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Page 28 of Maneater (The Mavens #1)

She’s at the front of the group with Jeff, chatting with him, and he’s smiling down at her like she is sunshine personified, and my hands are starting to cramp from the fists I’ve curled them into.

What was supposed to be a way to clear my head has only muddled it more, and I need this hike to be over so I can head back to my office, figure out who is sabotaging my hotel, and get the fuck off this island.

It’s while I’m mentally plotting out the rest of my day that it happens.

I watch as Josie steps over a patch of the trail that looks a bit more leaf-covered than the rest of it and instantly loses her balance.

She stumbles, her shoe looking like it’s rolling smoothly over something and making it impossible to catch her footing before she falls off the trail, a chorus of shocked gasps following her as she does.

Jeff falls as well, a pained cry coming from him as he hits the ground with a sickening thud.

But I barely take note of that as I watch Josie collapse into the dirt, her eyes going dazed. In a heartbeat, I’m pushing past guests quickly, rushing to get to her side to check on her.

“Josie!” I shout as people move to the side, letting me through. I need to get to her . It’s all that’s moving through my mind as she slowly moves, shifting to her elbows. I avoid the mess she fell on before getting to my knees next to her.

Tucking an arm beneath her shoulder, I help her sit up slowly. “Shit, Josie. Are you okay?” My heart is pounding with panic and concern as I look into her slightly dazed eyes.

“I…Yeah. I think so,” she says, her voice unsteady. I don’t think she hit her head, but everything happened so quickly, I’m not sure.

I look into her eyes to check for a concussion, though I have no actual idea how you check for that. I’m a fucking businessman, not a doctor, though in this moment, I’m regretting every life choice that led to me not being able to help her right now.

“Are you sure? How many fingers am I holding up?” I ask. The group has moved to surround Jeff, who is continuing to cry, whispers of it’s broken coming to my ears, but I only have eyes on Josie as I lift two fingers.

“Seven,” she says confidently, and my heart sinks to the ground.

“Fuck,” I whisper, reaching for my phone in my pocket. “You must have hit your head. I?—”

She lets out a laugh and shakes her head, sitting up fully without my help and bending her wrist, which I think caught her fall.

She winces a bit, and I grab it, fingers grazing over skin to check for swelling that I don’t find.

But still, I don’t let go of her warm hand, instead wrapping it in my own.

“I’m joking,” she says. “You had two fingers up.”

I groan and close my eyes, my head dropping as a mix of irritation and relief rushes through me.

She’s okay.

She’s okay, and I know that because she’s fucking with me still.

“Don’t be cute,” I mumble, a hand moving to the stray lock of hair that’s escaped from her ponytail and tucking it behind her ear.

“You think I’m cute?”

I smile because I can’t help it. It’s probably the adrenaline, the relief that she’s okay, making me soft. Even in this state, she can’t fight the urge to taunt and tease me.

And I think it’s about time I admit I really fucking like it.

“I think you think you’re cute,” I say, because it wouldn’t be us if I let her get away with her shit. She sits up a bit more, continuing to flex her wrist and ankles as if checking if she’s okay.

“That’s because I am cute . I’m more worried about what you think of me.”

I release her wrist when I’m satisfied that there isn’t anything broken before moving a hand to her chin and tipping her face up to look at me, checking for dilated pupils.

Or so I attempt to convince myself of.

“Yeah, Josie. I think you’re cute, but you already knew that.”

She smiles, the radiance of it easing something in my chest that tightened when I saw her fall. Without meaning to, my thumb grazes her cheekbone gently, and she leans into my touch. “I didn’t hit my head. I’m…I think I’m okay. Jeff, though…”

She tries to look over at him, but I hold on to her jaw, forcing her to look at me.

“I don’t give a fuck about Jeff right now. I care if you’re okay.”

Her eyes go soft, a matching smile pulling at her lips as her hand lifts to rest on my cheek. “I promise, I’m completely fine. Just a little winded,” she says with a weak laugh. “I should have been looking where I was going.”

My jaw tightens because we both know that falling on that slick patch was most likely not due to her inattention. Even more so when I finally let her go and move over to where she tripped. Using a hand to shift the leaves and dirt aside, I get a glimpse at what the true culprit was.

There are approximately two dozen glass marbles in a shallow metal pan dug into the ground. There was no way she could have seen it coming, not unless the leaves were moved, which, considering this trail is pretty well littered with leaves all the time, seems impossible.

And then I belatedly realize I’m witnessing yet another sabotage of this place, this one in real time.

* * *

“Have you checked her out?” I ask the medics once more as they load Jeff up into a gurney.

He clearly has something broken and has to be brought to the main island to get proper care, but despite him being my employee, I don’t even care.

All I can find in me to care about is Josie.

Josie, who, much to her chagrin, allowed me to carry her down to the entrance of the hike, who has sat on the chair I placed her in the whole time, and who has humored me each and every time I came over to check on her in between talking to guests, employees, and medical professionals.

“Rowan, I’m fine. Short of an MRI, there is nothing else they can do,” Josie says with a laugh, standing and walking over to me. I contemplate the logistics of getting her an MRI, and she must see it because she shakes her head, laughing once more.

“No. I don’t need any kind of medical intervention, Rowan. I’m fine. Really.” I sigh, taking her in and fighting the all-consuming desire to pull her into me, to feel her against me in order to reassure myself she’s okay. “Really, I’m fine. It was just a fall.”

Closing my eyes, I take in a deep breath and let it out to try and bring myself back down to reality. “I’d love to at least give you some kind of complimentary service at the spa as an apology.”

She shakes her head. “That’s not necessary.”

I groan. “Please, let me make it up to you.”

The words are sincere, but they confirm that Josie is feeling just fine when her lips tip and her eyes light up with mischief. Suddenly, my mind is full of all of the ways I could make something up to her .

“Breakfast,” she whispers.

“What?” I ask, confused, my mind still on rumpled sheets and soft skin.

“Have breakfast with me. It’s almost ten.”

It took some time to get out of the woods and to handle all of the guests, but I didn’t realize it was that late.

I told myself I was going to keep my distance, not when there’s something about her that I don’t understand, something that in my gut I know ties to everything going on around here.

But then she fell, and that panic lodged in my chest, knocking common sense out of the way.

What could one meal with her hurt?

“Come on. Take me to breakfast, and I’ll completely forgive you for the egregious misstep of allowing me to get so terribly injured,” she says with a playful smile.

“Fine,” I say with a sigh, and then I pull out my phone to make a call.

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