Up In Flames by Lori Foster Read Free Book Online

three seconds, then kicked sand at him and stalked off.
    “A repeat performance, Mel!” he shouted to her retreating back. “You keep playing the same scene—get mad and walk away. Only here, there’s no place to walk to.”
    “Go to hell,” she yelled without turning.
    She took off at a furious trot, and she was nearly out of sight around a cove heavy with mangrove trees when Adam decided he’d have to apologize “Mel? Come on, Mel, wait up.”
    No answer. Grabbing his bag, he headed after her, calling her name. “Mel!”
    The sun hung low in the sky, a heavy red ball turning the water in the cove crimson with its reflection.
    He picked up his pace, his injured head pounding with every step, then almost ran into her when he rounded the bend she’d taken. “Damn it, you could have...”
    His words dropped off. Ahead of them, some hundred yards up the beach, was a house. Well, sort of a house, more like a ratty shack. It was almost in the ocean because of the eroded shoreline. Exposed pilings beneath the structure showed how precariously it stood, and to Adam’s mind exemplified the seriousness of their situation. If folks were anywhere about, they would have knocked such a dangerous eyesore down. Oh, they were stranded, all right. He wondered how often, if ever, people visited this damn island.
    He took a step forward just as Mel took one back, closer to his side. “Do you think anyone is around?” she asked in a whisper, and he realized she was nervous. And in being nervous, she’d automatically come to him. The man.
    He felt like Tarzan, ready to defend her against all predators. He wasn’t rich, but for now, he was all she had. He grinned with the image. “Come on. Let’s go exploring.”
    He led her to the front door of the house, but the steps were broken and separated from the main structure by the shift of the land. He set his bag on the sand and said in his best macho voice, “You probably should wait here.”
    “Adam, be careful.” She fretted behind him, twisting her hands. “You don’t know what could be inside there.”
    Wild boars? He grinned and glanced at her while shoving the door open—and got bombarded by a flurry of large flying insects.
    Startled, Adam yelled, then fell backward into the sand, hitting his head once again.

CHAPTER FOUR
    Melanie ran halfway down the beach before she realized what a coward she’d been. The bugs, giant roaches of some kind, were gone, their dark cloud moving far away.
    Adam still lay where he’d landed, and she grew immediately concerned. She sprinted toward him. “Adam!” She came to a rushing halt beside his prone body, accidentally kicking sand over his chest and shoulders. He looked like a downed warrior in his headband and dark, snug underwear, with the rest of his magnificent, tanned body bare. She took a moment to observe him unaware, grew even more breathless, then shook herself.
    Her pulse racing at Mach speed, she knelt gingerly beside him. “Adam?”
    He groaned.
    Her heart seemed to drop to the pit of her stomach. “Oh, thank God. Are you all right?” She cradled his head on her lap and touched his jaw. “Adam, can you answer me?”
    He cocked one eye open, stared at her breast near to his face and closed his eye again. “Nice, Mel, real nice.”
    “Adam,” she warned.
    “No, don’t slug me. There’s already a rusty marching band playing on my brain.” He sighed, then added, “Oh, hell, I feel like a fool.”
    Stroking his jaw and chin, she asked, “Why?”
    “It was just a few bugs, Mel.”
    “Ha! They were giant cockroach-looking bugs, and I almost fainted!”
    “Yeah, well, having grown up by the river, I’ve seen plenty of bugs.”
    She shuddered. “Not me.”
    “I know.” He made a smirking face, as if it was a crime not to have lived with bugs. Then he added, “But don’t pass out on me here, because I’m not up to lugging your dead weight up and down this damn beach.”
    Only the very real pain she could