Gillian’s Island (6 page)

“We haven’t found anything yet.” No spa. No
anything.

“I know. Don’t worry. I’m going to leave you back
at the boat to handle the signal fire, then I’m coming back
out.”

“Alone?” Her heart clenched in fear.

“We haven’t seen any indication that there’s
anything dangerous here. I’ll be fine. Promise.”

“You should at least take one of the guys with you. What if you
get bit by a snake, or fall in a pit of quick sand or…”
The horrors Gillian could imagine befalling Jamie were nearly
endless.

“Run into a tribe of cannibals?” He grinned.

She frowned. “I’m concerned about you.”

“I know, and I like that you care enough to worry, but there’s
really no need. I honestly believe we’re not too far from the
coast.”

“But then wouldn’t there be some sign of civilization?”
In any other situation, she’d find this island absolutely
beautiful. The fact it was deserted didn’t make any sense.
Tourists flocked to beaches. “A place like this, close to the
city of San Diego, the developers would have long since built
billion-dollar vacation homes and a few resorts here.”

“Not if we landed in the middle of Channel Islands National
Park. They can’t build here. A little more exploration and I’ll
know for sure.”

“A national park?” Gillian let out a big breath in
relief. “That’d be wonderful. There must be a ranger
station or something here then. With a phone.”

Jamie looked skeptical. “Not every park has live-in park
rangers, but we’ll see I guess. In any case, if we’re in
the Channel Islands, we’re not far from the mainland at all.”

“Thanks for making me feel better.” Gillian managed a
smile.

“I’m not just making you feel better. It’s true.”

Unconvinced, she nodded. “Well, thank you anyway.”

Chapter Six

A few hours later, Jamie headed back alone toward the shoreline from
his second excursion into the interior of the island. Tired and
frustrated, he heard the group before he saw them. When he did get a
visual, he didn’t believe his eyes.

They looked more like guests at a beach party than stranded
castaways. From what he’d seen on his hike, they were good and
truly stranded, but you’d never know that by looking at these
people.

Music blasted. Women in barely-there bikinis danced, and someone was
grilling steak.

A single figure broke out from the group and ran toward him. He
needn’t look too hard to know who it would be. Gillian. He
walked faster and met her halfway.

“I’m so glad you’re back.”

“Thanks.” By the looks of them, he doubted the others had
noticed he was gone. “What’s going on here?”

“My signal fire has turned into a bonfire slash luau.”
Gillian’s frustration radiated off her. “They decided
since there’s no electricity, all the fresh food was going to
spoil. They’re cooking all the beef and chicken now. All of it.
A week’s worth. And of course, they’re drinking a week’s
worth of champagne with it.”

“I hate to say it, but they’re probably right. I mean we
can stash some of the cooked meat in with whatever ice hasn’t
melted yet in the freezer and it will stay cold for maybe forty-eight
hours, but not much more.”

Gillian appeared panicked. “Then what are we going to eat if
we’re stuck here longer?”

“That’s the good news. There are plenty of things to eat.
I spotted kelp. There are sea urchins, abalone.”

She didn’t look relieved by his list of food.

“If that’s the good news, what’s the bad news?”
She asked the question that would make her far more uncomfortable
once she heard the answer.

Jamie let out a deep sigh. “Gillian, I don’t want to
worry you, but it’s going to come out eventually. I haven’t
seen any fresh water sources yet.”

“You didn’t find any fresh water?” Wide eyed,
Gillian repeated what he’d reluctantly revealed.

“Yet.” He emphasized that word. “But, yes, that
concerns me a bit too.”

She looked truly worried now in
spite of the fact he’d said he didn’t want to worry her.

“Oh, my God. What will we do without drinking water? I’m
not as smart as you, but I do know humans need water. Without fresh
water, we’ll die in what? Three days?” There was panic in
her voice.

He reached out and took her by the arms. “We’re not going
to die. Listen to me. There’s some water on the boat. Not just
the bottled water in the galley, but there are fresh water tanks for
the heads and showers. That’s drinkable.”

“How much do we have onboard?”

“Enough for a while, but not for the long haul.” Terror
shown on her face. Jamie squeezed her arms tighter. “Relax. If,
and that’s a big
if
, we’re here that long I’ll
rig something up.”

“You can’t make fresh water out of thin air.” She
shook her head.

“Yeah I can and actually I have.”

“Really?”

He grinned at her expression of shock. “Really. Eagle Scout
nerd, remember. Besides that, I may still find fresh water. Then,
when it rains again, we’ll capture and store as much rainwater
as we can, too. We’re going to be okay, Gillian. I swear. Like
I said, I’ll keep looking for a fresh-water source tomorrow. I
only walked the width of the island dead east. Tomorrow, I’ll
search south-east and after that, north-east.”

“Wait. You reached the other side of the island and came back?
In that short of a time? This island is that small?” Any calm
he’d managed to instill in her about the water vanished again.

“It’s not like we’re on a sandbar. It’s a
decent-sized island. I figure, judging by my speed and my time, it’s
about four miles wide, give or take.”

“Oh, my God. Four miles. We’re going to be stranded on
this tiny island forever and no one will ever find us. Then we’ll
die.”

“Gillian.” Her eyes glazed over with fear. She wasn’t
listening anymore. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her hair.
“Some of the Channel Islands are this small. It’s a good
sign. It means we may be just where I hope we are. We could be less
than sixty miles off the coast.”

“Sixty? Without a working engine on the boat it may as well be
six hundred.” Her voice rose.

“Shh. It’s going to be fine.” He held her closer.

“You keep saying that.” Muffled by his chest, her voice
shook.

“Because it’s true.”

“You don’t know that.”

Her whole body began to tremble beneath his fingertips. The other
girls had all broken down last night while Gillian had stood strong.
He’d suspected it was only a matter of time before the stress
got to her. That time had come. He held her tight as she gasped
against him.

When she finally quieted, he pulled her far enough away so he could
look directly into her tear-stained face. “Tomorrow you can go
back to worrying if you want, but tonight you and I are going to
feast on steak and champagne. Okay?”

She dragged in a shaky breath. “Okay.”

“Put some more sunscreen on. Your nose is getting red.”
Jamie tapped the tip of her nose with one finger.

Fresh tears welled in her eyes and her laugh contained a tinge of
hysteria. “No fresh water, but plenty of sunscreen. Great. At
least if we’re going to be stranded and die from lack of water,
we’ve got all the niceties.”

His heart broke for her. He’d never let them die on this
island. His survival skills were good enough to keep them alive as
long as it took for them to be rescued, but she was obviously
frightened. He conjured a smile and worked to keep things light. “I
agree. There’ve never been more fortunate castaways than us.”

She still looked doubtful.

“Gillian, we’re going to be fine. I promise.”
They’d just have to make the best of the time they were there.
Thoughts of the condoms in his drawer helped him flash an actual
smile for Gillian before he pushed his bawdy desires aside, for the
moment anyway. “Come on. I smell rib eye steaks burning and I
prefer mine cooked rare.”

Being the non-drinking designated driver at a party could be a
bummer, but being the only person sober among a group of drunken
castaways on an island could be an even more trying experience. Jamie
was part lifeguard, part parent, making sure no one drank themselves
into alcohol poisoning or drowned when they tried to go
skinny-dipping.

Then again, it did offer some entertaining moments. Watching both
Brandon and Reilly get shot down when they tried to hit on the two
bridesmaids was one of the highlights of Jamie’s evening. So
was having Gillian, tipsy and tired but definitely not stupid-drunk,
fall asleep on his shoulder as they sat on a blanket a safe distance
from the fire pit. He had to admit that a signal fire could be just
as romantic as any other.

He smothered the guilt for wishing they’d been stranded here
alone, instead of with the wedding party. It was important for
Gillian to have her sister near her. They needed each other now, but
he really liked the idea of having her all to himself.

Visions of stripping Gillian out of her clothes and making love to
her on that blanket ran through his head. Glancing at her face
beneath the flickering light of the flames, he sighed. Smart,
beautiful, caring, and hot as hell. How had he gotten so lucky that
she’d even looked twice at him? Forget about the fact that she
actually not only liked him, but was attracted to him physically too.

Thinking of the few blissful minutes he’d enjoyed being inside
her had him hard again, not for the first time that day, in spite of
the trauma of being stranded. His cheeks heated, and it wasn’t
from the nearby fire, when he thought about getting hard when she’d
cried in his arms. Men like Brandon and Reilly were the kind that got
turned on by hysterical women. Apparently, he was just like them.
Though it wasn’t just any woman. It had been Gillian in
particular.

Jamie needed to get her to bed. Tomorrow would be a big day for
everyone. He would figure out where they were, once and for all. That
would entail using the navigational charts and compass onboard now
while the stars were still visible in the night sky and he could use
them for a reference point. It had been a long time since astronomy
club in high school. He hoped he hadn’t forgotten everything he
used to know. Then tomorrow he had to either find fresh water or
begin plans for making and storing it, just in case.

As much as he hated to do it, he had to get up. He jostled the warm
bundle at his side. “Gillian.”

She stirred and snuggled closer, making him grow harder. Jamie
smothered a curse. How easy would it be to crawl into bed with her
and forget all about his responsibilities? He doubted Gillian would
mind. They’d practically set the bunk on fire with sparks from
the chemistry between them before the storm hit.

Damn storm. “Gillian. Time to go to bed.”

Groaning, she shook her head. “Comfortable here.”

“I know, but you’ll be more comfortable in a real bed.”
So would he, with her, but that wasn’t in the cards for
tonight.

Finally, he got a sleepy, slightly inebriated Gillian upright. He
threw another log onto the fire then steered her toward the yacht. He
grabbed one of the flashlights he’d found earlier and lit their
way to the stairs.

Down below, he put her to bed—his bed again since Rob and Julie
seemed to have drunkenly claimed her room as theirs. Not that Jamie
was complaining. In fact, it gave him more incentive to get done what
he needed to so he could climb beneath the covers with Gillian, even
if it was just to sleep.

Wishing his hard-on would go away, he pulled the covers over her.
She’d dropped her shorts and shirt, and crawled onto the
mattress in just her bra and underwear. That was enough to have him
throbbing.

“I’m going up top to do a few things. I have to take the
flashlight with me. Will you be okay here?”

The light from the fire came through the porthole so she wouldn’t
be in total darkness, and he needed the flashlight to navigate his
way in the interior hallway.

“Are you coming back?” Even with the sleepiness obvious
in her voice, she still wanted him there with her. Though that was
probably more from fear than desire. He couldn’t blame her. The
whole situation was scary, which made it even more inappropriate when
he had to wrestle his mind away from thoughts of Gillian, his bed and
those condoms in the drawer.

Jamie pushed a lock of hair from her face. “I’ll be back
as soon as I can. I promise.”

Eyes closing, she nodded. “’Kay.”

As Gillian drifted back to sleep with soft steady breaths, Jamie let
himself out of the stateroom and crept down the hall. The
unmistakable sound of what he would really like to be doing now came
from inside Rob and Julie’s room.

Cringing, he hurried past. Not only did he not want to be a pervert
and listen to his best friend having sex, the noises brought to mind
thoughts of doing that with Gillian and nearly had him turning back
around to go be with her. There was no time for that now. He had
things to do.

He’d located some navigational charts during daylight. Now, up
on deck with compass, charts and flashlight laid out before him,
Jamie prayed he’d be able to determine where they were. More,
he hoped they were exactly where he suspected.

Chapter Seven

Gillian came into consciousness slowly as things began to fall into
place. The storm. The island. Jamie.

He lay pressed up behind her now, snoring softly. She could get used
to waking up next to him.

The effects of the champagne began to hit her, and she swallowed away
the dryness in her throat. Her mouth felt like it was filled with
cotton, as if she hadn’t brushed her fuzzy-feeling teeth in
days. She didn’t remember brushing them the night before when
Jamie had put her to bed so it really had been a full day. She’d
have to go to her own stateroom and get her toothbrush.