No matter how hard the obsession tried, the suspicious curiosity within me focused in on Jin Woo’s words. How much had they been talking without me? How did Jin Woo and, as a consequence, Ettore, and even Bartosz know about the inner workings of Oskar’s mind? Theyhadto know each other, and why they were hiding it from me was starting to bother me now that things had settled down for a bit.
“So, Bartosz,” he was the weak link, I could tell by the way he flinched when I spoke to him. I had never been one for playing fair. “What were you doing in Norway? I’m here visiting my godmother.”
Tell them a truth, and they feel pressured to do the same. I smiled my most easy, relaxed smile. I was just curious. I definitely didn’t have any ulterior motives, just a silly question to pass the time away on a deserted island.
“Oh, uh,” I could tell he was exchanging a look with the other men above my head, “there’s a conference for young executives, I think that we were all here for that.” He folded hisarms across his chest, letting go of my ankles in the process, and the obsessed little gremlin in me hissed with displeasure.
Me, Mina, the human actually in charge of my body, laughed.
“Why the hell was Oskar going? That sounds like his personal hell, or at least used to be his personal hell,” I didn’t let the ache that thrummed in me when I reminded myself of the distance that was now between us derail me, “plus he’s not a young professional.”
“Do you know Laks Fisheries?” Ettore asked carefully, a gently prying tone in his voice.
“Yes, I did work in consumer consulting as well as in advanced industries. I like to always know the top companies in both realms. Laks has the biggest market share of any seafood company and a valuation of more than 10 billion dollars. Their international expansion, opening fisheries in the Patagonian region of South America, was a smart move. I predict that once they get production up fully, their market will grow by...,” I flitted through the numbers, “18-ish percent.” I could hear my voice slip into business mode, my brain flipping through the folders of knowledge in my brain.
“Yes!” Ettore sounded almost victorious, and Jin Woo squeezed me hard. That question had been some kind of test, and I didn’t like that they were testing me. I was done with that. Though it had felt nice when they acknowledged that I had been correct.
I sat straight up stiffly in Jin Woo’s lap, once again feeling him becoming hard underneath me, and I ignored my satisfaction.
“If you want to know something about me, ask. You don’t have to test me. I don’t have any secrets.”
Well, not many.
“So what’s up with Oskar and Laks?” I asked, circling back.
Ettore shrugged.
“You know what, you should probably speak to him.”
“Well, that’s kinda hard when he’s avoiding me like I’m diseased,” I ground out before placing a hand on Ettore’s and twining our fingers together.
I looked back at Ettore and Jin Woo, and while Ettore looked as innocent as he ever could, Jin Woo couldn’t quite scrub the guilt from his face. I would have pressed him harder. But later, I was tired now. As most of the worry that they wouldn’t want to be around me had dissipated, so did my energy.
I rolled off of Jin Woo and curled my body into a kidney bean shape so my stomach was gently touching Bartosz, who immediately stiffened. Closing my eyes, I let my exhaustion roll over me.
“Ettore, Jin Woo, would you go find Oskar? I don’t want him to freeze out there, no matter how annoying he is. And Ettore, take care of yourfiancéfor me, will you?”
I could hear the mirth in Ettore’s voice.
“It would be my pleasure,salvatrice.”
They both got up and kissed my forehead before they left the cabin. After a long pause, during which the only sound was the crackling of the fire, Bartosz spoke.
“What about me?” he asked
“We will talk tomorrow,” I said sleepily, my hand creeping up the back of his shirt without me asking it to.
Chapter Eight
Oskar was being a little bitch.
He had come in last night after I had fallen asleep and had completely ignored me all morning. He had brought in firewood, moved his things around, and drank some of the seaweed soup I had made without saying thank you or acknowledging my presence. Even Ettore kissing me hard and gratefully when everyone else had left the cabin hadn’t dampened my anger; it just made me angryandhungry. Hungry to trail my fingers all over him, feel his elegant muscles, to make him pant, and to see more of my own hunger reflected in him.
I was also hungry in a less fun way. We had mostly been eating seaweed soup, almost all of the clams having already been harvested. I had to be careful about how many mushrooms I gathered, as we needed some food source just in case everything went completely to hell. But all of that planning and being careful meant that I was hungry, and I was sure the guys who had been hauling wood and chasing after sheep were ravenous. If we didn’t start to get more substantial food, with the cold stealing our warmth and calories, we would quickly become weak, and that wouldn’t be good for our chances of surviving, especially if my guess of when rescue would come was optimistic. That couldn’t happen on my watch.
“Bartosz, “ I barked, “come with me.”
Ettore, tending the fire, and Jin Woo, doing something with the scraps of fabric that we were calling blankets, looked at each other slyly.
