“I like messing with you, Nightie Girl. It gives me a chuckle.”
“First spiffy, now a chuckle? I worry about you, Simon.” I returned to the living room to turn off lights and get the place ready for bed. This included freshening Clive’s water bowl and hiding a few Pounce treats around the apartment. He enjoyed playing Big Game Hunter while I slept sometimes, with the Pounce, of course, playing the part of the Big Game. Some nights the pillows were unfortunately involved, as well as any hair ties, loose shoelaces, and pretty much anything else that seemed appealing around two a.m. Some mornings my place looked like Wild Kingdom had been filmed overnight.
“Well, no worries. I’ll pick it up when I get back. So, did you two have a nice chat?”
“We chatted briefly, yes. But no dirty secrets were shared. Although with the thin walls, I’m already a bit familiar. How is the lonely haremette? Missing her sisters?” I flipped off the lights and padded through the kitchen to fetch the Big Game. I was dying to ask him if he’d actually broken up with the Giggler. Did he, did he not?
“She may be a bit lonely, yes,” he said, in what I thought sounded like a careful way. Hmm…
“Lonely because…” I led, pausing in my Pounce-scattering.
“Lonely because, well, let’s just say, for the first time in a very long time, I am…well…I am…you see…” he stuttered and stalled, dancing around the issue.
“Go on, out with it,” I instructed, barely breathing.
“Without…female companionship. Or as you would say, harem free.” His words came out in a quiet whoosh, and my legs began a little shimmy shake. This made the Pounce shimmy-shake in their container, alerting Clive that his hunt had begun early.
“Harem free, huh?” I breathed back, visions of Sugar Simons dancing in my head. Single Sugar Simons, Single Sugar Simons in Spain…
“Yeah,” he whispered, and we were both silent for what seemed like months, although in actuality it was only enough time for Clive to claim his first victim: the Pounce hidden in my tennis shoe by the front door. I walked over to congratulate him on his catch.
“She said something curious,” I mentioned, breaking the spell.
“Oh yeah? What’s that?” he asked.
“She told me that I was, and I quote, ‘quite lovely.’”
“Did she now?” He laughed, easing back into comfortable.
“Yes, and the thing of it is, she said it like she was agreeing with something someone else had already said. Now, I’m not a girl who fishes for compliments, but it would seem, Simon, that you were talking sweet about me.” I smiled, knowing my face was breaking into a pink glow. I’d started for the bedroom when I heard a soft knocking at the door. I walked back to unlock and open the door without looking through the peephole. I had a strong feeling I knew who was on the other side.
There he stood, phone cradled to his ear, holding his duffel bag and smiling a big, toothy grin.
“I told her you were lovely, but the truth is, you’re more than lovely,” he said, bowing his head toward mine and bringing his face to within inches of my own.
“More?” I asked, barely drawing breath. I know my grin matched his.
“You’re exquisite,” he said.
And with that, I invited him in. While wearing only my button-down. From far away, the O cheered…
An hour later, we sat together at the kitchen table, a decimated loaf in front of us. In between his frantic pawing, I’d managed a bite or two. The rest now lived in Simon’s tummy, which he proudly thumped like a melon. We’d talked and eaten, gotten caught up, watched Clive as he finished his hunt, and now relaxed as the coffee brewed. Simon’s bag rested by the front door still—he hadn’t even gone to his apartment yet. I was still in my button-down, feet curled beneath the chair as I stared at him. We were so comfortable, and yet that low-level hum, that electricity always sparking and snarking between us, continued.
“Fantastic touch by the way—the raisins? Loved them.” He smirked at me, poking one more in his mouth.
“You’re terrible.” I shook my head, stretching up out of my chair and collecting the plates and the few crumbs that hadn’t been inhaled. I could sense him watching me as I moved about the kitchen. I grabbed the pot of coffee and raised my eyebrows at him. He nodded. I stood next to his chair to fill his mug, and I caught him peeking at my legs below my shirt.
“See something you like?” I leaned across him to the sugar bowl.
“Yep,” he answered, leaning toward me to take it.
“Sugar?”
“Yep.”
“Cream?”
“Yep.”
“That all you can say?”
“Nope.”
“Gimme something, then. Anything.” I giggled, walking back around to my side of the table. Once again he watched me as I arranged myself in the chair.
“How about this?” he finally said, resting on his elbows, face intense. “As I mentioned earlier, I broke it off with Lizzie.”
I stared back, barely breathing. I tried to play it cool, so cool, but I couldn’t stop the grin sneaking across my face.
“I see you are not at all broken up by this,” he scoffed, sitting back in his chair.
“Not so much, no. Want the truth?” I asked, the grin ushering in a sudden surge of confidence.
“Truth would be good.”
“I mean truth truth, back-and-forth truth. No witty comebacks, no snappy banter—although we do give great banter.”
“We do, but I could go for some truth,” he said, his voice quiet as his sapphire eyes blazed away at me.
“Okay, truth. I’m glad you broke things off with Lizzie.”
“You are, are you?”
“Yes. Why did you? Truth now,” I reminded him. He regarded me for a moment, sipped his coffee, ran his hands through his hair in a maniacal way, and took a deep breath.
“Okay, truth. I broke it off with Lizzie because I didn’t want to be with her any more. With any other women, in fact,” he finished, setting his cup down. “I’m sure we’ll always be friends, but the truth is, I’ve been finding lately that three women? It’s a lot for me to handle. I’m thinking of paring things down a bit, maybe trying just one for a while.” He smiled, the blue getting dangerous.
Knowing I was a grin and a clench away from total embarrassment, I stood quickly and went to dump my coffee in the sink. I paused there for a second, only a second, thoughts whirling. He was single. He was…single. Sweet mother of pearl, Wallbanger was single.
I felt him move across the kitchen and come to stand behind me. I froze, feeling his hands gently brush my hair away from my shoulders and slip down to my hips. His mouth—his ever-loving mouth—barely touched the shell of my ear, and he whispered.
“Truth? I can’t stop thinking about you.”
Still facing away from him, my mouth dropped open and my eyes went wide, torn between fist pumping and actual kitchen sex. Before I could decide, his mouth moved more purposefully, pressing into the skin just below my ear and making my brain burn and parts below dance a jig.
His hands gripped my hips, and he turned me toward him—to face that body and grin—I quickly composed my face, trying desperately to keep it together.
“Truth? I’ve been thinking about you since the night you banged on my door,” he whispered, bending down to kiss the hollow of my neck with breathtaking precision. His hair tickled my nose, and I fought to keep my hands to myself. He pushed me to the side a little and surprised me by lifting me onto the counter. My legs automatically opened to allow him between them, the Universal Law of Wallbanger superseding any actual thought I had in my head. Not to worry, my thighs knew what to do.
One of his hands snuck around to the small of my back, while the other gripped the back of my neck. “Truth?” he asked one more time, pulling my hips to the edge of the counter, which forced me to lean back as my legs once more went on auto-pilot and wrapped themselves around his waist. “I want you in Spain,” he breathed, then
brought his mouth to mine.
Somewhere, a kitty began to call…and an O finally began her journey home.
“More wine, Mr. Parker?”
“No more for me. Caroline?”
“I’m fine, thank you.” I stretched out luxuriously in my seat. First class to LaGuardia, then first class all the way to Malaga, Spain. We’d be taking a car from there to Nerja, the small coastal town where Simon had rented a house. Scuba diving, spelunking, hiking, beautiful beaches, and mountains, all set in a quaint village.
Simon squirmed in his seat and shot an angry look over his shoulder.
“What? What’s the problem?” I asked, looking behind and seeing nothing out of the ordinary.
“That kid keeps banging my seat,” he grumbled through clenched teeth.
I laughed for a solid twenty minutes.
Chapter Sixteen
“WE DID IT TOO SOON. We should have waited.”
“We waited long enough—are you kidding? You know I was right. It was time to do it.”
“Time to do it, what a crock! We could have waited just a little longer, and then we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in now.”
“Well, I didn’t hear you complaining at the time. You seemed pretty pleased, as I recall.”
“I couldn’t complain, my mouth was full. But I had a feeling. I just knew this was wrong, what we were doing was inherently wrong.”
“Okay, I give up. You tell me how to fix this.”
“Well, for starters, you’re holding it upside down,” I shot back, grabbing the map and turning it right side up. We’d been parked along the side of the road for five minutes, trying to figure out how to get to Nerja.
After landing in Malaga, navigating customs, navigating the rental car system, and finally navigating our way successfully away from the city center, we were now lost. Simon drove, so I was in charge of the map. And by that I mean he took it away from me every ten minutes or so, looked it over, hmm-ed and hawed, and then thrust it back my way. He didn’t actually listen to anything I had to say, instead relying on his innate man-map. He also refused to turn on the GPS that had been provided for us, determined to get us there the old-fashioned way.
Which is why we were now lost. Taking a train would have been too easy. Simon needed a car to get around for his photos, which was ultimately why we were here. After flying through the night, we were both exhausted, but the best way to fight jet lag, allegedly, was to get on local time as quickly as possible. We had both agreed not to nap until we could go to sleep that night.
Now we argued about where we took the wrong turn. I’d been devouring some churros from a roadside stand when the wrong turn supposedly took place, and so we played “Place the Blame.”
“All I’m saying is that if someone hadn’t been stuffing her face and was watching for the turn, we wouldn’t be—”
“Stuffing my face? Seriously? You were stealing my churros. I told you to get your own when we stopped!”
“Well, I wasn’t hungry at first, but then you were smacking your lips and licking that chocolate, and well…I got distracted.” He looked up from the map, which he’d spread out on the hood of the car, and grinned, breaking the tension.
“Distracted?” I grinned back, leaning a little closer. As he looked at the map, I looked at him. How could someone who’d been on a plane for the last hundred years look as good as he did? But there he was, faded jeans, black T-shirt, dark blue North Face jacket. Twenty-four hours of stubble begging to be licked. Who licked stubble? Me, that’s who. He braced himself on his arms as he studied the map, his lips moving silently as he tried to figure it out. I snuck underneath his arms, draping myself across the hood of the car as shamelessly as a pinup girl in a garage calendar.
“Can I make a suggestion?”
“It is a lewd suggestion?”
“Surprisingly no. Can we please turn on the GPS? I’d like to make it there before I have to leave in a few days,” I moaned. Due to my last-minute booking, I had to fly back a day before Simon. But five days in Spain…I was not complaining.
“Caroline, only pussies use GPS,” he scoffed, turning to the map again.
“Well, this pussy is dying for some dinner, and a shower, and a bed, and to get rid of this jet lag. So unless you want to see me reenact It Happened One Night, Spanish version, turn on the GPS, Simon.” I grabbed him by the North Face and pulled him down to me. “Did that sound harsh?” I whispered, giving him the tiniest of kisses on the chin.
“Yes, I’m terrified of you now.”
“Does this mean GPS?”
“It means GPS.” He sighed resignedly, leaning back and pulling me off the car with him. I gave a little cheer and started for the door.
“No, no, no, you were harsh, Nightie Girl. I’m gonna need some sugar,” he instructed, eyes twinkling.
“You need some sugar?” I asked.
He tugged on my arm, bringing me back to him. “Yes, I require it.”
“You’re twisted, Simon.” I leaned into him, slipping my arms around his neck.
“You have no idea.” He licked his lips and waggled his eyebrows like an old-timey gangster.
“Come get your sugar,” I teased as he brought his lips to mine.
I would never get tired of kissing Simon. I mean, how could you? Since the night he “truthed” me right up on to my kitchen counter, we’d slowly been exploring this new side of our relationship. Underneath all the snark and spark, there’d been some serious sexual tension building these many months. And we were letting it all out—albeit slowly. Sure, we could’ve raced right back to the bedroom that night and let the sex ring out across the city for days, but Simon and I, without saying a word, seemed to be on the same page for once, and were content to let this unfold.
He was wooing me. And I was letting him woo. I wanted the woo. I deserved the woo. I needed the wow that would surely follow the woo, but for now, the woo? It was whoa.
And speaking of woo…
My hands slipped into his hair, tugging and twisting and trying to pull his entire body inside my own. He groaned into my mouth, I felt his tongue touch mine, and I fell apart at the seams. I sighed, the tiniest whimper, and it became harder and harder to kiss him due to the giant grin overtaking my face.
He pulled back a little and laughed. “You sure look happy.”
“Keep kissing me, please,” I insisted, bringing his face back to mine.
“It’s like kissing a jack ’o’ lantern. What’s with the grin?” He smiled down at me with a grin that looked as wide as my own.
“We’re in Spain, Simon. Grinning is implied.” I sighed contentedly, messing with his hair.
“And here I thought it was all to do with my kissing,” he answered, kissing me again, gently, sweetly.
“Okay, cowboy, ready to see where the GPS takes us?” I asked, stepping away. I couldn’t keep my hands on him for too long or we’d never leave.
“Let’s see how lost we really are.” He smiled and we were on our way.
“I think this is the turn…Yep, this is it,” he said.
I bounced in my seat. Turned out we were closer than we thought, and we’d gotten a bit antsy. As we made one last turn, we looked at each other, and I squealed. We’d seen bits of the ocean for the last few miles or so—peeking out behind a stand of trees or over a cliff. Now, as we turned down a tiny cobblestone drive, the realization that Simon had rented a house not just near the beach, but on the beach washed over me, and I was silenced by the sight.
Simon pulled up to the house, the tires crunching on the rounded stones. When he turned the car off, I could hear the waves crashing against the rocky coast about a hundred feet away. We sat for a moment, just taking it all in and grinning at each other, before I scrambled out of the car.
“This is where we’re staying? This entire house—it’s yours?” I exclaimed as he grabbed our bags and came to stand next to me.
“It’s ours, yeah.” He smiled and gestured for me to walk ahead of
him.
The house was charming and magnificent all at the same time: white stucco walls, clay-tile roof, clean lines, and soft archways. Orange trees lined the walkway from the drive, and bougainvillea climbed the garden walls. The house was a classic cottage, built to weather the sea and cocoon those inside. As Simon looked under the flowerpots for the key, I inhaled the citrus scents and the distinctly salty air.
“A-ha! Got it. Ready to see the inside?” He struggled with the door for a moment before turning to face me.
I reached for his hand, threading my fingers through his, and leaned in to kiss his cheek. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For bringing me here.” I smiled and kissed him square on the lips.
“Mmm, more of that sugar you promised me.” He dropped the bag and pulled me close.
“Sugar this! Let’s see the house!” I cried, wiggling free and charging past him through the door. But as soon as I made it past the entryway, I stopped cold. Close on my heels, he bumped into me as I took it all in.
A sunken living room, dotted with plush white sofas and comfy-looking chairs, opened up to what I assumed was the kitchen. French doors at the back of the house opened to several large, terraced patios, which sunk down toward the rocky beach. But what had stopped me cold was the ocean. All across the back, through the giant windows, was the deep blue of the lazy Mediterranean. The coastline curved back to the town of Nerja, where the lights were just beginning to sparkle as twilight drifted over the beach, illuminating the other white houses that clung to the cliffs. Remembering how to move, I ran to push open the doors and let the soft air spill over me and into the house, blanketing everything in the evening’s perfume.
I walked to the wrought iron railing, which perched at the edge of an earthen tile patio flanked by olive trees. Placing my hands on the warm metal, I looked and looked and looked. I felt Simon walk up behind me and without a word place his arms around my waist. He nestled in to me, resting his head on my shoulder. I leaned back, feeling the angles and planes of his body fit against my own.
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