The weather was so different from the day before, so mild and pleasant that it was almost hard to imagine a storm could ever strike this idyllic place. Neither of us said it aloud, but we both felt lucky to have escaped that monster cyclone. It could have been us dangling limp from the top of a palm.
Eli drove into a scenic little cove and moored the barracuda vehicle at a small pier that had weathered the storm unscathed.
A look of relief crossed his face. "There's a fire pit. A bathhouse and a storage shed on the island, but not much more. It's pretty rustic here." He jumped out of the barracuda and offered me a hand out. "Come on. Let's check them out." His mood was clearly optimistic as we headed off to explore the island.
The bathhouse was a lovely little building just off the beach, with running water and tiled floors, tiled walls—tiled everything, really. Showerheads stuck out of the walls for rinsing off or showering. There were a few toilet stalls and changing rooms. But much more luxurious than your basic public restroom/changing facilities. It and the shed were pretty much untouched.
The fire pit hadn't fared as well. We spent some time restoring it to the best condition we could with the few pieces of it that were strewn around.
"This is all very Robinson Crusoe," I said.
"Not quite. There are two of us." He dusted his hands off. "Robinson was stranded all alone. And we aren't exactly shipwrecked."
"Just ship-less." I watched him wipe his forehead with the back of his wrist, enjoying the view of his pumped, beautiful biceps.
Flushed with exercise, he was too hot for his shirt. I wished he'd take it off so I could have full view of his eye-candy abs and shoulders. His grin made my heart race. I couldn't resist him. And that was a dangerous thing for my heart and ego. Because he'd been very capable of resisting me for months. Tomorrow he'd cruise right out of my life on a speedboat bound for Fiji and another girl. And I'd still be without a Hott contract for Flash and minus a big chunk of my heart.
"Let's check out the rest of the cove and gather coconuts before lunch." He slung a fruit-gathering bag we'd brought with us over his shoulder and took my hand as he led me along the beach.
Holding his hand felt completely natural. And right. After the trauma of last night, and spending it clenched in each other's arms, neither of us seemed to want to lose the human connection with each other. Touching another person was intimately comforting.
I wondered if he felt as fluttery and happy as I did. Holding hands was such a statement of couple-ness. And…
I was back to the relationship parsing. Reading something into everything. Maybe he wasn't thinking anything at all except finding a ripe coconut.
Eli stopped abruptly and shielded his eyes with one hand, looking out over the water. "What's that?"
He pointed to a snag in the shallow water. A pile of debris from the storm had caught on it.
I followed his line of sight. "Something's splashing." I squinted to see better. "It looks like—"
"Damn! It's a turtle." He let go of my hand, tossed the bag off his shoulder, stripped his shirt off, and splashed into the water.
At least I'd gotten my wish to see him shirtless.
"What are you doing?" I stripped off my cover-up and ran after him into the water.
He called back over his shoulder, "I'm going to rescue the turtle. We can't leave him there. He'll die." He slowed as he approached the turtle. "Watch your step. Look out for the coral. It'll cut you up and damage the reef."
I reached the turtle right behind him in the waist-deep water.
He examined it. "It's a hawksbill."
"Poor, scared thing! But it's pretty." I studied it as it splashed around trying to free itself from a tangle of plants and rope netting.
"It's trapped in what looks like one of the hammocks from the island." Eli pulled a pocketknife out of his shorts and hesitated, cursing beneath his breath. "This isn't going to work. This knife's too small to cut through the nylon rope."
I analyzed the situation. "I think we'd have better luck trying to untangle it."
Eli cooed to the turtle and walked closer. "Calm down, big guy, we're here to save you." He flipped his knife closed. "Yeah, you're right. But it's going to be like untangling a knotted necklace chain, frustrating as hell and practically impossible. His thrashing has gotten him wrapped up in it pretty good. All we have with us on the island are a machete and a pocketknife. Neither of them are the right tools for the job."
From behind Eli, I put my hands on his hard biceps and pressed against his naked back, resisting the urge to press a kiss to his shoulder, as I peered around him at the beautiful sea animal. "We have to try. If we can find the end of the rope that attached the hammock to the tree, we might have a chance…"
The turtle thrashed suddenly, churning the water as we looked for the rope end.
"There!" I pointed. "I see an end there!"
It was floating in the water just to the rear of the turtle. Eli nodded and headed for it. But as he approached and tried to grab the rope, the turtle flailed more violently, getting more and more hopelessly tangled.