My Despicable Ex (Book 1) (17 page)

Groaning, I scrambled up, spitting out
dirty water as my heartbeat spiked. I was in the river up to my
waist—the same river where the crocodile was swimming around. The
elephant continued to buck like a spooked horse, and I moved back,
knowing that getting turned into a pancake by an elephant wasn’t
going to help me one bit.

I looked for our guide. When I saw
him, I hurried over and found him dazed but alive, and I started
pulling him toward the shore. “C’mon, Anto!” I said. I glanced over
my shoulder. I pushed my wet hair out of my eyes and blinked as I
wiped the water from my lashes. “Get to the riverbank, Jake!” I
yelled. I knew if we could just get out of the water, it would
increase our odds of survival; in the water, the croc had
home-field advantage. I craned my neck to peer behind me, just in
time to see the croc gliding in the water next to my elephant, its
eyes open wide and fixing on me, its cruel jaws snapping in my
direction. I gasped and yelled, “RUN!”

“
It’s coming! We can’t all
make it to shore in time!” Jake yelled. “Get outta here. I’ll hold
it off.”

I yanked his arm. “No, Jake! Get your
butt on land!”

“
Just get him out of the
water!” he yelled, pointing at the barely conscious
Anto.

“
I’m not going without
you!” I demanded. “Now come on!”

“
Get to safety!” Jake
glanced over his shoulder, and his lips pressed into grim lines. “I
promise I’ll be right behind you. Now go!”

“
No! I’m not leaving you.”
As much as I despised what Jake had done for me, I couldn’t just
let him get eaten alive. He had always been there for me—well,
except when he’d deserted me at the altar—and I couldn’t just
abandon him to die in an African river.

The croc lunged at Jake, snapping its
hungry jaws. It’s dinosaur-like, powerful tail whipped around in
the air, sending thousands of droplets spraying everywhere. For a
second, all I could do was hold my breath and watch in horror. Jake
grunted and lurched backward. Sure, he resembled Superman with that
dark hair and blue eyes of his, but there was no way he could take
on thousands of pounds of pure muscle and bad attitude.

“
Jake, get outta there!” I
desperately yelled.

He took a step back, but in
the process, he accidentally lodged his foot on something. I
couldn’t see whether it was a rock or a fallen tree in the river
bottom. I only hoped another animal hadn’t grabbed his foot under
the water. Whatever it was, it caused him to lose his footing and
fall backward with a
splash
. As if the dinner bell had
been rung, the croc powered toward him with its mouth slightly
open, practically smiling, ready to move in to kill its
prey.

Think fast,
I told myself.
What can
I do? Hit it with a branch? Right. It’ll probably feel like a
feather on that thing’s thick skin. Maybe I can hit it with a rock.
Nope. That’ll feel like nothing more than a pesky fly.
And then I saw it.
Mud!
Maybe I can blind it somehow!

Before I could change my mind, I
grabbed a giant handful of muddy sand and flicked it at the croc’s
eyes. My heart pounded as I watched the creature’s reaction. Water
splashed everywhere as it threw a tantrum, blinking its yellow eyes
over and over again. The croc went for Jake’s throat and missed
only by inches as he twisted to the left like lightning. Then,
rearing up, the elephant smashed its feet like a hammer right down
on the croc’s head.

The reptile lay motionless, seeming
disoriented from the heavy blow. I flinched as the armored beast
suddenly moved, gliding slowly toward the deeper part of the river.
It slipped silently into the glittering water and sank like a
submarine. Bubbles rose to the surface, and then all was
still.

I clutched my chest while I caught my
breath. Tears welled, threatening to spill down my cheeks. Jake was
safe, and I was glad for that. Still holding my breath, I quickly
scoped out the area. I waited a moment before I dared to start
breathing again. Then I grabbed Jake’s and Anto’s hands and pulled
them eagerly to shore. I sloshed through the water, mud, and sand
until my feet reached dry land, and a wave of relief swept through
me. Water dripped from my hair and poured from my
clothes.

I glanced over at Jake. There was no
way I was going to let him off scot-free after he’d tried to play
action hero. Hugging and punching him at the same time, I cried,
“What were you thinking?”

He leaned forward and rested his hands
on his knees as he breathed heavily in and out. “I only planned on
stalling it for a second to give you two a head start. Trust me, I
woulda been right behind you, but if worse came to worst, I had a
trick up my sleeve.”

“
Don’t tell me you’re
carrying around some croc repellant in that bag of yours,” I
snapped.

“
No, but there’s a pouch in
the croc’s throat that keeps it from drowning. I knew if I stuck my
arm down there and punched it, the thing would have no other choice
but to let go or drown.”

“
Yeah, if its teeth didn’t
tear you to shreds first.” I touched his face. Tears were sliding
down my cheeks, but I almost hoped he’d just think it was river
water. “Thanks for saving my life, but please, no more stunts like
that.”

He wiped one of my tears away and
gazed into my eyes. “When it comes to protecting you, Ashly,
there’s no length I won’t go to.”

His
words truly touched my heart.
From the
tone in his voice, I believed every word. I rested my head against
his strong chest, and he softly stroked my hair. “Thanks, Jake. I
feel the same way. I’m sorry I got so upset, but the thought of
losing you to that thing….well, I was scared to death.”

He held me close. Jake had
risked his life to save mine, the kind of thing that only happened
in books and mushy movies.
Or maybe in
dreams too,
I thought with a smile and a
sniffle.

After our croc escapade, our camping
trip was over, and we headed back to the Royal Malewane. The staff
was so friendly and greeted us with glasses of champagne and cool
towels.

* * *

The next day, I woke up early and
smiled when I saw that I’d caught another beautiful sunrise. I
wrapped a robe around me and walked out onto the deck to take in
the pink and orange swirls that had painted the African
horizon.

“
It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?”
Jake said from behind me.

I spun to face him “Yes, just
breathtaking.”

He grinned.

“
Thank you for all of your
bravery back there with that croc,” I said.

“
Meh, that’s what I’m here
for.”

“
You’re very brave. I just
want you to know that.”

“
I’ve been thinking,” he
said.

“
Aw. Does it hurt?” I said,
laughing.

“
Very funny,” he said,
smiling back at me. “Anyway, I know things aren’t the best between
us, but I’m more than willing to work on our friendship. We can
start out as friends and see what happens.”

I bit my lip hard as I pondered.
“That’s great, Jake, but you need to know that it won’t make up for
the past.”

“
I made mistakes, and I’m
sorry, but you said yourself that we need to leave the past in the
past. Is there any way we can both forget about that and
concentrate on what’s right here in front of us? I think we could
have something really good.”

I shook my head. “You can’t just come
back and suddenly jump in where you left off.”

“
I really think we still
have something very special,” he said.

I stared into his eyes, then purposely
drifted my gaze to the sunrise. “We’ll always
be…friends.”

“
Maybe I want
more.”

“
Jake, I—”

“
Only you can decide if I’m
worthy of a second chance. Just because things went horribly wrong
the first time around doesn’t mean we should never try again. Let’s
start out slow, as friends, and see what happens. It can’t hurt to
try.”

“
You’re an ex for a reason,
Jake. I won’t deny that part of me wants to jump into those
familiar arms. I mean, maybe the timing was off between us. We were
both so young and naïve. Then again, I see no reason why I should
get back together with an old flame who shattered my heart and
humiliated me the way you did.”

“
I thought you were a huge
believer in giving people second chances.”

“
Excluding my love life,
yes.”

“
You might be throwing away
a good thing here, Ashly. Won’t you always wonder what could have
happened if you just—”

I cut him off and turned to leave.
“I’m gonna have breakfast on the patio by the watering hole. I’m
anxious to see what animals are out.”

He paused. “I remember that about you
too.”

“
What? That I like to eat
breakfast?”

“
No. I remember that you
always dodge uncomfortable questions by changing the
subject.”

“
See ya later, Jake,” I
said.

* * *

Almost all day, I relaxed on the deck,
haunted by Jake’s words. Am I throwing away a good thing? Will I
regret it later? I set my apple down and went back inside to get my
bottled water, but when I returned, the apple was gone, as if it
had vanished into thin air. I glanced around and quickly spotted
the culprit, a monkey who was noisily chomping away on his bright
red prize. I laughed, then watched my new entertainment, a tree
full of monkeys and baboons who seemed just as curious about me as
I was about them.

Still fascinated by the wildlife, even
after our near-croc experience, Jake had gone to look for elephants
and lions with our tracker, so I decided to take a dip. I sat in
the little private pool on the deck that overlooked the bush. As I
sipped on my bottled water, I thought a lot about Jake. I couldn’t
get him out of my head. I was still so attracted to him, even more
so after he’d risked his life to try and save me from the croc. I
also thought about our dreadful wedding day. Jake was supposed to
be more than my hero; he was supposed to be my husband, but he
wasn’t. My mind raced through a tumult of emotions. I was still mad
at him, and that was what had kept us from moving forward as
friends. I just wasn’t sure if I was ready to give up that anger,
an emotion I had every right to feel after the despicable thing
he’d done to me.

To Be Continued…

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Sierra