drained, and with that came a flood of anxiety and despair. Touching her eyelids, she let out a sound and shook her head. “I’m beginning to lose it.”
“I know,” he said, and shocked the hell out of her when he pulled her close. She was certain he meant the embrace to offer comfort, not anything sensual, and it was soothing, but after about ten seconds, it was also disturbingly erotic as all the misplaced adrenaline rushing through her began to mistake the comfort for something else entirely.
“Goddamn,” she heard him mutter against her hair, assuring her she wasn’t alone in this realization, and then he tipped up her chin and covered her mouth with his, no warning, no asking, though if he’d asked, she’d probably have said
He did.
With one of those wildly sexy murmurs low in his throat, he hauled her tighter up against him and swept his tongue to hers.
He did that, too, one hand tunneling into her “poodle” hair to palm her head, the other sliding low on her spine, then lower still, cupping her bottom-ouch, splinter!-before gliding up again, fisting in the material of her top, then slipping beneath to touch the bare skin of her back.
But then it slowly penetrated through her brain that someone was calling for Christian, and with what sounded like a very French curse, he pulled free.
“Christian, goddamnit. Where the hell are you?”
It was Denny. With a grim smile, Christian looked down at Dorie’s mouth, sweeping his thumb over her wet lower lip before turning and ducking under the palm fronds, walking away without a word.
“Yeah, okay,” she said. “I’ll just…” She lifted her hands. “Hang in there.”
FOURTEEN
Dorie, Cadence, and Brandy sat on a large rock, their feet dangling in the water, the surf splashing rhythmically against their calves. Denny had forbidden them to go back onto the boat, saying it wasn’t safe.
So they sat. They’d debated whether Brad Pitt was still hot or not, and had moved on to Josh Duhamel when Andy came back from his visit to the boat, mouth tight, eyes wet, looking openly destroyed.
Behind him came Denny, Ethan, and Christian.
“Bobby’s dead,” Andy said hoarsely.
“Now wait a minute, we don’t know that for certain,” Denny said, but his voice broke. “We don’t know anything yet.” He looked out at the water, so calm now. “He’s an excellent swimmer. I believe he’s out there, waiting for rescue, same as us. Hell, he’ll probably be picked up first.”
Ethan’s eyes looked suspiciously wet as well, and he nodded. “Yeah. Picked up first.”
“What?” Brandy demanded, reaching for Andy. “What’s going on?”
“He’s missing.” Andy allowed Brandy to hug him, for a moment gripping her tight as if he needed the support. “Been missing since last night, and I don’t see how he could still be alive out there…”
“He went overboard,” Denny admitted. “Sometime during the storm. We don’t know how it happened, if he fell, or…”
Ethan was shaking his head. “He wouldn’t have just fallen on his own.”
The silence filled with dread and horror, especially for Dorie, who was beginning to suspect she hadn’t imagined the two figures on the deck, the ones who’d disappeared.
“Let me get this straight,” Brandy said to Ethan, her voice shaking. “You think one of us… pushed him?”
Dorie replayed the scene in her mind. Not hugging, but fighting. But as much as she tried, she couldn’t place the figures as any of the people standing before her, no more than she’d been able to at the time of the fight.
“Ohmigod.” Cadence staggered back a step.
“Let’s not panic,” Denny said. “Let’s talk this out. Who saw him last?” He looked at Brandy. “You were with him last night.”
“No.” She shook her head. “You called him away-”
“I did, but he never showed up.” Denny jerked his chin toward Cadence. “And she can attest to that, because she was with me-”
“Oh, no,” Cadence said quickly. “I was only with you for a short time, and then I played cards with Andy in the salon-”
“For an hour,” Andy agreed. “And when you left, I helped Ethan for the rest of the night wherever I could.”
“Because I went to bed,” Cadence said slowly. “I was tired.”
“That’s true,” Ethan said. “Because you called for some crackers for your upset stomach, and I saw you in your room. But I didn’t see Dorie or Brandy-”
“Hey,” Brandy interrupted. “I told you-” She stuttered to a halt at a piercing whistle.
Christian’s piercing whistle.
He lowered his fingers from his mouth and leveled them all with that icy gaze. “Arguing about your various alibis, isn’t going to help. We have bigger problems-”
“Alibis? None of us need alibis,” Andy said.
“We have bigger problems,” Christian repeated, turning to the east, where the sun had fully risen, blinding them with its brilliance as if the storm never happened. “We need protection from the elements, especially for tonight.”
When it would get dark.
Very dark.
“Maybe we’ll be rescued by then,” Cadence said in a small voice.
The look on Christian’s face spoke volumes about what he thought of that. “No way of knowing how long it’ll take. We can’t count on anything.”
Dorie thought of the TV show
The turtle stuck out his neck and nearly snapped her finger off.
“Snapper.” Christian moved toward the turtle aggressively, waving his hands, until the thing turned and slowly meandered off.
Christian turned to face her. “Just one of the services we offer. You know, along with luring you all into the South Pacific, then terrorizing everyone with unexpected hurricanes and uncharted snapper-filled islands.”
“Christian,” Denny said in a warning voice.
“Uncharted?” Andy shifted uneasily. “So we’re truly alone here then?”
“The island’s huge,” Denny allowed. “We’ll have to search it before we know what’s here. For all we know, we’re only a hike away from getting the Coast Guard out there for Bobby, and a good vodka tonic, straight up, for the rest of us.”
Andy narrowed his eyes. “You really have no idea where we are.”
“Unfortunately, no,” Ethan said, accepting a quelling look from Denny. “Hell, Den, they might as well know it.”
Cadence let out another low sob, and Denny slipped a hand into hers, his voice low, hoarse. “Listen, no bullshit-ting, okay? We’re stuck here for now.”
“And Bobby’s gone,” Brandy whispered.
