“Are you okay?” Jakob questioned as we burst out of the water. He turned me around to face him, and I could see the concern in his eyes.

“Yes.” I panted for air. I didn’t tell him that my wrists were aching and stung where they’d been scratched.

“I think I’ll have it off in the next go-around.”

“Okay.” I nodded feebly.

“I’ll try not to bang your wrists up too much this time.” He winked at me and smiled. “Okay. One, two, three, and lift off!” he shouted, and down we went again.

I was as still as I could be as he moved my arms back and forth. I could feel the tension in the rope starting to feel weaker, and my excitement started building. I was nearly free. As soon as the rope broke, I pulled away from Jakob and jumped up to take a deep breath and stretch my arms. Jakob surfaced right behind me, and we grinned at each other like fools.

“Thank you.” I smiled at him gratefully as I stretched my arms out. “This feels wonderful.”

Then I dove into the water and swam. It felt amazing to be able to move my hands and arms freely. Though the water was warm, it was still refreshing.

“I’ve never felt so free!” Jakob yelped, and I turned onto my back and started floating so that I could watch him.

He gave me a huge grin, and I watched as he quickly unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it on the shore. My heart started racing as I stared at his naked, smooth chest. His pecs were pronounced, and he had a taut six-pack beckoning to me. I could almost feel his skin beneath my fingers. It would be soft and silky to the touch—I just knew it.

“Do you go to a tanning salon?” I thought out loud as I stared at his sun-kissed skin.

“No.” He laughed. “I’m naturally tan. My mom was Italian.”

“Oh, really?” I looked at his golden hair and bright blue eyes.

“You sound surprised.” He laughed again. “My mom’s family was from northern Italy. There are a lot of fair-haired people there.”

“I guess I didn’t know that.” I rested my head back and let my ears submerge in the water as I stared at the sky.

It was so quiet, and everything was so calm. I didn’t even see any birds. I felt like I was at the edge of the world somewhere, and Jakob and I were the last people on Earth. We were like Adam and Eve, only we didn’t appear at the beginning—we appeared at the end. I shivered as my thoughts went morbid. That was one thing I hated about myself. My mind always went running a hundred miles a minute. I stopped swimming and started to tread water, pushing my head back so that I could feel the sunlight on my face.

Suddenly I felt Jakob grab me around the waist. “What are you doing?” I gasped as I pushed him away. The second my fingers connected with his bare shoulder, I felt a small jolt of lust run through me.

“I was calling you.” He smiled down at me. His eyelashes were wet, and his blue eyes seemed to be glowing.

“I didn’t hear you.” I stared at him as he reached out and pulled me toward him. This time I didn’t push him away. His right hand gripped my waist and his bare chest felt hard against me.

“That’s why I came to get you.” He wiped some water off his forehead. “We should explore and see what we’re going to do tonight.”

“What do you mean?”

“We need to see if we can find food, a clean natural water source, shelter, somewhere to sleep.”

“That sounds smart.” I sighed. “How long do you think we’re going to be here?”

“As long as they want us to be, I suppose.” His eyes bored into mine, and his expression turned blank.

“But how will we know how long that is?”

“I have no idea.” He shook his head. “I have absolutely no idea.”

“I wish we had some answers.” My hand pressed against his chest, and we stared at each other silently for a few seconds. I could feel his heart beating beneath my fingers, and I tried to ignore how warm and silky his chest felt. “Or at least some clues.”

“We do have a clue though.” His left hand moved down my back, and I swallowed as it stopped on my lower back. “We have that note that you read earlier, and we know that you were being followed. Let’s swim back to shore and see if we have anything else in common. We’re obviously both here for a reason.” His mouth moved closer to mine, and I was positive that he was going to kiss me. I tilted my face up and waited to feel his lips on mine, but instead he let go of me and floated on his back. I watched him for a few seconds, staring at his magnificent body as he moved through the water like Michael Phelps. An image of the note I’d seen on the beach flashed in my mind as I watched him swimming away from me. The last line read your bodies are now one, but they’re not as united as they will be when I’m done. I needed to figure out what that line meant. Did the note refer to our bodies being one because we were tied together? Or did it refer to something more intimate? The man in the coffee shop had been staring at me for quite a while. Maybe he’d seen the look of lust and appreciation when I’d glanced at Jakob at the table. Maybe Jakob really had been at the wrong place at the wrong time. I started swimming back to shore as I continued to think about why Jakob was here. Maybe it wasn’t a coincidence that he was here. And maybe it wasn’t a coincidence that he’d been at the coffee shop either.

We swam back to the shore and walked out slowly, suddenly deflated. We’d solved our first problem, but now everything else seemed insurmountable.