Page 17 of Totally Shipped
“Which hand, Key?” He holds out his massive bear paws, both fists closed tight.
“That one,” Key squeaks.
Gray opens his palm.
“What is it?”
“It’s a compass, Key. It tells you which direction it’s going.”
“Cool! Oh, does it need batteries?”
“Nope, it still works perfectly. Here, peanut, can you look after it?”
She’s so pleased, and immediately runs around the glade watching the little arrow spin.
“And for you m’lady?”
I hadn’t noticed that Gray still had one hand closed.
“For me?” Daisy flutters her eyes and clutches her chest.
Gray opens his right hand to reveal something that looks like a thin box. Daisy carefully takes it from him, inspecting it, then clicking a tiny catch.
“Look!”
It’s a cigarette case. The inside is mirrored, and amazingly still holds three cigarettes.
“Now we have a birthday present for Killian!”
“And a signal mirror,” adds Gray.
We all settle back against the interior of the plane and watch Keyara playing.
“I imagined there would be more useful things here than there are,” Daisy sighs.
It’s true, the plane has slim pickings left.
“We’re going to make it, Daisy,” I tell her. “You’re going to be OK, I promise.”
Gray grunts in agreement, while Rex says nothing. Keyara is skipping around the glade with her compass.
Daisy gets to her feet. “I should check in on Key.”
REX
While we are trekking back to the campsite, Daisy stumbles over some tree roots. Even though Leander and Gray immediately leapt into action, I’m the closest. I’m the one who lifts her up from the jungle floor, then holds her as we cross through patches of thorn bushes.
Gray had Key on his shoulders, while Leander was weighed down with stuff from the plane. And I held Daisy.
She felt so right in my arms—a perfect fit.
I’m spending so much time trying to ignore my attraction to her, but having her curled up next to my chest with my face buried in her hair makes ignoring my attraction increasingly hard (as was my cock, surprisingly).
There was something about her that just seemed to gel with all of us. Leander, Gray, and Killian were, cards on the table, in love with Daisy, and she loved them. But I wasn't willing to go there. What could I bring her that she didn’t have already with the others?
I needed to keep a distance, and just be there when needed. I’m terrified about this whole baby thing—how are we going to care for a baby, and for a new mother, on this island?
“Rex?” she says quietly.
