I raise my head at the sound of Eros’ voice. He points toward a cave just inland of where we’re swimming. “You want to swim in and take a look?”
“Sure. Let’s go for it.” I stroke behind him toward the cave. I take a few breaststroke kicks as I enter the mouth of the cave, keeping my gaze down so I can soak up the view of the majestic white rocks that are angled in neat layers, powdery white or pockmarked with holes.
Suddenly, the ground beneath me shifts, stirring up sediment and transforming the clear water below me into a murky cloud. Eros must have brushed the bottom.
I raise my head, looking for Eros. But all I hear is the hollow echo of water dripping from the ceiling of the cave and my ragged breathing. Where is he? A faint rumbling breaks into my thoughts. It sounds like a distant plane taking off. How can that be? We’re in the middle of nowhere.
Chunks of limestone from the cave’s roof splash into the water. “Ouch,” I cry as a small piece of rock hits my head. The waist-deep seawater around me is surging, sloshing, and splashing me in the face. Alarm bells clang loud inside my head. I’ve never lived in a seismic zone, but I don’t need any more evidence to convince me shaking ground and falling rocks mean earthquake. Dmitri’s words about plate boundaries and buckled limestone layers race through my mind. Shit. I have to get out of here. Fast.
CHAPTER TWELVE
I swim with frantic speed toward the cave mouth. Once I emerge in the safety of the bright sunshine again, I turn my head right and left, looking for the Ionian Goddess. I see only a wide expanse of empty ocean. Shit. Panic constricts my throat. Where is it? What am I going to do out here all alone? I start to hyperventilate. Minutes ago, I felt safe and free and alive. Now, my mind is as turgid as the sea around me. I suck in another ragged breath and start talking my way through the problem.
“The earthquake might cause a tidal wave. I should swim to shore and get to a higher place,” I say to myself between gasps. “Oh, my God. Oh, my, God. Stop. It will be okay. You have to stay calm.” I don’t think I’ve ever had a panic attack before, but this sure feels like one. My mind races as I think about whether the boat will come back and if there’s anyone on this island or it’s completely deserted. “It’s okay. Take a deep breath.” I suck in a strained breath and exhale. I suddenly realize I’ve been treading water and haven’t moved an inch. “Come on, Maya. You have to get out of the water.”
I swim toward a rocky beach on one side of the cave. Once the water shallows, I wade toward shore. I walk up the stony beach and step my way up the white limestone slope. “Ouch,” I cry out as the sharp limestone bites into the bottom of my bare feet. I grimace and take another tentative step. “I can deal with this.”
The whole situation still feels like a nightmare. If only I could just wake up. But pain continues to knife through the soles of my feet. I raise a foot and my thigh muscles tremble as I struggle to stand on one leg. Blood drips from my foot onto the white limestone. Damn it. I want to sit down, place my head on my knees and cry. Women like me don’t do emergencies. Comfort and predictability work much better for me. There’s no way I can deal with this. What choice do I have? I take a deep breath and try to console myself. “It’ll be okay, Maya. Just take this situation one step at a time and you’ll be fine.”
“Wait. Don’t move. Your foot’s a mess.”
I whirl around and see Eros standing in chest deep water below me. Without thinking, I leap down from the rocky prominence where I’m standing onto the stretch of sand and dash through the water toward him.
“What are you do—“
Worries about the awkwardness of last night fly from my mind. I’m not alone out here! I throw myself into his arms and cling to him. “Thank God, you’re here.”
“Now that’s the kind of greeting I like.” He pulls me in closer and threads his fingers through my wet hair.
My fingers dig deeper into Eros’ broad muscular back. I don’t care that he knows how desperate I was to be rescued. All I care about is feeling safe. And I feel amazingly safe nestled in his arms. He’s so close, I can feel every hard contour of his body; the taut mounds of his chest and abdomen, the firm muscles of his thighs. “That was so scary. The rocks were falling and the ground was shaking. And you weren’t there. When I saw the boat was gone, I really panicked.”
His thick lips brush over my cheek and then my mouth. I taste the seawater on his lips. I close my eyes with every intention of getting a better taste of him, of nibbling on every millimeter of those sexy full lips, but his lips shift away. “We have to get to a high place fast.” He gazes at me so intently. His dark eyes radiate as much deep emotion as his words. “I’m so sorry, Maya. I never should have left you. I swam off to see if I could find the boat. By the time I came back, you were gone.”
I know now, he does care for me. And we’re together now. I’m not alone out here and now this whole thing doesn’t seem so scary. “It’s okay, Eros. You’re here now.”
He grasps my hand and leads me toward the shore.
I limp a little when sand pushes into one of my injured feet.
“We need to cover your feet.” His voice sounds so tender. “He unclips a small waist pack and holds it in one hand.
“That limestone is brutal. I only took a couple of steps and it cut the hell out of my feet.”
He grips my arm tightly. “Sit down and I’ll take a look.” With his support, I lower myself to the ground. He sits beside me and I raise a bleeding foot.
“That doesn’t look good at all.” He unzips the backpack. He pulls out a first aid kit and flips open the lid. With precision and skill, he cleanses my wounded feet and then bandages them. Then he meets my gaze and says, “That should help a little. I wish we had time for other things.” His gaze wanders over me and his tongue slides over his lips.
God, those lips. So full and almost pouty and sexy. I crave the sensation of those amazing lips on my mouth. I see a gold flash in his dark eyes, the tightness in his jaw. The man wants me. Even in the middle of this crisis, he finds me distracting. I find him all too distracting, too. My heart thunders inside my chest. I fight to restrain myself from reaching for him. “Yeah, me, too.”
He reaches for my face, strokes a hand over it.
I close my eyes. A sigh escapes my lips. His touch feels so good on my skin. Why is he doing this? We need to get moving.
I hear the sound of a zipper.
I open my eyes. Eros holds a pair of reef shoes in his hand.
“I had these stashed in my bag in case of an emergency.”
His voice sounds stern and he’s wearing a business meeting expression. It didn’t take him long to go from distracted to back on task again. Now I need to think about something other than all the hot tingles lingering on my cheeks. “That’s great.”
“Right now I need to get you someplace safe.”
“Okay then,” I say stiffly. I take the shoes from his hands and slip them on my feet, wiggling my toes in the empty space at their tips.
“I know they’re too large for you, but they will protect your feet.”
“I’m sure they will.” I bite my lips. If only I could regain my focus. Instead, I’m obsessing about all sorts of crazy shit. Like whether he finds my body a major turn on or just okay. I want him to like it. I want him to like it a lot. I don’t think my body’s half bad. I’m lean and toned from swimming. And most men tend to notice my C cup breasts. On the downside, I don’t have much of a waist. And my butt and abdomen have expanded enough recently that I have to hold my breath and lay on my back to get my size eight pants on since I adopted the ice cream and wine diet. I jump up when I see that Eros is already standing, his backpack slung on his back. “What about your feet? You’re not wearing shoes.”
“That won’t cause me any difficulty. I walk everywhere barefoot so I’ve got thick calluses on my feet. But yours are so tender.” I imagine I hear a hint of desire in his voice. He glances at me and then his gaze darts away. “Let’s go. We don’t have
much time.” He climbs up on the shelf of rock above us and reaches for my hand.
I grasp his hand and hobble up on the limestone, grimacing. Even with the shoes on, my feet are still tender.
“Are you okay, Maya?” Eros’ eyes are wide with concern.
I know we’re in danger and that Eros is accustomed to putting others’ safety ahead of his own. If I don’t move my butt a tidal wave could wash us away. Even if it did, he would probably still talk in that calm voice he’s been using. He doesn’t seem to panic under stress like me. Just having him near has dropped my stress level from a ten to maybe a five. I take another step up to where he is standing and the empty toe box of the reef shoes slaps against the stone. “I can make it, don’t worry.”
“I want to get you to higher ground in case there’s a tidal wave. I can carry you over my shoulders.”
“No, that really won’t be necessary. It’s really much better now with the shoes.”
“I’ve carried large men for more than a mile.”
Okay, so I’m a bit on the high maintenance side, but that doesn’t mean I can’t deal with some discomfort in a pinch. “That’s nice of you, but I’m fine, really.”
“Okay, but don’t be afraid to ask for help. We need to do whatever we can to prevent any injuries.”
How does he know he won’t pull a back muscle carrying me up the hill? “I promise to watch my step and let you know if the pain gets too bad.”
He reaches for my hand and leads me across the shallow rocky slope and around low-lying brush. My feet are still tender, but the reef shoes offer a great deal of protection. Soon my feet feel almost numb from walking and I stop noticing the pain.
Eros stops and glances over his shoulder back toward the ocean.
My head swings around to follow his gaze. Even the shallow incline we’ve traversed has raised us enough from sea level to offer an amazing view of the Greek mainland. If I didn’t know better, this could be just another blissful day of vacation in the Greek islands.
“There’s still no sign of the Ionian Goddess.”
His words pull me back to reality. The two of us are stranded on a nearly deserted island. It could be romantic if it weren’t for the fact that there’s just been an earthquake, a tidal wave might follow and we will probably have to sleep outside. Oh, God. Are there snakes in Greece? Probably. And where there are snakes, there are always spiders. “So much for an escort boat,” I say in a frustrated voice.
“I never would have expected Dmitri to leave us out here like this.” He paused and rubbed the side of his chin with his index finger. “Sometimes in life and death situations, you have to decide what action will save the most number of lives.”
“So I guess we were the expendable ones.”
“I don’t think that was what Dmitri was thinking. He knows I was in the Hellenic Navy. He knows I can survive dangerous situations and that I will protect anyone who is with me. He probably decided to help the people who wouldn’t be able to survive this situation. Come on, we need to keep up our pace. We never know when this tidal wave might hit.”
We push our way through the dense vegetation. Olive tree branches scratch my arms and legs and my ankles and knees start to rebel. “Wait. I have to stop for a minute.” I hold onto a tree branch and gasp for breath. My legs and arms are scratched and bleeding.
Eros glances back toward the sea, his jaw clenched, clearly anxious. “Please, Maya. You can go slowly but I need you to walk. It is not safe here.”
I let go of the tree and take a step. And another. The incline has steepened too much for Eros to hold my hand now. I grasp rocky ledges, tree trunks and even thick roots as hand and foot holds to propel myself upward. Every step hurts worse than the one before it. After grabbing and pushing with my hands and feet for what seems like an eternity, my blistered hands start to burn. My foot loses traction and I groan as the sudden drop strains my shoulder muscles. I cling tightly to the rock with my hands and fingers while my foot flails through the air.
Eros pauses on a ledge of rock just above me. His hands and feet still securely placed on rocks and limbs, he cranes his neck to look back at me. “There’s a ledge of rock a little to the right.”
I swing my leg through empty air until I find the place he’s talking about. “Thanks. I’ve found it.”
“Step up here beside me,” he says.
I grasp his proffered hand and then place my right foot on a rock a little higher up so I can boost myself up on the ledge where he’s standing.
“Thanks.” Sweat drips from my hair and my lungs burn from the exertion. It was so much easier maneuvering around in the water. Out here in this sun and heat, every step on this rugged ground is sheer hell.
“Let’s catch our breath. We don’t want to rush so much we get careless.” Olive leaves cling to sweaty locks of Eros’ dark curly hair and a streak of dirt stains one cheek. His face and chest glisten with sweat. The sweat further accents his strength—the firm mounds of his pectorals, the bulk of his shoulders, the tight ridges of his abdomen. Even in this state of emergency, I find it impossible not to stare. Sweat and dirt only intensify his hotness factor.
I’m not sure I can stand this close to him without touching him. “I’m okay now.”
“Are you sure?”
I nod. “I’ve caught my breath.” My raspy breathing reveals this lie.
“I want you to walk ahead of me from now on. That way if you have trouble, I can boost you up.”
“Okay, I can do that.” Does he notice the tremor in my voice?
I take a step up onto another ledge, wrapping my hand around an olive tree trunk to pull myself up another few feet. I sense his eyes on me. He’s looking at my butt. I wonder if he’s looking at it from an analytical or a sexual perspective. Maybe he’s concluding that my backside is too large for the rest of my body. Or maybe since he’s Greek, he likes curvier women. If he thinks my butt looks hot, maybe lewd thoughts are running around inside his head. What is he imagining? Stroking my wet nub with a fingertip? Nudging my legs wide apart before plunging his cock deep into my opening?
Excitement rages in my blood. Here goes my crazy mind again. I imagine him sliding a finger inside my nylon swimsuit. Oh, God... Now I’m clinging tightly to a rock, my hips undulating as his nimble fingers stroke and tantalize my aching bud. These crazy images racing around in my head are too much to take. My pussy aches to the point of explosion. Oh, God, what I want is him, all of him. I wish he would just strip me naked and take me on the rocks right this second.
“You’re doing great, Maya.” Eros’s voice sounds patient and encouraging. Yet there’s huskiness in his voice that suggests he’s aroused.
I can’t help smiling. I’m glad looking at me turns him on. I know for sure now what happened at the beach yesterday wasn’t just a one-night stand. The flame between us is burning hotter than ever and we both want more.
“The top of this ledge isn’t far off. We’ll be safe once we’re up there.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
I look up and see we’re at least forty feet from the top of the ledge. But I’m not thinking about the exertion now. This mix of fear and exercise-induced adrenaline combined with lust is a deadly combination for maintaining any kind of control. All the blood in my body has traveled south.
I forge my way up the hill faster. Would my Greek Navy SEAL think I was completely insane if I begged him to fuck me the minute we reached the top? Of course he would. I think I’m nuts. I will not do that. Not now. Not at a time like this.
A finger brushes the inside of my thigh. My muscles tremble with hot desire. Is he making a pass? It won’t take much more than that for me to grab him and throw him on the ground.
“Your muscles are fatiguing, maybe you should stop and rest.”
I crane my head to look down at him. He’s standing just below me on the steep cliff of rock. Golden flecks glint in his dark eyes. His gaze is riveted between my legs.
My legs tremble with fatig
ue and desire. “This is crazy,” I say. “I just want...” I stop myself before I burst out saying that I want Eros to fuck me right here on this hill.
He slides his hands up the sides of my thighs, leaving a trail of fiery tingles behind. “I know what you want.” His voice sounds so deep and masculine and full of lusty want. “And I want it too. But it’s going to have to wait. Please, Maya. You’ve only got a few steps more.”
I turn back toward the cliff. I reach for handholds and footholds, propelling my body up and up. Finally, I heave my body over the top of the ridge. “Made it,” I say. I walk across the flat shelf of limestone to a shady place padded with pine needles and collapse with an exhausted huff onto the ground.
Eros launches his agile body over the side of the cliff and strides toward me. Breathing heavily, his face and chest drenched with sexy sweat, he sits down beside me and scoots closer. “I am glad that you are not feeling uncomfortable with me any longer.”
“It’s just that...” I shrug, not sure how to finish my thought without sounding silly.
He turns toward me and rests a strong hand on my shoulder. “Please go ahead and speak. It is important that we talk about this.”
“That sex we had last night was really wild. And it happened very fast. It was as if my body took over and my brain wasn’t working or something. That’s not me.” I sigh. “I just don’t want you to think I have sex with men I just meet on a regular basis.”
Eros outlines his sensual lips with an index finger. “I have to say the thought crossed my mind. But I told myself that you having sex with many men didn’t seem to fit what I know about you. I will say hearing you say this makes me feel much better.”
“It does?”
“Yes. I don’t like the idea of you making love to any man other than me.”
Damn. That’s hot. “Oh.”
“Is that a problem for you?”
My Greek SEAL Page 9
