“That’s a step in the right direction.”
“Next problem to solve is the rudder.”
“Is there enough light left to tackle that today?”
Sophia eyed the sky. It was three o’clockish, not even twenty-four hours had passed since they’d touched down on the island. “It’s not the light that’s the issue. We have the campfire and flashlights. The main issue is that I still haven’t come up with a possible replacement for a ferrule.”
She had racked her brain trying to think what she could use as a substitute. “If only there was some kind of linkage, a chain—”
An idea started to form. It was illusive at first, but in her mind she kept seeing a link. Mentally, she chased after the image trying to remember where she’d seen such a thing.
“Sophia?”
“I’ve got it!” She jumped to her feet.
“Got what?”
The platinum bracelet that Gibb wore was perfect. She could dismantle it, take out two links from the chain, position the broken cable through the links and hammer the chain so hard around the cable that the forged metal wouldn’t allow the cable to separate in flight. At least long enough to get them to the Island de Providencia. Of course, that meant destroying what was undoubtedly an expensive piece of jewelry. Her gaze flew to his right wrist.
It was bare.
“Where is it?”
“Where’s what?”
“That chain you wear around your wrist. If I take out a couple of links, they’d do as a makeshift ferrule. Where is the bracelet? You had it on last night.”
Gibb’s hand went to his wrist and he muttered a curse.
“Did it come off in the water while you were fishing? Let’s go look for it.”
“No.” He shook his head. “I took if off this morning when I showered beneath the waterfall. It must still be there.”
An extra blast of heat went over Sophia as she remembered that morning at the waterfall. She ducked her head so her eyes would not give her away. Suddenly, her body ached exactly as it had when she’d spied on him.
“Let’s go find it,” she said, charging ahead of him into the jungle, but then made herself stop. She didn’t want him to know she knew where the waterfall was. If he ever found out she’d seen him...
He came up behind her.
“Which way?” she asked, hoping her nose would not grow from feigning ignorance.
He took her elbow. “This way.”
She dissolved at his touch. His bare chest was so close. All she’d have to do was reach out a hand and she could strum his defined ribs with her fingertips. A jolt of awareness electrified her. They were about to return to the scene of the crime so to speak.
Gibb went ahead of her. The thin path through the thick foliage was too narrow for walking abreast. He pushed aside thick fronds, held them back until she’d passed by them. The waterfall pattered, the sound drawing them closer to it.
She ran her gaze over his naked back. He was all sinew and muscles, straight out of a fantasy. She thought about the scar on his chest and she imagined stroking it with her fingers.
The silk boxer shorts flowed like water when he moved, dark and silky. It made her think of dark nights and naughty deeds. Everything about him, from his intelligent gray eyes, to the sleek way he made her feel privileged to be in his extraordinary company.
That was the problem of course. A woman like her would never be in the company of a man like him outside of a plane crash on a deserted island.
This
was fantasy. She knew that, did not believe that it could ever be anything more. As long as she kept that straight, anything that happened between them would be fine.
Her gaze strayed down his spine to the waistband of his boxer shorts. The air fairly vibrated with his masculine energy and it stirred the thick sexual undercurrent that had been brewing between them for the past two weeks.
The sound of the waterfall grew nearer. The afternoon sun peeped through the trees here and there, casting long shadows through the jungle.
Gibb turned slightly, held out his palm.
He wanted her to take his hand?
Thrilling, absolutely thrilling, and scary to boot.
He wriggled his fingers at her.
Sophia accepted his hand and allowed him to lead her deeper into the forest. His grip was firm, warm. She felt secure in a way she’d never quite felt before. It was a fairy tale. Surreal.
Keep your mind on what you’re doing. Get that bracelet, get back to the plane, work as fast as you can to repair that cable and you might be able to get out of here before sunset.
And before she completely gave in to temptation.
Her breath was already coming out labored in the humid air. It felt as if they were moving languidly through water. Time crawled as she became infinitely aware of everything—the feel of Gibb’s palm pressed against hers, the way the rippling muscles in his arm stood out, how she and Gibb seemed to be connected by so much more than just their hands.
The waterfall became louder, along with the pounding of Sophia’s pulse as she recalled exactly what she’d done that morning when she’d watched Gibb. Heat swamped her.
He parted the fronds in front of them and there it was, the waterfall, bathed in a swath of sun as colorful birds flitted through the sheltering trees. A shimmering rainbow glowed at the top of the fall, several feet above their heads. Cooling spray splashed her heated skin. Her gaze went to the spot on the opposite side of the pool where his clothes had been left folded on the closest rock.
Gibb’s hands tightened around hers and Sophia’s stomach dipped and swirled. Was he reliving this morning’s events, as well? She held on to him. The lusty part of her was hoping for a kiss.
But Gibb simply stopped, his eyes narrowed. Sharp, smart eyes that missed nothing. Intense eyes that belied his youthful age. He was accustomed to being cautious, guarded.
Metal glimmered in the yellow light.
“There it is!” she exclaimed. Salt. Disappointment tasted like salt in her mouth. Had she not wanted to find the bracelet? Sophia shook off the thought. No way. She was happy. Elated. Ready to get off this island in fact. Ready to be on her way.
“Where?” he asked.
“Right there.” She pointed.
“I don’t—”
But before Gibb could finish speaking, a black and brown spider monkey scampered down from a strangler tree, snatched up the bracelet with one hand, and with the toes of one of his long back legs swung away on a vine like Tarzan.
10
“G
ET
THAT
monkey!” Sophia shouted.
Gibb was already on it, tearing through the dense foliage, Sophia on his heels.
The monkey chattered, apparently enjoying the game.
“Come back here,” Gibb yelled.
The monkey grinned wide, flashed a row of teeth and dangled the bracelet a few feet above Gibb’s head, taunting him.
Stretching his arm wide, Gibb jumped up, tried to snag the bracelet from the monkey’s paw. Futile. He knew it. But Sophia was watching.
The monkey let loose with a gleeful noise and leisurely reached out with his other paw and grabbed another vine. Two quick swings, and he vanished from their sight.
“Dammit!” Gibb swore.
Sophia giggled.
“It’s not funny.” He glowered.
She slapped her hand over her mouth and struggled to look serious. “The situation is not funny, but you swearing at a monkey makes me smile.”
“Well,” he said sheepishly, “I’m glad I amuse you.”
“Also, when you jump...”
“Yes?”
“You, um...jiggle.”
He put a hand over his private parts. “You weren’t supposed to be watching that.”
A mischievous light sparked in her eyes. “Now what woman would not be staring at a guy with a fit body like yours?”
Not to be outdone, Gibb raked his gaze over her body. She sure filled out those shorts.
Sophia was the first one to look away. She moved ahead of him, pushed back fronds and vines and charged heedlessly into the forest. “C’mon.”
“Get real,” he called after her. “We don’t stand a chance of catching him.”
“I don’t know about you, but I’m not a defeatist. Think positive.”
“Okay, I’m positive we don’t stand a chance of catching him.”
The monkey chattered up ahead, unseen among the leaves.
“See, he’s laughing at us. He knows we’re up a creek without a paddle.”
Sophia kept going, her curtain of long black hair swaying against her waist as she moved. What an image. It only took her a few steps and she was out of sight, too.
“Hey, wait up,” he said, rushing after her. The verdant air smelled of spoiled fruit. Gibb stepped on a rotten mango and it squashed messily beneath his foot. Ugh. He swiped his foot against moss growing on a tree root. He felt as if a hundred pairs of luring eyes were watching, sizing him up as a potential meal.
The tropical forest was Sophia’s territory, not his. Give him a boardroom or a cocktail party over a wild jungle and jewelry-stealing monkeys any day of the week. That platinum bracelet had cost him five thousand dollars, but money wasn’t the issue. The real value of the “gent’s band” as the jeweler in Australia had called it, was what it represented—his bond with Scott.
Yes, the infernal jungle was unpleasantly sultry and the monkey was annoyingly irritating, but what about the rainbows and waterfall and fishing and campfire s’mores? Had to take the good with the bad, right?
He followed the leaves still trembling from her recent passage. Vines and twigs scraped his body. He wished he had on more than silk boxer shorts and Gucci loafers. He stepped over fallen trees, skirted an anthill crawling with black ants so big they looked like licorice jelly beans with legs, tread carefully over soft ground and startled when he almost touched a long green snake so camouflaged he didn’t see it until its quick red tongue flickered at hm.
“Sophia?” Gibb called out. Where had she gone?
“Shh,” she hissed.
Slowly, Gibb inched forward through the vegetation. After some minutes, he found her standing perfectly still in a small clearing.
“What is it?” he whispered.
Sophia pointed upward.
The spider monkey that had stolen his bracelet was perched high in the top of a tree and sitting beside him on the branch were two other monkeys.
Gibb craned his neck. “All right, you found him. What now?”
She tapped her forehead. “Let me think.”
The platinum glimmered in the sunlight. One of the other monkeys scooted closer to the first monkey and tried his best to look completely nonchalant.
“Maybe if we could tempt them with some fruit...” Sophia mused, stroking her chin with her thumb and forefinger.
“They’ve got fruit all around them. Why would they come down here where we are?”
“You got any better ideas?”
He did not.
Suddenly, the second monkey made a grab for the bracelet. The first monkey screamed and shoved the second monkey who slipped from his perch. He chattered angrily at the first monkey, snatched up a vine and swung to a nearby tree.
“A day at the zoo,” Gibb muttered.
“Have you ever been to the San Diego Zoo?”
That seemed a random reference. “Sure. Have you?”
“My aunt Kristi took me there many times while I lived with her. I think she thought that seeing all the animals would keep me from being homesick.”
“Did it? Keep you from being homesick?”
Sophia shook her head.
“It had to be hard for you so far away from home when you were so young.”
She kept her eyes trained on the monkeys, but her shoulder muscles tensed. “It was fun, too, playing with my cousins. I missed them when I returned to Costa Rica.”
“How long did you live with your aunt and her family?”
“A little over a year.” She shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
It was clearly a tender topic and he wasn’t sure why. He should probably stop quizzing her, but she was so fascinating that he wanted to know everything about her. “How was it that you came to live with your aunt’s family?”
She paused for so long that he thought she wasn’t going to answer. “Never mind,” he rushed to say. “It’s none of my business.”
“My mother died of bacterial meningitis when I was twelve.”
“Ah, Soph, I’m so sorry.” Now he felt like a jerk for being nosy. “That had to be tough.”
Sophia shrugged, but her eyes were sad. “It was a long time ago, but I still remember that zoo. I loved the monkeys most of all because they were so much like people.”
“Funny,” he said, “that you liked the zoo when you were raised among animals in the wild.”
“Here’s the thing. I took my home for granted until I went to the zoo. It was only then that I recognized that not everyone was as privileged to see these beautiful creatures in their natural habitat. Going to the zoo made me feel so very lucky and I’m thrilled there was such a wonderful place for people to come and see animals that they might otherwise never have the chance to see.” Her face took on a pensive quality that made him feel as if he were the most deprived man on the face of the earth.
“I get it, Soph.”
The first monkey stuck the bracelet in his mouth. He bit down on it, took it out of his mouth, studied it and then bit on it again as if testing to see if it was real. A third monkey closed in on the first. This one wasn’t playing coy. He was clearly intent on getting his hands on the bracelet. He puffed up his chest and made quarrelsome noises that Gibb imagined was something along the lines of “hand it over, buddy,” in primate speak.
The thieving monkey bared his teeth at the third and held the bracelet behind his back like a kid playing keep away. The second monkey popped back up again behind the first monkey while he was fending off the third monkey.
The second monkey snagged the bracelet and took off, making a deriding noise.
The monkey who’d originally made off with the bracelet let out a shriek and the chase was on. Three monkeys swung and shook the trees, jabbering at each other like trash-talking professional boxers.
“Why do I feel like I’m on an episode of
Punked?
” Gibb mumbled.
Sophia elbowed him in the ribs. “Keep moving. If they get away we have no chance of getting that bracelet back.”
Not knowing what else to do, he followed her once more. “You are clearly an optimist, Sophia Cruz.”
“I can’t believe you are such a pessimist,” she tossed over her shoulder as she plunged deeper into the jungle. “As successful as you are, I thought you would have learned by now that you have to see past external appearances in order to achieve goals. Just because all seems lost doesn’t mean that’s the case.”
“It sounds like you’re speaking from experience.”
“When my father gave me El Diablo everyone laughed at me. No one except my father thought I could make a go of a bush charter service.”
“How did that make you feel?”
“More determined than ever. I am very headstrong when I set my mind to something. Besides, I had Poppy on my side. All it takes is one person to believe in you.”
The way that James had believed in him. His adopted father might not have been demonstrative or ever told Gibb that he loved him, but he’d set the bar high and held Gibb to that standard.
“It wasn’t easy,” she went on. “El Diablo was not in the best shape. The plane had been grounded for over a year before my father finally came to terms with the fact he was never going to fly again.”
“That couldn’t have been easy for either one of you.”
“I remember the day Poppy came to me and said, ‘
Mi, hija,
I have been a vain man, unable to admit when my race is run, but it is not right for a beautiful bird like El Diablo to stay grounded simply because I am. It is his destiny to fly and you are the one I want to fly him.’ Then he gave me the keys and hugged me and we both started crying.”
“I can’t get over the amount of courage it took for you to succeed in spite of the naysayers.”
“‘Daydreamer,’ they all called me. ‘Just like your mother.’ But they did not know that daydreaming is how you see the big picture. I looked past the obstacles, fixed my gaze on my goal and went after what I wanted.” She cocked her head and grinned. “That, plus I’ve read
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
like nine hundred times.”
“You have an amazing spirit, Sophia Cruz.” He heard the admiration in his voice, acknowledged he did admire her deeply.
“So take a page from my notebook and believe that we can get that bracelet back.”
“There’s optimism and then there’s pipe dreaming.”
“But how do you know it’s only a pipe dream until you try?”
“I’m optimistic when things are within my control,” he said. “When things are out of my hands...then that changes the playing field.”
“You can never tell when the tide will turn.”
Gibb slogged through the dense underbrush. His feet kept slipping on the slick lichen and the silk boxers were swishing against his thighs, causing a friction rub. “I could do with a turning tide right about now.”
Sophia disappeared from his view again. Damn, he better pick up the pace if he didn’t want to get left behind in the jungle. He wished he had his phone to use the GPS. He shoved aside a banana leaf and she wasn’t there. It would be so easy to get lost in here. One big green frond looked pretty much like another.
“Sophia? You there?”
No reply.
“Soph?”
Well, he’d be lying if he said his pulse hadn’t kicked into overdrive. What if something had happened to her? Disturbing images of a jaguar snatching her up in its jaws raced through his head, but when Sophia reached out a hand from the overgrowth, slapped her palm over his mouth and pulled him up beside her, what he felt was—
Utterly aroused.
Her soft breasts were pressed against his back, her palm tasted both sweet and salty against his lips and her elbow was crooked around his neck. Her sexy scent invaded his nostrils, fanned the flames burning inside him.
“Don’t say a word,” she whispered in his ear, her voice low and her breath warm and ticklish against his skin.
Silk boxer shorts didn’t disguise a thing. Gibb closed his eyes, gritted his teeth and fought a losing battle against nature. The only saving grace? She was behind him.
“They’re close to the ground.” She removed her hand from his mouth.
Who? What? Huh? What was she talking about?
Chattering and rustling came from the nearby trees.
Oh, yes, the monkeys. Gibb opened his eyes.
Just inches above their heads sat the three monkeys playing tug-of-war with the bracelet.
“Don’t move,” she murmured. “They’re so busy fighting that they haven’t noticed we’re here.”
They stood like that, not moving, Sophia’s lush body pressed to him. At this point, he was so worked up that he didn’t give a damn about the bracelet. Which, considering he’d worn it every day for the past ten years, was saying something.
The spider monkeys swatted at each other, slapped and bickered.
“Monkeys are interesting,” he observed, determined to get a handle on his desire by grabbing hold of anything that could shift his attention.
“They are,” Sophia concurred.
The monkey who currently had the bracelet jerked his head up, spied them, let out a screech and took off through the trees, the other two hot on his trail.
“Come on,” Sophia said. “Let’s go.”
Gibb groaned. “How long are we going to do this?”
“Until we get that bracelet back.” The grit in her voice spoke of the kind of determination it took to be a venture capitalist.
He smiled. “Let’s get it, then.”
They were so deep into the forest now that no sunlight filtered through. Everything was shaded and shadowed and the air was distinctly cooler. From far behind them came the faint roar of the waterfall. They’d been out here for hours. Even if by some miracle they managed to get their hands on the bracelet now there was no way Sophia could repair the plane in time to fly out of here before sunset. Another day. They’d lost another whole day, but sometimes admitting defeat was the best plan of action.
He was just about to say this, when the miracle happened.
The monkey dropped the bracelet—plunk—right there at Sophia’s feet. She snatched it up with a triumphant hand. “Got it.”
The monkey screamed and started jumping up and down on the branch. His cohorts joined in.
“You snooze, you lose,” Sophia told the monkeys and slipped the bracelet into the front pocket of her shorts.
One monkey snatched a passion fruit from a tree and chucked it at them.
“Hey!”
The second monkey joined in, then the third.