Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 104729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
“Can I do something else while you act like Tarzan?”
“Very well, Jane. What are you good at?”
I stare blankly at him.
“Can you hunt?” I shake my head. “Fish?” I continue to shake it. “Can you gather?”
At that question, I nod my head.
“Okay, so gather all the fruit you can find. Eat nothing.”
I take a step back and look at him. “Let me get this straight. Not only can you climb a tree but you also know which fruits won’t kill us?”
“Yes.”
“How is that even possible?”
“Why, because I’m a criminal. Believe it or not, before I became this, my life was quite different.” Without another word, he sets off to where the trees are, leaving me to myself on the beach and wondering what I said wrong.
After a few minutes of waiting for him to come back and maybe explain, he doesn’t. I have two choices, wait or look for fruit. If I want any chance of ever having the option to get off this island, I need to pull my own weight on this escape mission.
But which way to go …?
The day we found the lake, we went east. Should that be my direction, or should I look west?
I hem and haw over it before I decide to try the path we didn’t take.
Hopefully, I’ll have better luck that way.
I’m only a few miles in when I realize my mistake. The terrain is rugged, not nearly as smooth as the other direction.
My leg keeps getting scraped, but I need to keep going. There has to be something.
Somewhere.
Anywhere.
My breathing grows choppy from the exertion, and I know I have to take a break. I stop and reach for the bottle of water.
I sure hope Alaric has filtered the lake water because our bottled water is running low.
Add water filtering skills to the lengthy list of things this man can do.
Top it off with being the sexiest man I know, and he’s deadly.
It’s not fair, to be honest.
No one should have that many talents.
Maybe he sucks in bed?
Dammit.
Why did I let myself think that? Because now, all I’m going to think about is whether he does.
Couple that with the fact that only yesterday I saw what he was packing.
That alone probably means he would rock my world.
Enough.
Head out of the gutter, Phoenix.
You cannot keep thinking about him like that. You’re tired, scared, and horny now. You’ll probably die in a few days too.
I try to shut off this train of thought by drinking, and as I guzzle the water, I close my eyes. When I open them, I notice something in the distance. Something yellow.
Holy crap.
I set off to check it out, hoping and praying I’m not wrong.
By the time I get to the tree, I might actually cry.
A fruit.
There is freaking fruit here.
This is a dream, right?
I’m not sure what they are, but they must be edible. It looks like an enormous football with pointed ridges. In my head, I try to catalog the fruits I have eaten when I went to the Caribbean. Starfruit? Maybe. Alaric would know.
They’re too high for me to grab, but maybe I can be like Alaric.
I should just go get him and bring him back, but my damn stubbornness will be my downfall.
On tiptoes, I raise my body. Not enough.
If I can just put my foot here …
Lifting again, I try to use the trunk for leverage as my fingers grab the fruit and throw it toward the ground.
Unfortunately, only one comes down. I’m going to have to do this all over again. I move a few feet and try to grab it from a different angle.
This time, I’m not so lucky. As my finger grabs the fruit, my leg loses its hold, and I fall with a thud.
* * *
My ankle screams with each step I take. This is bad. I hope I didn’t break something.
Being stuck on an island with a broken leg or foot would be just my luck. I stop my movements and look down. It’s not swollen yet, and the color hasn’t changed.
No. I didn’t break it. I let out a sigh of relief. But it’s definitely twisted.
If that’s not bad enough, blood leaks from a small gash on my leg.
Alaric will have a field day with this.
I will never hear the end of it.
Why did you climb the tree?
No part of me is interested in listening to a lecture on what I should and shouldn’t have done.
I’m just going to tell him I tripped.
Except for the fruit in my hand, he’d probably believe it.
The damn fruit.
A part of me wonders if I should have left them there, so he wouldn’t know what I was up to.
But then my stomach growls, and I know I have no choice. I need to bring them back to camp and hope he doesn’t tease me too much.