The Pleasures of Winter (9 page)

‘Yep.’ She could hear the laughter in his voice. ‘It’s the most fun I’ve had on a date in years. You, me, leeches and cigarettes. You can write this one up for the
New York Independent
.’

Abbie closed her eyes. She would be laughed out of the newsroom if the guys found out that she had to be rescued like this. ‘I’m a news reporter. I don’t write cheap gossip pieces.’

There was silence for a moment as her comment hit home. ‘Yeah, you’re right. Maybe the
National Enquirer
would run it. I’ll give them a call when I get back to LA.’

‘You wouldn’t dare.’ She held it together with an effort, but her endurance was running out.

Jack ran his hand along her thigh. ‘Is that a challenge? You should know never to challenge me. You have no idea what I’m capable of.’

Jack’s threat hung in the air as he continued to deal with the leeches. ‘All done! You were very brave.’

His praise made her lose control entirely. Abbie turned and fell into his arms, sobbing like a baby. It didn’t matter that she was completely naked while he was fully clothed.
All that mattered was the comfort of his arms around her and the strength of his broad chest as she sobbed into it.

‘I know, I know,’ he murmured.

Scary Jack was gone, replaced by strong Jack who would protect her. There was something about him. Despite his sardonic exterior, underneath there was a core of strength that she could lean on. She was filled with a certainty that he was a man who would never let her down.

‘Baby,’ he said, with his mouth pressed against her hair. ‘The others will be here soon. Let’s get you dressed.’

Abbie stood obediently while he dressed her, sliding her damp panties up her legs. She sat on a rock while he put on her socks, tutting when he saw the hole near her big toe.

Before he put her boots back on, he picked an orchid and tucked it into her hair. He stood back to examine the result. ‘It’s almost as beautiful as you.’

Abbie wanted to cry. The unexpected compliment was such a thoughtful gesture after the trauma of the leeches that she had to close her eyes against sudden tears.

He knelt down and put on her boots, lacing them up carefully. When she was dressed, he held her in front of him and looked at her sternly. Oh shit, scary Jack was back. She wanted to drop her eyes in the face of that uncompromising gaze, but knew that would make her a coward. His voice was as serious as a libel suit when he spoke. ‘Abbie, I warned you that if you took stupid chances, there would be consequences. In future, you obey reasonable orders. Understand?’

Her urge to say something subservient and deferential appalled her. For an unnerving moment, she felt like a
naughty schoolgirl in front of the principal. There was no way she was going to let Jack boss her around, so she smirked at him and said, ‘Or what? You’ll spank me? Come off it, Jack, I messed up. It’s not as if anyone got hurt.’

His face hardened even more. ‘You did, Abbie. You got hurt. This is not a joke. That’s how people end up dead. If you hadn’t already suffered from the leeches, there would be consequences. As it is, I think you’ve been punished enough, don’t you?’

For a second, she wanted to drop her eyes. So she held his gaze. ‘Trust me, there’s nothing you could do which is worse than those leeches.’

He smiled, not a pleasant smile. ‘Trust me, there is.’

Abbie snorted. ‘Oh yeah? Bring it on, Hollywood.’

Before Jack could answer, Kevin arrived in the clearing. ‘Do I smell cigarettes? I didn’t know you smoked, Abbie. Got any spare?’

Jack gave him a narrow-eyed glare. Did the man specialize in those? Why had she never noticed that in his films? Although Jack Winter always played commanding lead roles, somehow she had never noticed this air of subtle menace on the screen. She was so busy wondering at the difference between the man in front of her and his screen persona that she almost missed him complaining about Kevin smoking.

‘I haven’t smoked for two years,’ Kevin said. ‘But this might be a good time to start again.’

Abbie tuned out the banter between the two men while she wondered how this side of Jack had never appeared in the papers or on the E! channel. For the first time, she wanted to do an in-depth profile, not of the movie star,
but of the man behind the celebrity camouflage. And she wouldn’t let him scare her off.

Back at the water’s edge, Kevin and Zeke had lit a small fire and the tempting smell of grilling fish filled the air. Ignoring Jack, she flashed Kevin a bright smile. ‘Fish. I think I love you. If I had to eat snake or larvae again, I’d probably turn into one.’

The prospect of a snake-free meal put everyone in a good mood. Even Zeke didn’t complain about the lack of cutlery or the banana leaves they used for plates. When the meal was over, Abbie filled the water bottles and added water-purifying tablets. They were running low. If they didn’t get out of here in a couple of days, they were going to have serious problems.

‘Abbie.’ Jack’s voice caught her attention. ‘Kevin and I are going to see if we can find some shelter for tonight. Make sure that you bury the fish guts. We don’t want to attract any visitors.’

Abbie sighed. Jack was still in command mode. ‘Fine, just as soon as I finish this.’

‘Abbie.’ This time it was Zeke. ‘I need you to fix my sling again, it’s slipping.’

What was it with the jungle? Was there some caveman pheromone in the air? Jack had gone all He-Man, now Zeke thought he could boss her around.

She packed the bottles into the rucksack and checked her phone. Still no signal and the battery was low. At least the Kindle was still working. She might get to sit down and read for a while.

‘Abbie, my arm,’ Zeke whinged again.

‘OK, OK, the nurse is coming.’

She adjusted the makeshift sling. Kit would go crazy when she found out that the two-hundred-dollar bra she had forced her to buy had been turned into a bandage. So much for discovering her inner temptress. ‘I’m sure that Carine Gilson will be thrilled that she’s saving your arm.’

‘I’ll replace it,’ Zeke said. ‘Just as soon as we get back to civilization.’

‘Gee, thanks. Just what I need. Something to remind me of this place.’

Abbie eyed the pile of fish heads and guts. A swarm of ants had decided to move in. She watched as they formed an orderly little army, pulling bits of fish away. With any luck she wouldn’t have to bury any of it. The ants would take care of it for her.

A snuffling snore from Zeke revealed that he had dozed off. Perfect. Peace and quiet at last. She would read until the others returned.

She was lost in her novel when a deep-throated roar dragged her attention away from it. She dropped the Kindle. Zeke was still asleep, oblivious to the jaguar pawing at the remains of the fish.

Oh dear god. The scraps wouldn’t be enough to feed a hungry cat and she couldn’t remember if jaguars would attack humans or not. Why hadn’t she buried the fish?

‘Zeke,’ she hissed. ‘Please wake up.’

A snore was his only response. Abbie reached for a piece of stick from beside the fire and poked Zeke.

His eyes flew open. ‘What the hell are you –?’

‘Shhh, we have a visitor.’ Abbie nodded in the direction of the jaguar, who was busy devouring the fish. It was almost gone. The cat raised his head, eying them thoughtfully.
Zeke dug his heels into the ground and began to inch away. ‘Do something, Abbie.’

‘Nice kitty, why don’t you go away?’ As the jaguar stepped forwards, Abbie grabbed her Kindle and rose to her feet. Maybe she could throw it at him.

Jack and Kevin burst through into the clearing, waving lengths of vine and screaming like hyenas. She had never been so glad to see anyone in her life. The cat turned and disappeared into the jungle as silently as it had arrived.

Kevin followed it to make sure that it was gone. Jack stepped over the pile of fish detritus and turned to look at her. Abbie winced. He had told her to bury it and she hadn’t. She couldn’t meet his eyes. He was mad at her this time. Really mad.

‘Don’t tell me, you love pussy but you hate cats?’ She had no idea what got into her to come out with a crack like that. Hysteria, perhaps.

He met her feeble joke with a stony expression that chilled her.

‘Jack, I –’

His hand locked around her wrist. ‘Excuse me, gentlemen, I believe I need to have a word with Ms Marshall in private.’

Jack grabbed her wrist and hauled her off. She tried to resist being pulled along like a recalcitrant child, but he was impossible to oppose. It was like trying to resist a tsunami. He was a force of nature. A really pissed-off force of nature.

NYI
reporter left bruised by Hollywood superstar
. But she realized that, though his grip was manacling her wrist, it wasn’t quite tight enough to leave bruises. She absolutely refused to admit that any tiny part of her liked his grasp on her. The look on his face and the set of his jaw warned her that whatever was coming would not be pleasant. Jack Winter was not thinking sexy thoughts. He obviously wanted to let fly at her without being inhibited by the other two. Well, so be it.

He dragged her into a cave she hadn’t noticed. ‘What is this?’ she asked, hoping to distract him. ‘Did you and Kevin find it?’ She glanced around the cave, trying to distract herself from the six-foot tower of testosterone in front of her. The cave was dry and appeared to be spider-free. In the centre it was tall enough for Jack to stand upright. ‘Nice, I like what you’ve done with the place.’

He ignored her flippancy and turned to face her. ‘Do you have any idea just how badly you behaved?’

He seemed to be waiting for an answer, so she said, ‘It wasn’t that bad. Nobody got hurt.’

It was the wrong thing to say. Rage lit his eyes, but ominously, his tone become more measured. ‘Nobody got hurt because I came back. If you had been on your own, you or Zeke would have been killed. All because you didn’t do what I told you. What the hell were you thinking?’

Abbie was tempted to lie, to say she had forgotten or hadn’t been able to do it. ‘I had a million things to do. Zeke was moaning at me to fix his sling again and then when I saw the ants I –’

His dark expression didn’t change a fraction, so she pressed on with the words, even though she knew they would make things worse. ‘I didn’t want to. I’m just sick of being ordered around. Really, it was your fault.’

For a second his eyes widened, then they became dangerous slits. ‘I can’t believe you just said that.’

She wished the cave were darker so that she wouldn’t have to see the expression on his face. She was in a world of shit here. Then she braced herself. ‘What are you going to do about it?’

‘This.’ She never saw him move. One moment he was standing there, looming over her like a bad-tempered teacher. The next he had picked her up and was striding to the side of the cave. By the time she had caught her breath, he had sat down on a rock and hauled her over his knees.

‘I warned you there would be consequences, Abbie. Now you can deal with them.’

No! He couldn’t possibly mean to spank her. She had joked about it before, but because the idea was a joke. It didn’t happen in the twenty-first century to women like her. She fought like a wildcat, determined to get out of
this undignified position and away from him. ‘Let go of me, you bastard.’

He held her easily. ‘You asked for this, Abbie, now you’re going to get it.’

He was serious. He was actually going to do it. Abbie struggled furiously, not caring if she fell on to the ground, as long as she got out of this appalling situation. His thighs were rock hard, and dug into her chest and stomach. Blood flowed to her head, making her dizzy. She screamed with rage and tried to get leverage to push herself up again, but her hands and feet barely touched the ground and his grasp was implacable.

‘Let go of me, you son of a bitch, you can’t do this.’ The rage was real, but she was disgusted to hear how breathless her voice sounded. She raked with her fingernails, trying to claw him, but only found the tough denim of his jeans.

She kicked as hard as she could and, in a sudden manoeuvre, found that he had changed position so that she was over one knee now with both her legs trapped between his. ‘Let me go,’ she screamed. ‘I’ll have you charged with assault, you bastard!’

‘It’s too late, Abbie, this is going to happen.’ In contrast to her screeches, Jack’s tone sounded maddeningly reasonable. He raised his hand and smacked her.

Ow! Her whole body jerked. ‘That hurt!’

He laughed. The bastard laughed. ‘What did you expect?’

His hand flashed down again, even harder this time. The sting blazed through her whole body, awakening nerve endings she didn’t know she had. He did it again.
She gritted her teeth. She would get through this with dignity and silence.

The next spank was even harder. She grunted, unable to stay silent. The next one was harder and she grunted more loudly. To hell with silence, she couldn’t bear this. She howled.

He did it again. She writhed, tried to get away. She tried to bite his leg, anything to stop this. Nothing made any difference.

She had sometimes wondered idly what people could possibly find sexy about spanking. She just couldn’t imagine what could be arousing about being hit. Well, now she had her answer. Nothing. This wasn’t sexy or sensual. This hurt. Jack’s hand was like a slab of cement.

She tried to twist round to see if he had actually picked up something. Surely no human hand could hit that hard. ‘Stop, stop, please stop.’ She didn’t know when her screams had turned to pleas, but it didn’t stop him.

‘You’ve earned this, Abbie.’

‘Please, I’ve had enough.’ The agony was building up, her backside was a stinging furnace. Who cared about dignity?

‘We’re only just warming up.’ To her horror, he took the waistband of her trousers and pulled them down, dragging her panties with them. ‘A good spanking should always be on the bare.’

No, he couldn’t do that. It was humiliating. And it would hurt so much more. She hadn’t been to Pilates classes recently and her ass wasn’t in great shape.
What was she thinking?
He was hitting her and she didn’t think her ass was good enough for him? Now she knew she had lost it.