Runaway Heart (A Game of Hearts #2) (4 page)

“YOU REALLY CAN’T BE SERIOUS?” I asked as the four of us stood outside a small, one-roomed hut on stilts behind Maggie and Phillip’s quaint bungalow.

I peeked back inside the door, just to be sure what I saw was actually what I saw and not some hallucination brought on from the extra shot of tequila I took with Ed. We drank it when no one was looking from behind the bar where the reception would be tomorrow.

Yep. That was a hammock. A freaking hammock she expected me to sleep on.

With or without Ed, I might add.

“We tried booking you separate rooms at the only hotel on the island, but, with the season as packed as it is, there was nothing available last minute.” Maggie’s eyes matched the apologetic tone in her voice. “You said you were okay with it when I asked you in the office.”

So this is what I agreed to?

“You can take the hammock. I’ll take the floor. Unless of course…” Ed’s words trailed off as he playfully wiggled his eyebrows.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

“You’re damn straight you’re sleeping on the floor. With the bugs. Where you belong,” I dictated, wishing I had taken the second shot he offered me.
At this rate, I may have to sneak back to the bar and finish off that bottle just so I can sleep through the night.

Maggie reached for my arm as Autumn cooed. “Look… we can bring the mattress from the futon in our office if you want. Or you can stay there, but the workers will be there early in the morning, and I’m sure you won’t want to be bothered.”

I perked up a little. “Mattress?”

“Come on, mate. Let’s get the princess and the pea her mattress,” Ed said, slapping Phillip on the back with a chuckle.

Something in his laughter made me want to punch him.
Hard.

“I really am sorry, Hannah,” Maggie said as soon as the guys were gone. The worry was thick in her voice, and it broke through my anger a little.

“It’s fine,” I relented, sighing. “Really. I just… I was taken aback for a moment. What kind of maid-of-honor would I be if I didn’t suffer a little, right?”

She suggestively lifted her eyebrows. “The kind holed-up with a very cute, very charming English guy.”

I did a double take in her direction. “You can’t be serious. You’re not suggesting I—”

Her smile spread across her fair skin as she innocently shrugged. “I’m not suggesting anything. Just pointing out the obvious. You’re a girl. He’s a guy. You like kissing. He likes—”

“Please.” I held my hand up, not wanting to admit he had any kind of effect on me. “Please don’t finish that sentence.”

She half-smiled, shifting her hold on Autumn. “Who knows… maybe this time next year, we’ll be at your wedding,” Maggie said, nudging into me.

I looked at her as if she just declared the bubonic plague had been released into our water system, and she wanted me to take a sip from it.

“Umm… no,” I declared, glancing over at Autumn and felt myself internally melting. What if the whole “baby fever” thing was real? I definitely couldn’t have that happening.

“It’s not unlikely though, Hannah,” she stated as she walked over to the small, wooden porch in front of the hut and sat. “Everyone finds their happiness at some point in their life. Look at me… I went from working with the rich and shameless to living out my dream with a man I never thought even existed.”

I followed her to the bench, sat beside her, and then stretched my legs out in front of me, enjoying the pull of muscle from thigh to ankle. “And you also have
way
better luck than moi, my dear. I don’t do relationships. You know that.”

Her face grew serious. “I know you hold a lot of resentment because of your father. Comparing him to every man in this world isn’t healthy. It’s hindering you from finding what’s really out there.”

Those feelings. The yucky, dark ones I kept locked in a barrel deep in my soul began to rock and shake, banging against my heart for a way out.

“So, why Autumn and not Summer… your favorite time of the year? “I didn’t look over at her. Didn’t want to see
that
look—the one that made me feel guilty for dodging a subject she’s always tried to get me to open up about.

Tears of sorrow and mascara just didn’t mix. At least, not for me.

“Because that was when we came back to each other,” she said wistfully, going along with the change of subject.

“Would I be a horrible aunt if I told you it makes me think of pumpkin-flavored everything?”

Maggie giggled. “I love pumpkin-flavored everything.”

“What’s this I hear about a pumpkin? Decided you’d be a better Cinderella? ‘Cause if that’s the case, I think ye’re truly out of luck with us finding you a carriage,” Ed joked as he and Phillip worked their way past us up the porch stairs. “But if ye’re lookin’ for a bit o’ magic, I have a wand could use some waving, if ye’d like to give it a go.”

He did not just say that.

My eyes bulged as I looked at Maggie, not having to say out loud exactly what I thought about our insane situation. After helping her stand, we made our way into the place I’d call home for the next forty-eight hours.

Phillip pulled on the small chain hanging from the ceiling on the only light in the room. The small bulb flickered to life.

This. This was my life.

Boards of wood warped by salt water, with cracks in between big enough you could see through, all the way to the sand beneath the hut. Barren walls. A hammock hanging in the corner with a wicker chair across from it. A small table with a stack of linens, pillows, and some sort of rigged shower curtain pulled back to reveal a wash basin next to a portable toilet.

And my mattress, smack dab in the middle of the floor.

“Have I told you I love you, Maggie?” I said through clenched teeth, trying not to squeeze too tight when I put my arm around her. “I just… I really, really love you and would do anything for you. Even this.”

Ed plopped into the hammock, crossing his arms behind his head with an evil smirk. “It’s not so bad.”

I just may become a murderer tonight.

“Well, I’m sure you’re beat,” Maggie said, already rushing off to leave the two of us alone. “We can meet up for breakfast in the morning as soon as you’re both awake. I’ll make pancakes.”

“Clammy rogers!” Ed said with excitement.

I didn’t ask. I just made my way over to the end table, grabbed some linens stacked there, spread them out, and laid down.

“See you in the morning,” I said, bringing the sheet up over my head.

IT ALWAYS AMAZED ME THE luck I seemed to run into.

Take for instance the fact that only a handful of days ago, I’d been pulling pints for the local blokes to wet their whistles.

And now… now I was in paradise with a beautiful lass on the floor and my best mate about to be married.

The hammock creaked under me as I pulled my arms from behind my head.

Outside the clapboard walls of the hut, waves pulled and pushed along the sand. As faint as it was, I could still hear it in between the soft snoring sound coming from the floor.

Maggie’s best friend Hannah was sprawled out, face down on the mattress Phil and I hauled in hours earlier. My fingers itched to push back the sheet covering her, so I could look my fill without getting my balls handed to me by Phillip.

“Don’t even think about doing what I think you’re going to do,” Phillip said as we carried the thin mattress across the sand.

His warning, while understandable, wasn’t necessary. It was only two days we’d be together, and then it would be back to our prospective lives for the both of us.

Admittedly though, Hannah stirred something up inside me. Something I’d thought long ago buried.

Forbidden fruit tasted the ripest. And she’s the ripest peach you’ve seen in a while, mate.

I groaned aloud at the thought.

The sound jerked Hannah upright, her hair a wild, blonde mane around her face like silken moonlight. She sat eerily still for only a moment before her hand snapped out as if thwarting someone, and then she shot straight to her feet, wobbling like a newborn foal.

“What are ye doin’, love?” I asked, trying to push myself out of the roped cocoon that held me in its crisscrossing meshed confines.

With weird-like movements, Hannah pushed with one foot and then the other, almost as if she were ice-skating along the floorboards.

“Hannah?” I called out again.

She came to an abrupt stop and then whipped around, facing me. The moonlight beaming through the window hit her, allowing me to watch her chest heave with her eyes wide open, unblinking.

“She’s having a bloody nightmare,” I said, wondering if I should try to wake her or just leave her be.

A sinister grin spread across her lips before she sprinted full out at me. I didn’t even have time to get out of the hammock before she clotheslined herself against me.

Ass over tit, we rolled. The worn ropes of the hammock gave way, tumbling us on the floor in a heap.

“Ow…” Hannah called out from underneath me.

“What the bloody hell are ye on about, woman?” I asked, trying to roll off her.

“Stop rubbing your dick against me,” she snapped, pushing at my hips as she struggled to free herself in panicked motions, making the situation increasingly worse.

“I’m not rubbing my anything against ye, ye dafty. In case you hadn’t noticed, ye just ran across the room and tackled my bed straight to the ground,” I answered, shifting to my left, hoping I could roll free.

“No, I didn’t!” she cried out as my elbow found a particularly squishy spot. I couldn’t help it. I wasn’t trying to hurt her, but we were well and truly tangled up.

“Right, sorry then. What were ye about? Looked like you were trying to ice skate or something. And with a wicked grin too.”

She paused as if trying to recall what I’d said, and then her eyes went wide. “Damn. I think you’re right.”

“I know I’m right. I witnessed it, love.”

“I was dreaming about the last bout I had and must have sleepwalked,” she continued, her mind seemingly elsewhere. “It’s this damn heat and that stupid, uncomfortable mattress!” she said loudly, trying again to remove herself from our unforgiving tangle.

“Right then. I’ll just move this way and ye the other …” I tried, letting the comment about the heat go. It was damnable hot and getting worse by the second with our bodies piled one on top of the other.

It didn’t work.

We were stuck.

Hannah went limp underneath me. “Ed, we can’t let Maggie and Phillip find us like this. That would be so sickeningly cliché. The maid-of-honor and the best man.” She snorted. “What the hell are we supposed to do?”

She sounded worried.

“Just hold still. Give me a second to feel what we’re up against,” I answered, taking a second to catch my breath.

“Feel?” She shifted under me in shock.

“Yes, feel. Ye bloody tackled me in the dark. I can’t see a blasted thing, so I have to feel around in order to get us out.”

She huffed. “Yeah, well, you better watch where your hands roam, mister.”

I bit back a comment, which would surely see me good and slapped when we were untangled. “Right then. Hold still,” I warned as I maneuvered my arm up alongside her hip, testing the woven bits of the hammock. It was then I noticed how tangled up we really were.

“Can ye get your left arm through that hole there?” I asked, feeling a crossing where her arm had gone through.

She squirmed a bit before hissing. “No. My other arm is pinned.”

“Let’s try this then,” I said, pushing myself up about an inch. “Lift your arse up a bit, will you?”

She didn’t hesitate and, when her backside pushed against my stomach, I slid my arm under her and pulled her against me, using my other hand to sort of get us up from the floor a bit.

“See if you can get your arm through now,” I told her.

She jerked, causing me to lose my balance. Over we rolled, with her on top of me.

“My arm is free!” she said with a breathless sort of happiness.

I hated to point out to her we were still prisoner to the hammock, trapped in a sort of demented-looking X.

She wiggled against me, and my hardened state pushed back against her. Not because I wanted her to feel what she did to me. It was more like the damn thing had a mind of its own.

“Really, Ed? You’re one of
those
guys? Put your damn boner away and get us out of this mess or so help me God.” Hannah pressed her forearm against my neck as if to warn me she could choke me out if she really wanted to.

I found that somewhat even more of a turn on. “It has a mind of its own, love. I guess it likes what it feels. Can’t say as I blame it though. Ye do have a nice, cushiony place for it.”

I chuckled when she growled.

She jabbed me in the ribs with her elbow. “Seriously? We’re stuck in a damn hammock and you want to put the moves on me?”

“I have to tell ye, there’s not many moves can be made right now, but help get us free and I’ll move however ye want, love.” I couldn’t keep myself from goading her on. Her smart mouth and take-no-shite attitude was sexy as hell.

After a brief second, Hannah did something I never expected. She laughed. Belted it out really. “I swear to God, Ed. How can you piss me off so bad and make me want to laugh all at the same time?”

I went along with it. “I’m English, love. Comes with the territory,” I answered, hoping she’d laugh again. I rather liked it. Especially how it vibrated my entire body.

Hannah’s head fell against my collarbone. “I think we’re screwed.”

I let that one slide. “It’s not all that bad, is it?”

I moved my hands down as much as I could. There had to be a way out of our tangle up. We had room to move a bit, but without knowing where we needed to be freed, there wasn’t much either of us could do. Add to the fact that the moonlight shifted behind the clouds, darkening the room, making it damn near impossible to do anything about our situation until either the moonlight came back or the sun came up.

“Let’s assess the situation, shall we?” I asked, hoping if we put our heads together, we’d come up with a way out.

She blew out a breath. “Okay. Where’s your left arm?”

“Attached to the left side of my body, currently sticking through the other side of this blasted death trap,” I replied, lifting it up, but only seeing the blackened outline of it.

“Mine’s free. Where’s your right arm?”

“Currently pinned to my side.”

“Okay. Bring it up over me and help hold the net so I can see about pulling my arm back through the hole. I think it might be my arm tangled between both sides of the net that’s mummifying us.”

I brought my arm over hers and rolled us onto our side, curling my legs against hers with the hopes I could give her just a little more room to free her arm.

“Hold the net so I can wiggle my right arm free,” Hannah said.

I found where her arm poked through and pushed outward on the net as Hannah grumbled and tugged. All at once, the net fell free from around our chests.

“We’re still stuck,” Hannah said, kicking her legs, which moved mine.

“Okay, let’s—omphf… Bloody hell! Warn a man when ye plan to do sit ups on his dick,” I said on a whooshed breath of pain.

She’d rolled the both of us over with little-to-no effort. The fact her arse ground against my straining erection in a very unforgiving way made me want to curl up in a ball in order to get away from the abuse.

“Not so cushy now, is it?” Hannah snorted when all I could do was groan in my discomfort.

She stopped wiggling and cursed. “Your leg is through two different holes.”

“Well, help me pull it out.” I sat up and gripped her hips to keep her from kicking off again.

I swore I heard a soft catch in her breath as my fingers dug into her flesh.

“Bend over and see if you can pull it free,” I said, trying my best not to think sexual thoughts about bending and pulling her arse snuggled up nice and tight against me.

“We need to get the hammock out from underneath us. It’s stretched too tight to do anything right now.”

I lost it.

Hannah was pressed so firmly against my chest when I did, we both fell backward.

Wrapping both my arms around her, I laughed my arse off. Either it was the fucked situation we’d found ourselves in, or the lack of sleep that did it. I’d never know. It might have been a combination of both and, at that point, it didn’t really matter.

“What the hell is so funny?” Hannah fumed as she tried prying my arms from around her.

Through a burst of laughter, I tried explaining. “It’s just all this pushing and pulling… and my dick and your arse… I never thought I’d find myself… and then ye’re bouncing up and down on me like a trampo—” I couldn’t even finish explaining because she was laughing just as hard as I was.

It took a few minutes to catch our breath.

When we wound down, Hannah clutched her sides as she wheezed out, “It hurts. Stop laughing… it hurts.”

Our heavy breathing filled the room in fits and starts of laughter trying to come back.

“Let’s get back to it, shall we?” I said when we’d both worn ourselves out.

“Okay, I’m going to lean forward and see if I can’t figure out where we’re still hung up.”

Moonlight spilled into the room, giving me a good view of a disheveled Hannah perched on my lap, bent over with her hair in a wild disarray. My fingers moved up on their own. I caught myself right before digging them in and hauling her back against me.

“We need to get the hammock out from under your backside,” Hannah said as she moved our legs.

We could have easily just pulled our legs in and got the same freeing space, but I wasn’t about to let the opportunity of holding on to her one last time escape me.

“Tell me when,” I said, fighting the heavy feeling of lust crawling through me.

“Now works for me.”

“Works for me too.” I pulled her hips against me as I lifted us both up from the floor. Our combined weight pressed my shoulders into the rough planks while my legs kept us up in an arched position.

She gasped, grabbing my hands, but she didn’t try moving them.

“Er, Hannah, ye mind getting the net?” I asked as her hips slightly rocked.

“The net? Oh, yeah, hold on,” she said a little breathlessly.

My body jumped as Hannah fumbled, moving even more against me.

She was out of breath by the time she said, “Net’s free.”

I lowered us slowly to the floor, and Hannah slid off my lap. Before I knew it, our legs were free.