Perfection - The Oasis Project Book 1 (Complete)

Fourteen - Linkin

I almost wished I had let Desmond drive. We were going down a hidden dirt path through the jungle with twists and turns. As we approached a gate on the bike, it automatically opened. We were off the resort. The drive, though dark, was beautiful. The road was built to go around the trees, which had been there for centuries. Their canopy blocked out the moonlight and I was solely relying on a small headlight. The darkness didn't stop me from looking around and driving at dangerously fast speeds.

The forest started to thin out as the dirt turned to sand. Desmond removed his hand from my hip and pointed to a fire on the beach. I nodded to show that I understood. The closer we got, the more I noticed two shadows walking away from an ATV to sit in the sand.

I parked the bike beside the ATV and once the motor quieted, I smiled at the sound of the wind rushing through the leaves of the tropical forest and the water rushing up on the shore.

"Hey Kos, Tori," Desmond called out. He removed his helmet as he stood up. Once he was off the bike, I had room to get up myself.

"Hey Desmond, we were worried you weren't going to show," the girl, Tori, said as she sat down in the sand.

As I stood up, Desmond had his arm around my waist again, pulling me closer to the bonfire. 

"Who's the broad?" Kos questioned as if I wasn't there as he sat behind the girl and pulled her body against his larger one. His dark hazel eyes glared at me as Desmond sat down and pulled me into his lap. Neither of them looked happy to see me.

"This is Linkin..." I was a bit shocked he introduced me properly. "She's the girl I was telling you about."

I glanced back to Desmond with a raised brow. He didn't look my way as he stared at the others as if they were having a telepathic conversation. 

"Wait, the girl from—" Tori started to question, sounding surprised.

Desmond gave a curt nod.

"Well, then I guess it is nice to meet you, Linkin. I'm Kos, this is my girlfriend Tori," the guy introduced himself, but I was too stunned to even smile back. Desmond talked to his friends about me? We didn't know each other for that long.

"How do you know Desmond?" I finally managed to ask a question and sound polite about it.

All of them were older, older than Desmond as well. "We work here," Tori explained, "We met him through work. Kos came up to do some maintenance on the pool, met Desmond. Eventually, the boys let me join in on their fun." She laughed as she turned back to peck Kos' cheek. "You must be special; he's never brought anyone to meet us before."

This was getting a little weird. "Then you work with Stewie?" I mumbled, doing my best not to think about everything she just said about Desmond.

The couple frowned. "Stewie?" Kos asked before Tori could.

"Stuart," I began slowly, "the doctor?"

Desmond's chest moved against my back as he chuckled, glancing down at me. "You do realize no one calls him that, right? He'd probably kill you for calling him that."

I shrugged. "He didn't correct me."

"That's because he was too busy helping that boy to scold you," Desmond mumbled, still grinning at the conversation.

Tori interjected before I could reply. "Wait, were you that doctor on the surface who Stuart was talking about?" Once again, I found myself blushing. Was Stuart talking about me too? I knew it was probably in a professional way, maybe even mentioned me in passing to write up a report on the incident, but either way, it was weird.