Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 58226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 291(@200wpm)___ 233(@250wpm)___ 194(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 291(@200wpm)___ 233(@250wpm)___ 194(@300wpm)
“I think if you’d let me take care of you, you’d like it more than you know,” he says.
I already have, I protest silently. But it’s a silly argument. I’m putting modern expectations on a situation that’s so outside the norm.
“I didn’t say—I didn’t mean—” my voice trails off, since I’m not sure what I want to say.
“We’re in the middle of nowhere, babe,” he says, smoothing the varnished wood over my ass as he talks. “And this argument is over.” He calls me babe like we’re dating, and for some reason it seems fitting.
I gasp when his hand is between my legs again, his palm cupping my pussy. My clit throbs and I want him to touch me so badly I’m whimpering.
“Okay, okay,” I tell him, and in my head, I beg, touch me. I can hardly think beyond my need for relief. It’s so insistent it’s nearly painful.
I won’t fight him, not now. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and if ever there were a desperate time, this is it.
I close my eyes when I feel his hands between my legs. I can’t breathe or speak or move, my only focus the persistent, furious pulsing between my thighs.
“That’s a girl,” he encourages. “See, it isn’t all bad now, is it?” If I wasn’t so turned on it’d seem condescending, but I don’t care now. He strokes and fondles, and I’m so aroused I’m already near climax. I’m so ready for this, a few more strokes of his fingers and I soar into bliss right there, climaxing right over his knee, panting and writhing while he wrenches pleasure from my body until I’m spent.
I’m in a haze when I feel him dressing me again. He turns me over and sits me on his knee. Taking my chin in his fingers, he keeps my gaze locked with his. I’m still breathing heavily, my pulse simmering down to normal. I feel shy and a little embarrassed at how hard and easily I climaxed.
“I’m in charge here, Harper,” he says. “Whether you like it or not. Got it?”
I nod meekly, because I have no more power to deny him than I have to get myself off this island.
“We end up back home, then you can go back to whatever it is that makes you tick. You get that, too?”
“Yeah,” I whisper. Because we will get back, damn it, and I want back to my normal life again.
When we do… will we ever see each other again? Or will we part ways, strangers once more?
Why do I care?
I’m not even sure what I’m consenting to, or if I’m even consenting. It’s more that he’s just telling me the way it is, and between being out of my element and my insatiable need for sex, I don’t have a lot of resistance left in me right now.
“Good,” he says, righting me. I’m still trembling so I stumble a little, but he holds me by the arm to steady me. “We’re heading down to the beach.” He hands me my hairbrush. “Put that in your bag for now.”
Meekly, I obey, then go to sling my bag on my back, but without a word he takes it from my hands and takes the bag himself. Birds twitter overhead, and in the distance, I hear the soothing sound of waves crashing on shore. The sun is rising higher in the sky, and a gentle, warm breeze warns of the heat of the day ahead of us. Everything seems normal, but nothing is normal at all.
Eleven
Cy
It doesn’t matter to me where she came from.
It doesn’t matter to me who she was before she landed on this island.
Now that she’s here, she’s mine. Fully. Entirely. Under my protection, under my watch, and in my bed, makeshift as it is.
She may have ideas in her head about how things should be, but I’ve buried four men and fuck if I let her be another casualty.
Today, we’ll go to the beach. I’ll take her back to the shelter the six of us built when we first got here, and we’ll head to the shore. I’ll show her the lay of the land on this island and introduce her to what it means to survive here. For now, food is plentiful, so we’ll spend our time stocking up on what we can.
And I’ll find the other motherfucker who threatens our safety. I watched as one by one the other men degenerated into being animals. If Will is hungry, or the poison of this island has affected him, he may have become like one of others. Barely human. Fucking dangerous.
And even if he hasn’t, I want to know where he is.
When I was younger, I dated a few girls. I was the guy who always sat so he could see the door in a restaurant. I slept near the door in the bedroom. I walked on the outside of the street. It’s part of who I am to know where danger lies and to be the first one to face it when necessary.