Page 50 of Last Ticket to Paradise

Ducking beneath the water, Georgette pulled off her dress and tossed it onto a flaming piece of debris floating a few feet away. “I don’t want that washing up on shore.”

“Good idea.” Jake peeled his shirt, pocked with scorch marks, over his head and added it to the fire.

They swam side by side, parallel to the shore, until they reached a blacked-out area on the beach.

Jake pulled up and tapped her on the arm. “Let’s head in here.”

Georgette twisted her head to the side and peered at the glow in the distance. “Will someone come and put that out?”

“Doubt it. It’s not close enough to the other bungalows to be a danger to them. It’ll just burn into the sea.”

“Along with all of Jean-Claude’s stuff.”

He landed a salty kiss on her mouth. “At least we’re not in there with his stuff.”

As they entered the shallow water, Georgette changed direction and switched to a breaststroke. Soon enough, she was on her knees in the gritty sand, slogging through the gentle waves that raced her to the shoreline.

Jake reached terra firma first and reached out to help her onto the beach.

She stumbled beside him, naked except for her panties clinging to her body. She crossed her arms over her chest, although the cloud cover obscured the light of the moon, and Jake had already seen her assets—so had several people at the pool.

Despite the cool air, a hot blush claimed her body when she thought about her antics at the resort. That had been for a purpose, and she didn’t regret it.

She didn’t regret this either. She dropped her arms and pulled back her shoulders. “Lead the way.”

He laced his fingers through hers and pulled her around to face him. “First, can I say that I’m damned glad you got out of that bungalow?”

“Thanks to you.” Curling her toes into the sand, she squeezed his hand. “I couldn’t see through that smoke, and I wasn’t sure where the window was. Y-you shouldn’t have risked your life coming through the flames like that. You could’ve gone through that door so easily when the fire started.”

“And leave you behind?” He scooped one hand through her wet hair. “I couldn’t do that. Did you think I would?”

Cupping his face in her hands, she said, “I just wanted you safe. That’s all I could think about. And you? I didn’t even ask. Are you injured? Burned?”

She dropped her hands and skimmed her palms across the slabs of muscle covering his chest.

“I’m fine—a little singed hair on my arms and legs.”

“And your lashes.” She touched the tip of her finger to the ends of his stubby, black eyelashes.

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against his chest, bare skin against bare skin. Slanting his mouth across hers, he kissed the salt from her lips.

She moved against him, her nipples skimming the sand clinging to his chest. Her fingers inched up his broad back, and then she traced his spine with the pad of her thumb before hooking it in the waistband of his shorts.

When he ended the kiss, Georgette whispered against the throbbing pulse in his throat, “We’re safe. We’re both safe.”

“Not yet.” He grabbed her hand. “Let’s get back to the hotel.”

“Like this?” She spread her arms. “I’m half naked.”

“Darling,” he tweaked her peaked nipple, “you’re almost completely naked. But we’ll find a way. The resortisclothing optional.”

They trudged through the dry sand, and Georgette tugged on Jake’s hand, tipping her head toward the dark gathering of trees on the other side of the sand. “That’s where the Palarosa ritual rock is, isn’t it?”

He nodded.

Goose bumps raced across her arms, and she turned away from the forbidding, shadowed area. “It looks even more isolated at night.”

They crept on the overgrown pathway that snaked along the outer edge of the pool area. She would’ve never spotted Jake making his way toward the beach this way if she hadn’t been on the lookout for him. Hopefully, nobody gathered at the bar now would be on the lookout for them.

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