Unseen Messages(63)

“Is that a challenge?”

I leaned closer, our noses almost touching. “Do you want it to be?”

“A challenge of letting you kiss me?”

I shook my head. “No, a challenge of making you fall in love with me.”





Chapter Twenty-Three


...............................................

E S T E L L E

......

A door closes, a window opens.

A window closes, a car arrives.

A car stops, a plane flies.

A plane lands, a helicopter soars.

A helicopter crashes, life ends.

Life ends, a new world begins.

A new world ends, a person evolves.

A person evolves and finds

fear

terror

hunger

questions

desperation

struggle and strife and sadness

true happiness.

Taken from the notepad of E.E.

...

MY SKIN BURNED.

Not from too much sun or getting too close to the fire.

But from him.

I burned.

Everywhere.

Galloway’s lips still tormented my flesh, even though minutes had passed since he’d kissed my neck, my collarbone...my ear.

I was starving.

For both food and him.

I was confused.

For both help and privacy.

I was hurting.

For both rescue and desire.

Two extremes.

Both as strong as the other.

“No, a challenge of making you fall in love with me.”

Galloway’s voice repeated over and over, spindling my heart until it became a blur.

Who felt like this? Who willingly let sex fill their mind when they’d been helicopter-wrecked with no way of being free?

Me, apparently.

I’d become someone I didn’t like. Someone who let her needs control her rather than common sense.

My stomach growled, taking centre stage with rumbling cymbals.

At least, I had another need. One more acceptable in our current condition.

Hunger.

I couldn’t stop looking at the messenger bag full of delicious clams. My body demanded I fall to my knees, crack open a shell, and slurp out the raw meat that very second.

But no matter how it pressured me, the other type of starving never let me go.

The sexual type.

A desperation that had no business here. I had to focus on staying alive. How was my body even capable of wasting energy on such silly things? Why did my heart torture itself whenever Galloway looked at me? And why, when faced with a bag full of dinner or a man who promised he’d make me fall in love with him, did I want him more than food?

He made me glow.

His eyes held rescue and freedom and safety, placing me on a pedestal I had no right to occupy.

He looks at me as if he’s unworthy.

I trembled as my thoughts careened. Who was he? What was his story? Why did he remind me of a fallen seed: closed off and unapproachable on the outside but bursting with the most beautiful ready-to-bloom oak tree on the inside?

Stop it, Estelle. This isn’t scripture for your notebook. This isn’t a song. This is real life. Pay attention and survive it!

Galloway moved away, a sad smile on his lips. Sad? Why was he sad? He’d just admitted he was up to the challenge of making me fall in love with him.

Here.

On this island.

He spoke of finding love amongst palm trees and empty beaches.

So why did the frown never leave his forehead? Why did the darkness never leave his eyes?

Stop it!

“So...how did you create this cheery blaze?” Galloway asked, slapping Conner on the back as he hobbled past. His eyes locked onto the salvaged fuselage, plans already forming on his face like blueprints.

Conner winked, exuding happiness. And he should be happy. We had water to drink, food to eat, and fire to cook with.

This was a trifecta of happiness.

“With your glasses, geek boy.” He ducked as Galloway ruffled his hair.

“What did you just call me?”

“Geek boy. And we didn’t have a lighter, so your glasses had to do.”

“So my glasses were a consolation prize.”

“What would’ve been first place?” Conner asked.

“A lighter. But I’m not a smoker.”

I drifted forward, nabbing Pippa as she beelined for the clams. Her eyes seemed too big for her face, hungry hungry hungry.

I cracked a cynical grin. “Funny how a habit that would’ve killed you in the future might’ve saved us today.”

Galloway smiled. “You have a point.” We shared another heated look.

He watched me as if I were some mystical creature, not a girl who had no idea what she was doing. Everything I’d achieved so far was from pure luck and determination—not skill.

I hugged Pippa, using her as my shield. “We should eat.”

“Yes. Food.” Pippa squirmed out of my arms, plucking two clams and bashing them together.

I glanced at our dwindling woodpile. Now that we’d created the fire, we had to keep it fed.

Ourselves, too.

I pinched the clams from Pippa’s eager fingers. “You can’t eat them raw, Pip.”

Pippa strained to take them back. “They’re mine. I found them first.” Her angry eyes met Galloway’s. “I did, didn’t I, G? Tell her. I want them.”