“Wipe the needle and thread down with the antiseptic wipes first.”
She followed his instructions and settled herself on the ground, facing his back. She dabbed away at the wound, clearing as much blood as possible so she could see what she was doing, but also to buy herself more time.
Tyler was wise to her delaying tactics. “Get on with it, Charlie.”
“Okay.” She took a deep breath. Her hand shook so badly, she looked like someone with a serious hangover. “Oh, shit. Here goes. Ready?”
“Just do it!”
With gritted teeth, starting at one side of the gash, she pushed the head of the needle into his skin. Tyler tensed, and air sucked in over his teeth.
“Sorry,” she squeaked, her stomach churning. She couldn’t believe she was sticking a needle into another person’s flesh.
“Get on with it,” he said again.
Don’t think about it, don’t think about it, she told herself, the tip of the needle sliding out again, pulling the thread along with it. She pushed into the flesh on the other side, wincing for Tyler, feeling his pain. She repeated the process, pulling the skin together, and tamped down the urge to apologize every time she pushed the needle into his skin.
The process felt like it took forever. When she was finally done, the gash pulled together with a series of slightly ragged, mismatched stitches. Both she and Tyler were coated in sweat. Tyler’s face was pale beneath his tan and his hands shook now, though her own trembling had subsided, having grown more confident with each stitch.
“It’s done,” she said. “It’s not pretty, but it’s done.”
He exhaled, long and slow. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” She took her bag back and pulled out water and one of the bananas they’d collected earlier. “Here, eat this,” she said, peeling the fruit for him and pushing it into his hands. “You look like you’ve had a shock. Your blood sugar is probably low.” She poured a little of the water onto a clean part of the bloodied t-shirt he’d taken off, and used it to wipe his forehead. He looked up at her as she did so, and she gave him a smile, her heart fluttering.
He ate slowly and washed it down with some more water. He lifted his eyes to her. “Thank you,” he said again. “That took some guts.”
She smiled. “I knew I had to have some somewhere.”
He didn’t smile back. “Seems to me like you have plenty.”
She didn’t know what to say.
They rested a little while longer. “I guess we should make a move,” she said eventually. “Our exploring is probably done for the day.”
“Yeah, especially as we don’t know how far across that drop hole might reach. I suggest we stay away from this part of the island.”
“I’m good with that.”
She got to her feet and put out a hand. Tyler grinned at her and took it, and she tried to pull him up, failing so he almost pulled her down. She burst out laughing. “Okay, okay. You made your point. I take it you’re feeling better.”
“I am, thanks to you.”
“Now you’re going to embarrass me.” She might have been jesting with him, but she was proud of herself at what she’d done. If someone had said to her a week ago that she’d have been sewing up an incredibly hot guy’s shoulder with a freebie sewing kit she’d taken from a hotel room, she’d never have believed them.
Chapter Fourteen
Back at the beach, Charlie threw a couple more pieces of wood on the fire and instructed Tyler to lie down and rest.
“I’m fine now, Charlie. You don’t need to mother me.”
The idea of him thinking of her as his mother horrified her. “Seriously, that’s the last thing I’d ever do. I just don’t want you ripping open those stitches I worked so hard on. Let me go and try to find some more shellfish. You can keep an eye on the fire.”
He grinned and settled on the sand. Unable to sit still without doing something useful, he picked up a stick lying nearby and began to poke the fire.
Charlie wandered back over to the rock pools, hoping to find another crab or two, but this time they proved elusive. She found a handful of cockles, and picked some seaweed she hoped might be edible. The last couple of days of scavenging mussels had left them scarce and she wondered what would happen if they were stuck here for any length of time. Would they plunder the area clear of any food and have to move on? If so, how long would it take them to wipe the island clean? If that happened, they’d have no choice but to try to reach the other island, assuming Tyler’s theory of there being a second island was true.
Something caused her to glance up. Charlie squinted. A dark spot appeared on the horizon. She frowned and lifted her hand to shelter her eyes. What was that? She studied it closer. The shape grew bigger, more defined.
Charlie’s heart leapt into her throat and she spun on her heels.
“It’s a boat!” she yelled. “Tyler! There’s a boat.”
She dropped what she’d scavenged and ran up the beach as fast as she could, her feet sinking frustratingly in the sand, slowing her progress. She felt like she was trying to run in a nightmare and couldn’t make her legs work fast enough. Her heart pounded, her breath gasping in and out of her lungs. She could barely believe she’d spotted the possibility of help, and her mind focused only on one thing—rescue.
Seeing her distress, Tyler had gotten to his feet, frowning. He’d lifted his own hand to his eyes to try to see her properly and figure out what was wrong. As she grew closer she yelled again, and pointed out to sea. “Look, a boat!”
Tyler’s head snapped toward the ocean. She skidded to a stop beside him.
“Shit,” he said. “Quick, we need damp wood for the fire. We need to create more smoke.”
But, despite the rainfall during the night, there had been nothing but bright sunshine all day, and everything was bone dry. Tyler picked up a fallen frond and tore at the leaf, adding pieces of it to the fire. In desperation, she picked up and threw a larger palm frond. It hit the fire, smothering the flames.
“Careful,” Tyler snapped. “You’re going to put it out!”
She hesitated, torn between wanting to help him, and feeling like she couldn’t and needing to do something else. Her mind made up, she ran down the beach and yanked her white top over her head and waved it in the air, frantically hoping someone would see.
“Hey!” she screamed. “Help us! Hey!”
She screamed until her throat was raw, but the boat still appeared to be nothing more than a dark mass on the horizon. She’d never be able to see someone waving a tiny shirt on deck, so there was no reason someone should be able to see her.
The fire had begun to produce a thicker, darker smoke, but it was all too little too late. The already small dot of the ship began to grow smaller. Charlie stood on shore and watched in despair as the dot finally vanished on the horizon.
She spun around to face Tyler. He stood beside the fire with his hand on his head, watching the vanishing boat with the same expression she was sure had been on her face a moment earlier. The expression did nothing to comfort her. Tyler was thinking exactly the same as her; he wasn’t about to tell her the ship might come back around.
Tears welled and spilled from her eyes, streaming down her cheeks.
“It’s not going to come back,” she sobbed. “If it doesn’t even know we’re here, why would it bother returning?”
“Charlie ...” But he trailed off, unable to offer her any comfort.
She dropped to her knees in the sand, the balls of her hands pressed into her eyes as she cried. “We’re going to be stuck here forever. We’re going to die on this godforsaken island.”
Strong fingers wrapped around her wrists, pulling her hands from her face. She looked up into those serious, dark eyes.
“We’re not going to die here, Charlie,” he said. “No one else is going to die.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do. Because I’m not going to let it happen, do you understand me? I’m not goi
ng to let you die.”
His fingers still gripped fiercely around her wrists, his hold tight enough to hurt. He stared down at her and she froze, unsure what he was going to do next. But then he yanked her up and toward him, pulling her into his chest.
She stared up, her breath causing her breasts to rise and fall against his naked chest. He looked down at her, his jaw tight, his dark eyes intense—almost angry—as though he was waging a battle inside of himself that she was not privy to.
“Fuck it,” he growled.
And then his mouth was upon hers, firm but insistent. He’d released her wrists, so she found herself with her palms pressing against the firm, warm skin of his pectorals. His arms snaked around her body, his large hands slipping down her back to palm her buttocks and press her against him. His tongue sought between her lips, and she opened her mouth to him. The tips touched, light and tentative at first, then dancing in a passionate frenzy.
Desire coiled tight and hot in her belly, and an involuntary moan escaped her lips.
He pulled her down into the sand, their lips barely breaking apart. Her back met with the warm grains, cradling her, as Tyler’s body eclipsed over hers. She arched up to meet him, wanting to press the entire length of her body against his. Her hands reached to run her fingers up and down the long, strong muscles of his back, but he grabbed her wrists with one hand, and pinned them above her head, the sides of her hands pressing into the warm sand. She squirmed against him, loving how he pinned her down, never wanting him to let go. Though she wanted to touch his body, to run her fingertips across his skin, to trace the lines of his muscles, to feel his hardness, at the same time it felt so erotic to have him holding her down. He was so much stronger than she was, and she loved feeling as though he could do whatever he wanted.
She’d already taken off her t-shirt to wave at the passing ship, so only her bikini top separated her breasts from Tyler’s muscular chest. Her hips bucked toward him, straining to make contact. Tyler complied, lowering his weight, crushing her against him. He’d captured her breath, as well as her body, and she felt completely consumed by him, his mouth still hungry on hers. If only she could stay like this, enveloped by Tyler, and forgetting the misery of their situation.
But his mouth left hers and worked its way down her body, his weight lifting from her while he traveled down. He kissed her neck in small nibbling bites, and used his teeth to pull away the flimsy triangles of material that made up her bikini top. His hot mouth enclosed over the peak of her nipple, sucking slowly and sensuously, before moving on to the next.
He kept moving down, letting go of her wrists to slip his body between her thighs.
Tyler popped the button on her shorts and then pulled them down her legs, lifting her roughly and ungainly to get the offending items off her body. She giggled but stopped instantly as he settled back between her thighs and gave her a look, eyebrows raised, as if to say ‘quit it.’
She did, falling serious. She didn’t want to get on the wrong side of Tyler. Especially not now. A little bit of emotional hysteria had resided inside her from the sighting and following disappointment of the boat, but it was gone now.
Tyler lowered his mouth to her and any ideas about laughing vanished. She could still feel the imprint of his fingers on her skin and she flung her arms above her head and closed her eyes, imagining he still had his hold on her. His tongue flicked the sensitive bud at the apex of her thighs, sending sparks through her, before he dipped down. Charlie groaned as his tongue pushed inside her, all of her stomach muscles tightening. She writhed and squirmed in the sand as he lavished attention on her. His hand slid up the length of her body, cupping the swell of one of her breasts, gently pinching and twisting her nipple. The area had a direct connection to between her thighs, sending her mind and body reeling, and her groans became cries. For once, she was glad no one was around to hear her, lying exposed on the beach, the waves lapping the shore only a few yards away. She’d never done anything like this, always so paranoid someone would be around to take photographs or spy on her. There was no danger of that here.
Tyler used his thumb to rub her most sensitive part—quick, little circles, building her to crescendo. She felt it coming, the tidal wave of an orgasm building inside her. The muscles in her stomach and thighs clenched in anticipation, and she blocked out all conscious thought of anything except Tyler and the sensations he was creating. She squeezed her eyes shut, her hand reaching down to dig her nails into Tyler’s hard shoulder. And then she reached her peak, and her pleasure broke over her and washed every conscious thought away with it.
Tyler looked up and smiled at her, a half smile, his eyes glazed with lust. “I’m not done with you yet.”
“Oh,” was all she could manage. He crawled back up her body and reached down, pushing his shorts from his hips. Then his hardness pressed against her folds. She was so wet, from her arousal and from Tyler’s saliva. It didn’t take much, a small nudge, and he slid deep inside her, filling her completely.
“Oh, God,” she moaned, trying to stop herself from collapsing out of sheer bliss.
“Fuck,” he growled in her ear. “You feel amazing.”
He pulled out, almost to the point of leaving her body, but then rammed back in again, hard, grunting as he did so, pushing her against the sand. She gave a little ‘uhh’ of shock. This wasn’t any slow lovemaking. Tyler wanted to screw her, to make them both forget their situation, she sensed that from him. He grabbed her hands again, and thrust deep and hard. Her breasts bounced with every stroke. She squeezed her eyes shut, blocking out her surroundings, wanting to forget where they were, even though the setting was beautiful. All she wanted was to drown in the feeling of Tyler inside her, of the way he made her body sing with every single touch. His movements built, becoming more frantic.
Hyper-sensitized because of her previous orgasm, Charlie knew she wasn’t far off another. Her body tensed, allowing the sensation to grow and build. Then it burst like stars behind her eyes, her internal muscles pulsing against him, her whole body shuddering as her orgasm ratcheted through her. Tyler thrust and thrust again, pushing deep and hard as he emptied himself inside her.
They stilled together, both breathing hard.
Tyler slipped from her body and lay beside her on the sand. He pushed an arm beneath her and hooked his hand around her waist, pulling her against him. She felt the wetness of both of their releases against her thighs, dampening the sand beneath them. They held each other, panting, allowing their bodies to recover.
Eventually Tyler laughed and kissed the top of her head. “I’ve wanted to do that since the first moment I saw you.”
She smiled back, pressing her face into the curve between his neck and shoulder. “I’ll have to have a hysterical crying fit more often.”
“No, don’t,” he said, sounding alarmed.
It was her turn to laugh. “I was only kidding. I wouldn’t want to offend your male sensibilities.” She paused. “In all seriousness, though. How are we going to get off this island?”
“That boat might not have stopped for us, but seeing a boat at all is good news. It means there must be some kind of shipping path past the island. Even if it’s only a cruise ship that passes by once a week, it’s still something. Next time we’ll be better prepared.”
She nodded, glad for his reassurance.
He started to move, getting to his feet and pulling her up with him. “Now, I think we might need to wash off.”
She was unbelievably sweaty and sticky. “You can say that again.” She remembered something. “I hope you didn’t break your stitches.”
He twisted around to allow her to see his back. She smiled with relief when she saw the wound was sandy, but still intact. She didn’t think she’d be able to repeat the process of sewing him up again quite so soon.
Feeling better, she and Tyler headed into the cool comfort of the waves. Charlie dived beneath them, washing the sweat and sex from her body. With not much more they could do,
they left the surf and collected the few shellfish Charlie had dropped in her panic about the boat. They cooked and ate, before retiring to bed. The day had been long and the sun had already started to go down. Despite her disappointment about the boat, and the gnawing hunger in her belly that never seemed fully satisfied, no matter how much fruit and shellfish she ate, when she curled up beside Tyler that night, and his big warm body wrapped protectively around hers, she didn’t think there was anywhere else she’d rather be.
Chapter Fifteen
Charlie woke to find Tyler snoring gently beside her. The big trek, followed by the additional exercise and lack of food, must have left him exhausted, and they’d both fallen into a deep sleep the moment they’d crawled onto the bed. She couldn’t imagine how he was coping on the tiny amounts of food they’d manage to scavenge. She was starving, and he was twice her size, yet he’d not tried to commandeer bigger portions, though he probably needed them.
She sat up and looked out to sea. No more signs of any ships. Would there even be any more? Perhaps that particular boat had somehow crept away from the shipping lane and so had gone past their island? Tyler seemed to think the fact they’d seen one meant there would be more. She wished she could agree with his optimism.
Her mind went back to food again. How great would it be if she could find them something to eat and return with it before Tyler woke? She imagined how impressed he would be with her scavenging skills, how he’d look at her with admiration, not just irritation or lust, which was pretty much all she’d felt him regarding her with since they’d met. She didn’t think she could stand eating another mollusk, but perhaps if she headed in toward the center of the island, she’d find another banana tree, or maybe a different fruit—a kumquat, or whatever hell tropical fruits grew in places like this.
With her mind made up, she slowly got to her feet. She’d pulled on her clothes before bed, wanting to protect her skin as much as possible from the biting bugs which seemed to love her. Slipping on her flip-flops as quietly as possible, not wanting to disturb Tyler, she turned away from the ocean and slipped between the line of palms and pine trees. The track they’d walked was now distinctly trodden, and she had no problem following it. The day had already grown hot, though the foliage offered some shade.
Dangerous Encounters: A Romantic Suspense Boxed Set Page 34
