“Peed.” He laughs again and mumbles under his breath. “Can’t believe I’m talking about this.”
I lift my chin up even though he can’t see. “No, I haven’t. The roots and then the coconut attacked me before I could get to business.”
Something like a snort makes me narrow my eyes and stare in the darkness, trying to see his face. “Go, I’ll wait.”
“Go where?”
“Pee.”
“Not with you here!”
“I won’t see or hear anything. Trust me, the rain and the ocean are loud enough to cancel outanynoises around here.”
I sigh but don’t move. There’s no way I’ll be doing my business in his presence.
“Do you need to do it here? I can wait over there.” I suspect he indicates a direction, but I can’t see him clearly enough to confirm and have to trust he means far from me.
“Okay,” I reply grouchily because I really don’t have a choice. It’s either I pee in my already wet pants—which won’t change the situation much—or I do it as a decent human would with pants off. “Can you at least step away a little bit?” I ask with a resigned sigh.
His laugh gets farther away.
Sighing again, I find a tree with my hands and crouchbehind it. It’s funny to think I’d be hidden behind a twig like that, but it gives a mental barrier between me and him.
It takes me a while to relax even though a moment ago I was about to pee my pants.
“Can you walk a little farther?” I yell to him.
I swear I hear his grunt from here, but he does as I ask. Now I can go about my business.
When I’m finally done, I come out from behind the palm and head toward him. I don’t make it far because my feet get caught between roots, and I fall down again. The whole body forward from all my five-five glory.
“Ouch!” I cry out, trying to scramble back. My knees and palms took the worst of it, and I feel like they’re bleeding.
“What happened?” His voice is right next to me.
“Lost my dignity,” I mumble and hear a loud snort before I feel big hands wrapping around my shoulders and pulling me up. Once I’m on my feet, one of the hands grabs mine and pulls me with him. A blink later, I’m in his arms bride-style.
“What are you doing?” I squeak, feeling like a total idiot. I’ve never been carried in someone’s arms. Never. My twig-like prom date my parents found for me could lift only a spoon. Guys I’ve dated in New York weren’t into carrying or caring. I’m sure there’s a good guy out there who can do all of that—I just haven’t found him yet. And I refuse to believe that King can be one ofthose. Because he is not. Nope.
And he just proves it by talking.
“Making sure you won’t break a leg. I don’t want to cater to your needs tomorrow.”
“Right.” I roll my eyes. For a moment there, I thought he was actually worried about me. Nope, my wishful thinking was squashed into the ground like an annoying bug. He just doesn’t want the only other person on the island to get injured, so he doesn’t have to stay here alone. Humans are communal creatures. Even this one.
“I can walk on my own just fine,” I say grouchily as I nearly stumble over some overgrowth. He pulls me along with him, saving me from a face-plant.
“Yeah, I saw that,” he mumbles back, not raising his voice to a normal tone. When we come out on the clearing of the beach, he heads left, and I pull my hand away from his.
“What?” he asks, sounding annoyed.
“My house is that way.” I point at my place, not knowing if he’ll see it.
“Your house is a piece of junk about to fall apart. You can stay at my place.”
I exhale loudly like a bull before an attack. “My house is just fine, thank you very much.” I cross my arms over my drenched chest to keep from going for his eyes with my broken nails. “I appreciate your help. Farewell now.”
“Farewell now?” he repeats like he has some problem understanding.
