AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As the numbers descend into single digits, my text notification goes off.
I dig my phone from my backpack, leaning a shoulder against the cool wall of the elevator as I read the incoming texts from our group chat.
Ruby: Where are you? We’re all half in the bag already. GET DOWN HERE! We’re at the swim up bar.
Me: I know, you told me. I’m on the elevator now.
Harold: There some prime cuts of beef down here. I got first dibs. ??
Me: Have at it. I’ve got all the prime beef I need back at the restaurant.
The restaurant. God, I should have called my chef de cuisine when I landed to see how the night went. He would have been awake. Restaurant people never sleep, but I was trying to relax.
All relaxing is doing for me is making me anxious.
Ruby: Prime beef and some juicy looking sausages too. I’ll order you a Strong Island. It’s like a Long Island but…STRONGER!
Harold: I’m on my thrid allm bready.
Me: It’s okay, I don’t really want a drink.
Ruby: Get down here.
Harold: Order her too. to. 2. TWO.
The elevator settles with a soft bump and a ding on the main floor. The doors swoosh open, and I look at the sign in front of me with arrows and directions to the different parts of the hotel. I hear music and happy voices as I follow the arrow that indicates the Party Pool & Swim-Up Bar. As the voices get louder, I remember Tor’s commentary on my friends, and I’m honestly a bit relieved this trip is only two nights and the first one is already partially over.
I check my phone one last time before slipping it into my purse. I’ve already let my family know I’ve arrived safe and sound, otherwise they would be blowing me up all night or hopping on a plane and heading down here to check on me.
The battery is only one tiny slice of red, but I forget all about that when I step onto the pool deck. The warm humidity sweeps around me as I come face to face with a wall of a man wearing a black t-shirt with the word ‘security’ in yellow over his left pec.
It’s a party atmosphere, people are dancing and drinking out of coconuts and pineapples with little umbrellas. A group is cheering as they down shots at the massive swim-up bar along one side of a pool as big as a lagoon and just as blue.
A Jimmy Buffet song blares on the surround-sound speakers, and my resolve to sally forward through this evening quickly starts to dissolve.
But all the noise and revelry is sucked into the abyss as I stand gape-mouthed, looking at the man-god in front of me. He’s a devastating combo of Dwayne Johnson’s body and some dangerous tattooed outlaw but with way better hair. His skin is tanned to a warm toasty-brown, paired with these wild, almost reddish-black eyes, and I wonder for a second if he’s real.
He’s standing so still he could very well be a statue, except there’s a hardening of his jaw muscle as he regards me and I drop my eyes to the pool deck as I hear my name called from near the bar.
I shift by him with a muttered, ‘s’cuz me’, daring one more look and an awkward smile. I know I must look like a crazy woman with my wild twisted hair and mismatched flip-flops, not to mention the cloud of perfume that’s likely setting fire to his eyes and his lungs.
I nod, adding a weird two-fingered wave when his gaze catches mine. He’s got a scent like trouble and lust, and it feels like every inch of my skin flickers to life.
There’s a warmth down between my legs that starts to pulse, and if I didn’t know better I’d swear my pheromones were sending up smoke signals, because his eyes dart to my crotch and I think I hear him groan.
“Excuse me,” I hear as a trio that looks like they could be from the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills shuffle up between us.
I’m barely breathing, sucked into his wild, penetrating eyes as one of the women pushes by, spinning on her stiletto sandals to get a better look at him, and I get a solid smack from her enhanced triple-D’s right in my face.
“Jesus,” I mutter. “A little too much cement in that silicone, you practically gave me a black eye.”
“What?” She turns, narrowing her eyes, false lashes brushing her eyebrows with her overly-plumped lips pursed in a dismissive smirk. “Did you say something?”
“Yes,” a low rumble comes from Mr. tall dark and tropical, “she said something.” His eyes shift to me. “You want to file an assault report?”
He leans around her, looking beyond her blonde extensions, aiming his gaze at me with a twinkle in those burgundy-rimmed black eyes.
“Assault?” I ask, as the Barbie Doll trio tries to piece together enough brain cells to figure out what’s going on.
