Illusion (Swept Away Book 1) (22 page)

“I never thought I’d see someone so happy to see a bottle of water.”

“Shut up and open it.”

I stopped in front of him and eagerly took the bottle from him, drinking the water sparingly. It tasted better than the most expensive champagne, and I immediately felt refreshed as I drank it. I made sure to take only about four gulps before handing it back to Jakob.

“What are you doing?” He frowned as he took the bottle from me.

“Aren’t you thirsty?”

“You’ve had only a few sips.” He tried to hand the bottle back to me.

“I’ll wait until you have some first.” I shrugged. “We don’t know how many bottles are in the bag.”

“Thank you.” He nodded and took a couple of swigs. “That was really thoughtful of you.”

“I’m not selfish, you know.”

“No, I don’t believe you are.” He handed me back the bottle. “Have some more. There are a few more bottles in the bag.” He reached into the bag again and pulled out five bottles.

“That’s it?” I pulled the bottle away from my mouth. I swallowed hard as I surveyed the bottles and mentally calculated how long they would last.

“It’s okay. There’s a lighter in the bag as well.” He pulled out a pack of BIC lighters and grinned.

“This helps us how?”

“We can cook and we can boil water.”

“What water? Not ocean water.” I made a face, recalling the water we’d drunk the day before.

“If we find a waterfall, we can probably drink that water as is, but if we want to be safe, we can boil it.”

“Safe from what?”

“Cholera and other parasites.”

“Cholera?” My eyes widened. “I thought that disease no longer existed.”

“It’s a waterborne disease and yes, it still exists. It’s quite prevalent in the West Indies and Southeast Asia.”

“So you think we’re in the West Indies or Asia?”

“I would guess.” He shrugged. “Seems about right, the
weather and environment seem to fit. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say the West Indies more so than Asia.”

“Have you been to the West Indies a lot, then?”

“No.” He looked at me for a second and then looked back in the bag. “I’ve never been before.”

“I wish I knew why we were both here.” My voice cracked, and I could feel my body shaking. I could feel that I was about to lose it.

“Someone wants us to disappear.” His voice was low. “We both know that we’ve been keeping secrets from each other.” He paused and looked at me. “There’s obviously some sort of deeper connection between us. If we want to figure it out and get off of this island, we need to explore our connections. Maybe we’ll find that we’ll be able to help each other.”

“Help each other how? I don’t have any secrets.” I looked down at the ground and walked out of the shack feeling apprehensive. I stared up at the dark sky and shivered at the ominous gray clouds that taunted me.

“So it’s a mistake that you’re here?” He followed me out with the bag in his hands.

“I don’t know how we can help each other.” I sighed. “And I’m not keeping any secrets. What secrets are you keeping? What secrets are you keeping that I can help you with?”

“I’m not.” He licked his lips, and I couldn’t stop myself from watching the pink tip of his tongue as it slid along his lips. My stomach flipped as I thought about kissing him. “Let’s go and find Steve, and then we can talk again soon.”

His words made me thirsty, and I walked faster ahead of him. “Thanks for once again providing me with a satisfying answer.” I made a face at the jungle in front of me as my brain screamed out for water.
Take that, monkeys and wild animals in the trees
, I thought as I glared into the unknown.

“I’m not here to make you feel better.” His voice was short.

“I don’t need you to make me feel better. I need you to answer my questions. I need you to be honest with me. We’ve been here for several days, and you only now decide to tell me that you have a connection to the Bradleys? The same people I tell you I think are after me!”

“I’m not just going to reveal everything because you have, Bianca. I don’t know you from Adam. Let’s be fair, I don’t know if your story is true or not.”

“That didn’t stop you from kissing me.”

“My attraction to you has nothing to do with my confiding in you.”

“You’re really cold, aren’t you.” I turned around and stared into his eyes searchingly. “Who hurt you so badly?”

“My mother always used to tell me, ‘Don’t give anyone the power to make you cry.’ ” He reached out and touched my cheek. “No one has the ability to hurt me. You shouldn’t worry so much about others and what they do to you. Ultimately, you have the power in your life.”

“I don’t worry about others.” I sighed. “I’m just saying that someone must have hurt you because you’re so hot and cold. I never know if you’re going to be nice to me or not.”

“Life and love and even sex are what you make of them.”
He looked to the sky and frowned. “It’s going to rain. We need to make some sort of shelter—or we should go back to the shack?”

“What about Steve?”

“There’s no point in our getting soaked looking for him. Let’s go back to the shack, it’s closer.”

“I’m not going back to that shack.” I shook my head and started walking again. “Let’s figure out something else.”

“We’re going to get wet.”

“I don’t care.” I frowned. “How did it get so gray already? The sun was bright and hot just minutes ago.”

“That’s the tropics for you.”

“Weird,” I muttered, happy when I saw the white sand of the beach in the distance. I didn’t like being in the jungle.

“Bianca.” Jakob grabbed my shoulders and stopped me. “I wanted to apologize to you. I should have told you about my connection to the Bradleys in the beginning. I don’t want you to think that I don’t want to find out the truth. I want all the answers I can get. This is more complicated because I’m attracted to you. I don’t want you to think that my attraction to you is false. In a different situation, who knows what could have happened?”

“I’m sorry I snapped at you. I’m still freaked out by the letters and Steve’s disappearance. And yes, I’m annoyed that you kept things from me, but I suppose I understand why.”

“We could make love right now, and I could make you forget all your worries.” His voice was low and seductive, and I felt my face growing warmer.

“You know, I was thinking about something.” A thought suddenly hit me. “There is one person who hates me. Someone who could have set up a kidnapping as well.” I changed the subject. “Though, I don’t know if she would go to these lengths.”

“Who is that?”

“My ex-boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend.” I sighed. “She hated me.”

“Because you stole him from her?”

“No!” I exclaimed, and then paused. “Well, not really.”

“What does
not really
mean?”

“It means not really.” I looked into his eyes before I spoke again. He looked back at me with an intense expression. “I didn’t know he was dating someone when we met.”

“Didn’t know or didn’t care?”

“What does that mean?”

“Well he was handsome, rich. You felt like you won the lottery, right?”

“No!” I glared at him again. “You really think I’m some sort of gold digger, don’t you.”

“Like I said, you wouldn’t be the first I’ve met.” He shrugged.

“Money isn’t everything.”

“Tell me about this girl who hates you.”

“Her name is Bridgette.”

“Bridgette?” He frowned and leaned forward. “Do you know her last name?”

“Moore,” I answered. “Her name is Bridgette Moore, and
she hates me because she thinks I stole David from her. But I didn’t know that they were dating.”

“You really liked David, it seems.”

“He was very handsome and sweet to me.” I circumvented his unasked question. My dating David had nothing to do with how much I liked him.

“Typical woman.” He rolled his eyes.

“What’s typical?”

“The number one trait you list is handsome.”

“What’s wrong with that? At least I didn’t say rich.”

“When he kissed you, did you feel as if your soul was on fire?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“When I kiss you, do you feel like your soul is on fire?”

“Well, you’re from hell, so it
would
feel that way,” I retorted quickly.

“Yet you feel comfortable enough with the devil to let him touch you?” His fingers trailed across my collarbone and then to my cheek.

“I never said you could touch me,” I whispered softly, not wanting him to stop.

“Sometimes an assent doesn’t come from the mouth, it comes from the eyes.”

“My eyes told you it was all right to touch me?”

“Your eyes told me it was all right to fuck you.” His face moved toward mine, and I could feel his breath on my lips. “Your eyes are begging me to kiss you.” This time, as he spoke, his lips trembled against mine.

I closed my eyes and waited to feel the firmness of his lips against mine as he kissed me, yet nothing happened. I slowly opened my eyes again, but I was disappointed. My breath caught as I realized that he was gazing intently into my eyes.

“I think . . .” he began with a small smile. “I think we have a connection.”

“Oh?” My heart started beating fast at his words. I didn’t know how much I liked him, but I was definitely attracted to him. “I agree.” I nodded, my face flushing. I didn’t know what was going to happen next, but I was excited to find out.

“I think I know Bridgette as well.”

“What?” I blinked at him, not comprehending what was going on. I had been expecting him to take me in his arms, not to keep talking.

“I said, I think I know Bridgette as well.” He smiled at me slightly, and his eyes appeared to mock me. “I think that’s a second connection that we have. There was a Bridgette Moore who used to work for me.”

“There was?” I mumbled as my brain started racing. He knew Bridgette? Bridgette Moore had hated me with a passion. The last time I saw her she was screaming at me and threatening to ruin my life. I hadn’t taken her seriously. I’d figured her words were those of a heartbroken ex. David had told me that he was about to dump her before he met me. I hadn’t thought she was seriously going to come after me, but now I wasn’t so sure. Could this have been set up by Bridgette and not by Mattias?

“Yes, but I fired her.” His fingers trailed up my neck and
circled it. For a moment, I thought he was going to strangle me as his fingers pressed in deeper and his expression changed. “I’m not the sort of man anyone should mess with.” His voice was hoarse, and I swallowed hard. “Do you understand that, Bianca?”

“Yes,” I whispered, my heart thudding with fear.

“Good.” He smiled and he leaned down to kiss me. “Bridgette didn’t seem to get that memo,” he whispered against my lips before he kissed me.

I held on to his shoulders and softly kissed him back. There was a buzzing in my ears as we kissed, and my brain was screaming at me. The kiss lit something up in me, and I ran my hands through his hair, but all the while, I was thinking to myself,
Did I made a mistake in trusting Jakob? Is this man going to kill me?

I pulled away from him and breathed a deep sigh of relief as his fingers left my throat. I took a step back and my fingers found the spots where he had been gripping me and rubbed gently. It struck me that maybe Jakob was hiding more than I’d even suspected. If Bridgette had been his assistant and Bridgette had dated David, wouldn’t he have known David, or at least heard of David? And if he knew who David was, why hadn’t he said anything?

T
here’s something about sexual attraction that makes your brain turn to jelly. Factually, I knew that it’s the process of what happens when chemicals are released in your brain that affects your mood. The chemicals are the reason why, when you see someone you’re attracted to you, you lose all sense. However, I still didn’t understand why I always seemed to lose my mind around Jakob. I knew he was the sort of man most women would fall for. I’d just never expected to find myself lusting after a man who was handsome but also potentially dangerous. I wanted to ask him more about Bridgette, but I knew that I had to time it well. I didn’t want him to think that I was making too many connections. Not yet. There had to be a reason why he wasn’t being straightforward with everything. I just didn’t know why.

I stared at his bulging biceps as he gathered coconut palms and tried not to lust after him too obviously. I watched the muscles in his back flexing and swallowed hard. The hot
sun was already deepening his tan, and I could see sweat glistening on his skin. Hard work had never made a man look so sexy before. After Jakob had kissed me, we’d noticed piles of fallen coconut branches and stopped to pick them up to take back with us to the sand. I had no idea how we were going to put them together to make a shelter, but I’d leave that up to him to figure out.

“You okay?” He looked back and caught me staring at him.

“Uh, yeah. I was just looking for the ass,” I mumbled as I stared at his butt.

“You’re what?” He grinned and turned toward me.

“I was just . . .” I stopped talking as I realized what I’d said. “I’m gathering stuff for the house.” I looked down at the ground with a red face.
Damn you, jelly brain
.

“What house?” He walked toward me.

“You know what I mean. The shelter.”

“I see. I thought you were gathering keepsakes for when you get back home.”

“Not quite.” I rolled my eyes and then swallowed as I looked up and saw his crotch right in front of my face. “What are you doing?” I sputtered, and jumped up.

“I came to make sure you were okay.”

“I already told you, I’m fine.”

“I wanted to make sure.” He gave me a small smile. “You’ve been gathering branches for a while now, but you have only one in your stack.” He looked pointedly at the pathetic coconut limb beside me, and I frowned.

“Why don’t you pay attention to your own pile before worrying about mine?”

“I’m concerned about both of our needs, Bianca.” His tone dropped, and his eyes moved to my heaving chest. “You should put your shirt back on when we return to the beach.”