Page 20 of Hunted

“What? No, why do you ask?” She frowns up at me as I run my hand down her side.

“I saw some drops of blood over there and don’t remember seeing them before.”

“Well, they aren't mine. They’re probably from an animal. I’ve seen things like that before.”

“Okay, that’s a relief to hear. Shall we go get some fruit? Show Reece what this island has to offer?” I ask her, holding out my hand for her.

She smiles as she takes it, and we head towards the fruit trees. I pay careful attention to her as we move through our task, making sure I didn’t push her too far, and that she doesn’t have any regrets.

But by the soft smiles she keeps giving me, and the way her cheeks keep turning pink every time I catch her looking at me, I think regret is the furthest thing from her mind.

Chapter seven

Darla

Iplop another slice of pear into my mouth, my eyes catching Bower’s as he smirks. I quickly look away, but my cheeks heat… again.

“Are you feeling okay?”

“Hmm?” I turn my head to Kingsley, who’s sitting beside me on the beach while the other three sit a few feet away on a fallen palm tree trunk.

“You look really warm.” He places a hand on my forehead and frowns. Realizing he’s talking about my heated cheeks, I feel them redden even more and my eyes bounce to Bower in embarrassment. He hides his laughter and looks down at the pear he’s eating as my eyes move back to Kingsley. His eyes are bouncing between us as he frowns.

“Did something…” he trails off, whispering quietly. “Did you two—”

“Was that wrong?” I ask, suddenly worried about how this relationship is supposed to work. Would he or Weston be upset that I took things further with Bower?

My face pinches with worry as I search Kingsley’s bright blue eyes for any sign of anger or sadness. But instead, I see shock, which quickly drops away, leaving him the way he usually looks at me, with a tenderness that I feel down to the depths of my heart.

“Sweetheart.” He cups my cheek and smiles, his thumb softly stroking my heated skin. “Of course, that wasn’t wrong. You’re in control here. You can take your relationship with each of us at whatever speed you are comfortable with. There is no right or wrong when it comes to that, you understand?”

I nod my head, and he gives me a soft kiss on the cheek, making my face heat again, which in turn, makes his smile grow wide. He releases my face and goes back to eating. When I glance up at Bower, he winks at me again, a smirk on his handsome face. I throw a mock scowl his way, feigning annoyance while trying not to smile.

“Just ignore him, Darla. I do.” I glance up at Kingsley as he passes me another slice of pear.

In some ways, I do feel behind in my relationship with Kingsley, compared to the other two. I hadn’t told him the true extent of my feelings yet. I didn’t feel any less strongly about him than I did the other two, I just hadn’t had the right moment to tell him yet.

And then there’s Reece. He’s so intense I don’t know how to act around him. Even now, he can barely take his eyes off me. Part of me loves his attention, knowing that he never got over losing me… I assumed he’d be married with kids by now, living some happy life. I never, ever expected him to be as messed up as I am about the loss… just in a different way.

I find it so hard to believe that he wants to just jump back in where we left things. Of course we can’t, we can never get those missing years back. We’ve both changed and need to learn how to be around each other again. I’m glad we’re starting as friends, because I have an idea that when he finds out all the horrible things that have happened to me… that he won’t look at me the same way anymore. And I don’t know where that will leave us all.

“So, what do we do now?” Reece asks, breaking me out of my internal struggle.

“Normally we’d—”

“Eep!” Kingsley is cut off by the high-pitched trill of Mo-Mo, who comes swinging in and lands in the sand right in front of Reece, waving his arms wildly and chattering nonstop.

“What the fuck?!” Reece jerks so quickly, he topples off the trunk and lands in the sand flat on his back. This causes Mo-Mo to get louder, jumping on the log and continuing to chastise Reece… for a reason unknown to the rest of us.

Bower starts laughing and Weston just watches with an amused smile on his face.

Sighing, I stand up and move towards them. “Mo-Mo! That is no way to treat a friend!” I tell him as I lean down to pick him up.

“Darla, don’t—” Reece, still on his back, reaches towards us, but I scoop my lemur up and turn towards him.

“Mo-Mo, meet your namesake, Maurice. We call him Reece now, though. Reece, this is Mo-Mo.”

His eyes widen as he stares at my furry friend, who’s gone silent in my arms as they watch each other. Silently, he gets to his feet and steps over the trunk, stopping only two feet in front of us.