by Elle James
“About tonight,” Blade started.
Sophia pinned a smile on her face. “What about it? I am so excited, I can’t wait. I’ve never been to an authentic Cinco de Mayo celebration.”
He frowned. “Yeah, about that. I’m not so sure it’s a good idea.”
“Why not?” Sophia asked, her heartbeat picking up. Was he maybe just a little bit jealous?
“All of the resorts are fairly safe. Anywhere outside of the resorts, not so much. They have drug cartels operating throughout Mexico. For all you know, Andrés Calderón could be a member.”
Sophia snorted. “Are you sure you’re not jealous because I talked with him all the way from Houston?”
“Of course not,” Blade said.
Sophia’s heart plummeted. “Is it because you don’t have a date for the Cinco de Mayo celebration? Why didn’t you ask the young lady who was sitting next to you on the plane?”
Blade snorted. “I would have, but I imagine her husband would’ve been less than agreeable.”
Sophia frowned. “What about the flight attendant? I’m sure they have a layover tonight.”
He shook his head. “She’s spending time with her family in Cancún.”
“Well, maybe you’ll meet somebody at the celebration tonight, because,” Sophia lifted her chin, “with or without you, I’m going.”
“I’m going with you. Remember, I’m your bodyguard, so don’t try to ditch me.”
“I won’t try to ditch you as long as you understand that you’re not my chaperone. However, the very handsome and gentlemanly Andrés Calderón and I plan on drinking margaritas and dancing until past midnight. Are you up for that?”
“I can handle it.” Blade shrugged. “It can’t be worse than facing the Taliban in a ten-to-one firefight.”
Sophia laughed. “Surely, it won’t be as bad as that.”
“Hopefully not. However, drug cartels have been known to fire into crowds. I suggest we keep our exit routes in mind.”
The driver pulled up to the resort reception area and unloaded their luggage from the trunk. He whisked them up to the check-in line and left their luggage with the bellman.
A clerk in a white guayabera shirt, with a nametag announcing him as Guillermo, smiled broadly. “Buenos días, Señorita Phillips. We are so happy to welcome you to Playa del Luna.”
“Gracias.” She returned his smile. “I believe we have a suite with two queen-size beds?”
The man checked his computer terminal and frowned. He clicked a few keys, his eyes narrowed and then his frown turned upside down into an expansive smile. “I’m pleased to say you’ve been upgraded to a bungalow in one of our premiere locations located near the beach.”
“That’s lovely,” Sophia said. “With two queen-size beds?”
“No, Senorita Phillips. I am most pleased to say it has a king-size bed with a view of the water, a large living area with sofas and a dining table and your own private veranda.”
Though the bungalow sounded amazing, Sophia’s gut clenched. “Is one of the sofas a fold-out bed?”
The man frowned and looked down at his computer terminal again. “I’m afraid not.” He grinned again. “But I’m sure that you and your guest will be comfortable in the king-size bed.”
“But—” Sophia started.
Blade cupped her elbow and smiled across at the clerk. “Thank you very much. We’ll need two sets of keys and someone to bring our luggage to the bungalow.”
The clerk switched his attention to Blade and handed over the keys with a smile. “Enjoy your visit. If there’s anything you need, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
As Blade guided her away from the reception desk, Sophia muttered, “I need a room with two queen-size beds. I didn’t plan on having to share the bed with you.”
“I’m sure the couch will be just fine. It’ll be nice to have a room with a view of the water. Let’s just get there and assess.”
A bellman wheeled a cart with their luggage along a path leading out of the main hotel then along a walkway with bungalows on each side. When he reached the end, he paused in front of the last one.
Sophia’s breath caught as she stared out at the ocean.
The bellman grinned. “It is muy bueno, si?”
“Yes,” Sophia said. “It is muy bueno.”
The bellman unlocked the door and set their luggage inside.
Blade tipped the man, and he left with the cart. Blade urged Sophia to enter. “This is much nicer than being in the main hotel.”
Sophia nodded. Every window had a view. “You could put up with a lot for that view, but I get the bed.” She glanced around the bungalow, noticing that there were several chairs—and one small sofa. She pulled the cushions off the sofa. “Damn. The clerk was right. There’s no fold-out bed in here.”
Blade lifted a shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’ll make do.”
Sophia shook her head. There was no way. The man would hang four feet off the couch. “You can’t sleep on that. I’ll take the couch, and you can have the king-size bed.”
“I’ll be fine,” Blade said. “If anything, I can sleep on the floor. I’ve slept on worse.”
She frowned. “Yeah, but you’re here on vacation. Not in a foxhole.”
Blade headed toward the veranda. “I could sleep out on the deck on one of the lounge chairs. They’ll be better than an Army cot.”
“We’ll see,” Sophia said. “In the meantime, I plan on hitting the waves.” She snagged her suitcase and rolled it into the single bathroom. “I’ll only be a minute.”
Sophia slipped out of her clothes, doused herself thoroughly with sunscreen, and stepped into the royal blue bikini Beth had chosen for her to wear. She wished she’d brought the one-piece. The bikini was far too revealing.
She stared at herself in the mirror and frowned. Her pale skin would blind anybody in the sunshine. Why couldn’t she have the dark olive-toned skin of the woman who’d sat next to Blade the entire trip from Houston to Cancún?
Well, the sunscreen would have to do its job, but she’d need some help putting it on her back. The thought of Blade smoothing his hands over her skin made her shiver in anticipation. Of course, he still thought of her as only a friend, but she could live in her own fantasy as he smoothed the cream across her skin.
She plunked a broad-brimmed hat on her head, pulled a cover-up over her shoulders and fished a beach towel out of the closet. With her sunscreen and towel in hand, she emerged from the bathroom.
Blade stood in the middle of the room wearing a pair of swim trunks and nothing else but flip flops on his feet. He grinned. “Ready to go?”
Sophia nodded, wishing that she’d come just a little earlier out of the bathroom to catch him changing from his street clothes to his swim trunks. Her breath lodged in her throat. Damn he was sexy. With his deeply tanned, broad shoulders, he could have modeled for one of those men’s athletic magazines. He turned his smile toward her.
Her knees melted. Who was she kidding? This man could never be interested in the redhaired, pale-skinned, freckle-faced girl next door as anything other than a friend. Resigned to her position as Blade’s friend, she nodded. “Let’s go.”
All they had to do was walk straight out of the bungalow and onto the beach. After anchoring their beach towels with their flip flops, the moment of reckoning came. Sophia really wished that she had that one-piece swimsuit now. Maybe even a full wetsuit to cover her pale skin. She took a deep breath, sighed and dropped her coverup and her hat on the beach towel.
Blade smiled and shook his head. “Sweetheart, you can’t stay out here very long. That sun will cook your skin.”
She slapped the tube of sunscreen into his hands. “Then do me the honors and get my back. I got everywhere else I could reach.”
“My pleasure,” he said, and he squirted the thick lotion into his palms and rubbed them together. “Turn around.”
She obeyed, her heart skipping several beats before her pulse pounded through her
veins.
His hands descended on her shoulders, their warmth seeping into her skin, shooting heat all the way to her core. As he smoothed his hands over her skin, she closed her eyes and fantasized that he was her lover, that he liked pale skin and freckle-faced girls with red hair. His hands moved from her shoulders down the center of her back. Moving in a circular motion, he dipped further south to the elastic band of her string bikini. He lingered there.
Desire rippled through Sophia.
He leaned close to her ear. “Did you get the backs of your thighs?”
She sucked in a breath and shook her head. “No.”
His hands skimmed over her buttocks, and he smoothed cream over the backs of her thighs up to her butt cheeks that weren’t covered by the bikini. Holy hell, she thought. I’m going to climax, and we’re not even making love. Her breath caught and held, body tingling.
Then his hands left her body. He capped the tube and tossed it onto the beach towel. “Last one in is a rotten egg,” he said, and ran toward the water.
Sophia spent a minute standing there watching as he dove into the waves. She let her pulse return to normal and the heat abate just a little before she followed him into the water.
Taking it more slowly, she waded in up to her waist.
Blade went under and, for a moment, she couldn’t see him. Sophia spun in a circle. She couldn’t find him, and she worried when he didn’t come up. Something grabbed her ankles and yanked her feet out from under her. She dipped below the surface and came up sputtering in front of a laughing Blade.
Game on!
For the next fifteen minutes, they played in the water dunking each other. Blade picked her up and threw her into the surf several times as if she weighed nothing. They laughed and teased each other like a couple of teenagers.
Sophia found herself relaxing in his company. So, they might not be lovers, but he did make a good friend and he was fun to be with. She could be satisfied with that at least for the week they’d be in Cancún. And who knew? Maybe friends could turn to lovers? It was one of her favorite tropes in the books she read. Sophia could only hope.
Chapter 3
When they’d had enough saltwater, Blade secured a couple of lounge chairs and a beach umbrella. He was concerned that Sophia would burn in the hot Cancún sun, and he’d hate to see her beautiful pale skin turn red and blotchy, knowing how painful it would be.
Once he had her seated in the shade, he went off to find a couple of drinks. All the while he was away from her, he kept her in his sight. Blade found a waiter, gave his order and returned to where Sophia lay with her eyes closed on the lounge chair, her beautiful body drying in the gentle breeze.
She wasn’t his usual type, which was a good thing. She was his friend and his next-door neighbor. He shouldn’t be thinking about her as anything else.
But seeing her lying there in her royal blue bikini that left very little to the imagination, his pulse quickened, and his groin tightened. He’d never considered her as anything other than a friend.
His reputation with the women was one he’d earned. Mr. “Love ’em and Leave ’em” Blade. As long as he was a Delta he didn’t want to commit. He would only end up breaking her heart or his. The thought of falling in love, and then the woman falling out of love with him, kept him from wanting a permanent relationship, especially as much as the Deltas deployed. He hated to think of leaving a woman behind to fend for herself. He wouldn’t be there to protect her from harm. He wouldn’t be there to help her when she was sick. And if she had children, he wouldn’t be there to help her change diapers and go to ballgames or dance lessons with them.
Too many of his friends within the Delta Force had learned the hard way that most women wouldn’t tolerate a man who was gone all the time. People got lonely. Sophia deserved a man who would be there for her. A man who would love and protect her.
She put up with a lot of shit with her job as a bartender and waitress, but she always had a smile on her face. When she laughed, her eyes sparkled. She was an amazing woman and merited being happy.
Blade wasn’t the man who could give her that happiness.
Still, he couldn’t help relaxing in her company and enjoying the time they had together. He could do this. He could be her friend. As long as he didn’t have to smear lotion on her back too often. Whew. That, in itself, had been a challenge. He’d run into the water just to tamp down the hard-on he’d gotten.
He wasn’t hers, and he had no claim on Sophia, but he wasn’t excited about her meeting another man in downtown Cancún. He told himself he wasn’t excited about it because he was afraid of crime outside the resort. Even more afraid that members of a drug cartel might show up and gun down innocents.
More than that, he didn’t trust this Andrés Calderón. As soon as he got back to the hotel, he’d give his buddies a call and have them do some research, and maybe see if there was anything on Caldron that would put up any red flags. If he had a history of drugs and violence, then maybe Blade could convince Sophia not to go downtown for the Cinco de Mayo celebration.
When the waiter came with their drinks, Blade handed one to Sophia.
She pushed to a sitting position and smiled as she reached out for the drink. “What did you get me?”
“I thought we’d start the vacation with Painkillers.”
“Mmm, it looks lovely.” She sipped her drink. “And it tastes great. Thank you.”
“What do you want to do while we’re here? I mean, besides hanging out on the beach, at the pool and soaking up the sun?”
“Andrés was telling me about some of the excursions available from here. I thought maybe we could do a catamaran trip out to Isla Mujeres. I’ve never snorkeled anywhere but off the beaches at South Padre.”
Blade ginned. “You’re going to love it. The water is so much clearer, and there’s so much to see, sea life and coral.”
“Good. We’ll do that. We need to talk to the concierge and get that on our schedule.”
“I’d like to make a trip out to Chichen Itza,” Blade said. “I’ve been there before, but I’d like to explore it again. I think you would love it.”
“That’s right,” Sophia grinned. “That’s another place Andrés mentioned. From the pictures it looks amazing. I’m game for that as well.”
The mention of Andrés made Blade tense. He’d wait for some feedback from his friends before he tried to talk Sophia out of meeting the man in downtown Cancún. He needed ammunition to talk her out of the rendezvous. In the meantime, he would enjoy the sun, the smell of the salt in the air and lying next to a beautiful woman—along with a constant reminder that she was strictly a friend.
“Are you hungry?” Sophia asked.
Blade’s stomach rumbled. “Ugh, yes.”
“How about we find something to eat?”
He patted his flat belly. “I’m game.”
They picked up their things and walked back to the bungalow a few steps away.
“This really is a prime location,” Sophia said. “We have everything at our fingertips.”
Especially you.
The thought popped into Blade’s head before he could think straight. Once again, he had to remind himself that she was strictly a friend, nothing more. He’d promised the guys that he wouldn’t take advantage of her.
The week stretched out in front of him. He wasn’t sure he could keep that promise for an entire week. Not when they’d be spending so much time together.
As soon as they made it back to their room, Sophia ducked into the bathroom. Blade could hear the shower go on. While Sophia rinsed off, Blade got out his cellphone and dialed Mac’s number.
“Miss me already?” Mac answered.
“Of course.” As he stood in front of the sliding glass doors, gazing at the beach and water, he grinned. “I’m standing in our room, staring out at the water. The sun’s shining and I’ve had my first Painkiller. Yeah, I’m missing you.”
Mac laughed. “Why the call?”
“Why?” Mac asked.
“He hit on Sophia on the airplane and has asked her to join him at the Cinco de Mayo celebration in downtown Cancún. I want to see if he’s legit, or if he’s somebody I need to worry about.”
“You’re not letting her go with him, are you?”
“Of course not. I’m going with her. I’m just hesitant to go to downtown Cancún, off the resort, with Sophia.”
“And rightly so,” Mac said. “The cartels have been active in those areas. They usually don’t bother tourists, but if you’re in a non-tourist area, you do need to be careful.”
“Exactly.”
“Need us to come down and cover you and Sophia?” Mac asked.
“I wish. You guys would love it here. It’s beautiful.” And so is Sophia, he added beneath his breath. Why hadn’t he noticed before? And now that he had, how could he un-notice it? She was his friend. She needed to stay his friend. He couldn’t screw that up.
“I’ll check on this Andrés Calderón and let you know.”
“Thanks, buddy.”
“And really, if you need us to come down and spot you…” Mac paused, “all you have to do is say the word.”
“Thanks, man. I will.” As Blade ended the call, the bathroom door opened.
Sophia stepped out in a bathrobe, her hair damp, her skin flushed a pretty peach color.
“Shower’s all yours,” she said. “I was going to do my hair, but I don’t think it’s going to do any good. The humidity here will just keep it curling.” A few drying tendrils curled around her face.
“I like the curls,” he said.
She gave him a twisted smile. “Thanks.”
He ducked into the bathroom carrying his shaving kit and an extra set of clothes. The room smelled like Sophia. A fragrant floral scent that tantalized him. He could imagine her standing beneath the shower spray rubbing scented bodywash all over her body. He found himself wishing that he’d done that.
“She’s your friend,” he muttered to himself as he turned the water to cool. Thinking otherwise would get him nowhere.