Island Rush (Sample)

Chapter 13

He slid his hands to my stomach from where he sat behind me, leaving paths of shivers as he untied the ripped shirt acting as a belt. He pulled it out from under my arms along with the other shirt it had been holding. It left my back bare, except my bra, and I allowed for the nerves to kick in. Mr. Rush promised to keep his mouth shut, but that was before I could feel the tension in the air as he looked over the scars.

When he first helped me with my cut, he saw my back in full view. Sure, a lot of my back has been exposed since then. Just not like this. I had the belt to hide a lot of the marks, and now, they were exposed. It made me very conscious of myself for many reasons. Like I said before, I didn't need him getting overly curious and asking questions. However, I now realized that my self-consciousness was returning too, like how it was with not brushing my hair or shaving, this was one more thing. I have come to care about what he thought of me — in all aspects. He said Jill was beautiful, but I always did wonder how far off I was from her.

Silence followed for a long moment as I felt him stare at my back. Did he forget how bad my cut was? Or did he just forget how disgusting were the scars my dad left? "Well? How does the cut look?" I pushed, not being able to put up with the silence.

"The cut looks a lot better, but it still has some healing to do. You won't need the belt anymore for it, though," he answered as he crawled into my view. He sat in front of me, the gross shirt from my cut in his hand. I glanced at his face, searching for a reaction at him seeing my back. All I could see was worry though and... anger? I wasn't sure, but I let it go.

Fabric in hand, he inched back a bit so he could take my bare leg and stretch it over his lap. He let my foot rest on his lap as he examined the cut. I was surprised to see the cut was longer than I thought. That surprise though quickly shifted when I felt something I never dreamed of.

Mr. Rush's hand slid up my leg and under my thigh, holding it up with one hand so he could angle my foot with his other hand. I tried to compose my face in time. Otherwise, it would be clear how I felt about his touch. Before he even looked up, though, he took the shirt and slid my foot through the neck hole and started from there. Sliding his hand back down from my thigh, he began to wrap the shirt around my foot. He buried my cut beneath the material and took the last of it between his fingers. I watched him tie it to where he started. It looked like a shoe with how it was completely wrapped around my foot.

After he had set that foot aside, I noticed he hadn't once glanced up to me. The man's eyes stayed down as he leaned forward, his hands caressing the side of my thigh. Before he could do the same thing with my other foot, his eyes couldn't help but finally flicker up to mine. It made my heart jump because they looked sad at first and sorry. Then, surprise took them over. I knew why too.

He caught my reaction to his touch that I hadn't anticipated. He saw just how much I loved this. Before anything else could happen, his eyes flew back down. My own widened. I wanted to scream that what he saw wasn't my attraction to him in full view, but that would give it away.

I expected him to turn stiff with his movements, but he acted as if we didn't share that look. He just went to work with my other cut. Since he used my shirt for the last foot, he was using the shirt used as the belt for this one. As he held up my thigh, his hand seemed to slide up slightly further when he placed my foot in his lap. His hand slid down when he started to wrap the fabric around the cut. Just as intense was the silence between us. He probably didn't know what to say, whether or not to confirm to me he saw it or not. Instead, he looked up at me and smiled nicely, as if nothing happened. The silence must have been getting to him too.

"You know, if we ever get back, we can laugh at the world of medicine. Doctors go to college for years and get paid ungodly amounts of money. Just get stranded on an island for free and come out a doctor in days. Seems like the better deal," he joked with a smile that dissolved the tension crackling between us. It made me laugh for a change as he continued wrapping my foot up. That little bit of laughter was enough to make his hands unsteady.