Surrender The Booty (7 page)

The thunder of feet sounded seconds before Trevor and Jose rounded the hillside and raced toward her. Trevor went for the snake, wrapping both hands behind the massive animal’s head. Jose jumped into the pool and pulled Bella over the rocks near the snake’s tail. As soon as she was on dry land, Trevor released the beast, and the snake
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dropped headfirst beneath the water. Its body followed, gliding beneath the waterfall and into the grotto.

Bella shivered. Thank God the thing hadn’t been in the grotto when she got in the water. She never would have seen it coming.

“Was that an anaconda?” she asked.

“Reticulated python,” Jose said. “One of the only snakes known to have eaten humans.”

Trevor followed the reptile’s print in the sand with his eyes. He scanned the small grove of sea grapes and then turned his gaze on the hillside. “Think there are more of them?”

Jose wrapped his arm around Bella’s shoulder and rubbed his hand over her trembling arm. “Had to be a pet. If more than one was breeding, the island would be crawling with them by now. There aren’t likely to be any natural enemies here.”

“You ever seen one that big?” Trevor said.

“Not even close. Wasn’t overly aggressive, though. He didn’t give you much of a fight.”

Bella closed her eyes, and the darkness of her mind immediately filled with the diamond pattern on the snake’s back. She shivered hard and moved closer to the man at her side. Jose’s bare thigh grazed hers.

Fear subsided and the half-naked state of her heroes registered. Her chest bounced with relief-fueled laughter.

“Having a little fun without me?” She swatted Jose’s ass and gave his shirttail a tug.

Trevor dropped onto his stomach and fished her clothes from the bottom of the pool, his naked body already bronzing from the sun. He grinned up at her. “Just getting ready for that nude tour of the island you promised.”

“I didn’t …” She squeezed Jose’s firm bottom and laughed. “I’d be a fool to argue. Let’s take the map with us.” Then to Jose. “You sure there aren’t any more snakes?”

“Not like that one.”

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Her gaze fell on the wide track the serpent’s belly had carved in the sand. Trevor hung her clothes on the rocks to dry and shed his shirt. Jose followed suit and hung his shirt on the craggy hillside too.

“At least we won’t have tan lines,” Bella said.

Trevor glanced down at his cock then squinted into the bright sky.

“I’m grabbing my drawers. I ain’t getting sunburn on the boys.”

Bella grinned at Jose. “What about your boys? Surely there’s some aloe around here I can rub on them.”

“Cowboy’s got the right idea. But I’ll take that aloe rub anytime you want to give it.”

They made their way back to the cabin where their jeans and Trevor’s shirt still lay on the sandy floor.

Jose fingered the medallion around his neck while Bella gingerly picked up the ancient map. Her thin fingers held the old leather gently and her eyes danced with excitement. “What if we find it?” she asked.

“Can you imagine?”

Jose could imagine. He nodded slowly. “It’d be a miracle.”

“Hell of a long shot,” Trevor agreed.

“I know. But just think if we did.” Her squeal of delight rang out in the shady room. “It would almost make being shipwrecked worth it.”

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At the narrow tip of the island, Bella counted off paces, extending one bronze leg after the other toward the area marked on the map by the traditional “X.” She stopped and twisted her heels in the sand.

Jose slipped his hands into the back pockets of his jeans and watched in silence. What were the chances she’d stumble on the treasure after all these years? He hoped they were as slim as he figured they’d be.

“If that’s the right tree,” she said, pointing to the towering date palm he stood under, “the treasure is here.”

“What if it’s that palm?” Trevor pointed to another tree nearby.

His grin and the glint of his eye gave away how much he loved to tease her.

“Or it could one of the others,” Jose said.

“There’s only one palm on the map.” Bella put her hands on her hips. “Why would he only draw one palm if there are this many of them?”

“Maybe there was only one when he made the map,” Trevor said.

“Or maybe Delgado didn’t want you to find his treasure.” Jose headed toward the water. The waves rolled onto the shore one after the other, almost angry in their intensity. His father’s medallion burned his chest. Invisible stakes shot into his pectorals and dug into his flesh. The pressure built. The pain intensified until Jose breathed the words his father had taught him. “Medo não, Delgado, seu tesouro está seguro comigo.”

Fear not, Delgado. Your treasure is safe with me.

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Jose Delgado didn’t want anyone to find his treasure, and he had ways to make them pay if they did.

The curse on the treasure was no secret in Jose’s family. Nor was the treasure’s whereabouts. This island should have been first his father’s, and then his. The treasure and its curse belonged to the Marcos, and now that he was the only Marco left, to him. If Bella and Trevor found the treasure, they’d all share the curse.

“Aren’t you going to help?” Bella called to him.

He shook his head. “I’ll see what I can catch for lunch.” He followed the curve of the shoreline without looking back. Bella’s laughter trailed after him, and a twinge of jealousy curled his gut.

Trevor kept a smile on her face. And Jose knew he’d be the one to bring tears to her eyes. Hurting a woman was never easy. Knowing he would hurt Bella tore him up inside. He would give her the world, but first he would break her heart. And there wasn’t any way around it.

He had to come clean and tell her who he was.

* * * *

Trevor wrapped his arms around Bella’s waist and pulled her close.

“I thought we were treasure hunting,” she said.

“I just struck gold, darlin’.” He nipped at her ear. “Smell that?”

She inhaled the island air expecting to catch wind of the sweet aphrodisiac again, but all she smelled was salt and sea.

“You don’t smell it?” he asked.

“No.”

“Me neither and I still want you.”

“You’ve been wanting me a lot, Cowboy.” She teased his bottom lip and ran her fingers through his hair. “Don’t you have a lady friend back home?”

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“Keep too busy to hang my hat anywhere.” He spread his broad hands across her ass. “And I get horny when I ain’t got nothing better to do.”

“So you’re just using me to pass the time?” A smile tugged at her lips. He was such a tease, but she could give as well as she got.

“Hell no. You had my head swimming before we ever washed up on this crazy island. Damn, woman, how in the hell have you stayed single this long?”

The familiar weight of her life threatened to come crashing down again, but she shook it off. For this moment she had no choice but to let her responsibilities to her brother go. Her hands were tied. And the freedom that came with that knowledge was more than she had dared hope for.

“What are you waiting for, honey?” She rubbed her pussy against the bulge in his jeans. “Looks like we’ve both got time to kill.”

Trevor ground his pelvis into her and dug his hands deep into her ass before he lifted her. “I need some pussy,” he growled.

“And I thought you and Jose were having fun without me.”

“We did. Now I want to have fun with you.” His hands spread across her back in a rough caress.

She winced. Her skin stung from too much sun.

He lowered her to the ground and turned her around to inspect her back. “Let’s get you inside before this gets worse.”

They made their way back to the cabin quickly, the sexual tension simmering between them. She hovered inside while Trevor harvested thick blades of aloe that grew in the shade next to the porch.

She picked up several bottles marked “lotion” and “shampoo”

from the sandy floor. The concoctions appeared to be homemade and she could imagine how they ended up on the floor, especially after she found the bottle of oil next to the cot. She carried them over to the sink and set them down next to an unmarked jar.

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The jar was fat and round, and a thick cream filled the inside. She unscrewed the lid and a sweet, familiar scent filled the room. Sex in a jar.

She dipped a finger into the cold cream and rubbed it across her chest. Relief from the sunburn was instantaneous and so was her head-clouding arousal.

* * * *

Trevor recognized the look in Bella’s eyes the moment he entered the cabin. He drew in a deep breath but caught only the faintest trace of the island’s mystery scent. There definitely wasn’t enough of it in the air to affect her the way it had. Then he noticed the jar in her hand.

“What’ve you got there?”

“It makes the sunburn go away.” She dipped a finger into the jar and pulled out a dollop of cream. “Rub it on my back?”

Trevor crossed the room and dropped his handful of aloe in the sink. He turned her around slowly before taking the cream from her hand. She trembled beneath his touch, hot breath flared from her lips and a slow rosy glow crept up her chest and onto her neck. She wanted him. She wanted sex.

“This stuff makes you horny,” he whispered near her ear as he spread the cream across her shoulders and trailed his hands down her back. Her narrow waist sent a thrill down his spine. He wanted her too, and his desire didn’t have anything to do with the damn cream.

Her soft skin and feminine curves wreaked havoc on every ounce of common sense he had. Women had always done that to him, but Bella did it better than most. His hands sank into her velvety skin, and he breathed in the scent of the cream on her skin. His head clouded with lust, but not the kind he’d experienced in the garden. He wasn’t in a drug-induced fog. Only a real woman, flesh and blood, could make his heart pound the way it pounded now. Only the scent of her skin,
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the heat of her soft body next to his and those gorgeous breasts could send the blood from his brain and straight to his groin. His cock stood like a soldier ready to charge full-speed ahead, but Trevor’s hands couldn’t get enough of her. He massaged her nipples, flattened his palms over her flat belly, pressed his thighs into her ass and held her to him like a salve to a wound. She healed him, filled an aching empty void that he had ignored for years.

She leaned into his chest. Her sighs hit his ears and shot another jolt into his dick.

“Wait here,” he whispered and reluctantly stepped back.

He grabbed an armload of blankets from the chest in the corner and spread them out on the floor before dropping down onto them himself. Her heated gaze followed his every move, but she didn’t say a word. The cream had done a number on her, but she seemed content to let him take the lead. He had fucked her like a siren and now he needed to love her like a lady as much for himself as for her. He needed to lose himself in her, forget everything but that soft, sweet body beneath his.

He patted the blanket and she walked over, long legs and curvy hips, narrow shoulders and tits that wiped his mind clear of everything else. His mouth practically watered and his balls weighed a ton. He gripped the blankets in his fists, forcing himself not to jump her and bury himself deep.

“Get over here, darlin’.” He heard the desperation in his voice but it didn’t betray half of what he was feeling. His muscles had taken on a deep burn. She stepped onto the blankets and he dragged her down beside him. Her chest heaved beneath his. Her warm breath heated his neck and not another damn thing in the world mattered. He spread her legs with his knee and eased his cock into her tight pussy. Foreplay might have been more gentlemanly of him, but hell, a man has his limits. Her already dark eyes grew darker and the sweetest sound he’d ever heard rose from her throat. Goddamn, she was a drug. The best kind.

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He moved slowly and she matched him stroke for stroke. He sank so deep into her body he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything but feel the magic in her. Her slender fingertips dragged down his back, her body arched for his and everything else in the room disappeared into a blurry haze. He ate at her lips, tasted her tongue and pushed for more with every stroke.

“Trevor!” Her voice was heavy with breath. “Oh, God, Trevor!”

He felt her shatter beneath him. She held on for dear life and he buried himself into her again and again. His throat tightened. His chest contracted. Every part of his body pulled in on itself before the dark wave of release shot sparks through his nerves and enveloped him in a cloud so dark all he could do was fall.

“Trevor?” Bella’s hands stroked his back. “Trevor?”

Shit. How long had he been out? She lay trapped beneath him, his face planted in the blanket next to her head, his body spent and satisfied like it hadn’t been in years. He moved slowly, pulling his dick from the warmth of her and lifting himself from the comfort of her body.

“Sorry,” he muttered.

“You’re apologizing for
that
?” Laughter touched her words. “My God, that was amazing.”

He planted a quick kiss on her mouth and pushed himself up completely. He left the cabin with jeans in hand. She called after him but he didn’t look back. He’d made plenty of mistakes in his life, but this wasn’t one he planned to make again.

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Bella’s arm rested on Jose’s bare stomach, moving with the rhythm of his breath. A gentle breeze flowed through the open windows and outside the sea rumbled onto the shore. Trevor’s big body sprawled behind her and his easy breathing blended with the other sounds of the island.

Jose reached over to stroke her cheek, then rolled closer to plant a kiss on her forehead. “Want to take a walk?” he whispered.