“You’re all good.” Dax gave me a smile as he got up and shoved the wrappers into his bag. Damien was coming back around, looking a bit less pale.
“We good?”
“Yeah, I took care of her.” Dax put his backpack on as he shot a victorious smile at Damien. They stood over by the trees for a minute. They were talking about me, as usual. Damien didn’t dare come close just yet, but his eyes kept drifting over to me. I was so interested in what he and Dax were saying that I barely realized Daniel was holding my hand.
“It’s nothing.”
His dark eyes peered up from where he knelt. “It’s not something you want to leave alone.”
I lowered my shoulders and let the air out of my lungs. Then, as our eyes met once more, I gave him a nod. He pinched and squeezed my hand, and I held my tongue so I wouldn’t bother the others. In a matter of seconds, Daniel got the splinter out and showed me.
“Damn!”
“Yeah. Bigger than you thought, huh?”
“Much.”
Dax came closer, asking, “Can we go?”
“We?” I whispered. How stupid of me to let myself get caught up in my feelings. “We aren’t a we.”
Damien’s face said it all. His eyes were heavy with curiosity, searching me over for a better explanation. I could tell he was feeling something too, but he—just like the rest of us—wouldn’t say anything.
“You’re all so special to me,” I joked with a giggle. It wasn’t a joke though. It was a mask for my real feelings. “I wish I didn’t have to leave here. That we could all be together still.”
Damien took a few steps closer, his feet landed firmly in the dirt with purpose. “That isn’t possible. You can’t have all three of us.” His brow wavered as he grinned. “You have to pick.”
“Pick?” How could I possibly pick just one? Besides, it would never work out. “Even if I wanted to, I can’t.” I got to my feet. “We can’t.”
Dax was quietly breathing, his gaze moving from Damien to me, then to the dirt at our feet. Daniel was silent though. Entirely motionless as his eyes shot through me. I felt like I was burning, roasting in a fire formed by that laser focus of his. I shook him off my mind, flailing my arms for a moment as if I was about to have a tantrum.
“You’re right.” I pointed a finger at Damien. His eyes lit up and those dimples disappeared. “I have to choose one of you.” Dax looked nervous as hell as he frantically drove his hands into his pockets. Damien seemed unmoved, almost like he was reveling in the challenge. Daniel, on the other hand, was tightening his gaze over me yet again. I stared back at him without flinching. “This was nothing more than a fun vacation. That’s all.” I stiffened my lip. “When we leave this island, we’ll be doing so alone. In the grand sense of things, that is. Alone.”
19
DAMIEN
I twirled the straw in my drink with my head hunched over. I was beaten, hurt, broken, but not as much as Parvati. I felt terrible for how things went, but I had to accept that she’d made up her mind. None of us were winners.
“Jack and Coke,” Dax said as he sat at my side. “Sulking too, I see.”
“No thanks to you.”
He laughed. “Shit, like any of us had a chance with her. We’re her brothers now,” he whispered, his eyes following the bartender to be discreet. “She’ll never get past that.”
“And you can?”
“I did.” He nodded as the bartender brought his drink. After the man left, Dax leaned close to me. “Out on the drive, remember?”
I brought my glass to my lips, then sighed before taking a drink.
“She got to you too, huh?” Daniel spoke behind us.
I turned to see him. “You look awful.”
“Yeah, well, try sleeping in the same room with her after all that.” He took a seat on my other side and waved for a drink. “It’s torture.”
“Worse than Jessica?” Dax leaned over the bar. Daniel didn’t answer. He tapped his fingers as he waited for his glass. Once he got it, he drank down half like he was dehydrated.
He set the glass down hard. “Much.”
“Well, at least we know you’re finally over her.”
“Damien,” Daniel let out a bleak laugh, “I got over her the first day here.”
I couldn’t argue with that. I had always loved being a playboy, but I had changed. “She’s not just some girl that I could have a little fun with and then move on.”
Daniel leaned an elbow on the bar. “Not like all those pretty things you chase and use, then toss aside, you mean?”
I waved him off. “Yeah, whatever. Say what you want, but we all fell for Parvati. Each of us in our own way.”