Passion Flower: 1 Read Online Free Page A

right now
it felt decidedly a one. Dammit.
    She could run back upstairs to change, but there wasn’t
anyone in the living room and she didn’t know how long she’d have to look
outside before someone took an interest in what she was doing. She didn’t want
to be too obvious, after all. Although it was green and lush out there. Surely
it was normal to want to see? She hooked her fingers into her waistband before
her nerves failed her, pulled her panties down and put them behind the stereo.
Hopefully she could retrieve them surreptitiously later.
    She pulled back the curtain and looked outside. There were
flowers aplenty, in pinks and blues and purples at the edge of the clearing,
and a trail that went into the jungle. It all looked normal enough, as normal
as an isolated ecology on a small tropical island was likely to be. And it was
beautiful. She couldn’t wait to walk down that trail. There was a door leading
to a swimming pool on that side as well, and if she slipped out and walked
around the pool she’d be in among the wild growth. Why they put a pool in with
the whole ocean around them was beyond her, although she supposed it might be
safer for inexperienced swimmers, or ones distracted by sexual tension.
    She could smell food—steak and vegetables of some sort.
Carter wasn’t the cook, so that left Kyle or Thomas. She hadn’t realized she
was hungry before. If Kyle was still on the porch with Amber, the men were all
accounted for. So tempting.
    The beachside sliding door opened and Kyle and Amber walked
in. Kyle had a fistful of Amber’s hair, which seemed to have rendered the
blonde docile for the moment. The haughty woman of the airplane was gone,
replaced by a considerably more disheveled facsimile.
    Natalie decided she’d made the right move to take off her
panties. She definitely wanted to obey the rules and stay out of trouble.
    Kyle smacked Amber on the butt. Amber yelped.
    “Go upstairs and fix your makeup. Brush your teeth, if you
like,” Kyle directed. “But you can ignore the box on your bed. No clothes for
you until I say so.”
    Natalie expected an argument, but “Yes Sir,” was all Amber
said. She ran upstairs. Her ass was bright pink.
    She wondered if Kyle was going to give her the once-over
like Carter had but he barely glanced at her. Instead he walked to the
television and flicked it on. On the screen a ball bounced off the ground and
toward a man with giant shin guards swinging a flat wooden bat.
    I’m less interesting than cricket. Got it. That’s pretty
low on the totem pole, but let’s keep it that way. Now she had to make two
other men uninterested in her so that they’d let her explore in peace. Surely
it couldn’t be too hard to be boring?
    She looked back out the window at the lush green beyond.
Just because there weren’t likely to be any major predators didn’t mean there
might not be dangerous snakes or spiders. Australia, miles to the south and
west, was full of them, and evolutionary logic didn’t always seem to apply. There
were things in Australia that had fifty times the poison they needed to kill
any prey, and why they’d developed such a high level of toxicity was still a
mystery to biologists. She needed to know more about what was out there,
without seeming too curious, before venturing off on her own. Maybe she could
play the frail femme and pretend to be horribly scared of things that creeped
and crawled. Men bought that every time but she’d never thought fondly of women
who played that up to get attention. No, she’d just ask straight out.
    “Kyle?”
    Kyle grunted without turning around. “That’s Master Kyle to
you.”
    She rolled her eyes and realized she’d have to hold that in
check. It was a good thing Kyle wasn’t looking at her. “Sorry, Master Kyle.
What’s in the woods?”
    “Trees.”
    Lovely. “I mean, animals and stuff. Anything
dangerous?”
    “Yes! Six!”
    “Excuse me?”
    Kyle turned to her, looking annoyed. “Nothing big.