Read Online The Price of Pleasure by Kresley Cole - Free Book Online Page B

because he’s determined. I got the feeling he’s been fighting to find us for some time.”
    â€œI might not trust him, but I do trust you. If you think he’s taking us back to England, then that’s good enough for me.” Cammy pulled her blanket closer around her. “Imagine going back after all this time. I have no family left there—that’s part of the reason why I signed on with your parents—but how I’ve missed things! English tea, soft sunlight, tea, seasons other than wet and dry, tea.” She grinned, but then her face turned serious. “I miss riding a horse across green fields more than I can bear sometimes. I’d hoped for it for so long. Then, after the…incident, I stopped thinking of it.”
    Tori knew exactly how she felt. After the second year here, the idea of a rescue seemed as far-fetched as flying. “If this Sutherland is telling the truth, then we have a lengthy voyage to look forward to.”
    Cammy pulled her braid over her shoulder and smoothed it down. “But you’ll be able to see your grandfather and your true home. I know your parents always planned to live there after they’d finished their studies. They would have wanted you to return to where your roots are.”
    Tori’s memories of her grandfather were mere sequences in her mind. She remembered him chuckling and swooping her up on his shoulders. She vaguely recalled that they’d stolen a batch of muffins from the cook and eaten them in the tree house he’d had built for her. “Cammy, if you agree with me, I’ll approach him tomorrow. But I will say this—when we sail from here, it will be on our terms. I’m going to demand that we break up the voyage and get you to a doctor.” Tori’s fierce words were garbled by a yawn she failed to stifle. She wouldn’t have thought sleep could be compatible with this new idea of rescue, but her eyelids grew heavy.
    â€œGet some rest,” Cammy advised. “We’ll talk later.”
    Tori gladly slipped under her quilt, dozing off immediately. She only slept for a couple of hours until dawn, but it was time enough for her dream of the wreck to plague her. She rose, cheeks wet, relieved Cammy wasn’t inside. A shudder ripped through her. Would she ever be shed of that night?
    She ambled out to lean against the cave entrance and found Cammy in the clearing blithely cutting a mango for breakfast. Tori lifted her gaze to the red sunrise. She noted the amplified colors of the sun hitting clouds and inhaled deeply. The air was heavier, cloying even, and the water was warm enough to kill fish. But then, the ocean storm season was always palpable even before it fully manifested. She wondered if those men, sitting on a ship that was like food for these reefs, knew what was about to befall them.
    She paused. If she was right about Sutherland, it would befall all of them.
    Â 
    The rain came again that day in frenzied bursts, dotting the towering waves in the bay. A hot wind tore through the trees. They were running out of time—the air was stifling, the water too. The region was primed for a typhoon.
    If Grant didn’t sail soon, they’d be floating in the middle of a cauldron.
    He returned his attention to a rough map he’d sketched of the island. He flattened it across a crate, trying to add information, but the wind made it impossible.
    He looked up in frustration. Ian was in his hammock, rocking wildly. “Ian,” he yelled, “come hold this down.”
    Ian rose, pulled his oilskin tight, and shuffled over.
    â€œI need you to hold the corners.”
    Ian placed his palms on two edges. “What is this?”
    â€œThis is how I’m going to find Victoria.”
    When Ian scratched his temple and the map flew up before he pinned it once more, Grant reluctantly explained, “We know she’s been leading us where she wants us to go. Which means that