Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68509 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68509 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Then I stripped down to my bra and undies and made my way into the water.
And for a blissful hour or so, all there was in the world was the delightfully warm water, the sun overhead, the weightlessness of floating, and a sole prehistoric-looking marine iguana sunning itself on the shore.
My eyes drifted closed, just getting lost in the moment, in the vacation feels, forgetting all about it being a forced vacation. Without any actual vacation-like luxuries.
Electricity.
Showers.
Toilet paper.
None of it mattered.
But just when I was ready to climb out of the water, I spotted something on the shore that hadn’t been there before.
Wick.
Intense eyes watching me.
He’d even put his shades on top of his head so he could see me without their darkening effects.
For a moment, I just froze.
It wasn’t until the water tickled my nose that I remembered to kick my feet.
How long had he been watching me?
How far had my damn boobs been poking out of the water as I floated on my back?
Why, for the love of God, had I worn my one and only lacy purple bra?
Because it was the only one clean, I reminded myself.
And because I hadn’t exactly thought I’d be stuck in it for days. Let alone have a ridiculously good-looking man see me in it.
“You coming out or what, duchess?”
Ugh.
Now I had to get out.
I couldn’t let him think I was going to be all chickenshit just because I was in my underwear.
At least my panties were simple black cotton and covered my whole ass. No cheeks peeking.
Reaching under the water, I made sure my boobs were securely where they were supposed to be, then made my way to shore.
The problem was that Wick didn’t have the decency to turn away, to give me at least the illusion of privacy.
Nope.
As I walked out, water cascading down my mostly bare body, his gaze was on me.
Not just glancing, either.
The man’s eyes were doing the whole up-down. Slowly.
And I swear the skin his gaze moved over warmed while goosebumps managed to pebble up on my skin.
A shiver—that somehow managed to be both cold and heated at the same time—coursed down my spine, making me take a deep breath to try to calm my system down before it got too carried away with itself.
Unfortunately, that deep breath caused, you know, heaving. And Wick’s gaze was drawn like a moth to a flame.
I couldn’t seem to force my feet to move any closer. Not with my sex aching, my heart racing, my blood heating.
It was Wick who recovered first.
“Here,” he said, digging into his backpack and coming out with… a towel?
How the hell did he fit so much stuff in that thing?
But before I could let myself really give that much thought, he was on his feet, closing the distance between us, opening the towel, and wrapping it around my back.
Then, gaze drifting down, he held both ends over one of my breasts, waiting for me to take it.
It took an embarrassingly long time to do just that, quickly tucking it to the side of my chest, then taking what felt like a necessary step back.
“Thanks. For the protein bar and the toothbrush. I hope that was mine, anyway. Because I used it.”
“I had an extra,” he said, gaze slipping away. Again, there was just that… something in his voice and demeanor that nettled at me.
“Oh, more protein bars,” I said, dropping down next to the fruit that had multiplied with Wick’s return. Though these bananas looked a lot more ripe.
“Chocolate or peanut butter?” he asked, holding one of each out to me.
“That’s a silly question,” I said, snatching the chocolate. “Should we be eating two of these in one day? We’re going to run out faster.”
“It’ll be fine.” He ripped open his bar and took a bite. While I just… watched him chew. Like some freak.
“Where’d you go?”
“To get more fruit.”
“For most of the day?”
To that, I got a shrug.
“Any idea what time it is?”
“About five.”
“Any idea what time the sun sets around here?”
“Six or six-fifteen, year-round.”
Finished with his bar, he reached for an orange.
“What about sunrise?”
“Six or six-fifteen, year-round.”
“What? How?”
“The equator runs right through Ecuador and the archipelago. It cuts the days equally in half.”
“What do people do with twelve hours of night?”
“Well, most people have electricity.”
“Right,” I said, finally opening my bar to eat. I should have been starving. But I found myself mostly disinterested in eating. “Well, what are we supposed to do with twelve hours of darkness ahead of us?”
“We rest.”
After eating—and changing back into fresh clothes—that was exactly what we did.
We silently decided to stay somewhat close, each using our bags for pillows.
The night came on fast and dark.
The temperature dropped a solid twenty degrees in what felt like a blink, leaving me cold and curling up tight into a ball and praying for unconsciousness.