If it was any other woman first of all I wouldn’t even be here. And then if that challenge came up then there’s no way I would have accepted it.
But challenges like those are something like modern day Roman Coliseum challenges where we can show the one and only one we want to spend the rest of our life with what we’re willing to do to be with them.
And I would do anything for her as I proved yesterday.
And I don’t care what Eric’s got dreamed up for today. It doesn’t matter. I’ll tackle that with the same calculated confidence, although likely appearing to be full of reckless abandon, as any of the other challenges.
I surely look careless to the outside observer or to the people who will watch this at home from the comfort and safety of their living room couch.
But it’s very calculated. It’s all part of my plan to show her, the world, and her brother that there’s nothing that will come between us.
“Challenge time,” a voice says as three knocks echo from my door throughout the hollow-sounding room.
I’m up and out of bed like a bolt of lightning.
Not thirty minutes later they’ve got us all lined up and ready to go.
“The next challenge, and possibly the final one, will be Tahitian Twister,” the announcer says.
The crew pull a giant Twister mat in front of us, but instead of colors it’s covered with symbols that the French Polynesian islands are famous for.
I do the math on this one and realize real quick that the mat is too small and our bodies are going to get too tangled.
And there’s no way her body gets close to anyone other than mine, let alone wrapped up with like two ropes.
“We’ll take the alternate challenge,” I say.
I feel Isabella nudge me in the ribs. “I’m not watching you almost die again,” she says.
“I don’t remember ever being close to death,” I say. I love that she cares about me so much and doesn’t want to see me harmed, but I’m a man and danger and play are the things a true man lives for as Friedrich Nietzsche once said.
And I’ll up the ante when it comes to danger when the payoff is more time “playing” with her.
“Are you sure?” Eric says and I see that damn evil look overtake his face again knowing that this stupid game of Twister would be much easier.
“Completely,” I say.
I look down at Isabella and watch as her cheeks expand as she exhales hard.
“It’s like you don’t even need me anymore,” she says.
“I want you more than anything, that’s why I’m doing this challenge myself. I need to keep my baby’s mother safe from harm at all times…even if it’s just Twister.”
She looks at me curiously but the truth in my words is unwavering.
“Okay then,” Eric says.
“The two other teams will compete in a timed Twister game. Whoever holds the longest will win.” Then he pauses. “Isaiah and Isabella will go diving for swimming pool rings as the alternative challenge. However many minutes the losing Twister team achieves before falling is how many rings Isaiah and Isabella will have to dive for, secure in their mouths, and bring to the surface, in an equal amount of minutes. So if the losing Twister team lasts twenty minutes? Isaiah and Isabella will have to go twenty minutes and get twenty rings…just to tie. Any less in twenty minutes…they lose. Any more in twenty minutes…they advance on to tomorrow which by definition will be the final day as there will only be two teams remaining.”
Eyes wander as contestants size each other up and everyone prepares for what’s at stake.
“Twister teams, take you positions by the mat.”
The teams get into position and sure enough, just like I thought, not even three minutes into the game and the bodies are underneath one another, on top of one another, and breasts are brushing against arms, shoulders, and practically faces.
One guy’s face is so close to the butt of the other team’s woman I know for sure he could bite her cheek if he wanted to.
Suddenly I start laughing.
“What is it?” Isabella says.
“Remember those beans and rice they served us last night?”
“Yeah.”
I motion with my head to the woman who’s butt is in prime biting position. “See how corkscrewed her body is?”
“Yes.”
“I have to imagine her stomach is pretty twisted in that position too. Imagine if those beans and rice decided to make their presence felt right about now. She could huff and puff and blow the competition down.”
Isabella laughs so hard she literally snorts. When one of the guys on the mat looks our way as she grabs me by the arm and buries her face in my tricep.
Things have been so serious lately. It’s great that a little childish joke can loosen up the air a little bit.
Suddenly the guy whips his head back around and his cheek slams into the girl’s behind which causes her to wobble. Her forearm buckles but she quickly tries to lock it in place, but it’s too late. It’s pumped into the chest of another player who then rotates back sending him into the hip of the girl to his side.
And then almost right on cue the girl I had pointed out to Isabella does break wind.
“Gross!” the guy says whose face is way too close for comfort.
Her partner laughs and the wobbling and buckling of locked elbows and knees continues and suddenly all four bodies come crumbling down at once into a big pile.
I can’t even describe how angry I would be if Isabella’s body was in that pile right now. Two other guys and two other women touching her.
Hell no.
I watch as Eric looks at the camera crew and all he can do is raise his eyebrows, purse his lips and angle his head to the side.
“We’re going to have to review that,” Eric says as the contestants pick themselves up off the mat.
Nearly ten minutes later Eric comes out of the production tent and declares that both teams literally hit the mat at the same instant.
Somehow they lasted nine minutes, which means if Isabella and I can get ten rings in nine minutes we win the entire thing…and the prize money that comes along with it.
I look at her and she looks at me. We know we’re close, but we’re not there yet.
And when it comes to her I won’t stop until we’ve made it all the way.
CHAPTER 15
Isabella
The entire set heads over to the fenced in area of the water where we had our very first challenge with the sharks.
I’m already imagining how difficult this is going to be grabbing all these rings with my teeth and getting them up on the platform in time. Thankfully there’s two of us so if we can each get five in nine minutes we win the whole kit and caboodle.
But kicking up sand as we swim is going to be an issue. So is seeing, although I already see they’re giving us goggles for this challenge.
I’m wondering if there are crabs or some animals that live on the ocean floor that might be ready to bite our faces.
Suddenly Twister doesn’t sound so bad, not that it really ever did at all.
But to Isaiah’s possessiveness it was always way too over the line.
“So this is it,” the announcer says. “Ten rings in nine minutes for one hundred thousand. Nine rings in nine minutes means all three teams advance to tomorrow. And anything less than nine means the Twister teams advance and you two go home packing.”
We look at each other and nod as we stand at the water’s edge ready to slowly move in and get the rings. I can already see their bright colors standing out and know this is just a matter of execution.
“But…this wouldn’t be Instalove Island if we didn’t instantly raise the stakes.” The announcer pauses. “Bring in the rays!” he says and I watch as one of the barricades is removed and three stingrays swim into the contest area.
“More of Eric’s sadistic b.s.,” Isaiah says.
“Contestants are you ready?” the announcer says.
> “Not yet,” Isaiah says. He turns to me and places his hands on my shoulders, squaring his body up to me and looking down at me. It should be hard to take a grown man in fluorescent swimming goggles seriously, but not him. “You’re sitting this one out,” he says.
“No time to wait,” the announcer says. “In three…”
“No! We’re so close,” I say.
“Yes, we are and that’s why I’m going to take us over the finish line…together and in one piece.”
“Two,” the announcer says.
“You need me. I can get a few and it will make a big difference.”
“One,” the announcer says.
“You’re right I do need you. And that’s why I’m going to get them all,” Isaiah says just before his lips come crashing down onto mine.
The bullhorn sounds and Isaiah picks me up and literally carries me back to the water setting me down on the shore before turning and looking at the clock which already shows 08:57.
I watch as his eyes scan the water for the stingrays and he takes off in a sprint for the edge diving in headfirst and emerging with a ring in-between his teeth.
“That’s one,” the announcer says as Isaiah swims it over to the floating platform and spits it onto the surface.
He dives deep and I watch his body under the crystal clear water’s surface.
But what I’m really watching are those three stingrays as one moves in closer.
I feel my body shake as one closes in. Isaiah has been under for well over fifteen seconds now as the stingray swims right over the top of him.
He just stays still and I know he surely sees it.
I hold my breath and close my eyes tight for a second and just as the stingray passes over him he swims to the surface, coughing but managing to keep his teeth locked around ring number two which he quickly swims over to the platform.
My heart beats out of my chest as Isaiah manages to pile up eight rings onto the platform at the exact moment the clock shows one minute.
“One minute. One minute remaining,” the announcer says.
Isaiah dives down and I watch as two stingrays swim right past him, he barely makes it and I breath out hard as my hands cover my mouth.
He’s managed to get eight rings in exactly eight minutes but the water is getting cloudy now as he been kicking up sand the entire time trying to maneuver out of the way of the stingrays tail spines.
He swims farther away from the platform to find clearer water where he can locate rings, which he does.
He grabs a blue one and my mind fills with the idea of a baby boy, which makes no sense in this time of intense pressure and anxiety.
I guess I’m thinking about his child because he’s so close to death out there. It’s feral, primitive, and only natural.
“Twenty seconds!” the announcer says as Isaiah spits the ring onto the platform.
If that last ring took forty seconds, and he was averaging a full minute per ring there’s no way he’ll get another ring in twenty seconds.
But I have faith in him…always.
Isaiah dives down and all anyone can see is a dart underneath the water. He must need air. He has to come to the surface and swim across, but he doesn’t.
Suddenly his body turns underwater and he starts swimming back to the platform.
“Ten seconds!” the announcer says.
I can see his arms reaching like mad as he glides underneath the water’s surface closing in on the platform.
“Five…four…three…”
Isaiah breaches the surface and in one motion his entire upper body finds the platform and his mouth opens and not one, but two rings fall right onto the surface.
“One…time!” the announcer says.
I jump up and down as Isaiah holds onto the platform.
“The stingrays,” I say.
His weary head turns behind and sees all three stingrays coming his way.
He drops his body into the water and I watch as he uses every last bit of power he has remaining to swim to the shore.
When he reaches it he can’t even get out of the water. I grab him underneath his armpits and put all my weight into my heels and butt as I drag him to complete safety as the crew pulls the platform ashore to count the rings.
“Eleven,” the crew member says to Eric, who then looks at the announcer and mouths the world eleven and nods.
“And with eleven rings in nine minutes the champions of Instalove Island are Isaiah and Isabella!”
I roll Isaiah over onto his back and I jump on top of him.
His chest is heaving wildly, but somehow a smile overtakes his face.
“We did it,” he gets out in-between gasps for air.
“You did it,” I say hugging him.
“We did it. We’re a team remember. We lift each other up, just like you lifted me out of the water to safety.”
“Finally, no more of Eric’s crazy and dangerous challenges.”
“We didn’t only win the competition, we beat him. And we won each other’s hearts in the process,” he says.
“You always had mine,” I say. “Always.”
“And I always will,” he says as his hand slowly rises up off the sand as he gently cups my jaw as his digits brush against my cheek. His hand slides behind my head and he brings my face down on his and we kiss hard. The taste of the salty seawater mixed with the excitement and adrenaline of the moment is intoxicating.
“How about we get a couple of Hinanos and get outta here,” he says, referring to the local beer. “We can still get in a toast before sunset.”
“That sounds perfect. Any place in particular where you want to take it in from?”
“I made reservations last night because what good is all the money in the world if we can’t enjoy it together.”
“Reservations? What else is there on this island?”
“Nothing without you, but because you’re here with me? Everything.”
CHAPTER 16
Isaiah
“You couldn’t stop us, no matter how hard you tried,” I say as I corner Eric sitting underneath some palm trees.
“You still don’t get it, do you?”
“Oh, I get it alright. Trying to kill me so I’d leave your sister alone. Well, I’ve got news for you. I’m going to pursue her like this until I take my last breath…and that includes after I put a ring on her finger. I’m never going to take her for granted and I’m going to come after her with a ferocious hunger unlike the world has ever been seen.”
“Okay, man. That’s my sister.”
“And now she’s mine.”
“That was the point all along.”
I pause shooting him a strange look. I feel my fingers, which were balled up in fists, slack a bit as I’m suddenly confused.
“See the only thing that was stopping the two of you all this time was each other. Why do you think I brought you on the show? Do you think I really needed another couple for the competition? Hardly. The point was to show you that you two were the only ones with this mental block about me being in the middle or something. I mean I guess that’s why you’ve been lusting after each other for what? Four years now?
I set up these challenges to show you there’s nothing you won’t do to be with the other. To make it as obvious to the two of you as it was to the rest of us. And just as expected you went to the ends of the earth to make her yours. I didn’t do anything other than show you two, and the entire world, how perfect you are for each other. So the winner here is everybody, myself included. So you two can finally get together and be the couple that you should be and we can all get on with our lives.”
“What? I don’t believe you.”
“Remember in high school football practice? During two-a-days when coach would say motivational stuff like what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger? How he preached about how doing this tough work together would make the bond between all of us so much stronger and literally unbreakable?
Well, think about it
. You think if you experience some challenge or trouble in your relationship either one of you are going to jump at the first sign of stress? Hardly. You’ve battled sharks, stingrays, and the most savage wave in the world to be together. What can come between you now? Absolutely nothing. I set up the challenges so you could see for yourself, and you delivered with flying colors.”
Instalove Island: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 82) Page 6
