Surviving Raine (Surviving Raine 1)

I closed my eyes fast enough for them not to be hit, but the salt water wormed its way over and into the recently stitched cut on my forehead and fucking burned. She tossed the cup at me, hitting me in the chest with it before it dropped into my lap.

“Satisfied now?” she asked. “Or do you want me to come up with something more creative?”

I glared at her and tried to both wipe the salt out of my wound and not touch it at the same time. I wasn’t particul

arly successful, so I glared at her again since I was good at that. She ignored me as she violently turned the pages of the little survival guide.

There was definitely a part of me that wanted to crawl right over to the other side of the raft and strangle her. I wouldn’t do something like that, of course, and it wasn’t just because she was a chick – I didn’t give a shit about that. I’d hit women before and certainly done worse, but they were women who could compete with me physically and were expecting to be hit. I couldn’t go being violent on someone so…small. Then there was the part about me completely and totally deserving what she had done. I couldn’t really fault her for that.

So I sat and seethed until I couldn’t seethe any more. I was fucking hungry and fucking thirsty and fucking bored. I couldn’t eat or drink because chances were I wouldn’t be able to keep it down come morning, and I couldn’t find any entertainment because the only person available to talk to had commandeered the only piece of material with writing on it that I could have read.

Fuck it all.

Just in case it wasn’t bad enough, I practically had to hold my hands flat on the bottom of the raft to keep them from shaking. It hadn’t even been a full twenty-four hours since I had my last drink, so it was probably only psychosomatic at this point.

Lovely.

“This fucking sucks,” I finally said out loud.

“What does?” she snapped back.

I looked back up at her and glared again. I tossed both my arms up in the air, wildly gesturing at the world.

“All of this shit.”

“And you need to take that out on me?”

“You’re the only one here to take it out on, so yes.”

“You need another cup of water?” Raine tilted her head to one side before she cocked an eyebrow at me.

I was fairly certain she’d do it, too. I managed to capture the words “Shut the fuck up, bitch” before they left my mouth and distracted myself by grabbing the binoculars to check the horizon again.

Still nothing but fucking water.

I took a deep breath to keep any potential panic from rising up. It wasn’t like I had lost hope or anything since it hadn’t really been that long. We weren’t low on supplies – yet – and we weren’t in bad shape physically – yet – but I knew how quickly that could change. The longer we were on this raft, the worse it was going to be.

For once, it wasn’t just me I needed to look after. There was the annoying, questioning, tiny little piece of seriously feminine, soft, brown-eyed, doesn’t-take-my-shit, fucking beautiful young woman who didn’t stand a chance on her own that I needed to protect.

I still didn’t know if I wanted to kill her or fuck her, but I knew which way I was starting to lean. Something about being attacked by the tiny little thing was a serious fucking turn on.

“Look, I’m sorry we got off on the wrong foot,” she suddenly said.

I almost startled at her voice. I really didn’t think she would be talking to me pleasantly any time soon. I didn’t look at her. Every time I looked at those eyes, I wanted to go find a tube of lotion and a titty mag. Actually, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t need the mag.

“Maybe we can start over?”

“Starting over rarely works out the way you think it will,” I growled. Then I told myself to stop it because every time I got agitated or lost my temper, I lost that much energy for no benefit. I also didn’t want another cup full of salt water thrown at me.

Every tournament is different. Melee out in the open, with opponents everywhere, your anger is going to give you the advantage. Not every match is like that. Sometimes you have to use your head. That’s where you have the advantage, and that’s where you are going to win.

I took a long, slow breath and tried to center myself.

“Okay,” I said as softly as I could and still have her hear me over the waves. “We’ll start over.”

“Good!” she said and actually smiled a little. “I’m Raine, and I’m really glad you didn’t let me drown.”

I considered making a stupid crack about her name being a kind of weather but held back for once. I took another deep breath. Might as well get it all out on the table.