Forbidden Sensations: A Dark Romance by Savannah Rose (best ereader for pdf and epub .TXT) 📗

He blinked, slowly, looking at me as if I were some evil Amazonian empress descended from the planet Estrogenia.

“They'll find us,” he said.

“Yeah, well, maybe,” I shrugged. “Not for a while, though. A very long while, I'd imagine. They put the tracking system in the master cabin, which was a weird choice, but, hey. I'm not a sailor, so what do I know?” I crawled over to my water supply, and took up a bottle. Took a nice, long sip, and smacked my lips. Maddox was staring at me. “I smashed the shit out of it,” I said, and started giggling.

“You're fucking nuts,” he announced in a revelatory fashion, as if informing himself the world was, indeed, round.

I returned his glare, going from giggle to growl in two point two seconds.

“And we have you to thank for it.”

I replaced the bottle cap, and waited for him to respond. It looked like he didn't know how. I gestured around our little slice of paradise with my Arrowhead.

“See all this, Maddy? Your doing. Your fault. No one but you to thank, or blame, so, gracias,” I said, getting to my feet.

My back was a little stiff, and my knee winced at being bent for a time. Much too young to feel this damn old, as a country legend once crooned.

Maddox shifted from side to side, searching his stupid memory banks for any recollection whatsoever. Aside from kidnapping and attempted sexual assault, he probably wasn't able to come up with much.

I buckled up his bag of tricks – not wanting sand or sand chiggers to call it home – and brought it back to my side of camp. Next to my food, my survival kit. Mine, mine, mine. That last see-whatcha-get session was worthy of a piece of chocolate, so I helped myself to one, making sure Maddox was able to see me chewing its ooey, gooey deliciousness.

He was starting to look a bit shitty, I thought. Bedraggled. Unkempt. Bastard, mother fucking cock sucker or not, he was a handsome piece of shit. And if I were to continue to enjoy myself the way I was, I'd rather he look better for the occasion. He needed a shower. Hell, I needed a shower. Which got me to thinking.

Before he'd made the fatal, dumbass mistake of wandering into my neck of the island, I'd gone on a quick explore. I'd found a couple of flowering papaya trees – because as we know, life's funny like that – bird tracks, a handful of edible floras, and a lovely little pond. It was fed by a stream from the cliff above. Not what I'd call a waterfall, more of a water trickle. A nice, natural place to bathe without sand and saltwater getting in your private orifices.

How I was going to get him there hadn't yet sprung to mind.

“Sofia...?”

“What,” I said flatly, licking the bit of chocolate from my fingers.

“I'm sorry,” he said.

I snorted. Although that had a wee more sincerity to it, I didn't believe it for a hot second. Mister Chairman of the Board and Everything Else in the World was a conniving little fuck.

I figured he'd taken acting classes so he could come across as sympathetic and relatable when he was giving press conference, explaining why he had to pull the rug out from under other people's lives.

“Tell it to the judge, asshole,” I said, and gave the survival kit one last search. Maybe it was like a purse. Purses eat things like keys and lipsticks and pill bottles, and it's only after you dump the whole thing out does it barf up the belongings you were looking for. The stuff you swore was in there.

“I'll just tell it to you,” Maddox said. “You're like a judge right now, anyway, so.” He paused to swallow over fake, forced emotion. “I'm sorry.”

Same items as before. The candles, locking pot, compass. Paracord. Hmm. Paracord. I knew exactly how I was going to use that… and, wait. Just a second. There was a strip of Velcro on the inside, securing a compartment of sorts. How the shit did I miss that?

“For whatever I did, or however I did it, I apologize, okay?”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Desperate words from a desperate man,” I said, pulling the Velcro away from itself. Damn. This was industrial strength stuff. Almost needed a crowbar here. “You're only saying shit you think I want to hear, so just knock it the fuck off.”

“Why won't you tell me!?” he shouted, sounding a lot like he was going nuts.

“Make up your mind, Maddox. You want to know what you did, or you want to know why I won't tell you? You don't get unlimited questions, here.”

The Velcro compartment was being a total bitch. I gripped it with both hands, pulled it with more force than really should be necessary, and after a mighty struggle, separated it from itself.

Bingo.

A gun.

Well, a flare gun, but the point is this little number could do some serious damage if pointed somewhere other than the sky. Say, at a certain deserving person's private parts. I took it from the compartment, and grinned.

“Look what I found,” I said, displaying my new found treasure. “And they say there is no God.”

His expression was exactly what I wanted. His eyes, rimmed with the red rage of anger, frustration, and fear, went wider than ever.

“I say that's bullshit. Of course there's a God. He loves me, Maddy. And I can safely say with the most confidence of assurance, he does not feel the same about you.”

Chapter Twenty

SOFIA

I wasn't going to get cocky, but it was hard not to do. I'd never felt this empowered, or energized. Ever. And the transfer went easier than I thought.

Looping the paracord through the interlocked manacles – quick release knots that could only be released by me – I told him I was going to go against my principles and allow him some