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“Cami…”
“Two…”
“What is—”
“Just do it, Adi! Three!!”
Adela jumped from her spot on the log and followed Camilla leaping ahead. Adela held out both hands in the dark, finding Camilla’s back who screamed at the touch.
Whatever had been behind Adela clearly horrified Camilla as she shouted, “Nooo! Get it off of me!”
“It’s me! It’s just me, Cami!”
They stumbled out of the wilderness, stomping on the last bit of thick undergrowth. Adela stood still on the beach, resting her palm over her racing heart as she watched her friend run in a direct line to the water’s edge.
Dominic stood from his spot near the fire, watching Camilla in bewilderment as she passed him running. The moonlight highlighted Camilla’s shiny dark hair as she dove straight into the first wave, reaching her knees.
“Cami! Come out of the water!” Adela shouted.
“What the hell is she doing? It’s not safe to swim in the ocean at night.”
Adela ignored Dominic’s grumble. She pulled her tank top over her head, got rid of her flip-flops, and shimmied out of her jean shorts on her way to the shore.
“Fuckin’ hell…” she heard Jack mutter behind her.
She couldn’t care less if this guy saw her in just her bikini. She didn’t know what got into her friend, but whatever Camilla saw freaked her out enough to willingly go into the ocean by night and swim with the sharks. As someone who grew up in Hawaii—and especially as a marine biologist, Camilla knew that some species of sharks move inshore to feed at dusk.
“Cami! Where are you?”
There was no sound of her friend, just the waves rolling up the shore and seashells cracking under her bare feet.
“She’s there!” Jack said, pointing at Camilla swimming back to them. Camilla stood, the water coming up to her breasts. “I’m here! I hope I got it off me…”
“What the hell got into you, woman?” Dominic shouted over the waves rolling onto the shore.
“She saw something creeping up on me in the jungle and I guess she thought it jumped her,” Adela said.
Camilla waded out of the water, her wet yellow sundress clinging to her curves as she skipped a wave.
“Hot damn,” Dominic whispered.
Adela held out her hand for Camilla to take. “Are you okay? You scared me!”
“There was a spider—I think it was a Southern black widow, and a snake came up behind you to go after the spider. Or you, maybe.”
Adela figured her friend’s retelling didn’t reach Dominic’s ears as he stood in silence, taking in Camilla with her hair dripping and wet dress clinging to her body.
Jack cleared his throat as he held out Adela’s clothes. “And you? Are you okay?”
She suddenly realized she stood half-naked in just her black triangle bikini in front of a guy she’d just met half an hour ago. She accepted the pile of clothes and brought it to her chest in a halfhearted attempt to shield her body.
“Thanks. Um, yeah… I’m fine. I’m just glad she’s out of the water.”
“I’m sorry…. I wanted it off of me,” Camilla said while squeezing the water out of her long hair.
“Are you goin’ to dive into the ocean every time you run into an eight-legged fucker on this island?”
Camilla narrowed her eyes at Dominic. “Let’s see how you’ll like something jumping you.”
