Frowning, she looks out to the darkness beyond the cave and yawns widely.
“Harper, you can do this,” I tell her. “I promise.”
Now that the fire is almost dying down, it’s pitch black, the sliver of a moon offering little light. She shivers.
“Harper,” I repeat. I take her hand and give her a tug, pulling her close. I run my fingers through her hair and bring my mouth to her ear. “You don’t have to be afraid. I’ll keep you safe.”
“I’ll keep you safe, too,” she says. I grin. Christ, she’s cute.
“Thank you.”
“You’re laughing at me. You don’t think I can keep you safe? I keep my brother safe. I’m his guardian. I not as helpless a female as you think.” I want to know about her brother, and how she keeps him safe. I want to know what matters to her.
“Never said you were a helpless female.”
“You’ll see,” she says, ducking her head. “There will come a time when I need to keep you safe.”
It’s then that I realize she’s really just stalling. She doesn’t want to go into the cave.
“I believe you,” I say, though I’m not so sure she’s convinced. Hell, I’m not. “But now we need to get some sleep.”
She takes a tentative step toward the cave. “What if the bats burrow in my hair?” Her voice is little and high-pitched. The poor thing is terrified.
“I will rip them out of your hair and kill them with my bare hands.”
“Oh, ew, that sounds brutal.”
I shrug. “Sometimes brutal works.”
I tug her hand again and she takes another small step. “Is it cold in there?”
“Not that cold. Cooler than it was earlier but bearable.”
“Do you have a blanket?” she asks.
I have a tiny scrap of a thing I fashioned out of a few t-shirts, but it’s not much of a blanket.
“Sort of.”
“I have some clothes in my bag we can—oh.” She looks around her. “Um, Cy? Have you seen my backpack?”
Motherfucker.
We walk into the cave and look to where we left it earlier. It’s dark, our only light the moon and the fading flicker of fire, so it’s hard to see, but she left it at the foot of the cave. It’s gone. I should’ve thought of that, dammit.
“Son of a bitch,” I curse. Had to have been Will.
“I need that,” she says. “There’s… things in it I need. Like bad.”
“Like medicine?”
“Yeah. Like medicine.”
Christ.
“We’ll track him down tomorrow,” I tell her. “Promise.”
I lay down on the floor of the cave, the softest part covered in moss, and pat the ground beside me. I can hardly see her in the darkness, this far away from the fire.
“That looks terribly uncomfortable,” she says, but then she looks to the back of the cave and falls to her knees. “Oh, God, I think I saw one.”
She definitely did, but it’s night, so they won’t be sleeping in here. “Since they’re nocturnal, they’ll be flying outside hunting dinner.”
She cringes.
Now that she’s beside me, I pull her onto my chest, away from the mouth of the cave. “You’ll be fine,” I assure her. “You likely did see one, but they won’t hurt you.” I swallow hard before I make a promise. “Nothing will hurt you.”
I can hardly see her, but I can hear her yawn. “Oh, God, I’m tired.”
I nod, and take the threadbare, makeshift blanket and pull it up over her.
“You need it, too,” she says.
“It isn’t big enough for both of us, and I run hot at night anyway.”
“You run hot any time of day,” she says coyly, then she’s giggling to herself. “Sorry. I’m exhausted and getting a little giddy.”
“Don’t apologize.” I’m grinning, though she can’t see it. It’s the most entertained I’ve been since I landed here.
I hold her on my chest and quietly run my fingers through her hair, until her breathing slows and I’m sure she’s asleep. My cock stirs beneath her belly, and I want to bury myself in her. I close my eyes and grit my teeth. Here we go again.
I hate that I have no control over this, that every time we’re in close proximity I want to fuck her senseless. I’ve been here longer than she has. I know things she doesn’t yet, and one thing is for absolute certain: our being on this island is no accident.
In the distance I hear the howling of what sounds like a wolf. She stirs and murmurs so softly I’m not sure she’s awake.
“There are no wolves in the Cayman Islands.” And then she’s lightly snoring again.
What the hell is she talking about?
Does she think she’s in the Cayman Islands? I have no idea where we are, but those are inhabited. Tourist locations. Not the middle of fucking nowhere.
When the howling dies down and there’s no sound but the soft rustling of trees outside, I close my eyes and finally fall into a deep sleep.