FOURTEEN

Justine

I wake up and it takes me a second to realize why I can't move at all. I struggle again to roll over, but a steel band around my middle has me locked in place.

A warm, muscled, slightly furry steel band.

OK, not metal at all, just an incredibly strong minotaur arm belonging to Ronan Kernos! A squeak escapes my lips before I can stop it.

He stirs, but only hugs me tighter against his side.

I carefully withdraw my leg from where I've thrown it over his thigh, blushing furiously. He must not wake and find me plastered to his chest. I need to somehow manage to slip back to my side of the bed and find the pillows before he rouses and flips his lid!

Ever so slowly, I pry his hand off my belly. The butterflies inside, though, are doing a wild dance at how far below my navel his fingers had traveled. I carefully lift the heavy weight of his arm away from my chest, but as I do, I lose my hold on it, and it thunks to the mattress.

Ronan sucks in a breath and blinks open his eyes. I try to scramble away, but I only end up flopped on my face, ass up, all tangled in the blankets.

He curses and yanks the blankets. I roll like a sausage on a grill over to the far side of the bed. When I push the wild mop of hair out of my face and dare to look over at him, he has the blankets pulled over his lap, but his upper half is completely bare—bare and delicious looking.

"Where are the pillows?" he demands.

I look around guiltily. "Um..." I point to one which seems to have been flung onto the floor in the night. Another lays over the arm of the sofa chair.

Ronan narrows his eyes at me. "What part of no touching was difficult to understand?"

"Oh, my god. Are you serious?" I fling myself out of bed and run to the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. Now I've gone and done it. I stuff my fist into my mouth and scream silently. Why couldn't I keep my mouth shut or just apologize and leave it at that? Only he was touching me too.

There's a tap at the door. "Justine."

I stare at my blotchy face in the mirror. I don't say anything, though, because I'm not sure what I can say to make this better.

"Justine." There's a low sigh. "Let's be reasonable here." A pause. "Please come out."

I crack open the door and peer out. Ronan steps back to give me space. Behind him, his long, tassled tail flicks from side to side. I'm about to speak, when the door to our room bursts open. Sally, the camera woman barges in.

"What are you doing?" Ronan rounds on her.

She shrugs. "Amy sent me in to see if we could get some good candid footage. Guess not. You ready?"

Ronan sighs. He stops me as we head out the door. "We'll talk about this later."

My belly swims with butterflies, but I follow them out to meet Amy and the rest of the crew.

We head downstairs, not talking, and join Sally in the elevator. Amy looks worried. Her dark brows are creased into a frown. I already think I can guess why. Out the huge windows behind her, the sky is dark and ominous.

"I still think we might be better to postpone today's filming," she tells Ronan.

He snorts. "Impossible. Don't you have an alternative location?"

Amy shakes her head. "No."

"Then we go ahead with it."

This makes me anxious, but I've already caused enough trouble. I fight down my worry and follow them out to the golf carts.

We're driven down to the jetty where the yacht waits to take us to Rottager Island. Breakfast is on board, but the sea is too choppy for me to have any appetite. I stare into my fruit salad for so long I get queasy. When I get up to put my plate away, the vessel lurches and I'm thrown against Ronan's shoulder.

He grunts. "Sit down."

When I gesture to the plate I'm still holding, he takes it from me and sets it on the table. Then he pulls me down into a seat next to him.

"Today's activity is a little different," Amy explains. "It's a chance for you two to spend some quality time together. Get active. Solve a challenge. There's an orienteering course set out on the island. You'll have clues in your packs that you can use to solve the puzzle and then return to the pickup point by three o'clock. But you'll have to work together."

When we arrive at Rottager Island, I see immediately what made our producer so anxious. There's no jetty. The only way to get onto the island is to step off the side of the boat onto the rocks!

My queasy stomach tries to crawl right out of my throat and I brace against the side of the vessel, hands gripping the metal bars like a vice.

"You're sure?" Amy shouts at Ronan over the noise of the waves slapping against the bottom of the boat.

"How many times do I have to tell you?" he shouts back.

The boat lurches. The island bobs crazily as we're bounced up and down on the waves. This is a bad idea. Surely we're going to hit the rocks and put a hole in the boat and we'll all drown.

Someone hands me a pack and helps me put it on. I stagger two steps sideways before I right myself and get my arms through the straps. The crew member fits something onto the front of the pack.

"Portable cam," he says when I stare at it.

"Oh."

"To film."

I frown. "The crew aren't coming?"

He shakes his head. "Just you and your husband on a little adventure. Romantic, huh?"

I can't even muster a smile.

We're led toward the back of the boat where the guardrail has been pulled aside to let us exit. The captain revs the engine, somehow holding us in place next to the wall of rock we're somehow supposed to jump onto.

Ronan crouches. The boat sways a little closer to the rocks. Then he leaps off, grabbing hold of a handle I hadn't even spotted.

I step closer, staring down at the waves just below my feet. I can't bring myself to look at the rocks.

"That's right, Justine. Off you go." Someone pats me on the back.

I'm frozen.

Ronan holds out his hand. "Come on, Justine."

I reach for him, but I can't quite touch his hand. The boat lurches in another swell and I cry out, clutching the railing.

I'm not going to make it. Who thought I could do this?

"Look at me, Justine." Ronan's voice makes my gaze snap up to meet his. He gives me a firm smile. "When I say jump, you're going to jump, understand?"

I nod. He sounds so sure.

"One."

I cling tighter to the rail. I can't do this.

"Two." His voice is so commanding. I bunch my muscles, afraid to look.

"Three! Jump!" Fixing my eyes on his outstretched hand, I fling myself off the boat. Of course, my jump is too short. Of course I almost miss my landing and can't get a grip of the handle screwed into the rock.

Luckily, Ronan is there. He grabs the strap of my pack and hauls me against him. Plastered against his warm, firm chest, I breathe in a deep whiff of masculine, earthy scent with my nose pressed against him. I want to bury my face here and never leave.

He twists us both and sets my feet on more solid ground. I stumble forward, tripping to my knees with relief at having made it.

I don't look back at the boat, but I hear Amy call out, "Clues and equipment is in the packs! Three o'clock!"

Ronan lifts me to my feet. "Come on. Let's get this done."