Double Jeopardy

by Emma Sinclair

  “Nothing,” she lied as she struggled to a standing position. “I’m just going to go take another sonic shower.”

  She hoped against all odds that he’d turn away when she made her way to the bathroom but her hopes were dashed when he hissed through his teeth.

  “That looks kind of painful.”

  She looked back to see his eyes focused on her ass.

  “I wouldn’t know,” she said. “I can’t see it.”

  But what was the first thing she did when she stepped into the bathroom? Climb up on the sink so that she was able to see her ass in the mirror.

  He was right. It did look painful.

  Damn him.

  And why in the hell did a tingle course through her at the thought of him smacking her again?

  Di cleaned herself up as best she could. The showers were strictly regulated and she’d already used up her allotment for the day.

  Water was scarce even when they were at sea. She used some of the pitcher of drinking water, but she was pretty sure she’d be thirsty later in the day.

  But at least she was mostly cleaned off and hopefully she’d gotten all of the rope fragments out of the cuts on her wrists. She was just about to head back into the stateroom when she realized that she didn’t bring any clothes in with her.

  Damn it.

  She cracked open the door a slight bit.

  “Cal?” She called.

  “Yeah?” She could hear him put the screen down and get up from the table. “Is everything all right in there? I sent for some antiseptic for your wrists.”

  “Great. Thanks. Uh--do you think you could hand me some clothes?”

  She was pretty sure Cal laughed at her, but he was smart enough to cover it as a cough. Good. He was obviously learning how to deal with her. And why did that send a pleasant warmth coursing through her body.

  “Here you go.”

  He shoved a soft flowing garment into her hands.

  “What is this?”

  It was the palest pink she’d ever seen and it was the smoothest thing she’d ever felt.

  “It’s a robe,” he said. “Silk,” which she assumed was the kind of fabric. “I’ve had it since we left but, well, I didn’t really know the appropriate time to give it to you.”

  “Oh.”

  That’s all she could come up with? Oh?

  How was she expected to come up with something more? It wasn’t like she was practiced in the arts of receiving presents. In fact, this was the only present she ever remembered receiving in her life.

  She mumbled something that wasn’t even coherent to herself before closing the door.

  She held the robe up in front of her, admiring the way it glistened in the overhead lights. It was breathtaking. And wrapping it around herself was like stepping into a cloud.

  It slid over her skin leaving tingles in its wake. Once it was on, she tied the sash around her waist. She gasped when she caught her reflection in the mirror.

  She looked…pretty.

  Her long black hair combined with the soft pink robe made her skin look pale and smooth. Like the pearls she’s seen pictures of. Though she could have admired herself in the mirror all day, something she’d never even dreamt of doing before, she figured she should probably tend to her wounds.

  Not to mention the needed to devise a plan of attack for once they got off of the ship.

  There was likely to be a battle and she only hoped that she’d come out of it unscathed. And Cal, too

  Especially Cal.

  She stepped out of the bathroom to se Cal once again firmly ensconced in his reading. He glanced up at her briefly, but his eyes quickly returned to the screen.

  Then he jumped up from his chair, dropping his screen and scaring the hell out of Di. She quickly spun around ready for battle, but no one was there.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” she asked, whirling back around and trying to calm her pounding heart.

  “You look…wow.”

  He’d practically terrified her because of how she looked?

  She didn’t know what to say.

  “You’re supposed to say thank you.”

  “What?”

  “When someone gives you a compliment, or a present or something. You’re supposed to say thank you.”

  “Oh, right. Thank you. Now don’t scare me like that again.”

  Chapter Eight

  Di was the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen in his life when she walked out of that bathroom clad in the pink robe. He’d had Trevor find it for her as soon as he brought her home passed out. But somehow until that moment it hadn’t seemed right to give it to her.

  But damn, if he wasn’t happy that he had.

  He certainly hadn’t known Di long, but in their brief acquaintance, he hadn’t ever thought of her as quite so innocently beautiful. Sexy as hell–absolutely, but this beauty thing was new to him.

  As was it to her, he guessed as she fussed with the sash around her waist.

  “Sit down and I’ll work on your wrists for you.”

  She walked to the bed, stepping over the screen still lying on the floor now blinking the word, Alliance. He’d have to worry about fixing it later.

  Who needed a screen when you were forced to share a miniscule stateroom with a beautiful woman?

  Di perched on the edge of the bed, wincing when her bottom came into contact with the hard mattress. Right. He was going to be the one needing a screen because he was pretty sure that after that performance he wasn’t going to be getting much closer than her wrists.

  “Here,” she said, holding her wrists out in front of her. “Let’s get this over with.”

  Cal ripped open the package containing the antiseptic wipe.

  “This might sting a little.”

  “I think I can take a little pain,” she said.

  Still, she winced when the alcohol came into contact with her battered wrists. He leaned down and blew on the places he’d just swiped the alcohol.

  She shivered slightly, making her silk covering shimmer in the low light of the room.

  Working hard to keep his touch impersonal, the touch of a healer, he wrapped gauze around her wrists and secured them with tape.

  “How do they feel?” He asked, standing up and cleaning up the medical supplies.

  “The skin has been ripped off of my wrists. How do you think they feel?” she asked. “They hurt like hell.”

  “Sorry about that,” he said.

  “You’re going to have to bind me again when we get off of the ship aren’t you?”

  There was no question in her voice at all. She was resigned to the fact.

  “Yeah. But we can leave the bandages on.”

  She shook her head.

  “No. It’ll be more realistic with the blood.”

  “Di, your wrists look like hamburger. I don’t want to hurt you even more.”

  She simply shrugged.

  “When you’re doing what we’re doing you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”

  He laughed about her roundabout way of saying things. He plopped himself on the bed next to her and leaned back against the wall.

  He wanted nothing more than to grab her and pull her against him but he didn’t think she’d go for that. Then she did something that totally shocked him. She leaned back next to him.

  She barely touched him, only their shoulders overlapped a slight bit. Cal started to move his arm, to wrap his arm around her and pull her close, but then decided she probably wouldn’t like that. So he left his hand sitting on the bed simply enjoying the heat of her next to him.

  Cal had no idea how long he’d slept but when he woke up he had no feeling in his right arm and someone was pounding on the door.

  “What the hell is going on?”

  Di apparently had been asleep, too.

  She was adorably rumpled and her silk robe was falling off one of her shoulders.

  “I guess we must have fallen asleep.”

  Cal trie
d rubbing his eyes but that didn’t really help.

  “Is it foggy in here?”

  Di looked around the room. Cal laughed as she spun around. She looked kind of like his dog when he was chasing his tail.

  “Do you feel normal?”

  Considering that he was pretty sure that he was talking to two of her, no, he didn’t feel normal.

  “Wait, wasn’t someone knocking on the door?”

  Cal crawled off of the bed, only stumbling a few times in the process. He had little doubt now. There was definitely something wrong.

  He just wished he could put his finger on what it was. He stumbled his way to the door and reached for the doorknob. It came off in his hand.

  “You broke it,” Di said from directly behind him.

  She held herself up by hanging on to the bathroom doorjamb.

  Cal knocked on the door.

  “Hey, is anyone out there?”

  He was pretty sure he could hear movement, and there were definitely words, but damned if he could make them out. Then that lightheaded feeling overtook him again. He turned to say something to Di.

  The last thing he saw was her crumpling to the floor.

  ****

  Moaning hurt too much.

  Di came to with the mother of all headaches. She quickly learned that moaning was a bad idea. She forced open one eyelid. Yeah, that was a bad idea, too.

  “Welcome back to the land of the living.”

  She didn’t know that voice. Wasn’t even sure he was talking to her.

  But the voice was kind, masculine, some how familiar even though she was sure she’d never met the person before.

  “I turned the lights down if you want to try opening your eyes again.”

  She supposed he must be talking to her so she tried again.

  He was telling the truth when he said the lights were turned down low, but it didn’t do anything to diminish her raging headache.

  She grunted at him.

  “You’re welcome,” he said. “Go back to sleep. It’ll be a few more hours before the drug wears off completely.”

  Drug?

  She’d never done drugs in her life! But well, the sleep part did sound good.

  So she did as the voice asked and closed her eyes.

  The next time she woke up, the headache pain was at a much more manageable level. Though she knew she’d be a bitch today.

  She forced open her eyes and was pleased with herself when she managed to contain her moan.

  Where in the hell was she?

  This wasn’t home. Memories of Jaz’s death, her club going up in flames, rushed back into her brain.

  Cal?

  Where was Cal?

  She forced herself to a sitting position. They weren’t on the boat anymore? And…she was naked?

  She grabbed the blanket that had been covering her and wrapped it around herself. The house, if it could be called that, was small and dilapidated. No more than three crudely built walls really, resting against one another. The fourth wall appeared to be the side of a mountain.

  Aside from the bed, the only thing in the room was a small three-legged table and a stump that probably served as a chair.

  “Hello?” She called.

  No answer except for the rumbling of her stomach.

  She walked over to the table where an oversized leaf lay covering something. She could only hope it was food. She picked up the leaf and flung it aside.

  She wasn’t sure if the sight that greeted her was food or not. It was certainly a far cry from the energy pills she was used to, or even the tomato she’d had at Cal’s.

  Cal.

  She really needed to find him.

  She spun around ready to go demand his location from the first person she could find. Instead, she was shocked to see a large man standing next to the door.

  “You’re not going to eat?”

  “Uh, it looks great. Really,” if you liked food that looked like it spoiled years ago, she thought, “but I’m not hungry.”

  Her lie was revealed by the rumbling of her stomach.

  “Eat it. It may not look appetizing, but it doesn’t taste like shit and you’re going to need to keep your strength up.”

  “But…”

  He took two steps forward. He was so large that he practically crossed the room in those two steps.

  “Eat it,” he demanded.

  But she couldn’t. She was to damn shocked to speak.

  Now that she could see the man clearly she had no doubts who he was. He shared the same eyes, the same chiseled good looks.

  “Ajax?”

  He was obviously taken aback. But hell, he couldn’t be much more surprised than she was. To literally fall into the lap of the person she was tracking? Talk about luck.

  “My name is AJ,” he said. He stepped away from her, circled her like an animal would circle its prey. “How in the hell did you know that?”

  This so wasn’t how this whole thing was supposed to go. She really needed to find Cal.

  “I was actually coming here to find you.”

  “Right,” he said, scoffing at her. “And that’s why I found you passed out down at the docks, prisoners circling you, fighting over who was going to make you their sex slave. That is if they didn’t decide to just gang rape you to death.”

  She felt the blood drain from her face and she was a bit lightheaded. She was alone? Well then, where in the hell was Cal?

  “Whoa,” he said. He touched her for the first time as she wobbled on her feet. He didn’t need to use much force to get her to sit down on the stump. “Don’t pass out on me again. I might just decide to make you my own sex slave while you’re out. I only waited to give you a fighting chance.”

  She managed to bite out a bit of a laugh, but that was all she could manage before once again, her world turned black.

  ****

  Damn this woman passed out a lot.

  Luckily, AJ reached her side before she managed to hit the ground.

  She was the softest thing he’d ever felt in his life. Even softer than the pink thing she’d been wearing down by the docks. Luckily, he’d been able to keep the monsters away by making up some story about its magical powers and tossing it to them.

  They fought over it like wolves giving AJ a chance to escape with his precious cargo. She’d been passed out for almost two days now.

  She’d come down with a pretty bad fever, but he’d nursed her through that. Now he had no idea what the fuck was wrong with her.

  Even so, he continued to thank whatever notion it was that had him heading down to the docks that day. If he hadn’t, she’d surely be dead by now. Or worse.

  He smacked her on the cheek lightly hoping she’d wake up. Her eyes flashed open instantly.

  “Don’t hit me,” she said as she struggled to her feet.

  “You’re welcome for catching you so your ass didn’t land on the floor.”

  It didn’t surprise him that she remained quiet.

  Fine. But she’d be an idiot to leave this room without his protection. He leaned over to the table and picked at the food he left for her. Deciding on a rabbit leg, he picked it up and chomped into the juicy meat.

  He could hear her stomach rumble from across the room.

  “I don’t know what you’re used to, but I assure you this is the best food you’re going to get on the island.”

  She looked between the door and the table of food as if she were trying to decide the lesser of two evils. Finally, she sighed deeply and crossed the room.

  “Got another chair?”

  “Nope,” he said, his mouth around the leg bone.

  “Fine.”

  She picked up the entire plate and carried it over to the bed. With the blanket still wrapped around her, she sat down cross-legged and began picking through the food.

  “Are you going to tell me what you’re doing here? Women aren’t usually sent to Malory unless they did something pretty horrible, made somebody really mad. What
did you do?”

  “What did you do?” She countered.

  “So you know, that’s a question you generally don’t want to ask around here. Men can get a might testy alone on an island for years to think about their old lives.”

  Didn’t he learn that the hard way? And that’s why he lived far from the docks. Far from any of the other so-called civilizations that had developed on the island.

  “Is that your way of saying mind your own business?”

  He simply stared at her as she picked through her plate of food, picked though the berries and vegetables he managed to scrounge up. Eventually she picked up a big ripe berry and bit into it.

  Juice dripped down her chin.

  AJ’s cock jumped to attention.

  It was a wonder it took that long, he figured. It’d been a damn long time since he’d seen a woman, let alone actually touched one.

  “No, that’s just a warning,” he finally said when he was able to make his voice work.

  “Have you ever tried to escape?”

  He smiled and winked at her. She dropped the piece of fruit in her hand.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  ****

  What was that awful stench?

  And if Cal wasn’t mistaken this wasn’t the bed in his stateroom on the ship.

  No, he most definitely wasn’t on his bed because he was sitting in a hard metal chair and his arms were tied around his back.

  “Di?”

  That masculine laugh was most definitely not Di.

  “The woman you were with? Your supposed sex slave? She’s been tossed to the animals that live on the island.”

  Cal sat up shaking his head, trying to clear the fogginess from his brain. What in the hell happened? Where was he?

  Then he remembered. He remembered the gas seeping through under the door. He and Di had been found out. They’d been drugged.

  “What in the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  He figured his best bet was to keep playing the man he was supposed to be impersonating.

  “You can stop playing now. Believe it or not, I actually trained under the man you’re impersonating. And I know for a fact that you are not him.”

  Damn.

  His contact had assured him he was impersonating was a relative unknown. Apparently money couldn’t buy everything.