Illusion (Swept Away 1)

“Yes, it does.” His voice was soft, and I looked toward him. He was staring at me with an odd expression as I danced around in the rain.

“Everything okay?” I asked him softly.

“You have many pieces to your puzzle, don’t you, Bianca London.”

“Yes, I do, Jakob.” I nodded back at him seriously. If he only knew how many pieces I had, he’d be a lot less cocky.

“Come. Let’s go in the water.” He grabbed his shirt and two branches in one hand and then grabbed my hand with his free one.

“We’re going to swim?”

“We’re going to catch dinner.”

“Oh.” I laughed as we ran to the ocean. “I guess we’re not going to be using our hands?”

“You guessed right.” He smiled. “We’ll tie the arms of the shirt to the branches, and then we’ll scour the water with the shirt and treat it like a net.”

“I hope it works,” I said as my stomach grumbled. “I’m so hungry.”

“I hope it works too.” He gave me a reassuring smile, and my heart melted for a second as I stared at his water-drenched face. His hair was wet and slick, and he had never looked sexier. “If we don’t catch any fish, I’ll go back into the jungle and see what fruit I can find. I’m pretty sure I saw some more banana trees, and we already know there are coconuts. I think I even saw some five-finger.”

“What’s five-finger?” I shivered, wondering if he was talking about real fingers.

“It’s a fruit. You might know it as star apple.”

“Is it like Granny Smiths?”

“No.” He laughed. “It’s nothing like Granny Smiths.”

“Oh, okay.” I took one side of the shirt and tied the arm tightly to the coconut branch. “So what are we going to do?” I looked at him for guidance. “Just drag it in the water?”

“What?” His eyes narrowed, and he looked at me intensely.

“Are we just going to drag the shirt through the water?” I repeated breathlessly as he continued to stare at me.

“Yes.” He nodded, but his eyes didn’t leave me. “Your bra is getting wet,” he said after a few seconds, and I looked down at my completely soaked bra, now molded to my skin.

“Yes it is.” I nodded and looked back at him. “So are your briefs.”

“Enjoying the view?”

“There’s not much to see.” I shrugged, and he laughed.

“We can change that.” His hand grabbed the top of his briefs and he started to pull them down.

“What are you doing?” My voice rose.

“Wanted to give you a view you could see better.”

“No thanks.”

“Aww.” He laughed. “I was hoping it would be tit for tat.”

“Excuse me?”

“My briefs for your panties.”

“You wish.”

“Yes, I do.” He stared at me suggestively again, and I felt my skin burning up.

“Let’s just concentrate on this fish.” I turned away from him and started moving the shirt in the water.

He grinned at me. “Follow my movements. We can’t go charging through the water or we’ll scare the fish. We have to stand still.”

“Aren’t they going to see us standing there?”

“They won’t pay attention to us if we stand still. They’ll think we’re just part of the landscape in the water.”

“Really?” I was surprised. “I didn’t know that fish were that dumb.”

“I don’t know if they are, but it sounded good.” He laughed.

“You’re a goof.”

“Yay, I’m moving up in the world. I’ve gone from ass to goof.”

“Hopefully you can move up from goof to predator,” I responded without thinking.

“I don’t think I have to move anywhere to be called a predator,” he replied softly, and I pretended that I hadn’t heard him.

I became bored after about ten minutes. Standing there waiting for fish to approach was one of the most tedious things I’d ever done in my life. My arms were also growing tired, though, I didn’t want to tell Jakob that.

“So how long are we going to just stand here?” I asked softly.

“Until we catch something to eat.”

“That could be all day,” I moaned. “We’re just standing here in the rain. I don’t see any fish jumping, and we haven’t caught anything yet.”

“Well, we just need to concentrate harder.”

“I can barely see.” I blinked the water out of my eyes. “And I’m started to get cold.”

“Let’s just wait another ten minutes and see if we get anything.”

“Uh-huh. Maybe a big trout will just jump into your shirt and save us some time.” I rolled my eyes.

“You never know.” He grinned.

“How many times have you been fishing, Jakob?” My eyes narrowed, and I stared at him.

“Once when I was a young boy. And no, I didn’t catch anything.”

“Oh, this is great,” I groaned. “How do you know they’re going to be jumping in the water, then?”

“I don’t.”

“What?”

“It sounded good though, right? Like I knew what I was talking about?”

“So you really had no clue?”