Later, with the rubbish buried and the fire burning high again, it would have been a good chance to plan what they were going to do next. Instead—this was turning into a habit—Carol was watching Moss.
And he watched her, his eyes hooded.
“Too late for a swim?” he asked.
It wasn’t the breeze that made her shiver. He was right. Maggie was asleep, so now was the perfect time to do what she’d intended earlier and explore the oceans around their little island.
But that would ruinthismoment. And this moment was almost perfect. She just had to not touch it, or think about it too hard.
She licked her lips. “Maybe tomorrow?”
The fire crackled. The ocean sighed. It was the busy silence of a world that held only them, and she wanted to hold on to it the same way Maggie wanted to steal a shard of sunlight.
“You look like you’re a thousand miles away.” Moss’s voice whispered over her thoughts like the waves on the sand.
“I’m right here.” What did he see that made him want to keep looking at her like that? Maybe the firelight was being kind. Flickering over her monstrous parts, giving an illusion of what she would look like as a normal person. “And being here doesn’t feel like a disaster anymore. We’re alive. So are Lance and Keeley, and if they’re okay, the rest of my team probably are as well. They’ll find us. We’ll be okay.”
“You don’t mind that I haven’t ravished you?”
Her entire body turned to fire.
“Oh, well, y-you know,” she stammered. “Being out here—stuck on an island, babysitting a dragon, picking bits of seaweed out from our toes…”
Probably any other shifter’s inner animal would have forcibly transformed at this point so their human stopped talking, but Carol’s shark was as MIA as ever, and her mind was completely empty except for her own brain helplessly screaming at her to shut up.
Usually her trouble was tripping over her words! Where was her stutter now, when she might really need it?
“I, er, um,” she said, panicked and hoping to jump-start her speech impediment by example, “I mean, it’s not exactly the height of romance, is it?”
He sat back, easing himself into a comfortable position against the sloped wall of the cave. Surely it was a total coincidence that the position showed off his bare chest in all its magnificence? “So it’s the height of romance you need? Good to know. What would that involve, exactly?”
Any remaining thoughts erupted into static.
“What do you think?” she managed to say.
“Hmm.Height.I’m thinking… Ferris wheel?”
“You’re going to take me to a fairground? Isn’t that a bit high-school movie cliché?” This whole thing was so ridiculous, a bubble of laughter rose in her throat. Wait. Oh no. Was it ridiculous? Was he being serious? Was he… making a joke but a serious one?
Was heflirting?
Moss leaned forward. The bubble of laughter evaporated.
“Or a mountaintop. A snowy summit so high you look down and see clouds beneath you. And I’ll prepare the best meal you ever had. Something perfectly suited to snow, and air that tastes like the sky. And you.”
She didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. She was trapped in the spell of his words, the firelight spilling over his body, and the vision he was weaving.
Something dark flashed behind his eyes, and he looked away. “Course, that’s for further down the track. Don’t want to start too big and have nowhere to go, you know?”
“Ferris wheel it is.”
“It could break when we’re at the top, and I’ll have to offer you my jacket to keep warm.” He looked down at himself and sighed. “That’s what I got wrong here. Didn’t even bring a jacket on our weekend away on the deserted island. No wonder things have gone upside down.”
“I should be offering youmysweater,” she said absently, letting the words wander out of their own accord while she gazed at him.
“Hmm?”
“Aren’t you cold?”
