Dane straightened out of his crouch, and Mira's eyes followed him appreciatively. As they climbed up the rocks, he couldn't help noticing the way that she kept looking, watching his muscles flex as he climbed over the rocks. If his scars bothered her, she showed no sign; she hadn't done more than glance at them. She seemed more interested in other areas of his body.
As her eyes roamed, she glanced up at his face, saw him watching her, and blushed as she hastily dropped her gaze to pay attention to her own climbing. It was just as well, because she missed her footing and Dane had to steady her with a hand on her elbow.
Mira laughed ruefully. "I'm a forty-year-old woman and I'm in danger of falling and breaking my leg because I'm staring at a hot, naked guy. Sorry about that."
"Mate," he reminded her gently. "It's okay to look. You like what you see?"
Her eyes widened briefly; her blush grew hotter. "Dane, you look incredible. It's all I can do to focus on anything other than you right now. Oh good!" she interrupted herself. "Here we are."
The pool she had found did, indeed, have plenty of water. Mira handed the bag to Dane, whose longer arms could reach into the deeper center, and he dipped it full. Cool water sloshed down the sides. Giving the bag back to Mira, he dipped his hands full and drank deeply. His orca could subsist on water from the ocean, its body filtering out the salt, but as a human he was getting pretty thirsty.
Mira zipped up the bag and perched on top of a rock, with the bag of water between her feet, looking out at the sun glittering on the sea. She made an incredible picture, sitting on the rocks with the ocean behind her and the sunlight haloing her hair with gold. Dane had never wished to be an artist before, but now he yearned to have the skills to paint her. Or at least a camera to photograph her and capture the moment forever.
Instead he gazed at her, gathering every aspect of the scene in his mind. If he didn't have a real camera, he still had a mental one. "Click," he murmured.
He said it to himself, but Mira turned one of her gorgeous smiles on him. Her eyes gained an appreciative glint as she once again took in the sight of his naked body. "Did you say something?" she asked.
"I was just thinking we should get back. We don't want to waste firewood."
He straightened up, and Mira looked mildly poleaxed for a moment and then scrambled to her feet. Dane took her hand and helped her down off the rocks.
MIRA
Mira was goingout of her mind. The whole idea of being stranded on a desert island had been thoroughly covered in the kids' adventure books of her childhood, but one thing no one had ever mentioned was what to do when the person you were stranded with was an incredibly hot guy without a shred of clothing.
Now that he was feeling better, Dane didn't seem particularly affected by the ocean breeze or the air that felt, to Mira, uncomfortably chilly whenever she wasn't in the sun. It might be a shifter thing, or an orca thing, but he seemed perfectly comfortable.
And whatthatmeant was that he moved around constantly with a rippling, pantherlike grace, his muscles sliding beneath his smooth tanned skin. He was incredibly toned, with a lean, athletic build. Mira supposed, in the part of her brain that was still capable of rational thought and not a drooling lust zombie, that it must be a side effect of all the swimming.
Even doing something as simple as walking along the beach, he somehow managed to be so graceful that he should have been accompanied by a soundtrack. And climbing on the rocks was simplyunfair. He bent and stretched, reaching for a handhold, his bare feet gripping the rough stone, legs spread apart in a view that left absolutely nothing to the imagination.
Not that Mira's imagination didn't have plenty to work with.
By the time they got back to the fire, she was practically panting.
Okay, she thought, I have a new plan, because we need to do something before I lose the last of my self-control and climb him like a tree. Bath and food first, because I really need both of those things. But after that, if we don't get busy on that blanket, I'm going to need some alone time with my hand behind the rocks. Based on what he was saying about mates, I assume sex is part of the package, unless I misunderstood completely.
She put some dry branches on the fire. Dane was right that they had a limited firewood supply; she hadn't really thought about it. Still, she thought they ought to have plenty for a while. She had noticed some pretty big logs washed up on the beach.
Having their water in a bag was a little inconvenient, Mira found when she went to unzip the bag and then realized that she couldn't do it without spilling some of its contents. But maybe if they hung it on something? She recalled seeing some old, rusty hooks on the inside of the bunker, probably for former equipment storage. They made a perfect hanging spot for the water bag. Mira expanded the collapsible cup, which turned out to be large enough to hold about a quart.
"And now, bath time," she declared, dipping a cup of water. She had to laugh, thinking about her last bath at the cabin, which also had involved cold water poured over her head. "You know, I'm starting to wish I had taken advantage of the bathroom at Black Rock Island. I didn't realize it was my last shot at a hot shower for a while."
"Do you want privacy?" Dane asked.
Mira turned around and found that he had turned his back.
"No," she said quietly. She squirmed out of her sweater and folded it. "I want help."
Dane shifted position, turning back to her and taking in her new, bra-clad state with an open, wondering look on his face. Her comfortable padded sports bra was getting less comfortable after having worn it for two days straight. Dane reached around behind her, and seemed stymied when he encountered no clasp.
"Sports bra," she explained. "Stretchy. Goes over my head. Here, I'll get it."
She squirmed out of the straps and pulled it off with a sigh of relief. It had probably left a bra-print on her skin.Hopefully he's into that.
But it was clear from the look on Dane's face that nothing about her could be a turn-off right now. As she unzipped her jeans and pulled them off, then stepped out of her panties, the look of lustful wonder grew. She had read about people's eyes dilating with arousal, but had never personally seen it before. Dane's eyes were definitely doing it now.
Also, without any clothes on, he had not even a fig leaf of plausible deniability about his desires. She had been trying to avoid lookingtoomuch at certain parts of him, if nothing else to preserve her own ability to stay focused on anything other than sex. But now her gaze drifted downward to the magnificent erection rising from a tangle of dark curls.
