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)
The implication hangs in the air. I’m not talking about catching fish. No, rather, when she sneaked onto my boat. Now she is here on an island with me, stranded and having to fish for food.
She lets out a long, drawn-out exhale, finally accepting my advice.
We stand together for a long time with peace and tranquility all around us. It’s odd what a difference a week can make.
Now, as I’m standing here, it brings me back to a time before, when I learned to fish this way. When I learned to survive by myself.
Now, I’ll teach her everything I’ve learned. That way, if we do ever escape this, she can live through any challenge life throws at her.
31
Phoenix
Breathing is overrated, right? Because I’m not.
It’s a modern miracle I’m still standing upright. Well, I guess it’s not a modern miracle, seeing as Alaric’s holding most of my body weight.
His touch makes me dizzy. Light-headed. He holds me so close that his heat is all around me. I should insist he stop, but I can’t. What I really need to do is turn over my shoulder and just kiss the man already. Put us both out of our misery.
I’m going to do it.
Right now.
The attraction is too strong not to. We are opposing pieces of a magnet, and the pull to each other is inevitable. This will happen, but if I kiss him now, it’s on my terms.
Before I can second-guess myself, I move to turn my head over my shoulder. I’m in the crook of his neck, but he pulls back, our gazes locking.
I can see his desire.
His eyes read like an open book. They tell me of his wants and needs. We are so close now that his breath fans my lips. My eyes shutter closed, and I’m sure our lips will collide … when suddenly, I feel a heavy weight in my arm, and then I’m tugged back. Or, well, at least my arms are.
My eyes jolt open, and Alaric is no longer staring at me. The moment is lost.
I turn my head back in the direction.
“There. We got one,” Alaric says excitedly.
He helps me lift it up. The makeshift net is heavy as it comes out of the water. When it’s high enough that I can see inside, an enormous fish is looking back at me, flopping.
A tinge of sadness enters my mind, but I push it away. I’m not a vegetarian or vegan by any means, but I have never hunted or fished before. But this is life and death for Alaric and me, so I continue to lift the net until it stops moving.
“You did it,” Alaric says as he plants a kiss on the top of my head. I’m completely taken aback by the move. It’s like how he kissed my head when I almost drowned. Caring. Proud.
It makes me feel warm inside.
“We did it,” I say, looking back over it at him.
He smiles. No, more like beams. It’s like a bright light in an unlit room. Blinding.
Alaric Prince is beautiful like this.
Like this, I can see an unfamiliar part, a part a woman could fall for.
I turn my attention back to the fish. I can’t look at Alaric like that. I can’t allow myself to believe any of that.
I’m not that girl for him. I can enjoy him, maybe even sleep with him, but I can’t be getting crazy thoughts like that.
Nope.
That is one notion that will never be written in the stars.
* * *
After the first fish, Alaric went back to his rock, and I continued to fish alone. The one thing I have learned in the past few days is that time has no place on this island. There is only eating, hunting, and living.
We stay for a while until the bright blue sky morphs to a strange green color.
“We need to head back,” he says, looking up at the forming clouds.
“Really, already?”
Alaric points to where he was staring. “See over there. That color?”
“Yeah,” I answer, but I’m not sure why a green sky means we have to go.
“A storm is coming.” He starts to walk.
“How do you know?”
“It looks like you will get survival class 2.0 now. When the sky turns green, a storm is brewing. But it’s more than that. Look at the ocean. You see how it looks like squares are forming?”
“Yeah.”
I have no idea what he’s talking about, but I play along.
“Those squares show the riptide getting stronger. We need to get out of the ocean and back to camp. We need to pull the raft to a secure place, tether it, and then hope the storm doesn’t cause it any damage.”
“Shit.”
“Yep.”
Fear fills my stomach. If the storm is as bad as he’s making it out to be, we could very well lose the only means to get off this island.