Stranded With The Billionaire by Brynn Paulin

Chapter Eleven

~ Lily ~

I avoided the water and found myself scanning the waves regularly for the large, dark shapes or telltale fins. In the weeks since Silas had plucked me from the water, I hadn’t seen them again, and now, I even braved the shallow water from time to time. I never went deeper than my knees, though, saving my swimming for our inland lagoon.

“What’s the first thing you want to do when we’re rescued?” I asked. We’d been here two months now, and I knew both our spirits were flagging. There were times Silas’ eyes took on a haunted look, and I wondered if he was starting to give up hope we’d be found. Considering we had a rescue beacon, nine weeks was a long time. We were two needles in an Everest-sized haystack.

He didn’t say anything for a long beat. His finger drew circles in the sand where we sat, watching the sunset.

“Make love to you in a bed,” he replied. “And get you in front of an officiant to legalize our marriage, so no one can think about taking you away from me. Not necessarily in that order.”

“You know I’m yours, right? I won’t run off just because I have the means.”

“I’d chase after you.” He didn’t look at me, and his words were without fire. I knew he meant them, but I got the feeling he’d started to think it was a moot point, that there was no need to worry because we weren’t getting off this island.

My hand settled on my stomach as I considered it. We’d been here nine weeks and had been sexually active together for six of it. Silas might not have noticed, but I hadn’t had a period in all that time. As the days passed, I’d held in the terror of it. I definitely was not ready for a Blue Lagoon-esque, wilderness birth, with zero medical care before or during the birth. Those were the consequences I’d tempted by being with him, and every day, it became clearer to me that we were having a child.

I hadn’t been sick, and I wasn’t showing a baby bump, but no period and sensitive breasts were pretty suspicious. My hand dropped to the sand at my side when Silas looked at me.

“What about you?” he asked.

“What about me?”

“What’s the first thing you want to do?”

“Hot shower. I want a hot, hot, long shower, with soft towels and lots of soap.” I sighed at the thought. A steamy shower would be grand.

“You’d like the shower in our master bath. Multiple, surround heads. An instant heater so you don’t run out of hot water.”

“Mmm, heaven.”

“And after that?”

“Is it weird that I’m really craving broccoli?” I made a face when I said it, and Silas laughed.

“I’m sure broccoli can be arranged. Might be from frozen.”

“Don’t care. Oh! Speaking of frozen. Ice cream,” I moaned.

“Flavor?”

“Vanilla. Is that boring?”

“I like vanilla. Have you had cinnamon? That’s my favorite.”

“Oh my God, cinnamon? That sounds ah-ma-zing! I want cinnamon.”

He laughed again, hugging me to him and lying back, pulling me over him. “My chef makes it homemade. She’ll definitely be your supplier.” He pushed the hair back from my face then cupped my cheeks, staring up at me. “We will be rescued, love.”

I thought maybe he said that as much for himself as for me. “I know. We just have to keep faith.”

“We do. I made you something.”

“You did?” I asked, startled by his change of direction.

“Yep.” He sat us up again and placed me beside him once more before he reached in his pocket. “I’ve been working for weeks to get it smooth enough.”

To my surprise, he slipped a delicate wood ring onto my left hand. My eyes widened, peering at it as my thumb ran along the surface. “You made me a ring?” I asked in disbelief. “Thank you.”

“I wanted you to have more than my words. I’ll get you a gold one as soon as I can, but…”

“I love it. Thank you,” I repeated, holding up my hand to study the band in the dim light. I smiled as I caressed it, touched by his gesture.

“You’re welcome.” He pulled me back to his lap, my back against his chest and his arms around me. His fingers splayed over my belly for a moment, and I wondered if he suspected, too. Then they moved and settled on my thigh. And I hoped he didn’t know. I didn’t want him to have one more thing to worry over. Not yet. We both had our share of concerns, but I knew he felt responsible for me, and that was a heavy enough burden to bear.

“Stella,” I said suddenly to take his thoughts back to other things, just in case. “I want to call Stella. That’s my best friend.”

“Not your parents?”

“Um, hell to the no. I mean, I guess I will need to talk to them—they’re my parents—but it’ll be an unpleasant conversation. Either they’ll yell at me for running off and not bending toward their will, or it will be a terribly fake show of concern. And when I say show, I mean a performance in the truest form. They’re probably milking this in the media. It’s embarrassing to even imagine.” I shook my head. “I shouldn’t say that about my parents, I guess. You’re probably shocked.”

“Not after what you’ve told me. And that only solidified what I already knew. You know I had your background checked.”

“No…I didn’t know, but I guess that makes sense since I was going to be working for you, and with children, too.”

“That’s not why. I wanted to know everything about you.”

“You don’t think that put you at an unfair advantage?”

“How do you think I got to be a billionaire? I operate with the unfair advantage of having all the facts.”

“I suppose. I still don’t like the idea of you poking around in my secrets.”

His hand stole up my thigh and under the skirt of my sundress to cup my sex. “Not your secrets… just your secret places,” he said, turning us so I was under him. My legs parted naturally, so he could settle between.

“Mmm,” I hummed, gripping his biceps. “Explore away, sir.”

* * * *

~ Lily ~

“Hello?”

Silas went stiff beside me then shot upright, his gaze swinging toward the entrance to the cabin.

“Hello? Anyone there?” a second, male voice called, unfamiliar but distinctly American.

“Is that…” I started to ask as realization settled in, and I popped up, too. Butterflies took off in my belly as excitement overwhelmed me. “Oh my God! Silas. Rescuers.”

“Maybe,” he said quietly, holding me in place on the bed when I moved to stand. “Stay in here,” he ordered, then he got up and pulled on his pants. “Get dressed. I’ll be back.”

“But—”

“Please, Lily. Let me go check it’s safe.”

It had to be safe! Oh my God, we were getting rescued! We’d get to go home. I wouldn’t be having this baby in the middle of nowhere with no medical care. Baby… Would Silas want that once we got back to civilization or would he have other plans? Getting off the island put my thoughts about being pregnant in a different perspective for the first time. We’d have no choice if we were here, but what would his choice be when we had options?

“Lily?” he prompted when I didn’t respond.

“Okay,” I replied, seeing the desperate plea in his eyes. He needed my safety above all, even though there was no way for him to guarantee it against this unknown. If they were foes not friends, we had no weapons.

He kissed me quickly then headed for the door. Opening it slowly, he peered out through a crack before he made a decision and stepped outside. The door closed firmly behind him. I stared at it for a moment before I hurriedly pulled on my undergarments. Shorts and a T-shirt followed while I strained to hear any conversation through the open windows.

“Hi,” I heard Silas say, that single syllable tense to my ears.

“Hello,” one of the men replied. “Good. There is someone here, then. American. And alive. Good. Is anyone with you?”

“You are?” Silas asked, rather than answering the question.

“Dispatch from the US Navy. Our ship lookout saw your SOS flag. A fluke really. We were sent to investigate. Our crew had been informed there was…well, someone, missing.”

I supposed the man didn’t want to reveal who had been reported missing, so he could test Silas and see who he spoke with.

“Me. I’ve been missing,” Silas said. “Silas Rutherford from Blue Water Plantation. My boat capsized during a storm a couple months ago.”

“And Ms. Slater?”

I didn’t hear Silas’ response, but the door opened, and he was there peering in at me. Probably to see if I was dressed or not. He pushed it open farther then reached out a hand. I took it, going immediately to his side after his warm fingers closed around mine. He hugged me close to him, and I leaned into him while studying the sailors in their camo uniforms. They were both tall, tanned and fit. Young, maybe around my age. One was blond; the other dark-haired.

“As you can see, my woman is fine, too.”

The two soldiers glanced at each other, but their faces didn’t reveal their thoughts. The look alone told me Silas’ words surprised them.

“His fiancée for all intents,” I supplied, not calling Silas my husband since I knew they wouldn’t understand the vows we’d spoken to one another. I glanced up at him, hoping he understood that.

“We were told another, um, fiancé is looking for you, Ms. Slater.”

My gaze whipped back to them. I felt Silas go solid beside me, his grip around me tightening. “There’s not,” I insisted. “Whoever he claims to be, he’s not my fiancé. Never has been.”

“Okay. Well, we’d like to take you back to the ship,” the dark-haired sailor said. His name strip had Symbello embroidered on it. The other man walked a few paces from them and spoke into his radio. “Do you have anything you need to take with you?”

Silas looked at me. “We can leave everything. I’ll get you new.”

I shook my head. “I want my books.”

He rolled his eyes. “Oh, your books.”

“And my dress.”

His gaze softened, apparently realizing the garment I wanted was the white sundress from our sunset vows. “Go get it,” he said softly.

I looked at the soldier who still stood with us. “It’s really not a lot. I’ll only be a minute.”

Hurrying inside, I grabbed Silas’ small satchel and shoved in the five world-war-II-era books I’d found. Then I grabbed my folded dress and put it inside too. So excited to leave, yet feeling a little bittersweet, I glanced around to see if there was anything else I wanted to take. Nothing really. I had the little wood ring on my finger, and Silas was all I really wanted, anyway.

My hand pressed momentarily over my stomach, remembering I was probably taking another memory of the island with me. Yesterday, it had terrified me. Now, I hoped it was true, that I was pregnant with a child from the man I loved. For the first time, I prayed it was so. I wanted his baby badly.

There was nothing else I wanted to take with me. Returning to Silas, I laced my fingers through his, and he took my bag. He slung it over his shoulder. His head tilted, and he smiled down at me. His blue eyes sparkled with the happiness that had been fading the past few weeks. I was so glad to see its return.

“Ready to go home?” he asked.

Home… I bit my lip and nodded, warmth and anticipation filling me. “Yes.”

He brought his lips to my ear. “Time to start the rest of our lives,” he whispered.

I couldn’t wait. With Silas’ arm around my waist, we headed to the beach where a small raft-like craft waited with two other soldiers. They helped me aboard, then Silas followed and took a seat next to me. The original sailors we’d encountered stepped in too. We pulled away to speed across the water toward a large blur in the distance.

My head swiveled, and I looked over my shoulder, watching the island grow smaller as we headed away. It had been home, my place with Silas. I looked at him, considering the new home we’d have together.

“You okay?” he asked, squeezing my hand.

I nodded, and he grinned, the tenderness in his gaze filling me with security and oneness once more. I wasn’t going home. Silas was home. I was already there.