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I spun and tripped on a branch. My arms whirled as I tried to grab onto anything to catch myself, but there was nothing. My shoes slipped on the edge and then I fell backward, hitting the cold water with a scream. The water covered my head, instantly filling my mouth. Panic rushed through me as I fought to reach the surface, but the water dragged me down.
My life flashed before my eyes as dark spots filled my vision. This was how I was going to die. Not by some stalker or murderer, but by my own stupidity.
Hands grabbed me, pulling me toward the surface. The second I broke through the water, I gasped for air, thanking my lucky stars that I wasn’t dead. I coughed and choked as I was hauled to the shore. Slowly, I pulled myself up the embankment, struggling to breathe properly.
“You know, it’s not my place to say, but maybe you should put on a swimsuit before deciding to go for a swim.”
“I wasn’t going for a swim! I was trying to escape.”
“By jumping in the lake?” Fox laughed. “Not a very good solution.”
“I tripped.”
“Still not a great way to go. What were you thinking?”
I shoved my wet hair out of my face and stood, barely holding myself up with how badly my legs were shaking. “I was thinking that I’m going insane. I was thinking that if I could just find some way off this island, I would finally be able to get home!”
“We’re not on an island.”
“Whatever!” I shouted, my chest heaving as anger took over.
“I was thinking that I must be the unluckiest woman on the planet to have a man like her so much that he kidnapped her to keep her safe from an imaginary person!”
“I kidnapped you to keep you alive.”
I spun around at the sound of Brock’s deep voice. My chest heaved as I stared at him standing there in all his sexy glory. With his arms crossed over his chest, his biceps bulged, making me want him even more than I already did. But I couldn’t have him. We were too different. There was no way any of this would work, and he was asking me to give in to this insane attraction and tell him I was his. But that was lunacy.
And since I didn’t know what else to say to him, I decided to blame all of this on him. “Oh, look who it is. The man who showed up ten minutes too late. You know, for a man who claims to want to protect me so much, you suck at it. I almost drowned!”
“You were in the water for about five seconds,” Fox said behind me.
“If it was only five seconds, why did you jump in after me?”
“Because you can’t swim. It’s in your file,” he grinned. “Along with the fact that you can’t cook, don’t know how to drive, and you have an unnatural obsession with measuring the size of your pores.”
I gasped, covering my nose with my hand. “How did you know?”
He shrugged. “We’re very thorough.”
Spinning back around, my hair smacked me in the face. I shoved it out of the way and stalked toward Brock. “You will release me immediately. Enough of the games. This is no longer funny. You got to see how I would fare outside my world.” I held my arms wide, showing him my soaking wet clothes. “Are you happy? I failed. Let’s end this experiment and send me home!”
His lips turned up at the corner. He stepped closer, brushing his thumb against my lip. “This experiment is far from over. And I happen to love you soaking wet.”
I sucked in a breath as his body swayed closer to mine. I knew he would kiss me. It was his thing to make declarations like that and then kiss the living daylights out of me. My body involuntarily moved into his space, but before I could feel his arms around me, he was gone.
My body shuddered as a chill swept over me, but it had nothing to do with the cold water. I was in desperate need of his touch, but if I gave in, it would only lead to heartbreak.
Fox stepped up beside me, picking something out of my hair. I grimaced when he held up algae between two fingers. “So, musical?”
A long, hot bath helped put my mind at ease for the time being. After that, I crawled into bed, determined to block out everything that was happening. But just as I was falling asleep, Fox stormed into my room.
“Whatcha doin’?”
“Sleeping,” I grumbled.
“You are not,” he chuckled. “Your eyes are open.”
He ran and jumped onto my bed, snuggling under the covers with me. It was weird, but I didn’t have the energy to tell him to go away. The TV turned on and I heard Fox muttering to himself as he flipped through the channels.
