Illusion (Swept Away Book 1) (33 page)

“You’re not into it?” He looked disappointed.

“I’m just tired, Jakob.” I touched his arm. “It’s nothing to do with how into it I am.”

“I’m sorry, I’m being selfish.”

“All I know is that tonight you’re my savior.” I shook my head, and his eyes lit up.

“You think highly of me, don’t you?”

“I think you’re a pretty stand-up guy, yes.” I gave him a hug. “I also think you’re pretty sexy, but right now I think I just want to cuddle with you and sleep.”

“Your wish is my command.” We sat back down on the
sand, and Jakob took me into his arms. “Tonight, I’ll let you sleep. We have plenty of time for lovemaking later.”

“Thank you, Jakob.” I ran my fingers down his chest. “You do know that I want to touch you and feel you, but right now I’m still so sore.” My breath caught as Jakob grabbed my hand and held it tight.

“I understand, my dear, but if you keep touching me like that, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to stop myself from flipping you over and taking you.”

I gasped at the dark smile on his face, and he laughed. He pulled me close to his chest and bent his lips down to my face. “Sleep, my darling.” He kissed my forehead and held me close to him. I felt myself drifting off to sleep within seconds.

I
woke up the next morning with aching limbs and a heavy head. I sat up slowly, feeling disoriented, and saw Jakob sitting there staring at me.

“How did you sleep?” His voice was light.

“Like a baby.” I offered him a weak smile. “You?”

“Barely.” He stood up. “I was on edge all night.”

I looked around the beach to see if I could see Steve’s body. My fingers were trembling as I braced myself to see his body.

“I moved him.” Jakob shifted over to me. “I didn’t think you should see him.”

“Is it bad, then?”

“It’s not pretty.” He moved some hair away from my face, and I heard him gasp. “You’ve got bruises all over your face.” He frowned and touched a spot on my cheek carefully.

“I guess that’s what happens when you climb a tree and you’re not super fit.”

“You did a great job.” He leaned forward and kissed my cheek. “I can’t believe you’re so bruised.”

“What are you doing?” I reached out and touched the cut on his cheek.

“I’m kissing your boo-boos away.” He picked my arm up and kissed a large bruise on my wrist.

“My boo-boos?” I smiled at him.

“It’s something my mom used to do when I hurt myself when I was a kid.” He smiled at me, and his eyes glazed over. “She would kiss each one and make the pain go away.”

“She sounds like a fantastic mother. You must have loved her a lot.”

“She was my world.” He nodded and held my hand between his. “You know, talking with you last night brought back a lot of memories. When I was younger, I thought I was the luckiest little boy in the world. It was only when I reached my teenage years that I realized how sad and heartbroken my mother was, and that broke my heart.”

“Your father sounds like he was a jerk.”

“He was. He was a jerk who was easily influenced by his best friend.”

“What do you mean?” I reached out and touched his shoulder. My heart ached for this Jakob. I was now seeing a
more vulnerable side, and I was starting to understand why he didn’t believe in love. If his mother had been hurt and he’d witnessed that heartache, it was understandable that he didn’t know how beautiful it could be.

“My father was from a well-off family. He married someone from a well-off family. He strung my mother along her whole life.” His voice was angry. “He promised her that he loved her, but he never did right by her.”

“She waited for him?”

“She waited her whole life for him.”

“And he never came around?”

“No, he never made an honest woman of her.” He looked at me and frowned. “What would you think of me if I had no money?”

“Your money means nothing to me, Jakob.” I grabbed his hand. “You know that, right?”

“You sought out David Bradley because he has money or as a way for you to gain access to money.”

“It wasn’t because he had money, I told you that.” I shook my head. “You know it was because I wanted to find out more about my mother’s death. I explained that to you.”

“I know.” He sighed and stretched his arms. “Forgive me, Bianca. It was a long night, and I’m antsy.”

“I understand.” I looked at him for a few seconds and then moved next to him. “What are we going to do now?”

“What do you want to do?” He gazed at me then.

“I don’t know.” I reached out and took his hand in mine. “I want to leave the island. I want to get to know you better.
I want to figure out what happened to my mom. I want to claim my inheritance back from the Bradleys.”

“Your inheritance?”

“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you later.”

“What if you never get any money from them?”

“It’s not about the money, really.” I looked up at him. “It’s about knowing the truth. I want to know the truth about what happened to my mother.”

“This is hard for me to say, but I think I owe you an apology.” Jakob’s tone changed, and he grabbed my hands.

“Why do you owe me an apology?”

“I got you wrong, Bianca.” His eyes looked sad. “I’m sorry for thinking that—”

The rhythmic thumping of an engine growing louder in the sky distracted me from what he was saying, and I gazed upward to see where the noise was coming from.

“Hey, do you hear that?” I ran toward the water. “I think I see a helicopter.” I started jumping up and down. “Over here!” I screamed as I jumped. “We’re here!”

“Bianca, I need to tell you . . .” Jakob walked toward me and I jumped into his arms in excitement and kissed him. He looked taken aback by my exuberance, but I put it down to shock.

“I think we’re being rescued.” I wrapped my arms around his neck. “I think this nightmare is about to end.” I kissed him again and stepped back down to the sand. I moved up and down some more and waved my arms frantically in the air. “They’re coming toward us.” I grinned at Jakob. “I think they see us.”

“Even if they see us, this isn’t the end, Bianca. We still need to figure out exactly why we were brought here. We need to talk. I need to tell you what I know about David and Mattias.”

“I know.” I nodded. “And we will talk, and you will explain everything, but it will be easier once we are off this island.”

“I hope so.” He looked at me thoughtfully. “I hope we can figure it all out.”

“Yeah, we will.” I rubbed his shoulder. I knew I was going to have to tell him the whole truth about David, but then I remembered something he had told me the evening before. “Hey, didn’t you tell me you found some stuff in Steve’s pockets?” I glanced at him, and he nodded.

“I found a cell phone.” He nodded toward the helicopter.

“Oh?” I frowned as the knowledge hit me in surprise. “He had a phone this whole time?”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “So I think he was in contact with someone.”

“Who?” I continued jumping up and down while trying to process the fact that Steve had a working phone the whole time. “Mattias?”

“That we still have to figure out.” He reached out for me. “I think we need to stick together once we leave the island.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think that we might still be in danger.” He paused. “Think about it. Steve kept appearing and disappearing. We didn’t understand it at first, but what if he was disappearing
because he was calling someone? What if that someone was telling him what to do? What if that someone is waiting on his call right now?”

“Why don’t we check the call history?” I bit my lower lip. “That way we can see the numbers he called.”

“I already did that.” He sighed. “There were no outbound numbers.”

“So he hadn’t called anyone?”

“Or he had and he deleted the numbers, just in case.”

“Oh.” I stopped jumping up and down. “That would have been smart.”

“Yeah.” He sighed. “So my point is, if someone went through all this trouble to get us here, they aren’t going to be happy that we got off the island.”

“What do you think they will do?” My eyes widened.

“That depends on why we were on the island in the first place, and we still don’t know why.”

“Did Steve say anything?” I ran my hands through my hair. “Did he give you any clue as to why you were here?”

“Nothing.” He shook his head.

“What are we going to do?” My words tripped out of my mouth, and I was no longer as excited about being rescued.

“I think we should stick together. Not only because we need to figure this out, but also because I like you. I’d like to see how it goes between us.” His eyes searched mine. “This time on the island has been crazy, but it’s also been magical. I never thought I could feel this way about someone. I got you all wrong, Bianca.” He frowned, and his fingers brought my
face toward his. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but I know I want to keep you safe, and the only way I can do that is if you are close to me.”

“So you like me, huh?” I grinned at him, and he ran his hands over my shoulders and down my back.

“You have no idea.”

“I think I like you too.”

“I’d hope so.”

“So who did you call to rescue us? Nine-one-one?”

“I called my secretary. She called our IT department, and they tracked the GPS of the phone and dispatched my copter.”

“You have your own helicopter?”

“I’m a billionaire, Bianca.”

“Oh yeah.” I answered quietly, wishing that he wasn’t quite so rich. It would have been easier to date him if he was poor. “So the police don’t know we’re here?”

“I didn’t think we should call them.” He shook his head. “Sometimes the people who are supposed to help us are the ones who harm us.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. How would we even explain it to them?” I nodded and melted against him as he kissed me. “I haven’t told them anything about what I’ve been doing. Maybe we can go to them if we find out my mother wasn’t really in a car accident.”

“I’m glad you understand.” He nodded. “And we can do whatever you want, once we figure out the truth.”

I heard the helicopter coming closer and pulled away from
him. I looked around the sand frantically. “Where are my pants?”

“Your pants?” His mouth twitched.

“I’m not going on a helicopter wearing your shirt and my panties.” I made a face at him. “It’s bad enough that my hair is completely frizzed out, and I’ve probably got a face as red as an apple.”

“I don’t care.” He took a step toward me and tried to kiss me.

“I do.” I glared at him as I pulled away from him, and he laughed.

“Okay, hold on.” He ran up to where we had been sleeping and brought both of our pants back with him.

“Should we get Steve now?” I asked him hesitantly as I saw the helicopter coming even closer.

“No, I don’t want you to see him.” He shook his head. “We’ll get you seated in the copter first, then the pilot and I will get him.”

“Okay.” I didn’t argue with him, as I really didn’t want to see Steve’s body. I could only imagine how bad he looked. I didn’t want to see the reality of his pale white body covered in stab wounds.

“Hold my hand.” He grabbed hold of my hand, and I rolled my eyes at him as he pulled me to him without warning.

“Well, aren’t you charming.” I laughed at him as I fell back into him. All of a sudden I was feeling light-headed. The reality of our situation was finally hitting me. We were finally
getting off the island. And even though we didn’t really know why we’d both been taken there, I was confident that we’d be able to figure it out together.

I stood there in Jakob’s arms watching the helicopter approach us faster now. I really felt like we had something special, and I was glad that he had admitted that he felt the same way. I admired his strength, and part of me was thankful he had been on the island with me. I didn’t even want to think about what would have happened to me if I had been on the island with Steve by myself. Everything about him had been a deception. I shivered as I thought about how sinister the previous evening had been. I couldn’t believe he’d had a knife. I couldn’t believe that I had almost believed him and his lies. I thought about his warnings about Jakob, and I wanted to shake myself for almost doubting Jakob’s sincerity and motives.

“You okay?” Jakob grabbed my hand again and pulled me farther back with him. “I don’t want you to worry. I’m going to take care of you, Bianca.”

“I know.” I gazed into his deep blue eyes.

“I think we’d better move even farther back so we can give the helicopter space to land.” We stood there in silence watching the helicopter descending.

“I’m so glad I’m here with you,” I whispered as I waited to be rescued. “I never imagined I’d find someone I would trust like I do you in a circumstance like this.”

Jakob looked at me then, and I saw a flash of worry in his eyes before he smiled. “I’m glad that you’re here with me
too,” he whispered. “This is everything I could have hoped for.”

At last the helicopter landed on the beach. I stared at the huge machine in front of us and thought how odd it looked in this idyllic environment. I got into the copter and buckled up, watching as Jakob and the pilot walked to go collect Steve and then decided to close my eyes. I didn’t want to see them as they brought his body back. I opened my eyes one last time to stare at the beach and the jungle behind it. It didn’t look so scary anymore, but maybe that was because I was now leaving it.