Blind Ambition by Gwen Hernandez Read Free Book Online Page A

shoulders. “This should help keep you warm.”
    She huddled into the crinkly sheet and watched him.
    Once he was done unloading his bag, he began alternating between squats and pushups. Surely he wasn’t trying to show off for her, though she was mesmerized by the sight. “What are you doing?”
    “Warming up,” he said, without looking her way. He did a few more sets of each before stopping.
    She wished she had the strength to follow his lead. Using her large muscle groups like that would turn her body into a furnace in no time. Instead, the light breeze chased goosebumps across her skin. She brought her knees to her chest so she could wrap the blanket more tightly around herself. With any luck, their clothes would dry quickly, especially once the sun came up. From the looks of the brilliant orange-and-blue sky, it wouldn’t be long.
    “You’re still cold,” Dan said, moving toward her, his skin already dry.
    She shrugged. “A little.” And tired. Some of it from lack of sleep and the physical and mental exhaustion of her ordeal, some of it probably from dehydration. “The sun will help.”
    He looked down at her, his hazel eyes serious. “Let me help.”
    She hesitated. His touch sparked so many feelings she didn’t know how to handle. “Okay.” Pride—and her heart—be damned, she wouldn’t turn down his much-needed source of warmth.
    She handed him the blanket.
    Sitting behind her, he scooted forward until his thighs brushed her hips. Her stomach danced as he pressed his solid chest to her back and wrapped his arms and legs around her, then covered them both with the blanket. Magnificent heat radiated from his skin everywhere they touched, and she sighed as her head fell back against his shoulder.
    “Thank you,” she whispered, as her muscles relaxed. Her eyes closed as she eased into his embrace, on the verge of sleep.
    “Look at that,” he said, his warm breath on her ear.
    She opened her eyes. The sun was a fiery sliver on the horizon, shooting rays of pink and orange across the sky as it rose to light a path on the sea. Under different circumstances, this moment would have been one of pure joy. Being held by this man, overlooking the beach on a lovely tropical island as the sun rose over the horizon. It didn’t get any better than that.
    Too bad it was nothing but an illusion.

CHAPTER FOUR

    AN HOUR LATER, DAN WAS still trying to shake the feeling of Alexa in his arms—twice in one morning—as he tugged on his pants. Her clothes were lightweight and had dried quickly in the breeze, but his cargo pants were still damp along the seams and pockets.
    His shirt was in good shape, though. It was made of sweat-wicking polyester that held onto the stink, but dried fast. Not that it really mattered. Once they started moving again, he’d be warm, wet or not.
    “You hungry?” he asked, digging a couple of CLIF bars from his bag and holding them up. “Waterproof.”
    From the sunny rock where she’d perched after getting dressed, she gave him a smile that lit her tired, bruised face, and reached for one of the bars. “You must have been a Boy Scout.”
    “No, ma’am, just a PJ.”
    Her smile faded and she nodded before ripping open the package. “Why’d you get out?” she asked, and took a bite.
    Now there was a subject he didn’t want to cover. Not with her. “It was time,” he said, opening his own bar and chomping down, hoping she’d get the hint. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was, and his stomach growled for more. “I know you’re not in great shape to walk today, but we need to find a boat that can get us out to the yacht, while avoiding the SIR fighters.”
    She shook her head. “Dan, I really can’t leave the island. I know you think I’m just being stubborn or have some kind of inflated sense of my own value to Hygiea here, but that’s not it.”
    He gave her a hard look. Her reasons had better be fucking good. “Then explain it to me,” he said, unable to keep anger