Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Milo
The jungle is already alive with morning light when I wake. The waterfall continues its steady roar before us, a constant white noise that never quite fades, even in sleep.
Sienna is curled against my side on the throw blanket, one leg draped over mine, her head tucked under my chin. Her breathing is low and even, her skin warm against mine despite the early-morning coolness in the air.
I don’t move.
I just lie there, my arm wrapped around her shoulders, staring up at the cracked rock ceiling above us.
Yesterday replays behind my eyelids in vivid detail: the way she tasted, the sounds she made when she came, how she rode me with her head thrown back, moaning my name. The way she looked afterward—soft, dazed, and completely open, as if she’d let me see every chaotic, beautiful part of her.
We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in our own little world. Eating from the picnic basket, swimming under the falls and letting the cool spray wash over us, laughing like idiots when the current pushed and tumbled us around like we weighed nothing.
Then we talked.
We talked about everything and nothing all at once.
Dreams we’d never told anyone else. Goals that felt too big or too fragile to say out loud in the real world. Accomplishments we were proud of. Fears we rarely admitted even to ourselves.
She told me about her restlessness and the way she always felt the need to move before things got comfortable. I told her about the pressure of building Reyes Tech from nothing and the fear that if I ever stopped pushing, everything I’d worked for would crumble.
It was perfect. Peaceful in a way I hadn’t felt in years. The kind of easy, unguarded conversation that made hours disappear without us noticing.
As the sky turned deep indigo and stars appeared overhead, we accepted that help probably wasn’t coming anytime soon. Neither of us bothered to check our phones for signal. We curled up together on the throw, her body fitting perfectly against mine, and fell asleep to the sound of the waterfall.
Now the sun is up, and reality is starting to creep back in.
I shift carefully, not wanting to wake her, and check my phone.
Still no signal. We’ve been gone for nearly twenty-four hours.
Someone should have noticed we’re missing—the guy from the shack, Ethan and Aria…
anyone. A search party is probably already out looking for us. Or at least, that’s what I hope.
Part of me is relieved.
Most of me is… sad.
I don’t want to leave this alcove. I don’t want to go back to pretending yesterday was just a heat-of-the-moment thing. I don’t want to smile politely and act like everything hasn’t changed when, in fact, Sienna Harlow has completely upended my life in less than a week.
I look down at her. Her face is soft in sleep, lips slightly parted, lashes dark against her cheeks. Like she can feel my gaze on her, she stirs, eyelashes fluttering. When her eyes open and find mine, a sleepy smile curves her lips.
“Morning,” she whispers, her voice husky.
“Morning,” I murmur, brushing a curl from her forehead.
She stretches against me, body arching, breasts pressing into my chest. My cock twitches instantly. She feels it, and her eyes darken with that same hunger from yesterday.
“Round two?” she asks, her voice teasing but breathy.
I groan, rolling her beneath me before I can think better of it. “You’re going to kill me.”
I kiss her, savoring how she melts into me. Her hands glide up my back and curl into the hair at my nape. When I finally pull away, we’re both breathing harder.
“Come on,” I say reluctantly, resting my forehead against hers. “We should probably figure out how to get back.”
She pouts dramatically. “But what if I want to stay another night out here with you?”
“As tempting as that sounds,” I murmur against her lips. “There’s probably already a search party out there looking for us.”
She groans, and after pulling me down for another kiss, she finally agrees to start getting ready.
We dress quietly, the intimacy of the night still thick between us.
Once we are packed, we hike back to the stranded ATV in comfortable silence.
Sienna stays close, her hand occasionally brushing mine.
Every touch feels electrified and deliberate.
When we reach the ATV, it’s exactly as we left it—sadly tilted, with two shredded tires.
Sienna sighs as she looks at it, hands planted on her hips. “Well… it’s still fucked.”
I check my phone again. The battery is almost dead, and there’s still no signal. Sienna has about twenty percent left on hers. We wait another twenty minutes, sharing the last of the water and granola bars. No engines. No voices. Nothing.
Sienna stands, brushing dirt off her shorts. “Okay. New plan. We start hiking back toward the resort. There has to be a clearing with a signal eventually.”
I nod. “Lead the way.”
We’ve been walking for about ten minutes when she abruptly stops and tilts her head.
“Did you hear that?” she whispers.
I listen. At first, there’s nothing but the usual jungle sounds—birds calling, insects humming, leaves rustling. Then, faintly, the low rumble of engines cuts through the noise. Multiple vehicles. Growing louder.
Sienna’s entire face lights up. With a delighted squeal, she jumps straight into my arms, wrapping her legs around my waist and shaking me excitedly as she giggles.
“That’s them!” she grins, practically vibrating. “We’re being rescued, Milo!”
Before I can respond, she jumps down, grabs my hand, and starts running, pulling me eagerly along the uneven trail and over jagged rocks. We round the corner just as four ATVs come into view. Aria and Ethan lead, with two resort employees right behind them.
The moment Aria spots us, she skids her ATV to a dramatic stop, kicking up dust and pebbles.
“Sienna! Milo!” she screams, leaping off before the vehicle even comes to a full stop. “Oh my God. You’re alive.”
Aria crashes into her sister, pulling her into a fierce hug. Ethan follows close behind, clapping me hard on the back, clearly relieved.
“Duh. Of course we’re alive,” Sienna laughs, squeezing her twin. “It’s gonna take a lot more than being stranded overnight in a jungle to kill me.”
“How the hell did you even end up stranded?” Ethan asks, glancing around. “Where’s your ATV?”
“Somewhere back up the trail,” I say, gesturing behind us. “We hit a sharp rock, and both front tires blew out.”
“This wouldn’t have happened if I had driven,” Sienna says smugly, winking at me.
I give her a blank look, and she smirks back.
“And you didn’t think to call any of us?” Ethan raises an eyebrow.
“No signal,” I reply with a shrug.
He eyes me suspiciously.
“This is all your fault, you know,” Sienna says, pointing dramatically at Ethan and Aria. “If you hadn’t sent us on a wild goose chase for rubber ducks in the middle of the jungle, we wouldn’t be in this mess. We could’ve died out here! Iguanas could’ve eaten us!”
Aria rolls her eyes, fighting back a smile. “But you didn’t.”
“But we could have!”
“Sienna,” Aria playfully smacks her on the arm.
“You’re not going to hold this over me for the rest of our lives.
I know you. When I have kids, you’ll tell them the dramatic story about how Aunt Sienna and Uncle Milo almost died because of me, which, by the way, is a massive exaggeration.
You’re literally holding a picnic basket and three rubber ducks! ”
Sienna gasps in mock outrage, holding up the swimsuit duck like evidence. “These are my emotional support ducks, thank you very much!”
The back-and-forth between the twins quickly devolves into full-blown playful chaos. Ethan and I exchange a look and roll our eyes in unison, both of us knowing better than to get involved.
One of the resort employees radios back to base to confirm we’re safe. The other heads off in the direction I pointed to recover our broken ATV.
Ethan nudges me with his elbow, a knowing grin spreading across his face. “So… you two really spent the whole night out here, huh?”
I nod, keeping my expression as neutral as possible. “Found a waterfall. Made the best of it.”
He looks at me for a long beat, his eyes narrowing like he’s reading every micro-expression on my face.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I ask.
“Because you look… different. Relaxed. Almost happy. It’s weird.”
“The waterfall was relaxing,” I deadpan.
Ethan snorts. “Don’t lie to me, Reyes. I’ve known you too long.”
“I’m not lying.”
“You fucked her, didn’t you?”
I swallow hard, fighting the heat rising up my neck. “Ethan—”
He bursts out laughing and wraps his arm around my shoulders, messing up my hair like we’re back in college. “You fucking did! I know it!”
“You’re an asshole, Cole,” I mutter, shoving him off me.
“Sienna’s been driving you crazy since day one,” he says, matter-of-factly. “About time you did something about it.”
Before I can respond, Aria’s voice cuts in from a few feet away. “Are you idiots coming or what?”
Ethan leans in closer, lowering his voice so only I can hear. “You certainly did last night, didn’t you?”
I punch him hard in the arm. “Fuck off.”
He laughs louder, rubbing his arm dramatically as he heads toward his ATV. I follow him, rolling my eyes as he makes a subtle comment to Sienna, who also tells him to fuck off.
I watch as she climbs onto the back of Aria’s ATV, shooting me one last look over her shoulder—a heated, loaded look that says we’re nowhere near done talking about last night. My stomach flips at the promise in her eyes.
As we ride back toward the resort, the jungle blurring past, I feel something deep inside me shift.
We survived the night.
We survived the kiss.
We survived the sex.
But returning to civilization feels strangely harder than being stranded.
Because nothing feels the same anymore.
Not when I know, with absolute, bone-deep certainty, that one week left on this island is nowhere near enough.
Not even close.