[Invitation to Eden 21.0] Falling or Flying (3 page)

The island knows…

Shut up
, she told the voice in her head firmly.
Just…shut up
.

Joely stepped away from the desk and pushed her hair out of her face, walking backward toward the door. “Oz has spoken,” she intoned dramatically, offering him a formal bow. “But so we’re clear, this face you’re seeing right now? This is my disapproving face. It’s also my I’ll-get-you-and-your-little-dog-too face. Be afraid, big guy, because you never know when I might strike. When your dream date gets here I might—
Whoa
.”

When she stumbled and grabbed her stomach, Vardalos stood up abruptly and circled the desk to reach her. “Joely? What is it? Are you sick?”

Joely shook her head, unable to respond. That was big. That was a seven-point-five on the Richter scale. She could count on a single hand how many times her feelings had been that strong.

Someone is coming.
Joely looked into Theodosius Vardalos’ eyes and forced herself not to smile, forgetting about her own worries for a minute and silently celebrating the knowledge.

Maybe
that
was what the island had been trying to tell her all morning. It wasn’t about Austin at all, or her reaction to him. He and his friend would be too busy with each other to pay much attention to her. She’d bring extra liquor just in case to help distract them. This flight would be the same as the hundred that had come before. She would see them to the island and get ready for the next hundred. And the next. Life would go on as usual.

It isn’t about me, is it? It’s about him. Someone is coming for Vardalos
.

His fantasy was about to come true.

Joely was flying. It was the only time she felt truly free. When she was ten, Uncle Artie had taken her up in his red-and-white Cessna for her first lesson and she’d decided this was her place. Up here she was untouchable. The rest of the world disappeared and she could outmaneuver any problem, outrace any storm Mother Nature decided to throw her way.

Flying was better than key lime pie. Better than sex. It was every good Christmas, every rollercoaster ride and every happy thought she’d ever had rolled into one. Why would she want to do anything else? Sometimes, she almost believed she could touch the stars.

Stars. Wait, how could there be stars in the middle of the day?

Bright lights were all around her, swirling faster and faster until the plane dropped away and she was falling. She saw the island below her, watched the water crash against the shore, the whitecaps scrabbling for purchase with grasping hands.

Eden was spinning too. Like an oddly shaped top in the water, the island whirled, sending out rippling waves in all directions. How could an island spin? And why was she not wearing a parachute? She would never jump out of a plane toward a spinning island without a parachute.

As she neared the earth, Joely saw a small beach of white sand littered with pieces of luggage and people. She’d never seen this part of the island before, had she? She thought she’d studied it from one tip to the other but this didn’t look familiar. The beach disappeared into a thickly wooded area where there were no resort buildings. No lovers groping in the clearings. No signs of life at all.

But there was life by the water. Two men were crawling on the beach toward a slender woman who appeared to be unconscious. One of them felt her pulse—she was so still Joely didn’t blame him. The other gripped her shoulders and gave them a gentle shake. When there was no response, he shook her again, harder this time.

Joely wanted to scream down at them—not just to tell them shaking was a horrible way to wake a potentially injured person, but to warn them she was about to come crashing down right on top of them like a meteor in khaki shorts and none of them would survive long enough to tell the tale. Then she saw the man who’d felt the woman’s pulse raise his hand and slap her face.

Joely gasped in shock, her cheek stinging as she opened her eyes to look up at the worried faces above her. “What the hell?”

“Joely?” She knew that voice. Smoky, sexy and tight with concern. Austin Wright. “Thank God you’re okay. Can you sit up, baby?”

Her instinctive frown at the endearment made the other man laugh, the carefree sound drawing her gaze. The shock of red hair on his head matched the bright strands in his brown beard and enhanced the deep blue of his eyes. She’d seen his face before.

“You slapped me.”

His lips curved. “And now you’re awake. You’re welcome. I suppose I could have kissed you instead…baby.”

“Thank you, I’m good.” She lifted her hand to her cheek. His name was strange. What was it? Courtney. Court.

Court Stiles and Austin Wright. These were her passengers. Her passengers…

Her plane.

“Wanda.” She pushed herself up onto her elbows and looked around frantically. Where the hell was her plane? “What happened? Where’s my puddle jumper?”

“Well hell, Mary Ann. We just woke up ourselves. We were hoping you could tell us, since you’re the pilot. Or was I dreaming that part?”

Mary Ann. She’d never heard that one before, she thought sarcastically.

“Lay off, Court.” Austin slid a warm hand under her elbow and helped her to her feet. Joely was forced to lean against him long enough to realize that he smelled really damn good before she took a few wavering steps away. “Give her a chance to get her bearings. Give us all a damn chance.”

But how could she get her bearings? She had no idea where they were or how they’d gotten here. No idea where the plane was or why she felt like she’d been slipped a Mickey. She ran a hand through her hair and turned to face the redhead. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

He scratched his beard thoughtfully, blue eyes still sparkling with amusement. “Sexual tension.” When Austin swore, the man shrugged. “She asked, buddy. That’s what I remember. I flirted outrageously and in case you’ve forgotten, she liked it. Mr. Serious here glared at me whenever he could look away from your lovely thighs, and then there was this big dark—”

“The cloud,” Joely interrupted, remembering. She’d been thoroughly enjoying the humor and sexual banter of her passenger, Court Stiles. Particularly the way it seemed to get under Austin’s skin. And she could tell it really did. He’d been thrown to see the man, and even more surprised when his bearded friend waved an invitation in his face after Austin accused him of being a stowaway.

Court had relished Austin’s discomfort so much, but in such a playful way, that Joely couldn’t help but like him instantly. Mr. Wright hadn’t seemed happy about that either.

Serves him right
, she’d told herself. Austin had spent their previous flights driving
her
crazy, somehow ensuring he was her only passenger so he could give her his full attention. Ensuring she had no one else to distract her from the sound of his smoky voice or the feel of his appreciative gaze making its endless study of her. Guaranteeing her cockpit would smell like his soap and that subtle, masculine scent that was unique to him.

It was fun to drive him nutty for a change. And Mr. Stiles was a handsome and irreverent partner in crime. Taller than Austin by a head, he looked more like an MMA fighter than a member of the Vardalos and Wright social circles, and he was entertaining company. Between that and the still-fresh knowledge of her grumpy boss’s impending fall down the fantasy rabbit hole, her mood had taken a decided upswing.

Then everything had changed just ten minutes from the island. The sky ahead of them had turned dark and threatening with an unexpected line of storm clouds. Her instruments started to fritz, and no matter how she maneuvered, she couldn’t find her heading. One minute blue sky, the next…

Court lifted one muscular shoulder in a careless shrug. “I was going to say alien mother ship, but if you’re going to get technical, then yes, a big, dark cloud. You tried to fly around it but there didn’t seem to be an end to the thing. We flew inside and
boom
—instant beach nap. Austin told me this place was different, but I’ve got to say leis and hula dancers are a more enticing welcome than alien abductions. Just my personal preference.”

“We don’t do aliens.” She looked up, shielding her eyes. Bright and sunny. If there’d been a storm, it had passed. How long had she been unconscious? Had they crashed in the ocean and washed to shore? She touched her black work shirt and bit her lip. It didn’t feel like it had spent hours in the salty deep—it was still as soft as when she’d pulled it from the dryer this morning. This was making less and less sense. If they hadn’t crashed in the water, where the hell was her plane? How was she supposed to get them back where they belonged? She needed to call her boss.

Joely slid a hand into her pocket, reaching for her cell phone.

It was gone. Of course it was gone. This day was officially awful again. And she was too frazzled to sense anything.

“Do either of you have a phone?”

“I do.” Austin reached into the nearest bag and pulled out his device, lifting it over his head for a moment and moving in a slow circle before swearing. “No signal, damn it. Nothing. This is
not
how I imagined this day going.”

Joely walked away from them to the edge of the beach, the water lapping against her boots. She felt a little like she’d lost a family member. Thinking about the small plane Vardalos had let her pick out the week he’d decided to stay on the island made her eyes mist with unshed tears.

“Did you do this because I ripped up the invitation?” she whispered. “What did Wanda ever do but bring you people to play with?”

When a hand covered her shoulder she knew Austin had heard. “I think we should sit you down again, Joely. You’re in shock.”

She threw him a look over her shoulder and he dropped his hand. “This isn’t shock. Okay, that’s a lie—this is definitely shock, but I don’t need to sit down. I’m great. I’m in perfect health.” She turned and held out her arms for both of them to see. “Can you believe it? Think about it for a second. Not a scratch on me. Do either of you have a scratch? A bump or bruise?”

They shook their heads. “Are your clothes wet? No? Neither are mine. Hard to believe, isn’t it?”

She stalked along the beach and started gathering up the luggage. “My plane and our only means of transportation might be MIA, but we have all your bags. And, oh look. The bar cooler.” She flipped it open and gave an exaggerated gasp. “What are the odds? We have water, an abundance of mysteriously unbroken miniature liquor bottles and a few energy bars so we won’t starve. Isn’t that
lucky
?”

Joely knew she sounded on edge. She felt on edge. The more she spoke, the more she knew with absolute certainty that
this
was the reason for this morning’s anxiety. Why would she be anxious about her boss getting a girlfriend? She wouldn’t. This was Eden focusing on
her
in a way that felt less like a fantasy and more like punishment. What she didn’t know was why.

For anyone else, receiving an invitation meant silk sheets and handcuffs. Filet mignon and murder mysteries. Reunions with lost loves and vampires.

She couldn’t forget about that one.

But not her. Fight with boss? Check. Mysterious cloud that eats plane? Check. Being stuck in the middle of nowhere with the man she’d been having dirty inappropriate dreams about for the last few years, in a situation that was not remotely intimate or sexual? Priceless.

But hey, at least Eden had left her the cooler.

Court wasn’t smiling anymore. “Should we gather some wood to make a smoke signal or lay out a big SOS or something?”

Joely’s sigh was tinged with resignation. “Let me put on my tour guide hat for a moment, Mr. Stiles. We are currently on the island of Eden, located in what is most commonly referred to as the Bermuda Triangle. This is a place most people couldn’t find if you were pointing right at it…and we’re on the
wrong side
. Mr. Vardalos is a good man who cares about the well-being of his invited guests and when we don’t show up he may send the boat out to search for us, but certain properties of the island have a way of obscuring things.”

She laid her palm on her chest. “My plane is usually the only one you’d see over this sky, and if anyone would be able to find us? It would be me. Sadly, it’s gone and I’m grounded, gathering up your sandy underwear. Who do you think is going to see an SOS?”

When Austin and Court exchanged concerned looks, she shook her head, forcing herself to calm down. “I’m sorry. I know neither of you were expecting this any more than I was. Unfortunately, unless there’s a Richie Rich or James Bond type in this trio with an inflatable yacht hidden in his luggage, our only option is to head back to the castle on foot. The position of the sun says it’s after noon, which means we need to get a move on.”

She gestured at the jumble of bags. “Let’s sort through these to lighten our load. Only the essentials, please, so skip the tie clips and cuff links and the extra pair of leather loafers. We’ll need that room for the whiskey and water.”

The men didn’t say a word, a very smart move in her opinion. They started going through their bags with her, dumping dress shirts and socks and shoving in the bottles of water and liquor and the handful of energy bars from the cooler instead.

Smart men. Handsome men. Rich men who’d probably never had to rough it in their entire lives. Joely sighed. With her luck, one of their deepest, darkest fantasies was to be a contestant on a reality show like Survivor, and she’d be forced to eat bugs or something equally disturbing with her bare hands before she made it back to her comfortable bed, a fork and one of Miranda’s pies.

She narrowed her gaze on Austin. Was he more muscular than he’d been the last time she saw him? Maybe he’d been working out with Court. He looked…really good for a recent castaway. Who was she kidding? He looked good for a movie idol or a centerfold. Why else would it be him, out of all the stunning men the island seemed to enjoy collecting, who was cast to play her dream lover night after night?