AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I wasn’t about to leave without a plan in place. I just needed air. Well, different air. Air that wasn’t being shared with the man who’d been in my head the last four weeks. The man I’d guiltily thought about while using my vibrator to get off the few times I’d had the energy to do so since Cape Town.
“I need a second. Excuse me,” I said, and my sister unhanded me. But of course, remained at my side, walking with me away from the others.
Stephen’s continued explanation of the icebreaker rounds for the evening fell to the wayside as I made my way to one of the microphone dead zones I’d mapped out upon arrival.
“We need to figure out a way to leave,” I whispered just in case I’d missed a hidden microphone somewhere.
“You still don’t know if he’s here for us,” she mouthed back.
I turned to the side to put eyes on Jack. He looked as though he wanted to walk over to where we now stood, but he was holding back. He must not have wanted to give up the fact that we knew one another. Something just didn’t add up. “How could he not be, though?”
“If he’s really a bad guy, and we even managed to find a way to safely leave, he’d follow us, right? We won’t be safe,” she pointed out. “Our best chance is to do the whole ‘keep your enemies close’ thing, and see how this plays out. I really don’t think he’ll make a move on camera. That can’t be his plan.”
I hated being there in the first place, but now my bad gut feeling was supercharged in Jack’s presence.
“Also, I don’t want to leave. I still think there’s another reason your mystery guy is here. And yeah, maybe it is for you. But maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with . . . you know. What if he’s—”
“Obsessed with me?” My eyes widened, and I faced her. “That’d be bad, too.”
“I’d give anything for a hot and funny guy to be obsessed with me. Just FYI.” She reached for my arm and gave it a little pinch. “If you’re not running, we should head over before people start asking questions.”
“Fine. But if I think we’re in danger at any point, we slip out in the middle of the night, and we take our chances in the jungle. I memorized the way we came by boat. We can follow the path along the river to get back to the other hotel if necessary.”
“Okay.”
I didn’t believe her “okay” or her nod. But she didn’t give me much choice, or another chance to plead my case, because she left my side and rejoined the others.
“Hugs or handshakes. And then we’ll do the first round,” Stephen was saying as I made my way back over. He gave me a questioning look, which wasn’t the best sign. I knew there was a chance I could wind up cut and not Lucy. And that hadn’t been a huge deal before, since I could have waited for her at the other hotel located ten kilometers away. But now? Now I had to either last as long as my stubborn sister did, or force her to leave if I was eliminated first.
“I’m a hugger,” my sister said and opened her arms to some guy on our team named Mason.
Mason had dark hair and gray eyes, and those eyes flew up and down Lucy’s body so fast I nearly missed it before he accepted her invitation for a hug.
The two women in my group busied themselves with introductions to the other guys as Jack stepped around them to get to his target. Me.
“Hi.” He extended his arm, offering me the handshake option instead. “I’m Jack.”
I wet my lips while deciding what to do. I hated that he didn’t smell like bug repellant. And I hated that whatever cologne he had on didn’t repel me, either.
I stepped forward and ignored his outstretched arm, opting for a hug with one purpose in mind. I slung my arms over his shoulders, and he went completely still, as if shocked I’d gone with that choice. When his hands slid to my bare back to complete the whole “hug thing” I hated him again. Hated that his big hands felt good there. Felt freaking perfect. One even slid up my spine beneath my wavy hair, and he held the nape of my neck.
Own me.
Take me.
Fuck me.
NOT the thoughts that should’ve popped into my head. But they’d joined the chaos of my mind, nevertheless.
I pushed away the ridiculous inner monologue and brought my mouth to his ear and whispered, “I don’t know what you’re doing here, but this can’t be a coincidence.”
He kept hold of me, and chills danced across my skin as he returned the favor with his mouth to my ear. “Same, Charley. Same.”
There was so much meaning in those three words. In that deep voice. I was so distracted it took me a second to realize someone else was talking to us.
“You, uh, going to let go of each other?”
I forced the lump down my throat, ignored the fact I knew my body was covered in goose bumps, and I pulled away from Jack London-Hughes.
