Page 101 of Risky Desires

She groaned. “I hope you don’t regret that decision.”

Me too. Dodging a reply, I said, “We’ll swim quicker without our tanks.”

“Yeah, go on then, get rid of the final asset I own.”

I groaned. “I’m sorry.”

“Forget it.” She unclipped her dive vest. “I can’t dive without a boat anyway.”

As the moonlight cast a silver sheen over the water, we shed our scuba tanks, dumped the air out of our vests, and let the scuba gear go. Indiana shed her light onto her gear until it vanished into obscurity below.

“Come on,” I said, trying to sound upbeat. “Let’s find that island.”

We rolled onto our stomachs, and as we swam side by side, our fins slapped against the water in a steady rhythm, propelling us across a sea of nothing. My limbs ached, but I matched Indiana’s pace, stroke for stroke, refusing to let exhaustion claim me.

Minutes turned into hours. Finally, a silvery glow shifted on the horizon. I blinked at it for a few beats before I realized what I was seeing.

“Look!” I pointed ahead.

“About bloody time.” She groaned.

Waves crashing onto a tiny beach shimmered in the silver moonlight, and I released a massive sigh of relief.

It seemed like hours before we reached the shore and our hands clawed through wet sand as we hauled ourselves out of the ocean. We collapsed onto our backs and gasped for air.

“We made it,” I said as my lungs heaved. “Our first miracle.”

She huffed. “Let’s hope we have better luck than Tom Hanks did in Castaway.”

“I thought you didn’t watch TV.”

She rolled her head toward me. “I don’t. Saw that movie at the cinema.”

The air sizzled between us, and I rolled closer to her, drawn by an invisible force.

She licked her lips as if welcoming my advance, and I closed the distance, crushing my lips to hers.

She didn’t pull away, and our kiss was a clash of elements, fierce and unyielding, mirroring the passion that had been building inside me since the moment she growled at me.

I probed with my tongue, tasting the salt in her mouth, and her fingers dug into my wet hair and pulled me closer. We moaned in unison as our mouths captured our kiss.

All too soon, we broke apart with our chests heaving and our eyes locked. There was no denying it anymore. This wasn’t just about survival. There was something deeper going on between us. Something dangerous and undeniable. Something so fuckin good it terrified me.

“Tyler.” She spoke my name in a breathless whisper, laced with wonder and something like fear.

“I know,” I said. “It terrifies me, too.”

Smiling, she nodded.

We’d crossed a line, a line that I didn’t want to come back from.

I sat up and looked around. Our tiny beach was no bigger than Rhino had been and was dotted with pieces of driftwood and dozens of coconuts. Beyond the beach was dense bush and a steep, rocky cliff that rose above us like a looming monster.

Sand clung to my skin as I stood, the world tilting slightly as my equilibrium was tested.

I offered my hand. “Come on, let’s see if there’s a resort offering cocktails on this island.”

She laughed. “In your dreams, Kingsley. This rock is deserted.”

---