Scandal: A BAD BOY Romance Novel (8 page)

"Holy crap, how long was I out?" It was scary thinking that we were in there and now it was destroyed, but what Asher said next was even scarier.

"Ten minutes or so. I had to inflate your life jacket and get us both out here pretty fast. That," he nodded towards the burning vessel, "started just a few minutes after the crash."

"Holy
fuck
," I swore, not bothering to censor myself this time.

My hand flung up to cover my mouth as I processed this new information.
I could be dead right now
, I thought. Without another thought, I threw my arms around Asher. His arms circled my waist and he held me protectively, pulling on my heart strings in a way only he knew how. I reveled in the feel of him pressed against me, holding me. It felt
good
. It felt right.

"Thank you," I breathed. "
So
much. You saved my life."

I was still in shock, but my heart was catching up with this realization as we broke our embrace. The thumping it was just doing for Asher intensified with each realization that if Asher hadn't done what he had, I would be dead.

"Don't even mention it," he said, a hint of an amused smirk tugging at his lips.

It felt familiar. Before I could explore the trace of the memory, Asher got up. He reached a hand down towards me to help me up, too.

"We need to find food and gather supplies to build a shelter and a fire. Maybe head in there," he nodded towards the forest, "and see if there are any other people. Maybe we'll find the cabin crew and can get a hold of their emergency devices."

Nodding, I brushed the sand off of my legs and walked alongside him as he spoke. It was a relief that he wasn't panicked and had a level head about this. It was soothing. My heart pounded as we approached what looked like a small, man-made opening within the wild shrubs and trees. Parts of the bushes were hacked down, allowing for a path.

"I have a bad feeling about this," I said, already feeling reluctant that we had gone into the forest, even though I knew we needed to.

Asher and I had gathered a good collection of cashews and bananas, all held in the hem of my tunic. In between discussing what our necessary steps for today are, we tried to talk about things to take our minds
off
of where we were. I learned that he used to box until he got a pretty bad head injury and quit. He learned that I used to figure skate until I twisted my ankle and quit. It was an interesting similarity to have, feeling forced to quit the hobby you love most because you value your life more than your leisure. I wanted to ask him what he replaced his love for boxing with, but I didn't want to go there just yet--not when we had no idea where we were or how we would get out of here.

The more we walked, the more hesitant I became about where we were going. I didn't want us to get lost, but I also had no idea what we would find or how we would defend ourself. To me, it made more sense to walk along the beach so if any helicopters came looking for us, they'd be able to see us. Plus, if the other half of the jet also erupted in flames, then we would be able to see the smoke from the beach. Asher disagreed, saying that our half blew up because we were on the end with the engine and the force with which it hit the water is what it spark. He said even if there was a backup engine at the front of the jet, if it fell in the forest, then the trees would have broken its fall. In other words, it wouldn't have blew up like ours had. Part of the kitchen was in the front of the jet, so we would definitely find food if we found it in one piece. That didn't help me shake this gut feeling I had that if we continued, then something awful would happen. Instinctively, I wanted to stay back at the beach, wait for the fire to die down, then swim over to the jet. Maybe we could salvage food and supplies in there. One look at Asher and I knew that wouldn't be happening.

"I knew you were no fun on vacations," he joked, but he knelt down and grabbed a fallen branch. "Take this if it'll help you feel safer."

"What about you?"

He rolled his shoulders and my eyes were drawn to his bulging biceps. I wanted to reach out and trace the tattoos that covered his arm, but now wasn't the time.

"I don't need anything," Asher responded confidently, and I believed him.

Just looking at the man was intimidating sometimes, he was built like a tank and looked mean when he wasn't smiling or joking around. In fact, I was pretty sure many people back at the office
were
afraid of him. For some reason, that made the fact that I
wasn't
afraid of him even more special, like he was secretly this teddy bear. Not many people saw that side of him at the office, I realized.

"Why are you such an ass?" The words tumbled out, and I bit my cheek. "I didn't mean it like that. I mean, at the office, you-"

Asher laughed in response. "You don't need to explain yourself. I know what you meant."

"Well, then why-"

"Shh," Asher hushed me abruptly, stopping in his tracks. "Do you hear that?"

I halted, as well, and listened carefully. At first, I didn't hear it. It took a few seconds for the sounds to register, but Asher was already jogging away.

"Come on!"

Holding the hem of my tunic with one hand and the branch in my other hand, I half-jogged after him. After a few minutes of stumbling over bushes and weaving my body around various types of trees, we arrived at our destination: a small waterfall pummeling into a lake.

Grinning, Asher grabbed my hand and pulled me to run faster. I dropped the branch along with the bananas and cashew apples on a flat rock and followed Asher helplessly. Before I could process what he was doing, he had lifted me up and slung me over his shoulder before tossing me into the lake.

"Hey!" I yelped, but the water was warm and it was actually lovely. I cupped my hands and drank from the fresh lake water.

When I looked back at Asher, he was stripped down to his boxers and about to dive in. I only caught a glimpse of his body before he gracefully broke the water, but my eyes stayed glued to his strokes underneath the clear surface. I was mesmerized by the way his body moved; it looked like every single muscle in his body was designed by him, sculpted to perfection. He didn't put any of it to waste, that much was obvious, even with the ink that covered his flesh. Asher emerged from the water, raking his hands through his hair to wring out the water between his fingers. His head was tilted upwards for a moment, basking in the sun, giving me a chance to bask in his appearance. Beads of water clung to the ripples of his abs, making them glisten in the sunlight.

He was looking down now, and the realization struck me that he looked a
lot
like the celebrity crush I had from my college days, Beiron Andersson. I didn't know why I didn't see it before, but the resemblance was uncanny--no wonder I was so attracted to him initially. He could have been a doppelganger of my dream man but with tattoos. So, my ultra dream man?

My entire body tingled as I watched him, and I was forced to clench my thighs together to control myself. I couldn't stop my mind from wondering what it would be like to sleep with him. Butterflies swarmed my stomach as I remembered our hot kiss from the flight. If only we could have seen where it led...

"Like what you see?" Asher interrupted my thoughts.

I looked at him, but noticed he was still looking down at the water...where he could see my reflection watching him.

"You were watching me, too," I said defensively, my cheeks hot.

Asher finally looked up, his gaze raking over my body. "Well, I never said I didn't like what I see."

I realized then that the fabric of my pale pink tunic was clinging to my curvy figure and a mix of emotions flooded me. Warmth rushed to my core and between my legs at his admission that he found me attractive. Irritation also filled me because
he
was the one to get my tunic wet by dropping me in.

"It wasn't like I had a choice getting in," I snapped, wading out of the lake. "I'm heading back to the beach."

It was such a typical Asher move to pull a stunt like that. It felt like he never thought about the consequences when it came to fun and games, and it was scraping at my nerves. I knew it wasn't a big deal either, which pissed me off even more, because my strong reactions to everything he did was always magnified due to the fact that I couldn't control how my body reacted to him. I wanted him, but I didn't want to want him. I felt so weak, and it pissed me off because I was always in control of myself.

Wringing out my tunic, I filled the hem with the fruits and cashews we'd collected and walked in the direction I thought we had come from. Asher had dressed and caught up with me within seconds. I refused to look at him, but I could tell from his stiff posture that he was confused or pissed. Or both.

"What just happened?"

"Let's just head back to the beach, okay?" I was frustrated and I had no idea how to handle all of these emotions he brought out in me. It was almost embarrassing, because I was in my mid-twenties now and expected more composure of myself.

"Well, if you're headed for the beach, then you're going in the wrong direction. It's that way." He indicated the direction we should have been going in.

"Fine."

I followed him and we walked in silence for the rest of the trip. He kept glancing over at me as he collected various sticks and twigs for our fire, but I didn't give in. Once the white sands and turquoise waters came back into view, my heart sunk. A part of me was hoping that we'd see a rescue team already, as silly as it was to expect that so soon. It just felt unreal that we were stuck here.

The sun was beginning to set, and the tension between us was rising. I almost felt regretful for shutting him out, but it was the only thing I could think of to do. I knew his type--I'd certainly heard enough horror stories about his type. The effect he had on me couldn't be combined with me actually liking him as a person, because that would ruin my career and probably my heart. The problem was that I was already beginning to and I didn't know how to stop.

When I awoke the next morning, my body was still aching from the impact of yesterday's crash. It wasn't as bad as yesterday, but the dull pain was noticeable enough. Turning my head to the right, I noticed that Asher was gone. My body jumped up before my head could process this fact. Did he abandon me because I gave him the silent treatment yesterday? I didn't know, but fear clutched my chest anyway.

My legs moved on their own accord, and I shouted Asher's name as I looked around for him. We'd both just slept on the sand on either side of the fire--as far away as possible from each other without losing warmth. His spot was not only bare, but I couldn't even see the imprint of his body in the sand like I could with mine on my side.
He's been gone a while,
I realized.

"Asher!" I called louder, walking quickly towards the direction I thought he might have gone in. Not that I really knew what direction he went in, since I couldn't see any footsteps in the sand. Our stockpile of bananas and cashews were still in place along with the twigs and sticks we'd collected as firewood. So, he hadn't taken anything with him.

The more I wandered aimlessly, the more helpless I felt. I considered wandering into the forest to see if I could find him, but the island was considerably large. There was no way I'd be able to find him when a single misstep could lead me somewhere completely different. The best thing I could do was to just wait here until he came back.

Not wanting to feel completely useless, I thought about what I could do to spend my time here without wasting my time here. Then, one of my dress shirts caught my eye, floating in the water. At first I was confused, and I stared at it for far too long.
Definitely not used to mornings without coffee,
I thought. I quickly came to my senses: the jet! The fire had been extinguished for a long time now, I could definitely go and see if there was anything else I could grab. Possibly the rest of my luggage. Hopefully, some food. It had only been a day, and I was already sick of bananas and cashews.

I quickly glanced around me to see if Asher had returned. He hadn't. My heart sunk a little, but I knew he wouldn't abandon me here. At least, I hoped he wouldn't. Even if he did, it wasn't like he could
truly
abandon me, unless he found a rescue squad and told them I didn't exist.
Oh god,
I thought, horrified, but I knew that was out of character. Even for Asher.

Stripping down to my bra and panties, I ran into the water. The jet was lodged a good 500 feet away, at least.
I can do this
.

Without hesitating, I thrust myself into the deep end and began swimming as quickly as I could. The faster I could swim, the more things I could collect before Asher returned from wherever he'd gone. I didn't bother looking around at the various fish swimming away from me, but I was certain I scared away a whole family of them once I arrived at the jet.

My heart sunk when I saw that everything was charred. The once-elegant and beautiful vessel was now nothing more than burnt leather and melted garbage. I could hardly even see what was actually inside of it because the water surrounding it was black, so I had to feel my way around it. Holding my breath, I swam inside the jet with my eyes closed, not wanting to get the burnt residue in my eyes, nose, or mouth. I blindly felt around the vehicle and grabbed onto anything loose to pull it above the water and see what it was. It took four tries before I finally grabbed something worth a shit: two unopened bottles of champagne.