Duke gave me a half smile that melted my heart a little. There was a flash of longing in his eyes and I thought he might agree. But then he shook his head.
I frowned, automatically reaching out and taking his hand. “You’re welcome to stay here with us. The plane is good shelter.”
“Thank you,” he said, giving my fingers a light squeeze. “But I’m used to where I sleep. I’ll think about it though, okay?”
I nodded. He released my hand and stepped back, glanced at Nash, and nodded a good-bye.
“Wait,” I called when he would have walked away.
He glanced over his shoulder, his dark molten eyes sweeping my face. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”
I nodded and he departed. Just as the darkness was about to conceal him completely, he turned back. “Whatever you do, don’t go on the other side of the island.”
Chills raced up my back and they weren’t the good kind.
Then he stepped through the cover of night and completely disappeared. I let out a shaky breath and looked at Nash. He was staring after him with an unreadable expression on his face.
“All right,” I began. “What gives?”
His eyebrows rose halfway up his forehead and disappeared beneath the dark curls. “What do you mean?”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t give me that innocent act,” I intoned. “You know exactly what I mean. Duke was nothing but nice to us. He helped us find food and he gave us that machete.”
“I don’t like him,” he said simply, sitting down in one of the chairs by the fire.
“Why not?”
“Besides the fact that he just alluded to the fact he knows there’s something bad on the other side of the island and didn’t tell us?” he said, making chills race up my spine once more.
“Yeah,” I said dryly. “Besides that.” Because that just happened. Nash had been acting like Duke was trying to kill us since we first laid eyes on him.
“He wants you.”
I made a startled sound. “What?”
He stared at me intently. “You can’t honestly tell me you didn’t see the way he looked at you.”
“He’s just lonely,” I said. “He’s been here all alone.”
He made a rude sound.
I tossed my arm out to smack him. He caught it, folding it across his chest and holding it there. “He wants you, Ava,” he rumbled. “But he can’t have you.”
“He can’t?” I asked, my voice shaky.
He shook his head slowly. “No. He can’t. You’re already taken.”
10
My tongue jetted out, wetting my lips. “You think I’m taken?” Never mind the fact my words sounded breathless and I could barely hear myself speak over the pounding of my own heart.
“I know you are. You just haven’t realized it yet.”
“You’re not going to want me when we get home and there are a lot of other options,” I said, surprising myself with the comeback. Usually, I didn’t just blurt out those things. Even so, it was true. Maybe if I had been more assertive with my thoughts in the past, I wouldn’t have gotten so hurt. The only reason I looked so good right now was because I was the only girl within a hundred-mile radius.
He turned his head away from the fire and pinned me with his jade stare. “You said certain parts of you are broken.”
I didn’t say anything. I just held his gaze.
“What parts are you talking about, Ava?”
I reached up and played with the ends of the thick braid falling over my shoulder, twisting the strands around my finger. I wasn’t really sure I wanted to have this conversation. It wasn’t something I cared to talk about—to even think about. Of course maybe if I told him, he would decide he didn’t want me after all and it would save me from the pain later.
Because Nash had the power to hurt me.
He was the kind of guy that would steal away my heart when I wasn’t looking. He was the kind of guy who would love me so well that when he left, no one would ever be able to take his place and so I would walk around the rest of my life with a huge chunk of myself missing because it would always belong to him.
I turned in the crappy aircraft seat that was now a makeshift beach chair. I drew my knees into my chest and rested the side of my head against the seat, looking at him through the orange glow of the bonfire.
“I dated a guy once,” I began, speaking only loud enough so he could hear. He didn’t look at me but stared straight ahead out over the waves as the breeze ruffled through those dark, touchable curls. “He was sweet, funny, the kind of guy that my mother approved of. Everyone liked him. I liked him. After a couple months of dating, he wanted to take our relationship to the next step. I said no. So we kept dating. He sent me flowers, took me on dates… Sometimes his touches would linger a little too long or his hands would be a little too rough. He told me I was just being a prude, that every other girl liked it. Every other part of our relationship was great. I just couldn’t seem to get into…” My voice faded away. I wasn’t sure how to explain it.
“He didn’t turn you on,” Nash said, putting it simply. It seemed much simpler when he said it than how it felt when I was living through it.
“I guess.”
“What happened?” he said, still not looking at me. I couldn’t help but notice the way the muscles in his shoulders bunched, the way the side of his jaw ticked every so often.
He probably already figured out which parts of me didn’t work.
“Long story short, I gave in. I slept with him. It was awful. He broke up with me the next day and told everyone I was cold.”
He turned his head and looked at me.
His expression was unreadable.
“I haven’t dated anyone since.”
“How does that make you broken?”
I paused. “Clearly there are parts of me that don’t work the way… the way men want them to. Not to mention the skewed view I now have about dating.”
He stood. He was going to walk away. This conversation was over.
But he touched me.
He started at my shoulder and trailed his finger down my arm and then cupped my elbow, gently tugging me out of the chair and onto my feet.
We stood at the edge of the crackling bonfire, facing each other. Everything in our little circle was bathed in a yellow and orange glow, the shadows reaching into the complete darkness beyond—like nothing else existed at all.
Slowly he tugged the tie around my braid, tucking the scrap of fabric in the pocket of his shorts. Using just one hand, he unbound the weave, then pulled his fingers through the waves, spreading it out around me so it cascaded over my shoulders and covered up my chest.