Horizons (16 page)

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, you muleheaded ape! Marriage is supposed to be forever, and until I’m sure we can make it work, I don’t want to take that big a step.”

He scoffed at that. “Life doesn’t come with a guarantee,
like a toaster, Kelly. Neither does love. There are some things you have to take on faith.”

“There you go, getting all snotty with me! God, I could just bash you when you do that!”

He thrust his chin out at her, gesturing toward his jaw. “Go ahead. Give it your best shot, if it wil
l make you feel any better.”

To his surprise, her small fist landed solidly—in his gut
.
The air whooshed out of him in a gush. “Hey!” he wheezed. “If you’re going to fight, fight fair. No hitting below the belt, you under-handed little witch!”

“You’re not wearing a belt,” she pointed out in a superior tone, though inside she was appalled that she’d actually hit him, even if he had goaded her into it, and half afraid of how he might choose to retaliate.

“I can play dirty, too,” he informed her, even as his foot snaked behind hers, landing her in a heap at his feet
.
He didn’t have time to enjoy his sneaky maneuver before her hand caught his ankle, jerking him down beside her. “Take that, Goldstein!” she boasted.

He grabbed her arms, hauling her atop him. They glared at one another, eye to eye.

“Let go of me, you muscle-bound worm!”

“Make me,” he taunted. “You’re so all-fired independent and intent on demonstrating that you’re so superior to the male species in every way. So prove it. You want loose, get loose.”

“I’m warning you, Zach,” she hissed.

“Words,” he jeered. “All blow and no show.”

She attempted to knee him, but he anticipated her move this time, and trapped her leg between his. Then he had the gall to laugh, which made Kelly all the more furious.

She stretched far enough to tangle her fingers into a hank of his hair and yanked. Hard. In turn, he wound her
braid around his wrist, anchoring her face mere inches above his.

“Check and checkmate,” he mocked. “So, now what are you going to do?”

He’d released her arm to bind her braid, and she used her free hand to latch onto his earlobe, pulling and pinching it between her fingernails.

“Ouch!”

“I’ll let go, if you do,” she offered.

“Hah! Like I’m supposed to believe that, you bloodthirsty viper?”
He tugged her face closer to his, until his features blurred before her. “You want to play rough, sweetheart? How rough?”

His teeth clamped over her lower lip, trapping it between them just securely enough to sting. Without letting loose, he asked, “You ready to cry ‘uncle?’ Or are you going to go all weak and weepy, and cry big alligator tears so the big bad bully will take pity on you?”

“I’ll cry ‘uncle’ when they’re serving frozen daiquiris in hell!” she muttered.

“In that case, I guess we’ll be here awhile, won’t we?” He chuckled then. “I know it sounds trite, but you’re beautiful when you’re angry. Your eyes are shimmering, your face is all aglow, and you’re literally trembling with fury.” One hand crept up her thigh as he pressed his arousal against her. “Are you getting as turned on by this as I am?”

She hadn’t been, at least she hadn’t been aware of it, until he’d introduced the notion. Then, suddenly, all the fire in her veins seemed to pool in her loins. Her tongue crept out, to lick at her upper lip—and tasted his. Her fingers stopped pinching, only to skim the shell of his ear in a tingling caress. “Kiss, me, Zach,” she said huskily.

His teeth release
d her lip, his own tongue taking a
moment to soothe the ache before delving deeply into her mouth. To his surprise, ins
tead of biting him as he so justl
y deserved, she met his fervor with equal intensity.

He pulled back to suck in a shak
y breath. “God, I want you!”

“So, shut up and take me,” she murmured. Her breasts brushed tauntingly over his bare chest as she ground h
er pelvis against his thigh.

His hand, still twined in her hair, held her head still as
his mouth again sought hers.
H
is
tongue traced her lips, teasing them for long moments before his lips settled fully
onto hers. Passion, hot and sweet, arced between them. Kelly was melting faster than a chocolate bar in the hot sun. “It isn’t fair!” she protested
softly. “What you do to me.”

His chuckle was slightly wicked, and oh, so seductive. “All’s fair in love and war, my pet.”

Kelly couldn’t hold him close enough, hard enough, to satisfy the longing that erupted in her with volcanic force.
Her tongue duelled with his, her fingers clutched at his hair, her nails
dug into his shoulders—urging him nearer, though her breasts were practically crushed against his broad, muscled chest. She didn’t know he’d loosened the band at the end of her braid until he spread her unbound hair over her shoulders, wavy strands of it sifting slowly through his fingers.

“Burnished gold,” he murmured. “So soft and silky and shining. I want to wrap myself in it—in you. I want to feel you in every cell and pore of my body.”

Her hair tumbling down to enclose them in a sheer amber veil. Amid urgent, heated kisses, he slid the straps of her camisole off her shoulders. Kelly slipped her arms free, and the garment slithered to her waist. His hands cupped her breasts, molding them, kneading them, his
work-coarsened fingertips rasping across the rosy crests. She moaned and wriggled in response.

Zach broke off their kiss. “Too rough?”

She shook her head, setting her tresses shimmering. “No. I love it.” She pressed forward, wordlessly inviting more of the s
ame. “Oh, yes! You have such…
marvelous hands!”

Her own were flexing against the muscles of his bare chest—rubbing, stroking, inciting him. He pulled her up, her breasts now within reach of his greedy mouth. As he suckled avidly, his hands grasped her bottom, rocking her pelvis against his iron-hard arousal. Her breathing became mo
re erratic, reduced to sexy littl
e pants and gasps.

“I can’t take much more of this,” he growled, his hands fumbling at the clasp of her shorts. “I want you. Now.” Of the same mind, Kelly tugged his snap loose and yanked his zipper down. Kicking and thrashing, they fought free of their clothes. Gloriously naked at last, they came together like a pair of lusty animals, heedless of all else but satisfying their most urgent, basic needs.

O
nly afterward, when they were thoroughly sated, did a myriad of nagging discomforts come to their attention. “Move, love,” Zach said, shoving gen
tl
y at her. “There’s a rock poking me between the shoulder blades.”

Kelly groaned as she crawled off of him. “Darn! These tiny black crystals have permanently dimpled my kneecaps!” She brushed the offending granules from her legs and feet, frowning at the remaining red marks. “That was like kneeling on kernels of uncooked rice!”

“You think that hurts? You should feel m
y rear end!” he informed her. “I
swear I’m lying on a bed of sharp cinders and they’ve scraped half the skin off my backside! You’re lucky you were on top.”

Kelly grimaced as she shook out her panties prior to pulling them back on. “Making love on a beach certainly isn’t as romantic as it sounds, is it? At least, not in retrospect. For one thing, I’ve never heard anyone in a book or movie complain about having sand in their pants or in other assorted and intimate crevices, which could soon become extremely irritating. I wish the pool were closer.
I can’t wait to wash off.”

“I’ll second that.” He presented his back to her. “Brush me off, will you please?”

“Shake your head, first. You’ve got sand in your hair.” When he complied, she swatted him. “Not right here! Geez! You just sprayed sand all over me again!”

“Sorry.”

“What did you do with the rubber band for my braid?” He peeled it from his wrist and handed it to her. Their eyes met. Their dual frowns melted into rueful grins.

“I’ve never been this grumpy after such great sex!”

“Me, either!”

Zach held his arms wide, and Kelly walked into his embrace. “Marry me, you harridan,” he entreated. “I love you to the point of total distraction and desperation. I never thought it was possible to fall for someone this fast, or this hard. I need you, Kelly Kennedy, for better or worse.
I don’t care if you turn out to be Lizzie Borden reincarnate.
I just want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

She laughed. “Such a brave man! However, you’ll be glad to know there’s no history of major mental deficiency in my family. Aunt Harriet’s a bit eccen
tr
ic, but nowhere near dangerous.”

“No split personality?”

“Nope.”

“Nuts! I was hoping to get a lit
tl
e variety without having to stray from home,” he joked.

She jabbed a finger into his ribs. “No straying, Zach. Ever,” she instructed firmly. “That is rule number one.”

“Yes, ma’am. Is there a rule number two I should know about?”

“More than that, but none you need to worry over until after the wedding.”

He jerked back, putting enough space between them to study her face. “Is that a ‘yes?’ You’re accepting my proposal?”

She returned his earnest perusal. “I guess it’s time to swallow my fears and trust that our love is strong enough to carry us through all the problems ahead. And I do love you, Zach. When I thought Earl might shoot you, I nearly died of heart failure! It might not be smart, and we might both live to regret it, but I’ve definitely fallen heart over head in love with you. If you still want me when my divorce from Brad is final, we can get married then.”

His head lowered, his mouth seeking hers. “Sweetheart, I’ll still be wanting you, and loving you, when we’re old and gray and hobbling around on canes and walkers. That’s not to say we won’t quarrel. Every married couple has their spats. But you’ve got to admit that making up the way we just did has its merits.”

“So let’s practice making up again,” she suggested in a sultry murmur.

Within seconds, they were lying in the sand once more. “You do know what this means, don’t you?” he murmured, nipping at her thigh.

“What?” she gasped.

His tawny eyes held a devilish gleam as he met her gaze from between her legs. “You’re about to get sand in your pants again—and a few more interesting places.”

Chapter 16

T
he incoming tide was lapping at their feet by the time they roused themselves to dress again. As Kelly sloshed through the foamy surf to retrieve her shorts before they washed out to sea, a wad of seaweed twined about her leg. “Oh, yuck! I hate this slimy stuff.”

Tugging on his own pants, Zach laughed at her. “Just another delight of life on the beach. Why don’t you save it? Maybe once its cooked, it’ll taste like spinach.”

“So, who likes spinach?” she retorted smartly. She was standing on one foot, shaking the other and trying to dislodge the clinging mess when a knife-sharp pain shot through her calf. With a loud scream, Kelly fell to the sand.

In three running strides, Zach was at her side. He didn’t even have to ask what was wrong. Kelly was clutching her left leg, just below her knee, shouting, “Oh, God! It hurts! It hurts! What is it? Get it off me!”

Zach’s confusion turned to horror when he reached for Kelly’s leg. The greenish glob attached to her calf wasn’t
seaweed at all. Zach’s best guess was that it was some sort of jellyfish, though it more resembled that revolting snotlike goo appropriately called “slime” that his nephews used to play with. The thing’s tentacles were hooked to Kelly’s flesh, and from her continued screams, it was eviden
tl
y biting or stinging her.

Zach’s first instinct was to rip the creature off of her. His fingers were a scant inch from it when common sense asserted itself. He jerked back, seized Kelly’s foot instead, and turned her leg into the sand and began dragging it back and forth. Within seconds, the friction convinced the animal to release its hold. Before it could resume its attack, Zach quickly grabbed Kelly and hauled her farther up the beach, out of harm’s way.

“Don’t touch the wound, Kelly!” he ordered sharply, seeing she was trying to clutch at her injured calf. “You’ve been stung by a jellyfish, but it’s off now. Lie still. Let me look.”

“Oh, God, Zach!” she wailed. “Do something! It hurts so badly!”

“I know, love. I know. There are still some tentacles attached. Just keep your hands away, or you’ll likely get them stung, too.”

As would he, if he touched the tentacles which had come loose from the jellyfish and were still clinging to Kelly’s flesh. For a moment, he was stymied as to how to loosen them without causing her additional injury. Finally, for lack of anything more inventive, he daubed her entire calf with a thick paste of wet sand. Then, employing his pocket knife, he carefully scraped it away again, tentacles and all.

By now, Kelly was sobbing and trying to brush his hands back to make way for her own. He seized her wrists tigh
tl
y, aborting the move. “Stop it, Kelly! I got it off. It’s going to be all right now. Just don’t rub or scratch at it, love.
You’ll only irritate it all the more. And don’t thrash. You’ll grind sand in the wound.”

Her calf was dotted with nasty red puncture marks that were seeping blood and whatever poison the creature had injected. The wounds were red, and already swelling. Zach knew they should be washed, disinfected, and probably bound, but at present his resources were severely limited. For lack of anything else, he used his own cotton briefs as a bandage, wetting them first with saltwater. The emergency measure granted Kelly a modicum of relief, though Zach speculated it would be temporary at best.

After quickly dressing her, he scooped Kelly into his arms and started jogging down the beach. “Just hang on, darling. We’ll get you back to camp, and maybe Blair will have a better idea how to treat this. Lord knows that woman is knowledgeable about nearly everything else.”

B
y the time Zach staggered into camp with Kelly in his arms, she was whimpering pathetically. Tears tracked endlessly down her cheeks. “Lay out a blanket for her. Somebody fetch some water,” he called out.

“Good heavens! What has happened?” Blair hastened to spread a blanket on the ground.

Gently, Zach deposited Kelly onto it, careful not to bump her leg. “Something bit her, or stung her. I think it was some variety of jellyfish, though I can’t be entirely sure.”

“Oh, dear!”

Alita paused in pa
ssing, the coffeepot in hand. “
Ay! That looks awful! And painful!”

“It is!” Kelly whined. “It stings something fierce! As if someone is holding a hot poker against my leg!”

“I will hurry with the water,
amiga.
”

“Wait!” Gavin told her. “One of the guys in my unit in Hawaii got stung by a jellyfish a few months back, and they
told us it’s best to rinse the wound with salt water instead. It has something to do with the sacs or cells the tentacles shoot into the victim’s skin. They react to fresh water, releasing even more venom into the system. And you’ve got to wipe all the tentacles off, too.”

“I’ve done that,” Zach said. “But I’m glad you told us about the water. I don’t want to cause her any more pain. What else did they do for the soldier? Do you remember?”

Gavin nodded. “They made sure his tetanus was up to date, gave him some type of shot to stop the itching and swelling, and kept applying alcohol to the wound.”

“To sterilize it, I suppose,” Zach reasoned.

“I guess it helped hold the pain down by neutralizing the stinging cells, somehow. At least, that’s what the lieutenant told us when he was instructing us what to do if it ever happened to another one of us.” Gavin snapped his fingers. “Hey! He said if you didn’t have regular rubbing alcohol, you could use the kind you drink. Kelly’s s
till got those littl
e freebie liquor bottles in her bag, doesn’t she?”

“Get them,” Zach instructed. “And that bottle of aspirin.”

Kelly groaned. “Oh, Lord, Zach! My leg is cramping up just like when you get a really bad charlie horse! Can’t you rub it out for me? Please?”

Gavin heard, and yelled back, “No! That’ll break more of those sacs open, and make it hurt worse.”

“Maybe a couple of Midol would work better than plain aspirin,” Alita suggested. “If it works for menstrual cramps, it might help her leg.”

“It certainly couldn’t do her any more harm,” Blair agreed. “And a dab of that antibacterial ointment wouldn’t be amiss, either.”

Zach dragged a hand through his hair in agitation. “Is there anything on this entire, blasted island that isn’t a
peril to mankind?” he fumed. “Can anything else possibly go wrong?”

“Don’t, Zach.” Kelly reached out a trembling hand to pat his arm. “It will be okay.” Tears still welled from her eyes, even as she tried to console him. “After all, it can’t hurt like this forever. And it’s not as if I got attacked by a shark. It was just a creepy little jellyfish.”

Her breath was emerging in short, pained pants. “My head is starting to ache more than my leg,” she added weakly. She tried to roll to her side, moaning with the movement.

“Lie still, sweetheart
.
”

“Can’t,” s
he wheezed, her eyes and teeth ti
ghtly clenched now. “Gonna throw up.”

T
hat set the pattern for the following, seemingly endless hours. What lit
tl
e fluid and medication they managed to get into her usually came back up. Her muscles cramped abominably, knotting and twisting until she writhed in agony. She had a headache that made a migraine seem tame. But those times when she couldn’t seem to catch her breath were what scared Zach the worst. That, and being virtually unable to do anything to ease her suffering. Moreover, he and the others knew, even if Kelly apparently didn’t, that stings from some jellyfish could be fatal.

He kept a vigil at her side, hardly daring to leave for a quick trip to the latrine, watching as she managed to snatch a few minutes of pain-racked sleep at a stretch. For the most part, she was lucid, but in this instance, being fully aware was scarcely a blessing. The others offered to spell him, to give him time to stretch and eat, but basically it was Zach who sat with her. She was most calm when he was beside her, as if he and he alone could lend her strength enough to carry on. His name was the one she
called; his hand was the one she clutched so tightly that the bones soon felt bruised.

He talked to her, encouraging her until his voice was hoarse. Sometimes he just rambled from one topic to the next, telling her about his childhood, his college years, his family, the different places he’d worked. During the worst spells, he reminded her, “You can’t leave me now, love. You and I have a date to be married, and it wouldn’t be kosher to stand me up at the
altar
.”

“I know. I won’t,” she rasped, forcing her words through gritted teeth, attempting in turn to keep his spirits up. “I’ll beat this. No spineless little blob of jelly is going to get the better of me. That would be the height of humiliation, wouldn’t it?”

Around noon the next day, after being up with Kelly throughout the night, Zach had drifted into a light sleep. If it hadn’t been for Gavin’s excited yell, he might have missed hearing the aircraft that buzzed directly over the island, so low it sounded as if he could reach right up and shake hands with the pilot.

Zach leapt to his feet, instantly alert. “Stay with her!” He was halfway across the campsite, headed toward the path to the beach as he shouted the order to Blair.

“Go! Go!” Blair waved him on, pausing only to scoop Sydney out of the way. “Hurry!”

Zach knew he’d never run faster in his life—that he was probably breaking all kinds of track records—yet the beach had never seemed further away. It was like one of those weird dreams in which you run in slow motion and everything stays the same distance from you, frustratingly unattainable, no matter how hard you try to reach it. Though logic told him it had taken mere seconds to cover the short span, it seemed an eternity.

He was two strides from the end of the trees and the open beach when something cracked him on the head
with the force of a hammer. The earth spun crazily as his feet went out from under him. Just before he hit the ground, before everything went black, he caught a quick glimpse of Earl on the path behind him, hand raised and holding the pistol aloft.

Z
ach awoke feeling as if his head had been split open with an ax. It was when he tried to raise his hand to his head that he discovered he was in an even worse predicament. Through slitted eyelids, he peered dazedly at the metal cuff encircling his wrist. Comprehension dawned.

“Damn!” he groaned.

“You can say that again,” Gavin intoned miserably from his place next to Zach.

Zach lifted his lids a fraction more, and saw that Gavin’s hand was attached to the other cuff. They were linked together, with the short connecting chain looped beneath a slight arc of exposed tree root. The ends of the root were still underground, with only a foot-long curve visible above the surface.

Zach gave an experimental tug at the cuff, a move that elicited an immediate grumble from Gavin. “Hey! That hurt!”

“Sorry. I was just testing to see how sturdy this root is, if there was any chance of pulling it loose or breaking it.”

Gavin eyed the four-inch thick root skeptically. “I doubt it. That thing looks like it’s there to stay for another hundred years.”

“Shit!” Zach eased back against the tree, careful not to slam his head against it. “I take it Earl clobbered you, too?”

“Yeah. Makes me wonder why we didn’t try the same trick with him days ago.”

“Mainly because he’s carrying a gun, and we aren’t,”
Zach replied sardonically. “So, did anyone make it to the beach to signal the plane?”

“No. Blair and the kid were here with Kelly, and Blair didn’t have any idea we were out of commission. Alita tried, I guess, but Earl threatened to shoot her, so there wasn’t much she could do except back off. She’s mad as hell, by the way.”

“That makes two of us.” Zach gazed around, taking stock of the situation. The root to which he and Gavin were secured was part of one of the aerial supports beneath the canopy of the banyan tree, just a few yards from the central firepit. Kelly lay on her blanket nearby, with Blair in attendance. Sydney was cuddled in Alita’s lap, on the other side of the campfire. Earl was nowhere in sight. “Where is the bastard?” Zach growled.

“I don’t know,” Gavin said. “Guess he got tired of Alita cussing at him.”

Zach’s gaze rebounded to Kelly. “How is she?” he called out to Blair.

Blair shook her head. “About the same.”

Zach cursed. “Damn that son-of-a bitch! She needs help! This might have been our best chance at being rescued, and he had to screw it up! All because he doesn’t want to get arrested again! It really doesn’t matter to him if the rest of us rot here with him, or that Kelly might die without medical attention, as long as he doesn’t wind up behind bars.”

“It was bad enough before,” Gavin agreed with a dismal sigh, “but now we’re the ones shackled to a tree and he’s runnin’ around with that pistol, making like he’s king of the mountain or something. Lord only knows what that crazy ass will do next.”

“We’ve got to get loose,” Zach said, “before he takes it into his head to rape the women or kill us all.”

“Yeah, but how? Earl has the key, and I don’t think
Alita, as sexy as she is, is gonna be able to sweet-talk him out of it.”