Read Wicked Games for Free Online Page B

have fallen asleep at some point – I started awake when I felt something warm and heavy touch my feet. “What—“
    “Take my blanket,” Dean said in a gruff voice, shoving it onto my legs. “Your teeth are chattering so hard I can’t sleep.”
    I hadn’t realized how cold I was until he’d tossed the blanket over me, and I snuggled under it gratefully. “What about you?” I asked sleepily. “My shelter isn’t big enough for both of us.”
    “Don’t worry about me. I can’t sleep anyhow,” Dean said, and I heard him walking away.
    Morning came when I could no longer deny the gnawing hollow of my stomach with sleep. I crawled out of my shelter, coconut in hand, staring blearily up at the sky. Still morning, but not early. The sun was high.
    Dean sat a distance away on the sand, his shoulders rolled slightly as he hunched over something. He looked...tired. Even from this angle. It gave me a twinge of guilt to see that, and I approached slowly with my coconut in hand. Part of me wanted to hide it, but he’d been generous enough to share his blanket with me – the least I could do is offer to share my food.
    If I had to.
    He didn’t glance over at me as I approached, fixated on his task, and I peered over his shoulder. He had sticks in hand, his shoelaces tied to a bowed stick and was trying to rub them together to make fire. He was doing it completely wrong. Judging from the sweat on his forehead, he’d also been at it for a while.
    My stomach growled and I decided to skip pointing out the obvious, moving around him and looking for the axe. It sat on the far side of his left leg, half covered in sand a few feet away, and I moved to pick it up. “Morning.”
    He grunted something that might have been a hello, not looking up from his task. With the bow and string, he sawed back and forth on another stick of wood, obviously trying to make fire. Doing a damned pitiful job of it too.
    I hefted the axe and examined my coconut, trying to determine the best way to open it. I had no friggin clue. After a moment, my hunger won out and I simply dropped it on the ground a fair distance away and lifted the axe.
    “You’re going to hurt yourself,” Dean said behind me. “Especially if you hold the axe like that.”
    I bristled at that and turned to glare at him. “I’m starving and this coconut is going into my stomach in the next five minutes, or I am going to have to go after small woodland creatures with this axe. Got it?”
    I could have sworn that his mouth twitched at that. “I saw the other coconut you left out for me last night – thanks.” He stood up and brushed the sand off of his swim trunks and moved over to stand beside me, his hand out for the axe. “Let me do it.”
    A scowl touched my face, and I glared at him even harder, hugging the axe to me. “Is this some sort of macho bullshit?”
    “No, this is a I-really-don’t-want-to-have-to-bandage-you-up sort of bullshit. It took me forever to figure out how to crack mine open, and your hands are shaking. Now give it to me or you’re going to hurt yourself.”
    Reluctantly, I handed over the axe. He had a point, and my hands were indeed shaking like leaves. I moved back a couple of feet so he could split open my coconut for me, but still hovered nearby, watching closely. I didn’t want to take my eyes from it, for fear that this was a trick and he’d run off and eat my food.
    But it seemed that I was more suspicious than he was. With easy, sure movements, he peeled the green husk from the coconut and used one tip of the axe to chop a hole at the top of the coconut, and then held it out to me. “Drink that. When you’re done drinking it, I’ll crack it open for you.”
    With overjoyed fingers, I snatched the nut from his hands and raised it to my mouth. The first sweet mouthful touched my lips and I wanted to pass out at the sheer heaven of it. Wet and sugary, it was the best thing I’d ever tasted. I took another thirsty gulp and then