Quick & Dangerous, page 11
He also had fish.
“Dinner,” he said, setting the fish down on a couple of palm fronds and then crouching beside her, grabbing the sticks, a rock, and a bit of dry grass. Within moments, he had a fire started. Skyler just sat there in awe.
What couldn’t the man do?
Talk about his feelings, that’s what.
Before long, Rob had the fish on a stick, suspended over the fire.
“I tried to find some sharp shells to open up the coconuts,” Skyler said, twiddling the sharpest shell she could find between her fingers. She held it up. “But this is all I managed to find. I’m sorry.”
Shrugging but still not saying much, he reached behind him and pulled out a knife. He turned the fish over the flames. “Hand me one of those coconuts.”
She did as she was told and watched him saw his way through the fibrous green outer layer. He peeled back the layers, his hand gripping the blade with deft precision, as if he did this every day.
“Hand me that rock,” he said, pointing to the fist-size stone beside her.
She did as she was told.
He held his knife up straight, positioning the tip of the blade on the coconut and began pounding on the butt of it with the rock. His arm muscles bunched and flexed with each pound, and his skin shone in the low golden sunlight. Skyler found herself mesmerized, unable to peel her eyes away or even blink. He was the ultimate survivor, the ultimate man. Without even batting an eye, he’d simply gone straight into survival mode. Had she been able to make it to the island alone, she probably would have been dead in a week. No knife. No fishing skills, no clue how to make a fire. If she’d figured out how to get into the coconuts, maybe she’d last two weeks, but once that supply was up, she’d be dead for sure.
Rob really was saving her. Again and again and again.
She heard a crack followed by another, and within moments, he was handing her a piece of brown, thready shell, with silky white coconut meat on the opposite side. Greedily, she scraped the meat over teeth, barely chewing, she was so hungry. The sweet, warm chunks slid down her throat, landing in her empty stomach.
“Here.” He offered her the entire coconut before grabbing the next one and repeating the process.
Skyler tipped the coconut up against her mouth and slurped down the briny elixir, immediately feeling better. She hadn’t realized how thirsty she was. All that time in the salt water and sun had dehydrated her even more than she had been, and within a minute or two, she had emptied the coconut.
“I know you’re a vegetarian,” he said, hammering the second coconut, “but you’re going to have to eat the fish. You need to eat. And coconuts aren’t enough. You can save the cows and pigs for the carnivores when we get back to civilization.”
She went to open her mouth to say that he didn’t have to speak to her like she was a child when he popped open the second coconut. He lifted his head, noticed she’d finished the first and passed her the newly opened one.
She shook her head, pushing it back toward him. “No, you drink first. I’ve had some. You’re probably thirstier than I am.”
She got nothing but a grunt from him as he reached for a third coconut and went to work, dismissing her gesture by ignoring her.
Skyler pushed to her feet, throwing her hands on her hips and leaning forward. “What the hell is your problem?”
His eyes flicked up to hers from his task for half a second, then returned to his knife.
“Answer me.”
Nothing.
“Fine. I’ll talk. If you’re upset about last night, you shouldn’t be. I don’t care if you had a nightmare. We all have them. I have them all the time.”
After her initial fear had worn off and she’d calmed down—and he’d kicked her ass out—she realized she wasn’t afraid of him. Yes, he’d been scary during his dream, but something deep down told her that Rob would never hurt her. He’d never hurt anyone that didn’t deserve it.
He didn’t look up, but a manly muscle along his jaw clenched.
She growled, glaring at the top of his head. The man was a stubborn, infuriating pain in the ass.
“Was it about the sex?”
His jaw tightened even more.
“Because I happened to think it was great. I thought you were great. And I know I’m a little rusty, because I haven’t done it in a while, but I’m also no inexperienced little virgin. I know I’m good in bed. And I know I was good last night.”
His lip twitched, but he still didn’t glance up.
“It was a one-time thing. Don’t fret. I’m not going to become a Stage Four clinger and want to have your babies and move into a two-story with a white picket fence after one night. You weren’t that great.”
Who the fuck was she kidding? He’d been that great and then some. But the man’s lack of response was pissing her off. She was trying to get a rise out of him.
“I’m totally good with a little fling. If you want to move on to being just friends after last night, then fine. But don’t shut me out. I don’t deserve that. And I definitely don’t deserve you speaking to me like I’m a child. I know I’m going to have to eat the fish. I’ve been in survival mode for a while now. I know when necessity overrules choice.”
Her brows narrowed as she glowered at him through the flames.
He was on his fifth or sixth coconut and still hadn’t even bothered to look at her.
Ready to go and kick the coconut out of his goddamn hands, she stomped her foot. “Will. You. Talk. To. Me!”
Slowly, methodically, Rob set his knife down in the sand, followed by the coconut. Then, with the speed of a sloth, he lifted his head up. Anger filled his soft brown eyes.
Skyler took a step back.
Maybe she didn’t want him to talk to her after all.
He pushed himself up to standing.
Fuck, he looked big. He was big. The moon and fire cast his enormous frame into a long shadow along the sand, and the way he rose to his feet made it look like an ominous creature was emerging from the sea, ready to pounce.
“You want me to talk to you?” he said, his voice just a breath above a whisper. “You want me to talk to you?” Now it was louder.
Skyler swallowed and nodded.
“You almost got us killed!” he yelled. “You kept wandering the fuck off under water, chasing fucking dolphins or God knows what, and you nearly got us killed!”
Oh, that.
She went to open her mouth, but he continued.
“How hard is it to stay with your fucking dive partner?”
“I got lost,” she said softly.
He shook his head. “You kept getting fucking lost. I’d turn around, and you’d be twenty feet away, swimming after something shiny. Then I’d have to swim after you. You got yourself tangled in a net like a fucking sea turtle. You nearly got us fucking killed.”
“I’m sorry,” she said sheepishly, digging her big toe into the sand. “The undertow was too strong, and the net drifted into me. I tried to fight it off, but it got hooked on the knobs of my tank and then around my snorkel, and then I was tangled. I had an anxiety attack under there and leg cramps.”
“No.” He shook his head. “That was much later. You had an attitude the moment we went under and were trying to prove you didn’t need me.”
That wasn’t it at all. If anyone had an attitude, it was him.
She shook her head, about to say something.
“I’m here because of you,” he hollered, pointing his finger at her. “I’m here to bring you to your brothers. You are a job. Lose the fucking attitude and grow up.”
Skyler’s eyes went wide. Grow up?
She knew it was the truth, but when he called her a job, it stung like a bitch.
But she wouldn’t let her ego, her desire to mean more to him than that, cloud her judgment … or her fury. She tossed her shoulders back and leveled her gaze at him. “Excuse me? You didn’t just tell me to grow up!”
“I sure fucking did. You heard me. Grow the fuck up and stop behaving recklessly. You have a family waiting for you.”
“A family that I’ve never met. A family my father kept from me. A family who for all I know are a bunch of fucking nut jobs. Or billionaire losers who just sit on their gold-plated toilets and feed caviar to their cats. I’ve been on the run for years. Taking care of myself for years. I am my family. I don’t need to grow up. I’m older than I fucking should be. Do you know what people my age are doing right now?”
Rob’s face grew dark.
She didn’t care. He’d hit a nerve, and she was going give him a piece of her mind.
“People my age are getting married, having kids. They’re getting their graduate degrees and opening up their own businesses. And I have the brain power, the money, the education and the drive to do all of it. Only I can’t, because if I settle down in any one place for very long, I’m dead. I can’t fall in love, I can’t make friends or have children because that puts a target on more than one back. Do you have any idea what that feels like?”
Rob rolled his eyes and shook his head, as if to say she was exaggerating and things weren’t as bad as she said. Did he think she was some hysterical woman, crying wolf? Oh, the man was exasperating. He wasn’t going to let it go without a rip-roaring fight, was he? Well, she’d give him one.
“Yes, I probably could have stayed closer to you on the dive,” she said with a scowl. “Probably should have. But it was a fucking drift dive, and you kept grabbing onto shit and stopping. That’s not how you keep up with the other divers so we all make it to the pickup spot on time. I kept signaling you to follow me, and you weren’t paying attention.”
Did the man growl?
“Are you fucking kidding me? I was a diver with SEAL Team Six. I didn’t need you down there. I knew what the fuck I was doing. I saved your ass, don’t forget. You weren’t being a team player. You were the one who kept fucking off.”
Skyler growled loudly up into the night’s sky.
“Vas te faire foutre espèce de con!”
His eyes squinted. “What does that mean?”
“Screw you, asshole.”
His nose scrunched up in confusion. Fuck, why’d he have to make that look so hot? “I have a right to know what you just said to me.”
She rolled her eyes, struggling not to smile. “I said, screw you, asshole.”
Rob’s back went straight, and his squint turned into a glare. “Screw me? Screw you! You nearly got us both killed.”
She growled again, a slew of other French insults at the ready if she needed them. “I didn’t keep fucking off. The current was too strong. I got stuck.”
He threw his hands up in the air and began to pace in front of the fire. “You’re fucking delusional, you know that?” His face was such a heated tangle of emotions, she wasn’t sure if he was going to yell or laugh or cry.
“At least I’m not an unemotional robot who refuses to talk about last night. You fucked me, freaked out in your sleep and then kicked me out. Then the next day, you treated me like some two-bit hooker you didn’t want the public to know you’d slept with. You’ve got some real shit going on upstairs,” she pointed at her head, “that you need to sort out.”
She was poised and ready for a fight. Skyler’s chest rose and fell quickly, and her whole body thrummed.
Rob stopped his pacing. The fire danced wicked in his eyes as anger flashed across his face. He opened his mouth and was about to say something but stopped.
“What?” Skyler snarled. She’d finally reached her breaking point. This man had no idea the shit she’d witnessed, the shit she’d gone through to survive this long.
“You’re not a two-bit hooker,” he replied, his tone far less venomous than before. “And last night was incredible. You were incredible.”
“I know,” she said bluntly. “So were you.”
“It’s a bad idea, though.”
“What is?”
“Us hooking up.”
She rolled her eyes for what felt like the millionth time. But this man was frustrating. “We both nearly died today. If I can’t live a little, I might as well let Pierre Rubio catch me and kill me.”
He took a step toward her. “I’m sorry I yelled at you. I was just so mad that you kept disappearing. Then I became worried when I couldn’t find you.”
Skyler’s heart swelled at the thought of someone caring whether she went missing or not. She didn’t have many people like that in her life anymore.
She took a step toward him. His body called to her. Being that perfect, that sculpted and muscular shouldn’t be legal. Her hands ached to reach out and stroke his defined abdominal muscles. But she refrained, instead bunching her hands into tight fists at her sides. “I’m sorry I said you have some shit going on in your head.”
He stepped closer. “Don’t be. You were right. I have a lot of shit going on in my head. I’m trying to work through it, though.”
She pursed her lips before saying, “I’m also sorry I nearly got us killed. I’m embarrassed to admit that the current was too much for me. I thought I could handle it.”
Okay, so maybe she had been reckless. She hadn’t been willing to concede that the current on the drift dive was more than she was comfortable with. And instead of letting her dive buddy know, like a responsible diver should, a responsible dive master should, she powered through and risked both their lives.
They were toe to toe now, and Skyler had to crane her neck up to look into his eyes. They were a hell of a lot softer now, filled with new emotions, and not all of them anger.
They stood there staring at each other, their chests heaving. The fire crackled beside them, and the smell of fresh-cooked fish swirled around them on the warm evening breeze. The stars twinkled and winked above them, and the sound of the lapping water was the perfect lullaby. It was the perfect date night if you ignored the fact that they were stranded on an uninhabited island with nothing more than their wet suits, empty dive tanks and a knife to keep them alive.
Was he going to say anything? He owed her an apology. She’d apologized for her fuckup and wandering off. He owed her one for his dickish behavior after their night together.
His eyes left hers and flew down to the fish on the stick. “Oh shit!”
Then the moment, their moment was broken.
He pulled the fish from the fire. They steamed as he pried them off and onto a couple of fronds.
“You should eat,” he said, tilting his head toward the fish but not sitting down himself. Instead, he wandered down to the water.
“We need to talk about this,” she called after him.
He didn’t bother turning around but said it loud enough for her to hear. “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
Oh, he was an infuriating one.
Skyler watched Rob pace along the water’s edge. His hands kneaded his hips as he stalked a trench into the sand, shaking his head and muttering words under his breath. She wasn’t sure if she should leave him be, if he needed more time to get over their brush with death, or if it was something else.
She couldn’t let it end like this.
She needed him.
She wanted him.
One night wasn’t enough.
She walked down to the water and stood in front of him, causing him to stop abruptly.
“What?” he asked on an exhausted exhale.
“You can talk to me, you know. I might understand more than some.” With a brief blip of hesitation, she planted her hand on his bare chest. He stiffened beneath her. “I haven’t been to war. But I’m haunted by things too.”
His bottom lip trembled, but he didn’t say anything.
She took another step toward him, curling her fingers just a touch and digging her nails into his skin. He inhaled from the snap of pain. But she knew he liked it. The flash of desire in his eyes said he wasn’t one who shied away from a bit of pain with his pleasure. “We can just be there for each other until you take me to Moorea. This doesn’t have to be any more than what it is.”
His throat undulated on a hard swallow. “And what is it?”
“A quick and dangerous fling between two broken strangers who want to feel good … even just temporarily.”
A laugh escaped him on a scattered exhale. “Broken, huh?”
“I’m not exactly whole,” she said with a forced laugh. “Haven’t been for quite some time.”
His hand came up, and he cupped her cheek. “You have to know I’d never hurt you. Never.”
Skyler blinked at him. “I know that.” Did it look like she was afraid of him?
“During my dreams … ” he corrected, probably seeing the confusion on her face. “I’d never lash out and hurt you. I never have. My dreams aren’t violent … they’re just … ” He trailed off and focused his gaze out toward the sea.
“Real?” she offered.
He looked back down into her eyes. “Yeah, real.”
“Care to talk about it?”
He shook his head. “I’d rather do something else.” He scooped her up in his muscles and carried her up the beach. She looped her arms around his neck and finally allowed her body to relax. Despite the fact that they were stranded on an island, she felt safe. Even if just for this moment, she was safe in Rob’s arms. And at least she wasn’t alone, finally. It had been ages since she’d shared more than a genuine minute with someone, and she couldn’t imagine anyone she’d rather be stranded with than the sexy Navy SEAL who was carrying her up the beach to their bed of palm fronds.
The moon shone bright against the water, causing the night to seem far less dark than it was. Less scary. But even if the sky was a blanket of clouds and dark as pitch, Skyler wouldn’t be scared with Rob. He was a protector. He was her protector.
When they reached the makeshift bed, he knelt down and gently placed her on the leaves. His eyes seared her skin as they raked her from head to toe. She nibbled on her bottom lip and let her gaze travel the long, hard length of him. He hadn’t bothered to shave, and the stubble gripping his chin and cheeks was darker and thicker than that first day he walked into the dive shop. Into her life.
