Poor choice of words. No blood in the head did that to a guy. She took mercy on him and kept her mouth shut, but he could see her running his impassioned speech through her mind, reordering her thoughts. Good. He’d leave her to it.
He splashed down in the water, holding aloft the sheets, blankets, and pillows Jack had graciously provided. Two more trips, a large cooler, and four grocery bags later, everything a stranded couple could ask for lined the beach.
Lilah carried both of their duffel bags and plopped them down in the sand near the blanket he’d spread out.
“I’m going to build a fire, and then we can see what kind of shopper Mr. Hyland is,” he said. “There’s bound to be something you might like in one of these bags. If you’re hungry.”
“So hungry,” she confessed with enough of an edge that he did a double sweep of her expression just to be sure she was still talking about food. With Lilah, hard to tell. “I didn’t eat breakfast. Too nervous.”
Yeah. Okay. Firewood then.
That was fine. There wasn’t a whole lot of daylight left. He gathered up some palm fronds, careful not to let the serrated teeth tear up his hands. He planned to use them later to undress a woman by firelight and he didn’t want them to catch on Lilah’s skin. Optimism wasn’t a crime.
Fitz found a box of kitchen matches in the first bag and lit the large pile of fronds. They burned pretty fast, but it was a big stack. Still. It wouldn’t last the night. Of course, because the very thing he wanted to be doing on a pristine beach with no other people in sight except a sexy, dark-haired woman was to go look for more firewood.
But he did it. Without heat they wouldn’t be able to cook dinner. And he was starving. Eventually, he found an area of the small island where fruit trees grew. One had fallen over, which gave him easy access to a ton of small branches that cracked off the main trunk with a bit of effort. He stockpiled the wood and finally had a decent fire going.
“That’s pretty amazing,” Lilah offered once he flopped down on the blanket next to her, too tired from multiple trudges back and forth into the jungle to think of a flirty comeback to that.
“It’s amazing that I built a fire?” He chuckled. “Men have been doing that for their women since the dawn of civilization. Can’t beat genetics when it comes to survival.”
The sun had started to set, throwing orange and pink and purple into the blue overhead in a wholly gorgeous panorama of colors that bled through his heart. There was literally no place on earth he’d rather be.
She rolled onto her side, facing him, propping her head up on her hand. “Are you saying you’re going to make me your cavewoman in exchange?”
“Nah. Free of charge. Unless I have to kill a mastodon to keep it from trampling you. That costs.”
Her laugh immediately had him thinking up a few more prehistoric jokes. Mostly his brain seemed stuck on the idea of drifting into Neanderthal territory with Lilah thrown over his shoulder as he dragged her back to his cave.
“I’ll make dinner anyway,” she said. “How about that?”
Somehow they’d slipped into an easy conversation that he didn’t hate. Sure he’d rather roll her right under him and get busy knocking down more of her inhibitions. But they did need to eat. And he liked talking to her. She was funny and surprising and sometimes sweet in the midst of saying things that knocked him for a loop.
“You know how to cook over an open fire? That’s impressive.”
“I um… didn’t exactly realize there was a trick to it.” She worried her lower lip. “Is there? I’m not a savvy outdoor person like I guess you are.”
“Yeah. ’Fraid so. I used to go camping all the time on the barrier islands off the coast of Mississippi,” he offered by way of explanation for how he’d come by his savviness. “So I’ll cook. I’ll only ask for nondepraved sexual favors in return.”
Her mouth tipped up at the corners. Progress.
He pried up the lid on the cooler and nearly wept when he saw the six pack of Beck’s Dark nestled into a bed of ice. God Bless Jaxson Hyland. Beer, beach, and babe—the trifecta of awesome—were all within his reach. He popped the top off the first beer and guzzled half of it in less than a minute. And then remembered his manners.
He uncapped a second beer and handed it to Lilah. “This is practically a requirement when camping on the beach.”
She took the bottle and wrapped her lips around it to sip it like a girl, which was so visually stunning he nearly dropped his own beer. Subject change needed stat.
“Dinner in a couple of minutes,” he squawked and turned to root through the bags for stuff to eat. Hot dogs on a stick was right about his speed by this point.