Private 02 - Private Paradise

the island.
    There was a crack of a tree branch falling. Sam grunted as it clipped him on the shoulder, but it didn't slow him a bit, his pace sure and steady, his fingers tightly laced with hers as they hurried down the hill that led to the beachfront villas on the leeward side of the island.
    Though the rain was still pouring down, here, partially sheltered by the hills in the center of the island, the wind wasn't nearly as fierce. Carla followed Sam up the steps to the closest villa. She brushed her hair out of her face and caught her breath as she dug in her pockets for the key card.
    The door swung open and they hurried inside. Sam put their bag of supplies on the table in the villa's front room. After a brief foray outside to make sure all the storm shutters were secured, he came back inside and disappeared down a short hallway. He returned seconds later, an armload of towels and two bathrobes draped over his arms. “We need to get out of this wet stuff,” he said, already pulling his shirt over his head.
    Carla caught the towel he threw at her, momentarily mesmerized by the sight of his bare chest, all tanned skin stretched over thick muscle. Her eyes followed the flex and ripple as he brought a towel up to his head and dried his hair and face. Then down his arms over his torso before he dropped the towel to the floor and brought his hands to his waistband.
    “ Carla?”
    His voice snapped her out of her stupor.
    “ You really need to go change.” His blue eyes met hers, the heat in them bringing an answering rush to her cheeks.
    “ Right,” she mumbled, took the robe he offered in a shaky hand and went to the bedroom to change. She peeled off her sodden shirt and shorts but left her bra and underwear on underneath the thick terrycloth robe.
    As she reached for the doorknob of the bedroom, she noticed her hand was shaking. Scolding herself to pull herself together, she walked down the short hallway from the bedroom to the main room. The villa's teak floors were smooth under her bare feet, the air in the closed up cottage warm and still. Yet as she reached the living room she found herself shuddering with a bone deep cold.
    “ You okay?” Sam asked. Like her, he'd wrapped himself in a robe. Because he was so much bigger, his barely reached past his knees and his shoulders strained at the seams.
    Carla opened her mouth to answer, but couldn't speak past the violent chattering of her teeth. She wrapped her arms around herself and tried futilely to stop the shudders rippling through her body.
    Sam hurried to her side and led her over to the plush cream sofa that dominated the villa's living room. “It's okay, you're just crashing after the adrenaline rush,” he explained. He wrapped his arm around her and Carla instinctively burrowed against him as she sought to absorb the warmth radiating from his skin.
    “ Wh-why c-can't I s-s-stop shaking?” She stuttered against the bare skin of his chest.
    Sam's hands ran soothingly up and down her back. “It's totally normal. You had a big scare falling off the boat and then ran through a hurricane. It's just your body's way of dealing now that the rush has worn off.”
    “ Y-you don't seem to be having any problems,” she said peevishly, annoyed at her weakness in the face of his strength. She was the boss. She was supposed to take charge, be calm through the storm. Instead all she could do was burrow against Sam, greedily absorbing his heat as she struggled to stop shaking.
    Sam's chest rumbled in a laugh that cut through the cold and sent a ripple of warmth low in Carla's belly. “I've been through my own share of scary shit. You get used to it after a while.”
    Without thinking, Carla brought her hand up to Sam's chest and brushed it over the starburst shaped scar exposed by the wide vee of his robe. She traced the raised knot of flesh, thinking how it changed the landscape of the body she remembered.
    Thinking of how close he must have come to dying.
    She would probably never know what crazed impulse compelled her to lean forward and press her lips to the spot, but before she was even aware of what she was doing her mouth had replaced her hand. A kiss of thanks for seeing her through the storm, of gratitude that he'd made it through the last eleven years alive, all rolled into one.
    She heard Sam's swift inhale, felt his body tense against hers as an electric current seemed to surround them. Face burning, she lifted her mouth from his chest and met his