Illusion (Swept Away Book 1) (19 page)

“Don’t be scared, Bianca.” He teased me. “I won’t bite.” His grin showed off his perfectly white teeth, and of course now all I could think about was him biting every little part of my body. “Unless you want me to.”

“I don’t want you to and no, I’m not scared.” I glared at him.

“It will feel good to get all the sand out, Bianca. Trust me.”

“Fine.” I walked into the ocean and moved away from him. “Don’t come near me.” I glared at him and then reached down and pulled my panties off. Immediately the water surged up and I felt weird but liberated.

“Bra next?” He shouted at me, but he hadn’t moved closer to me, so I just ignored him. I held on to my panties tightly and then undid my bra. The water felt like heaven against my naked breasts, and I sighed happily. He was right. It felt absolutely amazing to be naked in the water. I used my hands to scrub down my body. Even though the water would leave a residue of salt on my body, I felt that was preferable to having sand and sweat hanging on to me all day. I scrubbed every inch of my body, trying to remove every grain of sand and dirt that I could.

“She’s going to wash that man right off of her skin; she’s going to wash that man right off of her skin.” I heard Jakob singing, and I looked over at him.

“What are you doing?”

“Making a song up for you.”

“You didn’t make that up. That’s a variation on a song from
South Pacific
.”

“So you do know your movies, then.” He raised an eyebrow at me and then swam toward me, and I froze.

“What are you doing?” I took a step back.

“I wanted to know if you needed help with your back.”

“What help?” My heart skipped a beat as I imagined his strong hands on my naked back.

“I could help wash off whatever clinging sand grains remained.” He shrugged and stopped about two feet away from me. “And you could do the same for me.”

“You’re too close.” I glared at him and looked down in the water to ensure that my breasts weren’t showing.

“Don’t worry, I can’t see much.” He laughed.

“What does that mean?”

“I can see boobage, but I can’t see nipple.”

“That’s more than I wanted you to see.”

“Do you want me to scrub your back or not?” He moved closer, and I could see his blue eyes laughing at me. He was enjoying making me feel uncomfortable.

“I don’t think that I do.” I shook my head and froze as he moved even closer to me. His body was within inches of mine, and all of a sudden my heart was racing with excitement. I could feel the electricity in the water between us. My body was humming in anticipation. If I took just one step forward I would be in his arms and my naked body would be crushed against his. If I wanted to, I could reach down and touch his cock. I could see if it was as magnificent as it had looked earlier.

“Turn around.” He commanded me, breaking our momentary silence.

“Sorry, what?”

“I said turn around, and lift your hair up. I’ll be able to get your back better if it’s facing me.”

I’m not sure why I did it, but I turned around. His hands touched my skin lightly at first. His fingertips rubbed me gently, and I felt like I wanted to melt.

“You can scrub a bit harder.” I muttered, wanting to feel the strength of his hands on me.

“I was being soft at first, in case you had a sunburn. I don’t want to hurt you,” he whispered in my ear as he stepped closer to me. I swallowed hard as I felt something brush my ass. I
didn’t ask what it was, because I already knew. He increased the pressure of his fingers, and I felt my body trembling as he scrubbed my back. His fingers moved in swift circular motions until he moved up to my shoulders. I felt his fingers squeezing my muscles, and I sighed as he worked to release the tension. “I hope you don’t mind me giving you a massage,” he whispered again, but I didn’t answer. I could feel his chest against my back, and I was suddenly aware of just how close he was to me. He massaged my shoulders for another couple of minutes, and then he went back to rubbing my back.

“I think that’s good enough.” I murmured as his hands started scrubbing my sides and accidentally rubbed the side of my boobs.

“Don’t worry, Bianca. I’m nearly done.” I could hear the grin in his voice. “I just have one more spot to take care of.” I gasped as his fingers fell to my ass and scrubbed it down.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I shouted, and took a step forward.

“I’m making sure all of you is sand-free.” His hands moved up to my lower back, and he scrubbed there. “I thought that’s what you wanted.”

“I didn’t want your hands on my ass,” I retorted angrily.

“My bad.” His hands worked up my back again. “Okay, I’m nearly done.”

“Good.”

“Just one last place.” He said softly, and before I knew what he was doing, I felt his fingers slide down the middle of my ass cheeks.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I pulled away from him and turned around to glare at him.

“Sorry, you did say you had sand in all your cracks and crevices.”

“Uh-huh.” My eyes narrowed at him. “I’m going to shore now. I suggest you stay here until I get my bra and panties back on.”

“What about my back?” He pouted, and I laughed.

“You’re on your own, mister.”

“Thanks a lot.” He made a face, and I splashed water at him. “Hey, what’s that about?” He sputtered and spat out some of the ocean water that had gone in his mouth.

“That’s a warning. Don’t try to pull a fast one on me again,” I said lightly, and started to walk away from him.

“That’s a pretty pathetic warning,” he shouted at me, and I felt a huge wave of water crashing over me.

“Are you joking?” I turned around and glared at him, my face dripping with water. “You just splashed me?”

“What are you going to do about it?” He grinned, and I narrowed my eyes.

“This.” I put my hands down in the water and created a huge wave to splash at him. He splashed me back, and we continued splashing each other for the next few seconds. Without my realizing it, Jakob had swum up to me and I felt his arms around my waist.

“What are you doing?” I gasped as I tried to splash him in the face.

“Nothing.” He shook his head and leaned toward me. I
felt his lips pressing down on mine softly. His mouth was salty and hard. He brought me in closer to him, and I felt my breasts crush against his chest. I moaned against his lips, as I felt his manhood pressed against my stomach. He slipped his tongue into my mouth, and I sucked on it eagerly, running my hands up to his head to play with his hair. I felt his hands on my back pinching into my skin, and I pressed myself into him closer. His hands then fell to my ass, and he squeezed my butt cheeks together. I moaned again and then froze as I felt his fingers going down my ass crack, trying to get in between my legs. I stepped back quickly, with my heart racing.

“What are you doing?” I swallowed hard and stared up at him.

“Sorry, I got a bit carried away.” He licked his lips and stared back at me. “We should probably get out now.”

“I agree.” I nodded.

“You go first. I’ll wait here with my back turned so you can put on your bra and panties.”

“Thank you.” I swam away from him quickly and ran out of the water. I wrung as much water as I could out of my underwear and slipped them on. They were cold and clammy, but I knew they would dry out quickly in the hot sun. I also knew
not
wearing them was not even a possibility.

“I’m ready.” I called out to Jakob and watched as he swam back to shore. He moved like a champion swimmer, and his body was made for the water. I stared at him as he exited the ocean, and this time, I didn’t tell myself not to look. I gasped as I saw his cock was hard and jutting out.
Jakob looked up at me as he put his briefs back on, and we stared at each other for a few seconds before he walked over to me.

“Ready to go to the jungle?” he asked me lightly, and I nodded, grateful that he hadn’t made a comment about my checking him out.

W
e walked in silence toward the jungle. I could feel my heart racing as I realized that I was about to enter the unknown. I thought back to one of my history classes where we’d talked about American Indian tribes who had never had contact with Westerners.

“I really hope we don’t happen upon any native tribes who want to kill us.” I shivered.

“Don’t be stupid, Bianca.” Jakob shook his head.

“Fine. I hope we don’t happen upon any native tribes who want to kill
you
.” I glared at him.

“Keep your eyes open and your ears keen, then,” he responded pompously. “If anyone is waiting to kill us, it’s Steve.”

“What do you mean?” I frowned at him, still feeling annoyed by his imperious nature.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll worry about Steve.” He gave me a condescending look. “Just keep your eyes open for water, and your ears as well.” He spoke slowly and arrogantly, and I wondered how I had allowed myself to be even slightly intimate with him. “At the same time, let me know if you see any Indians with bows and arrows.”

“You’re an asshole.”

“I’m an asshole who doesn’t want us to get further dehydrated.”

“You really think we’re going to find fresh water?”

“We’re pretty screwed if we don’t.” He looked at me then and sighed. “Please don’t cry.”

I stared at him for two seconds before ignoring him and increasing my pace. He was such an asshole.
Please don’t cry,
my ass. I hadn’t cried since we’d been here.

“Wait up.” He hurried behind me and grabbed my arm. “I told you already that you need to wait for me.”

“You’re not the boss of me.” I shrugged his hand off. “And the last I heard, we weren’t colonists.
We
didn’t start a democracy, and I didn’t vote for you to be governor or president.” I gave him a haughty look. “So in case you don’t get it, I’m not listening to what you say.”

“Bianca,” he started, and half-smiled.

“What?” I snapped, and then tripped over something and fell to my knees. “Ouch.” I landed on the sand with a thud, my face burning up in shame.

“You okay?” He reached his hand out to help me up. “I was trying to warn you about that branch.”

“I’m fine.” I jumped up, ignored his hand, and then brushed the sand off my legs. I looked up and found Jakob staring at me with darkened eyes.

“Is it going to be like this the whole time we’re here?”

“We’re not here to repopulate the planet, so I wouldn’t worry about it,” I huffed out, and then paused. “Oh my God,
you don’t think we’re here for some secret project? Maybe they want us to start a new colony and repopulate a new population to see if we can survive on another planet.”

“Another planet?”

“You know, somewhere other than Earth.”

“We’re on Earth, Bianca.”

“Duh. I meant, maybe they plan on sending us to another planet after we have kids.” I sighed as if he were the slow one and then started laughing. “I’m joking, Jakob.”

I could see his lips trembling as he listened to me, and I could tell that he wanted to join me in my laugh. Finally, he couldn’t stop himself and he started laughing as well. We laughed for a good couple of minutes, and I felt tears running out of my eyes.

“Okay, I know how ridiculous that sounded,” I finally choked out through laughs. “You should have seen your face when you thought I was being serious.”

“I’m glad you realized that we don’t have to worry about life on Mars, though I wouldn’t be averse to trying for the kids.” He winked at me, and my face flushed. “What say you?”

“I say no.” I marched ahead of him, and he grabbed my arm.

“What are we going to do to get off of the island?” His voice was serious, and I knew that the joking part of the morning was done. “We also need to think about how we’re going to protect ourselves. Just in case.”

“Oh God, I feel like I’m Katniss and you’re Peeta. Only, I don’t know how to shoot a bow and arrow. Not that I have a
bow and arrow, and I don’t think you know how to bake bread.”

“What?” He looked annoyed. “Who are Katty and Peter?”

“What?” I responded back at him. “You never saw
The Hunger Games
movies? I mean, the books were better, but I thought most people saw the movies at least. The second movie was much better than the first one though.”

“Bianca,” His voice was growing impatient. “I need you to focus on the matter at hand. I don’t know
The Hunger Games
, and unless that movie is going to provide us with some answers we can use right now, I don’t care to know either.”

“Well, the main characters were in a similar situation to us, so I was trying to think about what they would do in such a situation.”

“They were kidnapped and placed on an island as well?”

“Not exactly.” I made a face. “I mean it’s kind of similar. They knew what they were signing up for, only, they didn’t really know.” I shook my head. “They had no real concept of what they were going to be faced with.”

“Bianca, I do appreciate the fact that you’re a walking movie machine. You might even be the next Ebert, but right now I don’t give two shits about any of your random movies. This is serious. We need to figure out a plan.”