The Girl Nobody Wanted
“You’re only saying this because it would suit your purposes if I agreed with you. Stop trying to seduce me, Mr. Jackson. It won’t work.”
It was close to the mark, and inexplicably it made him angry. Except that he wasn’t quite sure if it was her or himself he was angry with. He definitely wanted her. She intrigued him. She didn’t seem to care who he was or what he offered her—and that made him think of something else, something he’d not let himself consider before. “Were you in love with him?”
Anna spluttered. He loved ruffling her cool, though he hoped the answer was no. For some reason, he needed it to be no.
“That’s none of your business! We hardly know each other, Mr. Jackson,” she said, her entire body stiff with outrage. Her long fingers gripped the arm of the seat. Her nails were manicured and neat, and there was a pale line on her left ring finger where her engagement ring had once sat. He imagined those elegant fingers playing his body like a fine instrument, and nearly groaned.
Since when was he interested in prim little schoolteachers anyway? Not that Anna was a schoolteacher—she was far too well bred and rich to have an actual job—but she reminded him of one. The kind of teacher who wore buttoned-up suits to work and lacy knickers beneath. Whether she realized it or not, the woman seethed with pent-up sexuality.
Whoever got her to let her hair down and give in to her sensual nature would be one lucky man. He pictured Anna in a bed, her naked body lying against red sheets, those full kissable lips open and eager as he lowered himself onto her and captured her mouth with his own.
Suddenly, flying was getting damned uncomfortable. Leo forced himself to think of something unsexy—like Graziana Ricci’s collagen-plumped lips smeared in cherry-red lipstick—and hoped his body would take the hint.
“How can we possibly get to know each other,” he said, “if you keep retreating behind that starched formality every time I ask you a question?”
“We don’t need to know each other. I’m taking you to Amanti so you can decide whether or not you want to build a hotel there. Beyond that, I’m sure we’ll never see each other again. Now, if you will please take us to Amanti, we can get on with the tour.”
Leo shot her a glance. She was prickly as hell and completely fascinating. “You don’t like it when your plans get changed, do you? You’re very much a list girl.”
Her head whipped around. “A list girl? What, pray tell, is that?”
“You make lists. You like a long list of things to do and then you check them off one by one. There’s no room for spontaneity on your lists.” He made a checkmark in the air. “Woke up early, check. Ate breakfast, check.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being organized, Mr. Jackson,” she said. He could hear the starch in her voice, the outrage she tried to keep hidden. She was trying to keep him at a distance, and he wouldn’t allow it.
“If you call me Mr. Jackson one more time,” he growled, “I’ll keep flying until we reach Sicily.”
“You wouldn’t.”
Her arms folded over her prim grey suit, her chin thrusting forward in challenge. Clearly, Anna Constantinides didn’t know him very well. No matter how successful he’d become, he’d never shaken that raw, edgy side of his personality that liked to push barriers to their limit. No doubt it came from trying to fit into the Jackson household when he’d been young and motherless and uncertain of his place in their lives. He’d pushed and rebelled, certain his father would throw him out, but Bobby had never wavered in his acceptance once he’d stepped up and admitted paternity.
“I would, in fact,” Leo replied. “I’ve got nothing to lose.”
Her jaw clenched tight and he felt suddenly wrong for phrasing it that way. She had everything to lose, or so she thought. A trip to Sicily with him would be devastating in Anna’s world. Because she was already the focus of attention and she couldn’t fathom drawing yet more. Never mind that if she were only to behave as if she didn’t care, the media would soon leave her alone. He knew from experience that they liked nothing better than a victim—and Anna was a perfect victim right now.
“I don’t want to go to Sicily, Leo. I want to go to Amanti.”
“Tell the truth, Anna. You don’t want to do that, either. But you’ve committed to it and so you want to get there without giving the media anything else to speculate about.”
She made a frustrated noise. “Yes. This is precisely the truth. If I could run to Sicily or Egypt or Timbuktu and not have to endure another moment of this shame, I would do it. But I can’t run, Leo. I have to carry on as always and wait for the scandal to pass.”
It was perhaps the most honest thing she’d said yet. But he wanted more. “Tell me this, then. If you could have an affair, no consequences, no one the wiser, would you do so?”
She didn’t say anything for the longest time. “I… I…”
But whatever she was about to say was lost as a light on the instrument panel flashed on. A tight knot formed in Leo’s stomach as he turned his focus to the plane. He’d checked everything before they’d left Santa Maria, and everything had been fine. He wouldn’t have taken off otherwise.
But something had changed in the half hour since.
CHAPTER THREE
THE plane shuddered and Anna’s heart leaped. Whatever she’d been about to say was forgotten as she took in Leo’s sudden concentration. “What’s happening?”
He didn’t look at her. “We’re losing fuel pressure,” he said as he did something with the switches. The plane shuddered again, and the engine made a high-pitched whining noise that sent her heart into her throat.
“What does that mean?” Because she needed to know, precisely, what he was saying to her. It didn’t sound good, and she didn’t like the sensation of being out of control. Whatever happened, she was in a plane with Leo, high above the Mediterranean, and there was nothing she could do to fix the problem.
But that didn’t mean she intended to sit quietly and hope for the best.
“It means there’s a problem in the fuel line. We need to land before we run out of gas.”
“Land? Where?” She scanned the horizon, saw nothing but water for kilometers. Her stomach churned. “Leo, there’s nothing out here.”
He checked the GPS, his long fingers flexing against the controls. “We’re too far from Amanti,” he finally said, concentrating on the screen. “But there’s another island a few miles distant.”
Another island? She didn’t know what it could be, but she began to pray fervently that they would make it there. The plane bucked again, the engine sputtering before smoothing out once more. Anna gripped her seat, her fingers pressing into the leather so hard that they ached.
“Are we going to die?”
“No.” His answer was swift, sure, and she took comfort in it. But doubts began to creep in. What if he was wrong? What if he was only trying to keep her calm? She couldn’t abide that. She had to know.
“Tell me the truth, Leo,” she finally said, unable to stand it a moment longer. “Please.”
Leo’s dark eyes glinted with determination as he looked over at her. How could her heart flip at the look on his face when this was serious? How could heat blossom between her thighs at a moment like this?
Because she had regrets, that’s why. Because she’d saved herself for years for a husband who had cast her aside before they’d ever even wed. Now that she might die, she fervently wished she’d experienced passion, even if it had just been for one night.
Leo stared at her so intently that she could almost forget where they were, what was happening. For a moment, she could almost wish they’d had that day in Sicily.
“If we can find this island, we’ll be fine,” Leo said shortly.
She wanted to believe him, but she couldn’t simply accept it without question. “But what if there’s nowhere to land?”
“There’s definitely somewhere to land,” he said. “Look around you.”
There was nothing but blue as far as the eye could see. She gasped as she finally took his meaning. “The sea?”
“Yes. Now put on your life jacket, and grab that orange backpack from where it’s stowed behind my seat.”
“But, Leo,” she said, panic rising inside her as she thought of them marooned at sea. Assuming they survived the impact. Oh, God.
“Anna, trust me,” he said firmly. “Get the pack. Get your life jacket.”
“What about you?”
“Grab mine, too. I can’t put it on yet, but I will.”
Anna unbuckled her seat belt and found the life jackets. She clipped hers on with shaky fingers, and then grabbed the heavy orange pack he’d told her to get and brought everything back to her seat. Leo was saying something into the headset, but he didn’t appear to be getting an answer.
“No,” he said when she started to sit down again. “Sit in one of the seats behind me. It’ll be safer on impact.”
Anna hesitated only a moment before sinking into the seat beside him and buckling her seat belt. “I want to be here with you,” she said. “I insist on it.”
She didn’t expect him to laugh, but he did. A short, sharp bark of laughter that stole into her soul and made her feel good, if only for a moment. “Dragon lady,” he said, and her heart skipped again. At a time like this, how did he make her feel as if she were formidable? As if she mattered? How did he cut through the pain and anger and make her feel important again?
“There it is,” Leo said, and she squinted into the distance, searching the horizon. A small gray bump rose up from the sea, growing bigger the closer they got. There were many small islands out here, some of which were inhabited and some not. Any hope she’d had this might be one of the inhabited ones faded quickly when she saw the size of the island.
It was long, narrow and rocky, with a green area at one end and a white sandy beach on one side.
“There’s nowhere to land,” she said.
“I’m taking us down,” he replied. “It might be rough.”
That was the only warning he gave her as he pointed the nose down and began his descent. Anna’s stomach twisted as the plane dropped in the sky. Sweat broke out on her forehead, between her breasts. Her heart went into free fall as the sea grew bigger and bigger with every passing minute.
The engine sputtered and whined, and Leo’s hands were white on the controls. But the plane continued to descend in a controlled manner. Anna grasped her pearls in her fingers, twisted hard and then chided herself for doing so. This was no time to break them. They’d been her grandmother’s, the only link she had left to the woman she’d most admired. She would not destroy them.
“Leo,” she said helplessly as they sank lower in the sky. She reached for him, put her hand on his shoulder, squeezed. She hoped she was imparting strength, courage, but she had the feeling he didn’t need any of those things. No, it was she who needed them and Leo who provided them to her.
She could do nothing but sit there and watch powerlessly as the island got bigger. But the sea was bigger still, so big and azure that it filled her vision from all sides. She focused on the island. There were a few trees, she noted, a wooded copse that might provide shelter—and might have fresh water if the rain had a place to collect. Assuming it rained.
If only they survived the plunge into the sea. First things first, Anna. She was so used to planning that she couldn’t help herself, when in fact there was nothing to plan if they didn’t make it out alive.
“Brace for landing,” Leo said as he took the plane dangerously close to the island. Anna closed her eyes at the last minute and gripped her seat for dear life. So many feelings went through her at once that she couldn’t process them all. Fear, regret, anger, sadness, love, passion…
Anna’s head snapped back as the plane shuddered into the water with a bone-jarring splash. It glided along the surface before coming to an abrupt stop that would have jerked her forward in the seat if not for the belt holding her tightly in place. There was a surreal moment of complete silence as the craft pitched and rolled with the waves. Anna’s stomach lodged in her throat. How would they ever escape with the motion throwing them around so much? Once the seat belt was off, two steps forward would turn into four steps back.
“There’s not much time,” Leo said as he unbuckled his seat belt and flung his door open.
“Your jacket,” she said, thrusting it toward him with a shaking hand as she unlocked her seat belt with the other. He took it and threw it out the door, then grabbed her and hauled her toward him. She barely had time to register all the sensations that rocked her as she was pressed against his hard body before she dropped into the sea.
The water was shocking, not because it was too cold, but because it was wet when she’d been so dry. The life preserver kept her from going under, but water still splashed over her head, soaking her. Anna spluttered and began to tread water as Leo landed beside her, the orange pack slung over one shoulder.
“Your life jacket,” she said. It was floating just out of reach and she made a grab for it.
“I don’t need it.” His hair was slicked back from his head, his expression grim and determined.
“Leo,” she began.
“I’m fine, Anna. Can you swim to the island?”
She turned and looked at the shore only a few meters distant. “Of course,” she said crisply, her heart beating like crazy in her chest as she began to process what had happened. They’d crashed. In the Mediterranean. She couldn’t quite wrap her mind around it, and yet the plane bobbed in the water nearby. The scent of salt mingling with jet fuel invaded her senses.
“We need to go now,” he said. “Before we get soaked in fuel.”
Leo began to stroke toward the island. She followed, easily crossing the distance before stumbling to her knees onto the shore beside him. Her hair was still in its rigid knot, but a few wisps had fallen free and snaked around her neck like tentacles. Her makeup was probably streaked and—
Oh, she’d forgotten her purse! She turned and started wading back into the water when strong arms caught her from behind.
“Where are you going?”
“My purse,” she said. “My phone, my identification—”
“It’s too late,” he growled in her ear.
“But it’s not.” She pointed. The plane was still on top of the water, though the nose had begun to sink. It wouldn’t take her a trifle to get out there and back again.
“It’s too dangerous, Anna. Even if the plane wasn’t sinking, the remaining fuel is leaching from it. Besides, was there anything irreplaceable in your purse?”
She wanted to tell him yes, of course there was. Instead, Anna slumped in his grip. “No, nothing irreplaceable.” Just her lip gloss, her hand sanitizer, her headache tablets and her phone with its calendar of all her events.
Events that were sadly lacking lately. Invitations had dried up since Alex had jilted her.
She stifled a hysterical laugh. They’d crashed in the Mediterranean and she was concerned about her calendar? She needed to be thinking about survival, not social engagements.
Leo held her hard against him. She slowly became aware of his heat, of the solidity of his body where it pressed into hers. They were both soaking wet, dripping onto the sand, and she wondered for a moment why the water didn’t sizzle and steam.
Anna put her hand on his where it gripped her beneath the life vest. She wanted to smooth her fingers along his skin, wanted to feel the shape of his hand, the ridges of his knuckles, but instead she loosened his grip and stepped away from him. When she turned, he was looking at her with a kind of laser intensity that made her gut clench in reaction.
Liquid heat flooded her body, her bones. Shakily, she undid the clasp on the vest and shrugged it off. She needed something to do, something that didn’t involve looking at Leo.
His shirt was plastered to his chest, delineating every ridge and curve of smooth muscle. She hadn’t been able to tell from the tuxedo last night, but Leo was in spectacular shape. His father had once been a famous footballer, she recalled, and Leo looked as if he’d spent quite a bit of time on the field himself. He had the leanly muscled form of an athlete.
“We need to find shelter,” he said, and a hard knot formed right below her breastbone. They were stranded, alone, with nothing and no one to help them get home again.
“You were able to tell someone what happened, right?” she said. “They’ll be looking for us soon.”
His expression remained flat. “We were out of radio range. I activated the emergency beacon on the plane. They’ll know approximately where we went down, but it may take some time since they won’t be looking for us yet.”
She turned back toward the plane. “If I had my mobile phone…”
“Doesn’t matter,” he said. “There are no cell towers out here. You’d need a satellite phone to make a call.”
“So we’re stuck.”
“For the time being,” he replied, hefting the orange pack onto his shoulder again.
“How long will we be here, Leo?”
He shrugged. “I really don’t know. Which is why we need to find shelter.”
“What about food? Water? How will we survive if we don’t have water?”
He gave her a long look. “We have enough water for a couple of days, if we ration it. Everything’s in this pack.”
Anna blinked. “You have water?”
“It’s an emergency survival kit, darling. There’s a bit of everything. Dried food, matches, fuel, blankets—enough to survive a few days in the wild.”
He turned and started walking toward the other end of the island where she’d seen the copse of trees. Anna scrambled after him. Her feet were bare since she’d lost her shoes in the sea. She felt a momentary pang for the beautiful suede pumps that were no doubt at the bottom of the Med by now, but it was truly the least of her worries.
Part of the going was rocky, but Anna climbed after Leo and never said a word when the rocks sliced into her feet. She fell behind, but she did not call out. Why should she? He couldn’t disappear. The island was small and she knew where they were headed. But Leo glanced over his shoulder at one point, stopping when she wasn’t right behind him.
He frowned as she approached, his gaze on her feet. “You’ve lost your shoes.”
“They wouldn’t have been much use anyway,” she said. “They were five-inch platforms.”
Her one concession to impracticality.
He closed the distance between them, and then hooked an arm behind her knees and lifted her into his arms before she realized his plan.
“Leo, put me down!”
His face was close to hers. Too close. Oh, heavens. She wanted to tilt her head back, wanted to nuzzle her face into the crook of his neck and breathe in his scent. And then she wanted to lick him.
Heat flashed through her. The hot Mediterranean sun beat down on them from above, but it wasn’t the sun that made her skin prickle or her core melt.
“Once we’re over the rocks,” he said. “I don’t want you cutting your feet.”
“Too late,” she replied.
His coffee-colored eyes were so beautiful as he stared down at her. There was heat in them, and something darker and more intense. Something so elemental it frightened her. “You should have told me sooner.”
“You have the pack,” she said, dropping her gaze. Her heart hammered in her breast. Why did he affect her so much? He was completely, utterly wrong for her. He was the kind of man she should definitely avoid, and yet he thrilled her in ways she’d never expected.
He’s thrilling because he’s dangerous, a voice whispered. Bad boys are always thrilling.
“You barely weigh more than the pack does,” he said. “If it gets too much for me, I’ll put one of you down. Honest.”
He winked on that last, and began striding toward the trees again. Anna clung to him, ashamed, miserable, grateful and oddly excited. She had to wrap her arms around his neck, had to press her face in close to his. His fingers splayed over her rib cage, dangerously close to her breast, and she held her breath for a long moment.
Would he touch her there? Did she want him to? What would she say if he did?
But they reached a sandy area and he set her down again. She tried not to be disappointed as he strode away. The sand felt good on her feet, warm on top and cool if she dug her toes down. She scrambled after Leo, catching him right as he reached the trees.
It was cooler here, and the ground was flat and somewhat sandy. Leo kept walking until he found a spot he liked, and then he set the pack down and opened it. Anna watched in amazement as he pulled out a variety of items—heavy-duty plastic sheeting with grommets, a knife and rope—before he stood and began to peel the wet shirt from his body.
If she’d thought the navy shirt molded his chest, she’d had no idea what molding meant until he stood there in a wet T-shirt and jeans. But then he yanked the T-shirt off and his chest was bare and tanned. Her gaze dropped, halted in surprise. He had a dragon tattoo low on his abdomen—
Anna gulped. And turned away. Automatically she reached for her pearls, relieved they were still there as her fingers toyed with them.
“Do I make you nervous?” Leo asked from behind her. She could hear the laughter in his voice. Deliberately she turned, dropping her hand away from her neck. Calm, cool.
“Of course not,” she said.
He winked. “Good. Because I’m afraid the jeans are next, darling. Can’t abide wet clothing.”
Anna held her breath as his long fingers flicked open the button of his jeans. She couldn’t have looked away if her life depended on it. Tanned fingers slipped between the waistband and his skin, and then he was pushing the jeans down. Her heart kicked up as his hip bones appeared, and then the elastic waist of his underwear. Armani, she thought crazily. It said so on the band.
But she forgot all about it as the jeans slid down his long, strong legs, revealing tanned skin and acres of muscle. Anna couldn’t breathe. Her lungs simply wouldn’t fill. Had she ever seen a man as beautiful, as strong and lean and muscled, as this one?
Could this day be any more surreal? Just a few minutes ago, they’d been fully clothed strangers. And now they were marooned together and Leo was stripping out of his clothing.
“Keep staring, darling, and the show is bound to get more interesting,” Leo said, his voice a growling purr that slid over her nerve endings and made her shudder.
“I’ve seen naked men before,” she said with a sniff. “You can’t shock me.”
It was only a small lie: the naked man she’d seen had been on a video, not standing before her looking so vibrant and sexy that she physically hurt from looking at him. Leo wasn’t wearing any less than a man might wear while swimming, and yet her insides were twisting and squeezing in a way they never had at the sight of a random man in a Speedo at the pool.
“Is that so?” he asked.
“Definitely.” But her limbs felt weak.
Leo shook his head, laughing softly. “Come along then, Anna. Get out of your wet things and help me set up this shelter.”
Astonishment riveted her to the spot. He wanted her to remove her clothes? She’d not thought of it before, but now it seemed as if her soaked suit clung to her uncomfortably. Her skin felt cool and clammy under the fabric, though Leo’s had looked hot and silky when he’d removed his clothing.
Leo strode over to her and began to gently push her jacket from her shoulders. “Come on, Anna, it’s all right. You’ve had a shock. Let’s get you out of these wet things. I’ll put everything in the sun and it’ll be dry again in no time. You can armor yourself behind your buttoned-up clothing quite soon, I promise.”
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