upbringing seemed so much better than mine? Private school, big house, whatever you wanted bought for you. I don’t mean to sound bitter, it’s just my family struggled every day to get where we are, and I don’t understand how someone who had everything they ever wanted laid out on a platter could end up doing something they clearly hated.”
She was suddenly filled with shame at the way she’d been raised, though it wasn’t something she’d ever had any control over. “I guess I took everything for granted.”
Charlie wondered briefly if the scar across the bridge of his nose had anything to do with his rough upbringing.
“So we’re friends again?” Tyler asked.
She gave a smile and nodded. “Sure. Friends.” But for some reason, the word left a bitter taste in her mouth. Did she want them to be more? Was that the real reason her emotions were so ragged? On top of everything else, of course?
Together, a mutual peace falling over them, they headed back to camp. Charlie finished cleaning the shellfish, which Tyler then cooked, and they ate, watching the sun go down.
With little else to do, especially in the dark, they took themselves to Tyler’s newly created bed. Though the insects buzzed, and rats scurried, exhaustion took hold and Charlie quickly found sleep.
Chapter Twelve
Rain fell during the night.
Charlie was thankful for the canopy, and that she’d not stuck to her guns and slept out in the open. The parachute silk wasn’t waterproof, but Tyler had layered it with palm fronds, and it kept off the worst of the water. She drifted in and out of sleep, aware of the pattering of raindrops on their makeshift roof, and the constant whine of insects that never seemed to leave them alone. Tyler had gotten up several times during the night to add extra wood to the fire and make sure it stayed dry, but she’d found herself too exhausted to move ...
The itching woke her. An intense itching all over her body, but especially on her arms, hands, feet and face. She blinked open her eyes to bright morning sunlight, only to find her vision narrowed.
What the hell?
She realized her lips also felt swollen, together with the delicate skin around her eyes. Pushing herself to sitting, she brought her hands to her face. With her touch, the itching intensified, and she had to restraint herself from clawing her nails across her skin to try to relieve it.
“Tyler?” she said, her voice small. She peered around through her narrowed vision, and saw him rise to standing beside the fire.
He turned to face her and winced. “Ah, shit. You’ve been bitten. Looks like the rain brought out the sand flies.”
She saw he’d been bitten too, red dots marring his usually flawless skin, but he’d not had the same reaction to the bites.
Charlie remembered she had a tiny mirror on the inside of the first aid kit she’d brought, and scrambled off the bed toward her pack. She located the kit and opened it up. The mirror was fogged with condensation, but she wiped it off and lifted the glass to her face.
She gasped at her reflection. “Oh, God.” She appeared to have been badly beaten during the night. Both eyes were swollen and red, her lips also puffy. She clamped a hand over her mouth and suppressed a sob. “I look awful.” She wanted to curl in on herself and vanish. Her looks was the one thing she could normally rely on, and right now her appearance was absolutely hideous. She covered her face with her hands, not wanting Tyler to see her.
“What have you got in that first aid kit of yours?” Tyler asked. “Any antihistamine?”
Her mouth turned down at the corners, and she shook her head. “I doubt it. I only brought the basics.”
But she removed one hand from her face long enough to hand over the box, and he rifled through the contents. “Hmm, just a few antiseptic wipes and some Band-Aids, a bandage or two.” He picked out the wipes. “We’ll use these to wipe down your skin. The itch is caused by a substance in the insects’ saliva, so cleaning the bites will help.” He glanced over at her backpack. “You mind if I use some of the toothpaste as well?” Of course, she’d packed her basic toiletries in her bag.
She shook her head. “Sure.” Though she wondered why he needed to brush his teeth right at that moment.
“Good. We’ll have you fixed up in no time.”
She gave a wry smile. Somehow, she doubted that.
He crouched in front of her and gently pulled her hands away from her face. He smiled into her eyes as he gently wiped around her eyes and mouth, and then dabbed on the toothpaste.
“The toothpaste will help to ease the itch and reduce the swelling,” he explained.
Charlie pressed her lips together trying not to cry. She scratched at the skin on her opposite hands, and her legs and feet itched so badly she rubbed them against the wood and plastic Tyler had gathered to create the base of the bed. It was stupid to get upset about such a trivial thing, but everything had compounded itself, and so to sit here looking like someone with a third world disease made her feel even worse about herself. Her lower lip trembled as he gently wiped down her skin and dabbed toothpaste on her bites, and tears spilled from her eyes.
“Charlie,” he said, gently. “Stop crying.”
“I’m sorry. I’m an idiot. I’m just so tired and I can’t stop scratching and my whole face is swollen.”
“I know. I got bitten, too, Charlie. It sucks.”
“But your face hasn’t swollen up the same way mine has.” Shaking her head, she covered her face with her hands again. Now she was swollen, bitten, and covered in blobs of toothpaste. It was a good thing there were no photographers here. The magazines would have a field day with pictures of her in this condition.
Gently, Tyler tugged at her wrists, pulling her hands away from her face. She blinked at him with tear-filled eyes.
“You still look beautiful, Charlie. Even with a face full of bites.”
She wanted to be happy that he’d told her she was beautiful, but she couldn’t bring herself to believe him. Instead, she sniffed and ducked her head, unable to look at him. “I must look like fucking Quasimodo!”
He gave a small shrug. “Okay, maybe a little Quasimodo-ish. But not fully. More like a half-sister, or something.”
She reached out and smacked his hard shoulder, but a smile tugged at her lips.
“Give the antiseptic and the toothpaste some time to work, and the swelling will go down, I promise.”
She took a shaky breath and gave him a smile. “Thanks, Tyler.”
“No problem. Now go and drink some water and lie back down while I try and find us something for breakfast.”
Impulsively, she leaned forward, wrapped her hands around his neck and hugged him hard. He froze for a fraction of a second, but then his big body relaxed. His hands crept around her and he hugged her back.
She released him first.
“Thanks,” she said again, suddenly embarrassed.
“Get some rest,” he told her, rising to his feet. “I’ll go fishing. We’ll feel better when we get some food inside us.”
Charlie drank some of the water he’d boiled, trying not to grimace at the warm, gritty taste, and then lay back down on the bed. At least they had these few comforts. Tyler had done a great job of creating the camp for them.
With the thought of their camp, dread settled on her shoulders. This wasn’t a game, she reminded herself. They were the survivors of a plane crash in which people had died. Only Tyler’s presence was making this whole thing bearable. What would have become of her if she’d not had him around?
A plane or boat would surely arrive today. They’d been missing for more than forty-eight hours now. That was plenty of time for the production team to realize something had gone horribly wrong and send out a search crew. They couldn’t have been washed too far off course. It would only be a matter of time before someone showed up.
Clinging to the positive, she pushed herself to sitting, shoved the hair out of her eyes, and looked across the beach down to the water. Where was Tyler? She’d expected to see him splashing around in the shallows but everything was quiet. The only sounds she heard were the waves on shore and the breeze moving the palm leaves above her head. She couldn’t see or hear him.
Her heart picked up its pace. What if he’d slipped while he was fishing and drowned? Or tried to climb the rocks at the farthest edge of the cove and fallen and cracked open his head? The idea of trying to survive here without him terrified her. Despite all her bravado the previous night about being independent, she didn’t think she
’d still be alive without him.
To her relief, Tyler appeared from the opposite end of the beach carrying a huge fish of some kind, his fingers locked in the inside of the creature’s mouth so it hung from one arm like it was biting him.
She smiled as he approached, feeling self-conscious. “Hey. There you are. I was starting to get worried.”
He lifted the fish higher. “I caught this bad boy and took it around to the next cove to gut and clean it. I figured we didn’t want fish guts washing up on our part of the shore and stinking the place up. Plus,” he frowned, “it might attract predators.”
“Oh, right. Well, the fish looks awesome.”
“Thanks. A bit better than last time.”
“You didn’t have too much to improve upon,” she teased.
He grinned back and her heart fluttered. “No, I guess I didn’t.”
“I’ll get the fire stoked back up. I’m starving.”
“How’s the face feeling?” he asked her.
She lifted her fingers to lightly touch her skin. “Better, thank you. You worked some magic.”
He nodded. “You look better, and you’ll feel even better after we’ve eaten. And anyway, I figured we’d need a good meal if we’re both going to see where that cliff ridge leads to this morning.”
Her soul lightened. He was going to let her come! She’d been so sure they’d end up having another fight about it. She looked at the ground with a secret smile. “A good meal sounds great.”
Before long, they had the fire burning high and the fish skewered and turning on a makeshift spit above the flames. Though she was normally more of a fruit and cereal kind of girl for breakfast, the fat dripping from the fish and hissing in the fire, smoke filling the air, made her salivate.
They ate the fish directly off the spit, burning their fingers but too eager to get the juicy flesh into their mouths. Other than a few shellfish, a bit of crab, and some coconut, this was the first decent meal Charlie had eaten in two days. She was already slim and didn’t have too many fat resources to live off, so her body was literally craving protein. She found herself tearing into the fish, filling her mouth, not caring what she looked like, despite Tyler sitting a mere yard from her. Her body took over, and she’d never tasted anything so fine.
Dangerous Encounters: A Romantic Suspense Boxed Set Page 32
