“In water this clear, the plane might well be visible.” Dane said. “And they’re patient men.”
Tears formed in her eyes, and she looked down at her bare feet. “I did this to us.”
Oh, damn, she couldn’t think that. “No, you didn’t.” He couldn’t restrain himself a minute more. He walked up to her. “I want to hold you. Can I, please? Can Dane and I give you a little comfort? It’s been a hard day. Let us reassure you that it’s going to be all right.” When she hesitated, he joked, “I promise to keep the beast in my boxers.”
She rewarded him with a little laugh, then nodded. “I’d like that. For the most part, it’s been a long time since I let anyone hold me. I want to try.”
He eased forward cautiously, letting her observe his every move, giving her plenty of time to object. She was a little like a wild deer he wanted to feed from his hand. One wrong move and he could spook her.
“My hand is going to touch your waist, Lea,” Dane said before settling in behind her. “You can lean back against me any time. You’re cold. You need to get warm. We’ll settle you by the fire, then have a nice dinner. Relax and know that we’re going to take care of you.”
Cooper slowly wrapped his arms around her. She trembled for a moment, then sighed as though she appreciated the heat their bodies generated.
Once again, he appreciated how soft her skin was and how sweetly she fit against him. “Consider this a break from civilization. You wanted one, right? Here you go. No reporters. No one who needs your attention. Well, besides us. No one is going to ask you to make appearances or to go to balls.”
“No curious people who look at me with pity,” Alea continued.
Coop wanted to take exception to that, but now wasn’t the time to argue with her. Making her laugh seemed to work so much better. “Nope. You just have to worry about us ogling you. All the time. Every day. Every hour.”
Sure enough, she laughed. “You guys are crazy.”
Dane had his cheek against her hair. “My main goal in life is to convince you that we’re not. At least not completely.”
“How can you not be mad at me? I’m the reason you’re here,” she admitted in a whisper.
“I think I speak for all three of us when I say we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” Cooper replied. “If I wasn’t with you here, I’d be going out of my damn mind with worry. But cuddled up with you… It’s all good. Alea, this wasn’t your fault.”
“But when we get home, and we will get home, I intend to find out whose fault it is,” Dane said, sending Cooper a dark look. “Someone planned this.”
Someone meant to kill her. Cooper knew exactly what Dane’s expression meant. He was asking Coop to join him in hunting and taking down this fucker. He nodded to Dane. Oh, yeah. They would make sure this asshole couldn’t ever hurt her again.
“I thought the pilot was just crazy and hated my family.” Alea’s arms slowly wound around his waist. “You’re both so warm.”
Cooper cuddled a little closer. “We’ll always keep you warm, safe…whatever you need. We’ll take care of you. We can survive here indefinitely. Landon is scouting the island for more food right now.”
“What happens if he doesn’t find any? What happens when the food we took from the plane runs out?” Alea asked, then bit her lip for a moment. “We got all we could, but we can’t survive on crackers, pâté, and peanuts for very long.”
Dane chuckled softly. “There’s an ocean of food right out there. This place has bananas and all kinds of fruit. We were all trained to know what kind of plants we can and can’t eat. Lea, we’ve got this. We survived the crash. That was the hard part. The rest is easy, especially now that you’ve convinced Coop to make sure he doesn’t die of gangrene. I won’t say it will be like hanging around the palace, but if we take care of each other, keep the fire going, find a safe place to wait out any storms that might come, we’ll be golden.”
She nodded against his chest. “I want to help. Just tell me what to do.”
“Really?” Dane asked.
“Yes. Of course.”
“What we need most now is your trust. You have to rely on us. Take this time to get to know us better. Let us have an actual chance to please you and make you happy.” Dane laid a small kiss on her temple.
She shivered a little, her head coming up off Cooper’s chest. He wished Dane hadn’t pushed yet, but everything his buddy described…yeah, he wanted that, too. “Just a chance, Lea. You don’t hate this, right?”