“So it’s a mistake that you’re here?” He followed me out with the bag in his hands.
“I don’t know how we can help each other.” I sighed. “And I’m not keeping any secrets. What secrets are you keeping? What secrets are you keeping that I can help you with?”
“I’m not.” He licked his lips, and I couldn’t stop myself from watching the pink tip of his tongue as it slid along his lips. My stomach flipped as I thought about kissing him. “Let’s go and find Steve, and then we can talk again soon.”
His words made me thirsty, and I walked faster ahead of him. “Thanks for once again providing me with a satisfying answer.” I made a face at the jungle in front of me as my brain screamed out for water. Take that, monkeys and wild animals in the trees, I thought as I glared into the unknown.
“I’m not here to make you feel better.” His voice was short.
“I don’t need you to make me feel better. I need you to answer my questions. I need you to be honest with me. We’ve been here for several days, and you only now decide to tell me that you have a connection to the Bradleys? The same people I tell you I think are after me!”
“I’m not just going to reveal everything because you have, Bianca. I don’t know you from Adam. Let’s be fair, I don’t know if your story is true or not.”
“That didn’t stop you from kissing me.”
“My attraction to you has nothing to do with my confiding in you.”
“You’re really cold, aren’t you.” I turned around and stared into his eyes searchingly. “Who hurt you so badly?”
“My mother always used to tell me, ‘Don’t give anyone the power to make you cry.’ ” He reached out and touched my cheek. “No one has the ability to hurt me. You shouldn’t worry so much about others and what they do to you. Ultimately, you have the power in your life.”
“I don’t worry about others.” I sighed. “I’m just saying that someone must have hurt you because you’re so hot and cold. I never know if you’re going to be nice to me or not.”
“Life and love and even sex are what you make of them.” He looked to the sky and frowned. “It’s going to rain. We need to make some sort of shelter—or we should go back to the shack?”
“What about Steve?”
“There’s no point in our getting soaked looking for him. Let’s go back to the shack, it’s closer.”
“I’m not going back to that shack.” I shook my head and started walking again. “Let’s figure out something else.”
“We’re going to get wet.”
“I don’t care.” I frowned. “How did it get so gray already? The sun was bright and hot just minutes ago.”
“That’s the tropics for you.”
“Weird,” I muttered, happy when I saw the white sand of the beach in the distance. I didn’t like being in the jungle.
“Bianca.” Jakob grabbed my shoulders and stopped me. “I wanted to apologize to you. I should have told you about my connection to the Bradleys in the beginning. I don’t want you to think that I don’t want to find out the truth. I want all the answers I can get. This is more complicated because I’m attracted to you. I don’t want you to think that my attraction to you is false. In a different situation, who knows what could have happened?”
“I’m sorry I snapped at you. I’m still freaked out by the letters and Steve’s disappearance. And yes, I’m annoyed that you kept things from me, but I suppose I understand why.”
“We could make love right now, and I could make you forget all your worries.” His voice was low and seductive, and I felt my face growing warmer.
“You know, I was thinking about something.” A thought suddenly hit me. “There is one person who hates me. Someone who could have set up a kidnapping as well.” I changed the subject. “Though, I don’t know if she would go to these lengths.”
“Who is that?”
“My ex-boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend.” I sighed. “She hated me.”
“Because you stole him from her?”
“No!” I exclaimed, and then paused. “Well, not really.”
“What does not really mean?”
“It means not really.” I looked into his eyes before I spoke again. He looked back at me with an intense expression. “I didn’t know he was dating someone when we met.”
“Didn’t know or didn’t care?”
“What does that mean?”
“Well he was handsome, rich. You felt like you won the lottery, right?”
“No!” I glared at him again. “You really think I’m some sort of gold digger, don’t you.”
“Like I said, you wouldn’t be the first I’ve met.” He shrugged.
“Money isn’t everything.”
“Tell me about this girl who hates you.”
“Her name is Bridgette.”
“Bridgette?” He frowned and leaned forward. “Do you know her last name?”
“Moore,” I answered. “Her name is Bridgette Moore, and she hates me because she thinks I stole David from her. But I didn’t know that they were dating.”
“You really liked David, it seems.”
“He was very handsome and sweet to me.” I circumvented his unasked question. My dating David had nothing to do with how much I liked him.
“Typical woman.” He rolled his eyes.
“What’s typical?”
“The number one trait you list is handsome.”
“What’s wrong with that? At least I didn’t say rich.”
“When he kissed you, did you feel as if your soul was on fire?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“When I kiss you, do you feel like your soul is on fire?”
“Well, you’re from hell, so it would feel that way,” I retorted quickly.
“Yet you feel comfortable enough with the devil to let him touch you?” His fingers trailed across my collarbone and then to my cheek.
“I never said you could touch me,” I whispered softly, not wanting him to stop.
“Sometimes an assent doesn’t come from the mouth, it comes from the eyes.”
“My eyes told you it was all right to touch me?”
“Your eyes told me it was all right to fuck you.” His face moved toward mine, and I could feel his breath on my lips. “Your eyes are begging me to kiss you.” This time, as he spoke, his lips trembled against mine.