Page 36 of Redemption Island

“My head.” Releasing her hands, a gash across her forehead was all I needed to know. I reached out as if I would pick her up, but she pushed me away. “You can’t carry me. Keep going.”

Her voice filtered through the howling gale, the sound haunting. I pushed her before me and forced her forward with me at her back. If she passed out, at least I could catch her.

Eventually, we broke through the bushes, reaching the flat landing before the cave. As Juliet stepped first, the wind took her sideways. My heart left my body as I envisioned her thrown from the cliff ledge, and I reached for the strap of her bag again. Tugging her down to the moss-covered rocks, we crawled to the cave entrance. I hadn’t given a thought to animals or other critters finding shelter from the weather within the hollow. They would have to share the space because I wasn’t going back down the mountain.

We burst through the entrance and Juliet immediately sat with her back to the rock wall. I passed her, scrambling to stand, as I searched our surroundings as best I could in the dim light. My knees gave way and I began searching for the propane lantern. I couldn’t let it run all night, but we needed to see the inside of the cave and warm up a little bit. Plus, I wanted to inspect Juliet’s forehead. We hadn’t thought to bring a first-aid kit.

“Mouse,” I hollered. The tapping of her crawling behind me told me she followed my command. Shaky fingers struck a match and lit the wick of the propane tank. The cave illuminated, and to my relief, nothing else hid within. The cavern’s walls were the purest black I’d ever seen, slick with a sheen, but brilliant and dry.

“Here.” I walked on my knees and opened my sleeping bag, spreading it wide against the back wall. I directed Juliet to follow. She hadn’t made a sound and I worried she’d gone into shock or had a concussion. “Let me look, Mouse.” She shivered before me, and I noticed her clothing was soaked, as was mine. I didn’t know what was worse—the sting of the rain or the slap of the wind.

“Let me see your head.” Tenderly I caressed over the cut, and she flinched. I reached for my shirt, tugged it over my head and dabbed at the blood. The tree raked over her skin, leaving a gash that didn’t look deep but was long. She still hadn’t made a noise, and her silence frightened me.

Inside the cave, the haunting howl dissipated. Tucked back into a corner, we were protected from the elements. Neither the wind nor the rain could reach us here or so I hoped. Juliet continued to shiver next to me. We were facing a long night trying to survive a hurricane. With no weather warning system, no cell phone, or emergency radio, we had not been prepared, and my anger grew with the thought, especially when I envisioned Juliet blowing off that ledge. Garvey had told me a storm was coming, but this wasn’t what I expected. And there was nothing he could do to help me. Juliet and I had to figure it out, together.

“We need to get out of these wet clothes.” I’d already removed my shirt and began taking off my shorts. Juliet hadn’t moved. “Mouse, take off your wet things.”

She didn’t look up, her body trembling.

“Mouse?” I questioned, reaching for her shirt and slowly unbuttoning it. Her eyes had lost their focus and stared into emptiness, definitely shock of some type. “I need to warm you up.” Though it had been humid, the rain soaked us to the core and my teeth chattered with a chill. She still hadn’t moved, and my patience was thinning. The rush of adrenaline still coursed through my body.

“Mouse, take off your clothes,” I snapped. “We need our body heat to warm each other.” Her head slowly lifted, but she made no attempt to follow my directions. Shaking with the need to be close to her, and the surge of adrenaline, I barked at her again.

“We’re going to play this my way. Blink if you understand me.”

28

The Island Touches Your Heart

Her eyes blinked with the recognition of those fateful words, the ones he spoke in an attempt to protect her. The only words he used to try to get her out of a terrible situation. He was a decent man who had made a bad decision. He hadn’t been cruel, like the other man. In fact, she couldn’t recall him being rough at all. His eyes had struck her. For a moment, he looked repentant. He seemed to be asking her something. Generally, his presence suggested he wasn’t one to ask, but in this instance, he wanted something of her. And then it passed, and he whispered those words over her mouth, gagged and unwilling. His lips covered hers.

His body shielded hers, but she’d turned numb. So cold, she thought. Resigned to a worse fate, she lay there, waiting for the second intrusion, an invasion that never came. He brushed back her hair, and the weight of him rested between her thighs, but he hadn’t entered her. She’d remember if he had, she decided. She’d remember him like that.

Presently, she heard the ripping of buttons off a shirt and warm hands pushing back damp clothing. So wet, she thought. Palms rubbed up and down her cold skin, and her body jostled with the roughness of his touch.

“Mouse,” he whispered harshly and she looked up at him, recalling who he was and who he’d become. He was caring for her once again. He cared about her, she decided. His mouth descended over hers, and the instant it connected, she flared back to life. Her arms wrapped around his neck, and she pulled him to her. They tumbled back onto the makeshift bed.

“Clothes off,” he commanded, and she wrestled with her own shorts and underwear as he removed his. They sighed in unison when they came back together, the heat of skin and the warmth of bodies, igniting the other. Hands explored. Fingers caressed. Mouths melded as one.

“Let me in,” he pleaded. His lips covered her skin over her racing heart. Her thighs opened, allowing him entrance to a foreign land. The tip of him spread her, and he sailed forward. The sensation filled the dark cavern with a collective moan of relief.

He would be gentle with her. He would be patient. He would be kind. He was like a wave, rolling forward, crashing against her shore, and like the wet sand on the beach, she followed each retreat, waiting for the rush to happen again. They continued this pattern of him curling over her and her tumbling under him until the friction became too much. Like the angry sea surrounding the island, the rhythm increased, becoming a collision of crashing ocean and soft sand.

“Mouse,” he struggled, questioning the sensation. Her hands reached for his firm backside, and he lifted her knee, drawing himself deeper, wanting to drown in her.

She dug her fingers into the solid globes of his rear and clenched her thighs at his waist. Her groans murmured off the walls of the cave, where she asked to be tamed and claimed and owned by him. Rushing as she came, the orgasm didn't want to subside as another wave developed, and he rode her faster. He balanced over her, towering up on two hands. She’d become the island, letting the ocean take her and the wind claim her, and his thrusting increased as she climbed upward, chasing another release that would wreck her.

“I love you,” she screamed as the storm of him pounded against her. He stilled. The words stunned him, but she didn't think to worry. She was coming again, a river of rushing emotion as her body was wrapped around him, and then the subtle pulse of him inside her, beats of his own release, filled her.

“What did you say?” he asked through clenched teeth. The sound wasn't angry. He was confused, lost in the question. His eyes glistened.

A shaky hand wiped sweat at his brow, bodies still connected as one.

“I love you,” she whispered, one part fearing his wrath, and the other part bold enough to admit the emotion.

She loved him when she once hated him.

“Don't say that,” his voice trembled, liquid threatening to leak from his eyes. “Don't say that unless you mean it.” His eyes closed, shutting off the tunnel to his emotions.