Island Rush (53 page)

I cut him off, mainly because I knew I would give in some time to those pretty eyes and his reasoning.  I didn’t want to yet. “I am going to take a bath in the lake.  You…” I shook my head.  “I don’t really care what you do.  Feel free to clean this up, though.  If not, I’ll do it later.”

I ducked under the shelter once more, the terrible scent invading my nose.  My eyes found the suitcases in the back, and I spotted the bag with all the toiletries.  I was a little excited to get clean. I grabbed the bag and pulled it out.  Looking up at the sky, I was surprised to see the sun already up and warming the air.  It wasn’t in view yet, but it was behind the low clouds, adding to the gloomy setting.  The sky was scattered with storm clouds, and I could faintly hear it thundering up in the heavens.

I didn’t glance down to Casey when I walked by him, heading towards the lake.  My feet in the grass felt cool with it being early morning even though I could feel the day heating.  When I reached the bank, I sat down on the side, my feet in the water giving me goosebumps as I went through the bag.  Pulling out the shampoo, I also pulled out the bar of soap and razor, needing to take clear advantage of that. 

I slipped my pants and shirt off, leaving myself in my bra and underwear as I remained sitting on the bank. Though I discarded the bloody clothes, I had to pause for a moment.  Though red liquid was spotted over me, I felt the blood in a place I didn’t expect.  It made me groan when I checked and yep, sure enough. Thank you, period for your wonderful monthly gift!  I would have to find some moss after I finish washing. 

I was going to shave before going in and actually washing myself.  I would enjoy this too.  The entire time being here, I didn’t like being conscious of how long some hair was growing on my body. 

So, getting the bar of soap wet, I rubbed my hands over it before I ran my fingers up and down my legs.  After that, I slid the razor up my legs, shaving off the hair growing there. 

By the time I was done with one leg, it began raining.  I groaned a little, but I suppose it didn’t matter.  It was warm outside already and that meant so was the rain that fell on me.  Leaving my bloody clothes out in the rain as it picked up, I continued shaving and soon moved onto my armpits. 

Putting the soap away and the razor when I was done, I felt my skin warming to the rain, welcoming it more.  Sitting on the bank and looking down at myself, I saw that the rain was slowly causing the blood in my hair to roll down my body and shoulders.  But it wasn’t a bath or anything close to what one would feel like.  Standing up in the shallow water, I slipped my bra off and underwear, washing them too.  Setting them next to the bag on the bank, I took the shampoo and squirted some into my hand before setting that down in the grass too.  I turned, walking out deeper in the lake as I raised my hands, scrubbing my hair as I walked. 

I stopped when the water reached just above my breasts.  Scrubbing my hair felt wonderful after not doing it for so long.  My mind began to wander back to Casey.  I glanced through the heavy rain back to our shelter.  I could barely see it through the haze of heavy rain.  I figured Casey was cleaning it up.  It made me internally groan and roll my eyes at myself.

Now, I regretted what I said.  He was completely right, and I knew it.  Yet, I didn’t want to face it.  I was the one that made it harder by waking the snake.  I was the one who didn’t move when I was told.  I was the one who started whining over how he handled the issue.  What mattered was he did handle it and for me.  He helped me and of course he didn’t think things through.  That’s how we were alike in a way.  When things are happening, we instinctively act and don’t take the time to think.  Plus, now he was probably cleaning the whole thing up.  I don’t know how much that man loves me.

I knew I made a mistake and needed to apologize somehow.  I decided I would after I get back.  For now, I thrived in the water around me.  Falling on me, swarming around me, under me… it felt so good.  After my hair was soapy and was done washing it, I rinsed it out and slid under the water, scrubbing my hair hard under the water and trying to get all the blood and soap out.  While under, I ran my hands over my whole body, removing all signs of blood, sweat, and dirt.

Coming up with a large breath, I began to swim out a little deeper, moving towards the waterfall a little more, enjoying the freedom my feet had and how the water felt around my body.  I leaned back once more, letting the reflection of the sky consume my hair as I ran my hand through it.  The soap gradually floated out to where the creek was emptying to the ocean.

I sucked in my breath once more, dropping under the water again.  When I came up, taking a refreshing deep breath, looking up at the gloomy and raining sky, I began to kick back.  Swimming back while pushing with my arms, my face was pelted with more rain.  It ran down my cheeks, tickling my skin. 

Then, I hit something.  I stopped and looked down from the sky, turning around to find the source.  Through the rain, I was eye level with Casey.  He stared at me, his eyes locked on mine.  I couldn’t read those brown globes, unsure of how he was feeling.  We both floated there in the rain.  After a moment, I remembered what I wanted to say.

“Casey, I —”

He cut me off as his arm moved forward, grabbing me and pulling me in.  I hit his naked chest with mine as his lips found mine, kissing me hard.  Unexpected, I let him kiss me for a moment, a little confused.  Mainly because he was really upset at me a while ago.  Also because against him, I felt him without any clothes as well. 

Then, I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him closer to me with his hand wrapped around my back.  That hand then inched up my back through the water, sliding his fingers wide in my hair and gripping me to him tightly.  His other hand went down to my thigh and pulled my leg around his torso.  I wrapped my other leg around him, pressing even closer to him and feeling all of him. 

He stopped a moment later, moving both hands to cup my cheeks.  Casey looked deeply into my eyes, reaching all the way down to my core.  My heart skipped a beat, as it usually does with him.  He pressed his lips to mine softer this time.

I knew that I needed to tell him, though.  The guilt was there for me, and I knew that he was going to apologize, which he shouldn’t.  So when our lips broke again, I spoke before he could.

“I’m sorry.”  I looked hard into his eyes as we floated in the water together, which was just below our necks. 

He pursed his lips, and I knew he didn’t want me to apologize, but I had to because he was right about this whole thing.  He stroked my cheeks, pressing his forehead against mine.  Instead of rejecting my apology, he said, “I know.  I’m sorry too.”

I smiled and pressed my lips back into his, loving his taste and him as a whole.  I took in his wet and dark hair, bangs sloppily scattered over his forehead thanks to the rain.  His large hands caressed my face, lips smacking on mine, and I slid my fingers up into his hair.  Somehow, we managed to press even tighter against each other.

With my body wrapped around him in the deep water, our limbs tangled, we had no way of supporting ourselves to stay above the water. The water already at our necks, we began to sink deeper, the cool liquid moving up our necks.  That didn’t matter to me and apparently not to him either.  Neither of us tried to fight it; we refused to move away from each other.

Our lips never breaking, arms and legs always claiming, we let the water swallow us down. I felt Casey’s lips tilt in a smile as we slipped under the water.  With the rain just an echo above us, the only sound was our muffled moans that vibrated against our lips. I felt my hair rise in the water surrounding us, moving around and above us. 

I felt his hands glide over my body, caressing me, before gripping my hips and holding me somehow closer.  Then, when his lips moved from mine, I opened my eyes and saw him there. Saw him, his beauty, and those eyes slowly open as well, giving the foggy water a light of magnificent brown. His smiled through the water, his face so close to mine.

I felt his arms tighten around me as we started moving up towards the surface, the air in us keeping us close to the surface. We took a breath when we reached the top.  However, there was only a second of the loud rain before his hands dug into my hips and drove me back into the water.

I heard his slow moving laughter through the water before his lips found mine again, kissing me sweetly and cutting off my squeal as we floated under the water.  His body on top of mine, I grinned happily through his lips.  His hand moved from my hip to my back, pressing me up into his body as my fingers trailed up his strong arms wrapped around me.

We began to go up, and when we reached the surface, I felt the rain hit our faces again before his lips and mine broke away.  Taking a deep breath, the scent of nature flooded my nose.  His eyes burned into mine as my body gradually untangled from his as we floated there.  Inching closer to me, he rested his forehead against mine. 

“Did you come out here to say you are sorry?  Or did you come out here to try a different form of apologizing?  Your lack of clothing would suggest the later, but I’m not complaining,” I said.

“Actually, I came out here because I cleaned up the shelter and got blood all over me. Not nearly as much as you had, but I needed to get it off my arms and legs.”

I bit my lip, holding back a smile, “Well, I can’t say I’m upset about that.  I like your body.”

“Well, now that I’m out here, my reasons have changed. I’m here to show you how very sorry I am. Here to show you that I am willing to do
anything
to gain your forgiveness,” he said with a smirk.

“Yeah? Well, I did accept your apology…” I smirked back as well.

“Then I’ll be sorry for something else. It doesn’t matter what. I am just very,
very
sorry and will make it up to you,” he chuckled, kissing my lips and making my eyes close in the feeling.

Then, all of a sudden, his lips were gone.  His mouth and body disappeared from me.  I opened my eyes, and he was out of sight.  Casey must have slipped back into the water without me. 

With a laugh, I looked down around me in the water, straining my neck and keeping myself above the water.  Of course, with the rain, I couldn’t see him under the liquid.  I smiled, knowing he would pop up and try to scare me any minute. 

Instead, I felt something grasp my leg and pull me down under the water.  With a small moment of fright, I smiled knowing it was him.  Letting my leg go as I was pulled swiftly below, his arms then folded around me.  Through the rush of bubbles that abrupt movement caused, it cleared, and I was able to find his smiling face. I pecked his lips softly through my laughter before we floated back up to the surface.

“You most love the idea of surprising me,” I giggled.

“I do.  I wasn’t lying, though.  I need to make it up to you,” he said, whispering huskily into my ear as he held me close in his arms.

My heart jumped as I turned my head, catching his eyes. “Well then, I won’t stop you,” I said, biting my lip. 

And sure enough… he did make it up to me.   

Chapter 55

“That was quite the apology,” I whispered, knowing he could hear me over the rain.

He chuckled, his chest moving under where my head rested on him.  Kissing my forehead lightly, he rested his cheek against the top of my head. “Do you forgive me then, Miss Reeves?”

“Oh yeah,” I smiled.

We were laying in the dripping grass on the bank of the lake, the small crackles of rain starting to fade away with the clouds.  The sun began to shine through.  We had to have been laying there for twenty minutes or so, just enjoying the fact that we had each other.  His naked and wet body shined as it became brighter out, the air warming even more.  His nails lightly moved up and down my bare back, letting little tingles run about under my skin. 

“We should have filmed it,” he said with an amusing note.

I couldn’t help but chuckle.  I turned my head up to see him and leaned up towards his face.  With my elbows propping me up, he turned his head and found my eyes.  His expression was teasing with a smirk. “We have the camera.  We could have done it.  I wouldn’t mind seeing your body wrapped around mine like that again,” he went on.

I chuckled and lightly kissed his lips after leaning in a little.  “Mr. Rush is dirty today,” I stated.

He raised then lowered his eyebrows, making me laugh.  “Well then, if I would have known we couldn’t film it, I should have just ‘read’ those dirty magazines instead.  It’s not my fault that I can’t hold in the animal anymore.  I need to let it out of the cage.” He put on his serious face and hid the act behind it.  “I don’t know how much longer I can hold that animal back.  It’s going to come, Janice, and you can’t stop it.”  With the best attempt he could offer, he growled and roared, imitating a lion. 

“Yeah?  Reading those magazines or filming us having sex are the choices?” I asked, biting back my laughter.

He shook his head and shrugged innocently, acting as if this was a burden for him. “Sorry, but you know how I am.  I need to let the beast roar and pounce.”

I held back a chuckle, playing along.  “Ooh.  There’s a beast in you?  I better be careful.  I don’t want you to claw me to pieces.”

He held back his smile and very seriously continued. “Yeah, there is.  You ought to watch yourself.”  He roared again and gave me an exaggerated sexy smile.  “Yeah, you like it when I roar, don’t you, baby?”

“Oh yes!  It turns me on!  I can hear that beast.  He’s ready to do some damage,” I answered just as dramatically.

He roared again and nearly broke into laughter before he was able to catch himself.  “Roar with me.  Roar with the beast!”

I attempted a roar, and it resulted in us both breaking our act and laughing.  I collapsed back on his chest, burying my head into his shoulder, laughing hard with him.  I could feel him shake under me. 

After our laughter had died down a couple minutes later, I turned to look down at the surface my head was resting on.  He had his head propped up, watching me.  By now, the rain had stopped, and the sun was out, making our bare skin shine in the grass with the water scattered over us.  His gaze moved from my eyes to the rest of my body, caressing it with his moving stare.  He reached my eyes again, his hand stroking my back. 

“You are so beautiful when you’re wild and untamed.”

The sun shined brighter and nearly all the clouds were gone.  Looking down at Casey, he was just as beautiful as he described me to be.

I lightly bent my lips down to his chest, kissing his wet skin there, my lips soaking in the coat of water on him.  Feeling his chest move harder under me, it encouraged me to kiss up to his shoulder.  Then, I moved back and hovered my face an inch above his.  I smiled sweetly at him, and he searched my eyes.

He brought his hands up, one resting on my lower back and the other cupping my cheek.  He smiled and opened his mouth, letting out a whisper.  “Roar,” he said, stretching out the word.

Our lips met in that moment, and we kissed sweetly and playfully.  By the time we broke away, the sun had swept away most of the water on us and the grass.  The only thing left shining were his eyes.  We laid together in silence after that, knowing we had to get up.  It was time to start the day.  It reminded me of something I needed to do.

“I need to find some moss,” I said.  Thanks to the water, it washed most of the blood away.  It did make me wonder something, though. “Did it feel weird because of that?”

“Because you’re on your period?  No.  You couldn’t even tell because we were in the water.  Then on the bank, we were still soaking wet.  However, the fact that I didn’t wear a condom felt good to me,” he chuckled.

“Should we be concerned about that?” I wasn’t stupid.  Casey didn’t finish in me; he pulled out.  I knew though that sometimes it wasn’t enough.

“I don’t think so, especially because you are on your period.  It’s flushing everything out so it would be hard to get pregnant.”  He sighed dramatically before he continued. “However, we should be concerned about the kid that owned those condoms.”

“Why?” I snorted.

“He must have been huge for them to have fit me before,” he said, winking at me.

“Or maybe you’re just the size of a little boy,” I chuckled, teasing him and biting my lip. 

We joked around and talked a little more.  It was stuck in my mind though that we were stalling.  I loved lying here with him.  Even when silence reached us, it was nice.  Right before we could get up, though, Casey grabbed my attention when he broke the silence.

“We need a bed right now,” he said after a few minutes of silence.

After the words were out and I heard that he was completely serious, I broke into fits of laughter.

“What are you laughing at me for?”

“You have been wanting a bed for a while now.  From what we just did, it’s an absolute priority now?  Won’t we break the bed?” I smirked.

“Depends.  It can always be a goal.  If the last hour says anything, that bed will be destroyed in ten seconds.”  More seriously, he asked, “Wouldn’t you like to wake up not stiff?  We would be much more comfortable.”

“How will we even make a bed?”

He sighed.  “I’m not sure.  But two things have happened today – still before noon – that give us good reason to have a bed.”

That couldn’t have been truer.

“Will there be any room under the shelter?  We already have the bags taking up a lot of space.”

“It will be fine.  We’ll see how much room we have to work with before building it.  We could also just move some of the bags out in the open.  The worse that would happen is rain, and those bags survived a plane crash in the ocean.  It will be fine; don’t worry.”

We finally got up and walked back to the shelter.  I found the bag of toiletries and grabbed them with my clothes on the way.  When we got back, I was surprised to find that the shelter was cleaned well.  No blood since he had wiped it up and the rain probably did the rest.  That wasn’t what I noticed first when I moved into the shelter, though. 

“Oh god!” I groaned loudly with a disgusted voice.  The smell was awful, and the source made me cringe. 

Casey came to my side and hissed at the smell, “Sorry, I meant to tell you.”

“You clean up the blood, yet you drag the dead snake into our shelter and decide to leave it there?”  I stared at the bloody remains of the snake that gave me one insane wake-up call this morning.  It was under our shelter now and not where it last was by the ashes.

“Care to explain why you put the dead snake in our shelter after it was already outside?” I knew Casey would have some form of explanation.

“That, my dear, is our wonderful lunch.  Snake is good to eat.  I wasn’t going to get rid of it, and I couldn’t leave it outside in the rain.  I left it in here so it didn’t wash away.  I didn’t realize how bad the smell would be.”

“No, it’s fine.  That’s actually a smart idea.”  I moved out of the shelter and walked a few yards to a tree that I knew had moss growing along its trunk.  Pulling some out and forming it to what I needed, I continued to speak, “But you forgot one thing.”

“What did I forget?”

Walking back, I put my bra and underwear on, lining it with the moss.  Then I grabbed some new clothes that weren’t bloody or wet. “It rained, and we won’t be able to have a fire until everything is dry,” I said.

His neutral face – except for his wandering eyes – turned to an expression of realization.  “Well, we can go to the beach later and make a fire there.  The sand will dry, and the leaves and other brush will be dry if it’s facing the breeze and ocean, more open to the sun and air.”

“That sounds good to me.  Can we move the snake out now that it’s done raining? Let it sit out in the fresh air while we work on the bed?”

He nodded as he put on his clothes after me. “Yeah, we can do that.”

I picked the snake up by the big leaf he placed under it, moving it to the tall grass on the other side of the ashes from the fire.  Hopefully now, the shelter would air out, and that smell would leave.  It better since we will be making a bed for the shelter tonight.

When I straightened up from where I set the snake, I found his eyes as he turned to me.  A spark in his eyes told me that he had some form of an idea.  He didn’t say it at first but hesitated, trying to figure something in his head.  He looked up at the top of the waterfall and his eyes scanned over the little lake, stopping at where the creek began.

“I know how we can make the bed.”

“How?”

He took my hand and led me to the bank.  We walked along the lake, moving until we reached the corner where the creek started.  He then guided me with him when he stepped down into the creek that was up to our kneecaps all the way across.  In the sun, the reds and browns of the stones shined through below our feet.  The other side of the bank wasn’t far, but he pulled me out to stand in the middle of the creek before he stopped.

Confused, I followed his eyes as we faced back towards the lake.  The waterfall was what he was looking at again.  When he looked down, he saw that where we were standing was the start of the current from the lake.  A few feet in front of us was the open lake before it narrowed where we stood in the creek.

“Care to explain?” I asked.

He pointed up and past the waterfall.  “You remember when we went up there?  There were trees packed together, some trees not looking like the others.”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“I saw some bamboo when we were up there.  It was hard to see because of how thick the trees were.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Must have been because I didn’t see that.”  The fact that he brought this up though made me smile.  I think I knew where he was going with this. “You know Casey… bamboo is hollow and easy to cut.”

He gave me a bigger smile. “Exactly.  It will be good for a bed.  I could go up there, cut some down, and then throw it in the stream up there before the waterfall takes it down.  It wouldn’t damage; the waterfall isn’t that powerful and bamboo is relatively light and can float.  So when it drops the bamboo down to the lake, it would eventually float out and down to the creek.”

I nodded, following along with his idea, “So if I stay here where the creek starts, it would be easy to grab it and throw it up on the bank.  What if I miss one and it goes out to the ocean though?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t worry about that.  The bamboo will probably float down towards you slowly.  You should have enough time.”

It sounded a little crazy.  It sounded like the type of thing lumberjacks do.  Transporting the bamboo from him to me by the water… it was actually a really good idea though.  Sounded easy enough. 

As we have learned, everything sounds easy before actually doing something.  That applied with this and we soon found that out.

It was harder than I thought.  It was easy lifting them, setting them up on the bank.  The real bitch of the matter came at Casey’s perfection.  He was going too fast with sending down the bamboo.  I couldn’t see him because he was too far and high up.  But I watched as another branch of bamboo went down with the waterfall and into the lake, floating towards me. 

After the first couple times of him sending them down, I couldn’t keep track.  Branch after branch of bamboo, sometimes two at a time.  Whenever I looked up, there was more.  Casey was cutting them down too fast and therefore sending them my way too fast. A couple slipped passed me and traveled on down to the ocean but Casey didn’t need to know that.  Besides, it was his fault.  He was sending them down the waterfall too fast. 

“‘The bamboo will probably float down towards you slowly’ my ass!” I screamed up towards where the waterfall was, although I knew he couldn’t hear me over the waterfall.

I groaned as more came.  The good part of this though was that it took less than twenty minutes to get more than enough for a bed.  Grabbing the one that I considered to be my last branch, I hauled it up and threw it on the pile.  It wasn’t heavy that was good. 

I groaned when I turned back around, seeing more bamboo.  I let them float by.  We had enough and Casey probably didn’t realize how much he was cutting.  More down the stream they went… I turned back around and stepped up onto the relief of grass.