I stare out over the sea as I think. That’s not true and I know it. He kidnapped me to save my life. It’s changed between us now. The feelings I have for him have changed. I don’t fear him, I don’t hate him, and if I am being totally honest with myself, I feel safer and happier when I’m in his company. He didn’t lie to me today about his real name. Why does it make me so happy and relieved that he didn’t lie?
“How are things going with you and Mac?” Angela asks, interrupting my thoughts.
“Oh.” I hesitate before I answer. “Okay,” I reply flatly.
She raises her eyebrows. “Just okay?”
I shrug. “As okay as they can be, I suppose.”
She nods, deep in thought, and we stay silent for a while longer. My eyes flicker back to him inside the gym. He’s now doing chin ups on a high bar and I watch him go up and down with ease. His biceps and shoulders are huge and the veins run thickly down his inner forearms. My insides begin to melt at the sight of him. His sandy blonde hair hangs messily over his face, and his chiselled jaw has a five o’clock shadow covering it. He’s just so… what would it feel like to have him inside of me? My eyes drop to his behind and I get a visual of him on top of me where I’m holding that hot ass as he pumps me hard with that huge dick. Fuck. It would be so good. I bite my bottom lip to stop myself from smiling broadly. I’ve never seen a criminal with such straight, white teeth. He probably had braces, which implies he grew up with a little money behind his family.
“Do you know much about Mac?” I ask.
Angela frowns with her face to the sun and her eyes still closed. “I stalked him once on Facebook when we were on the mainland. He doesn’t have any social media.”
“Hmm.” I frown. “Does he have a girlfriend or wife?”
She shakes her head. “No, I don’t think so. The boys said not.”
I stay silent. The question I really want to ask is burning a hole in my tightly sealed lips.
Angela must be able to sense my apprehension in asking. “What?” She smirks.
“How often does he…” I pause. I can’t even say it out loud because it’s so gross. “Does he sleep with the girls on the ship?” I murmur.
Angela shrugs. “Not often.” She glances over at me. “I think it’s only a desperate times calling for desperate measures, kind of thing. He is only male, remember, and we are out here for a long time.”
“All of them?” I ask quietly.
She shrugs and grabs my hand in hers. “None of them for a long time.”
I frown. “How long is a long time?”
“I don’t know. A couple of months, I suppose. It’s only ever been really late at night when he is quite drunk and seems to get the hell out of there as soon as it is finished.”
“Yuck,” I whisper and put my head back on my chair in despair.
“I imagine he is one hot fuck.” She smirks.
I smile broadly. “Honestly?” I raise a brow in question.
She laughs and covers her face with her hands. “Oh God. Don’t tell me he’s a dud in bed and ruin the fantasy I have of him in my mind.”
“Can you keep a secret?” I ask. God knows why but I feel closer to Angela than I probably should. She has this honest quality about her and I really, really like it.
“You know I can,” she replies.
My eyes hold hers. “I wouldn’t know if he’s a hot fuck because we don’t have sex.”
Her face drops. “What?” she whispers. “I thought you two would be at it like rabbits.”
I shake my head in embarrassment. “No.”
She screws up his face. “So… he didn’t?”
I shake my head quickly. “No.”
“But you two are all over each other in the common room.”
“I know. It’s all for show so the other guys don’t try to take turns of me. Mac said if he staked his claim on me that they wouldn’t challenge him.”
“Fuck,” she whispers in shock. “It’s true, they wouldn’t dare.” She puts her hands over her mouth and shakes her head. “How in the hell do you make out with him the way you do and not go back to the room and fuck his brains out?”
I shrug. “I don’t know.”
She screws up her face. “Do you want to?”
I shrug. “It’s ridiculous.” I pause for a moment. Why am I telling her this?
“You can trust me,” she whispers.
“I’m disgusted that I am attracted to someone like him. Someone who kidnaps and kills people.”
Angela nods. “Hmm. He only kidnapped you because the others would have killed you on the spot. Kidnapping girls is not his style at all.”
I watch her for a moment. Can I believe what she says? “I just need to see the next couple of weeks out and get the hell out of here alive.”
“You will.” She replies quickly.
“Do you think they will let me go?” I ask.
“Mac has final say around here. What he says goes and if he has said you are safe then you are safe.”
I nod as I lie back and inhale the vitamin D.
“Why don’t you just…” she hesitates.
I glance over at her. “Just what?”
“Why don’t you just enjoy him?”
I frown. “What do you mean?”
“You are on this ship for a few weeks. You’re obviously attracted to each other. Just go with it and have fun. This will all be a memory soon and you will be back in boring suburbia and he will be a hot guy who saved your life that you will wish you had of slept with when you had the chance.”
I shake my head and smile softly. “I don’t just go with it.”
“And where has that got you.”
I frown.
“Up until now, you have not gone with it and where has it got you? Are you happy? Is your body sated?”
“But-”
She cuts me off. “There are no buts. If you want him, take him.”
For another hour we lie like lizards in the sun and I watch him like an eagle while he works out. Angela’s words are ringing loud through my head on repeat. Why am I being so self-preserving? What am I expecting? A marriage proposal from Prince Harry or something? Maybe I should just go with my gut and let myself make the most of this time. What have I got to lose? I’m disappearing from life in a couple of weeks. With every exercise he does, another dirty image crosses my mind of the devious things I imagine he could do to me-What that sinful body is capable of. I don’t know if it’s the sun or the oil drizzled over me, or the damn hot body of his wet with a sheen of perspiration, but I am feeling very overheated by the time he comes out to get me.
“You ready to go?” he asks as he towers over my deckchair.
I glance up and see his hungry eyes drop down my near naked body and then back up to meet mine as he licks his lips.
I smile and hold my hand up for him to take in his. He pulls me out of my chair and I take my dress and towel in my hand. “I’m going to head back, Ang. See you at dinner?” I ask.
“Okay.” She smiles as she watches us intently.
We turn and walk to the staircase when Mac’s hand drops to my behind as I open the door. “A gentleman would open the door for me.” I smirk.
He bends and gently kisses my lips. “A gentleman cannot multitask, and at this moment, this gentleman’s mind is on your ass in that white bikini and the things he could do to it.”
I smile into his lips and kiss him again as his hand tightens on my behind. He squeezes hard and my hormones start to pump. For a moment our eyes lock. He takes my hand back in his and we continue toward our room as my heart thumps hard in my chest. What is this?
Does he feel this attraction like I do?
I don’t want to go in. I want to stay out here and play along with him touching me for a while. His hands feel so good on my skin.
We arrive at our door and I glance up the corridor toward the common room. “Do…” I hesitate. God, do I sound needy? “Do you want to go up to the common room to get a drink or something?” I ask.
A trace of a smile crosses his lips and I know that he knows exactly what I’m playing at. “Okay. Can you wrap your towel around you?”
I glance down at myself.
“I’m not putting on a show for my work mates. Your body is mine only to look at.”
A rush of excitement that shouldn’t be there shoots through me and I smirk, wrapping the towel around my chest as we continue down to the common room.
He walks behind the bar. “What do you want to drink?” he asks. I glance around. This is the first time I have been in this room when it has been completely empty. Not a soul is here.
“Scotch,” I murmur. I know he remembers ordering me that drink so he liked the taste of my kisses the other night. I wonder will we kiss now? He pours me a Scotch and Coke and then pours himself an iced water. “You’re not having a drink?” I ask, surprised. He’s not working tonight.
He shakes his head as his dark, sexy eyes hold mine. “I’m not drinking tonight.” His eyes fall down to my lips and back up to my eyes.
“Why not?” I ask.
He raises an eyebrow. “I have other plans.”
“Like what?”
“Let’s just say…” He pauses for a moment. “I want my reflexes to be razor sharp.”
I swallow the nervous lump in my throat. “Oh,” I murmur.
He picks up our two drinks and walks over to the large double lounge and pulls a coffee table over next to it, placing the two drinks down. He then lies down with his back to the high side of the lounge and pats the lounge in front of him.
“Lie down with me?” he asks in his husky voice.
I swallow nervously. This is weird. I know we are only playing along, but this feels different. I lie down nervously on my back and he places his hand tenderly on my stomach through the towel before he leans up on his elbow above us.
“Did you enjoy your workout?” I ask nervously. He smells so damn hot.
He bends and kisses my shoulder softly. “Yes,” he whispers into my skin.
I feel the air leave my lungs and I troll my brain for something intelligent to say. His hand circles on my stomach and I stop breathing all together. He bends and kisses me softly on my neck and my eyes close. God, he feels so good.
He kisses me again.
“Do you have any idea how fucking edible you look in that bikini?’ he whispers into my ear.
I smile into the side of his head. “No, why don’t you tell me about my bikini?” I murmur as my eyes close.
I feel him smile into my neck and I bite my lips to hide my groan. “It’s not the bikini that’s making me crazy.”
“What is it?” I breathe.
“You.”