“Horror movies maybe,” I said. “His name is Jaxon. If anyone finds my body carved up like pieces on a sushi buffet, point the authorities in his direction.”
“Did you get a funny vibe off him?”
“Did any of Jeffry Dahmer’s victim’s get a funny vibe off him until it was too late?”
I could practically hear her eyes rolling all the way from home. “Don’t assume the worst in him. This could be the best thing that could’ve happened to you. You were worried about being alone and having people pity you. Now you won’t be and they’ll be envious if he’s as good looking as you say he is. You didn’t happen to snap a picture, did you?”
“No.” I sat up and stared at the door, trying to develop X-ray vision. Not because he’d been well on his way to getting naked when I’d left, but because I wanted to see what he was unpacking from that massive black duffel bag of his. “Maybe I should try to later, though. It might help when you have to send the cops after him.”
“I’m pretty sure that hotel has cameras everywhere. They’ll be sure to have a good shot of his face. I don’t want a picture so they can track him. I want to see what your new roomie looks like.”
“He’s not my roomie.” Theoretically, he was my bungalowie, but he wasn’t stepping a single foot in my room. “I didn’t come here to deal with the what-ifs of a guy I don’t even know, Em. I came to relax and enjoy my me-moon.”
“Maybe your me is in for a new moon,” she joked, and I scoffed at her.
“That doesn’t even make any sense.”
“It makes sense to me,” she sang. “Go out there and get to know this Jaxon. He sounds like quite a character.”
“He could be a serial killer for all we know. Aren’t they known to be charming and good looking?”
“I’m going to the beach if you want to join me,” he called from the other side of the door.
I froze, mortified while trying to figure out if he could’ve been listening in on my conversation.
“I’m not going to find any opportune victims for my serial killing,” he said. “I’m just going for a light swim.”
Blood rushed to my cheeks when I realized he’d probably heard every word.
Ember cracked up over the phone, obviously having heard him too. “Dude, he has a sense of humor. You have to go to the beach with him.”
I groaned into my pillow, thrashing about on my bed and wondering how exactly I was supposed to get over this latest embarrassment. She wouldn’t let me stew, though.
“Can you see the beach from your window? Has he left?”
“I think so.” My voice was muffled by the pillow I still held over my face, but then I got genuinely curious about whether I would be able to see him.
Slowly dropping the pillow to the side, I got off the bed and moved stealthily, as if he had that X-ray vision I’d tried to develop and would be watching my every move. “Hang on. I’m going to the window. I’ll tell you in a second.”
“Why are you whispering?” She kept her own voice low, though I could hear the laughter threatening to break free.
“Because he was listening to us a minute ago,” I hissed. “He might still be there.”
“Nothing you say now will be as humiliating as what he’s already heard.” She giggled. “Hurry your ass up and check if you can see him. Then describe what you see in fine, fine detail.”
“I’m not about to check him out and report back to you, you perve. The only reason I even agreed to let him stay is because without him, we’d both have been without a room for the night. Possibly even the week.”
“You say potato. I say potahto.” There was a definite shrug present in her voice. “I know you’re not planning on having hot rebound sex with him, but would it hurt to get to know the guy and spend some time with him this week? You’re fake married to him, remember?”
“Don’t remind me. I’m already regretting playing along with his charade.” I wasn’t really, though. The sound of the waves against the sand and the magnificent view of the ocean from my bedroom window were enough to convince me that he’d done us both a favor. “I know I have to try and make the best of this whole situation. I just don’t know how.”
Guys like Will were the only ones I’d ever been friends with. They played video games for fun, argued about philosophy over Pinot Noir on nights out, and still thought of the gym as the place where the jocks who beat them up at school hung out.
They were my kind of people. Hence why I was only friends with people like them.
Ember was an exception. She was the epitome of the bad-ass girl with all her tattoos and piercings, devil-may-care attitude, and lack of faith in humanity. The gym was her hunting ground and the men who thought they were the predators, her prey.
We hit it off because we were opposites. She was the yin to my yang, and it worked that way. I didn’t need another yang. No one needed two yangs to their yin.
She exhaled into the receiver. “You don’t need to know how, my dearest friend. He invited you to the beach, so you go. Didn’t you say he completely took charge in the lobby?”
“I did say that.” Much to my chagrin right then.
“Then let him take charge,” she said like it was obvious. “If you end up having cocktails on the beach with him instead of alone, who cares? You sure as hell shouldn’t.”
“I’m not exactly the kind of girl who lets a guy take charge.” I very much preferred to be in control of my own life. “Who even does that anymore? You know women are allowed to vote now, right?”
She made a gagging noise. “Spare me the feminist speech. There’s a big difference between letting him befriend you and show you a good time, and him dominating every aspect of your life while expecting you to have dinner cooked and on the table at seven.”
“Point taken.” I scrunched up my nose as I walked to the window. “That wasn’t really what I meant anyway. I just… I feel so lost.”
“I get that, babe.” Her voice turned gentle. “It’s completely understandable. Your world turned upside down a few days ago. Will tossed your precious planner out the window and now it’s time to make new plans. All I’m suggesting is rolling with what fate has pushed into your path.”
“So what am I supposed to do?” I pushed my face almost all the way up to the glass, craning my neck to be able to see the beach in front of our bungalow.
Jaxon was standing up to his knees in the water, his wide back muscular and all inked up. I was too far away to make out any details of the artwork covering his skin, but it was etched from hip to hip, extending all the way up to and across his shoulder blades.
There were splotches of ink on his upper arms too, which I’d missed before when I’d barely caught a glimpse of his bare skin before retreating into my room. He did a half turn when a wave rolled at him, displaying more color on his chest as well.
None of it would show when he was wearing clothes, but it’d obviously been well positioned. Almost every inch of skin that would be hidden beneath a shirt was tattooed.
Although the lines beside his eyes and on his forehead made him appear older than I was, it was obvious he kept his body in great shape. Distance again hampered the details, but the V between his hips and the definition of his shoulders, arms, and torso would’ve been visible from outer space.
A wave smacked into his back, and he turned a second later and dragged both hands through his hair to slick it back. He grinned when he turned back, like he was having the time of his life and was just soaking it in.
That grin made me feel slightly jealous of him. He seemed to have everything in life perfectly under control, content with every fucking thing that happened to him. Like he knew the universe would cater to his every whim and he simply trusted it to do so.
My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. What would it be like to live like him?
“What do you do?” Ember repeated my question through the phone. “You be yourself and you—” She stopped talking, sighed, and changed direction
. “Actually, you don’t be yourself. You be someone else. Just for this week. You live someone else’s life and you see where it takes you.”
“That sounds like a horrible idea,” I said, but I nodded my agreement with her plan anyway. “I’ll let you know how it goes.”
“You do that.”
We ended the call shortly after that, and I thought about what she’d said. Jaxon didn’t know me and neither did anyone else on this island.
If there was ever a time to cut loose and just go with it, this was it. My one and only opportunity.
Ember was right about the resort having cameras. If I suddenly disappeared, they would know to start with him. He hadn’t been wearing a cap or anything, so he should be easy to identify.
Besides, going out to the beach with him seemed like a minuscule thing in comparison to agreeing to share a room. Since I didn’t have a suitcase or any other clothes than what I was wearing, I went to splash some water on my face before making my way out to the beach.
Jaxon broke into a huge grin as I padded onto the soft, warm sand. “Come hang out with me, roomie. It’ll be fun.”
I ground my teeth but sat down at the edge of the water, praying that this time I was actually making the right decision.
Chapter 8
JAXON
Lindsay had obviously washed the tears off her face, and she looked even fiercer than she had before. Her eyes tracked my every movement, the blue in them reflecting the darker parts of the horizon she was pretending to stare off into.
Even though she’d agreed to sit with me, it seemed she was averse to making eye contact. She sat in the sand just beyond where the water could reach her but stretched out her legs so the surf touched her toes when it came in.
She was skittish, but I couldn’t blame her. She was obviously still pissed I was sharing her room with her, and she didn’t quite know what to make of me.
Can’t fault her for that either. “Do you really think I’m a serial killer?”
Breaking the ice felt like the right thing to do. I couldn’t really make conversation with the girl if she was convinced I was going to gut her.
She brought her gaze to mine as she folded her arms around her knees. “Are you?”
“No.” A wave crashed into the backs of my knees, but I took a step forward to avoid toppling onto my face just in time. “I’m here for the same reason you are.”
“You got stood up on your wedding day and decided to go on your honeymoon anyway?”
I chuckled. “Maybe not the exact same reason. I’m assuming you wanted to get away from it all. So did I.”
She shrugged. “Everything had already been paid for. It seemed like a waste to not make use of it. I don’t know. Coming here was a spur of the moment decision.”
“You don’t make a lot of those, do you?” It didn’t take a genius to see that she was uncomfortable, and it wasn’t just because I was rooming with her.
She dipped her head in acknowledgment. “I prefer plans as opposed to spontaneity.”
“You can’t plan for everything.” I smirked and pointed a thumb at my chest. “There’s no way you could’ve planned for meeting me, for example.”
“That’s because you might be a psycho. Who goes around hotel lobbies eavesdropping on private conversations and then inserting themselves into that person’s life?”
“Me. I didn’t plan it either, if that makes you feel any better. I just walked in there hoping to get a room, and I ended up standing near the chair you were sitting on. When I heard what you said, I thought maybe we could solve both our problems.”
“How much did you hear?” She planted her hands in the sand behind her and leaned back on her palms.
“Enough.” I walked forward a few steps and saw her gaze trailing down the length of my body before she snapped it back up. She was doing a lot of that—checking me out before she caught herself doing it.
I didn’t mind. I just didn’t know why she felt like she had to stop. I was doing the same thing to her, minus the stopping part.
She tilted her head and lifted a hand to shield her eyes from the sun. “What do you do for a living if you’re not a serial killer?”
“I think even they have day jobs,” I joked. “I’m a pilot. My hobbies do not include homicide, mayhem, or any of the other colorful thoughts you’ve had.”
“What are your hobbies?” she asked.
I shook my head. “You first. What do you do for a living?”
“I’m in Human Resources.” There was a hint of pride in her voice. “Senior consultant.”
I trailed my gaze across her face again. “Senior, huh? You don’t look like you should be a senior anything.”
“I worked hard.” She jutted her chin out. “Youngest in the department to ever get promoted to senior status.”
“How old are you?”
She shook her head and motioned to me. “Your turn.”
“What do you want to know?” I walked the rest of the way out of the water and went to sit next to her.
As much as I enjoyed looking at Lindsay, the way she kept looking at me was getting my blood flowing, and in my wet shorts, there would be no hiding it. The last thing I needed was her thinking that I was going to try to get into her pants.
I very much would’ve liked to get into her pants, but I doubted she would be interested. Despite her thinking I was hot and her undressing me with her eyes, she hardly seemed to be the type to fuck what had happened out of her system.
“My hobbies?” I focused on the question she’d asked me instead of letting my brain wander to speculating over how I might be able to help her if she was interested in fucking it out of her system. “Working on old planes, hiking, scuba diving. A bunch of stuff really. A lot of physical activity.”
She slanted her gaze at me, once again running it over my body even though I was now seated. “Well, at least that’s one thing about you that adds up.”
“Everything about me adds up,” I said. “I haven’t lied once since I met you.”
“You haven’t?” She lifted her brows. “Did you and I get married in some ceremony I don’t remember then?”
“I haven’t lied to you.” I propped my elbows on my knees and admired the view while we talked. Whoever thought the ocean was just the ocean no matter where you went clearly hadn’t been here before. “Don’t pretend like you minded me lying to that manager. It got us the room, didn’t it?”
“Are you ever going to let me forget that?”
“Nope.” I grinned. “It’s true. Now answer the question. You didn’t mind me lying to him about us. I saw you laughing. There’s no point trying to deny it.”
“I was laughing because what you were threatening to do was ridiculous.” She rolled her eyes when I glanced at her. “I still can’t believe he thought you were being serious.”
“Hey, if this was our honeymoon and they didn’t have a room for us, I would’ve done exactly what I threatened him with. In that context, I was being serious. If I thought you’d have been willing to take the act that far, I’d have done it anyway if he’d refused us a room.”
“There’s no way you’d have gotten intimate with that many people around.”
I laughed. “Who said anything about getting intimate? I was talking about fucking. And yes, I would have done it with that many people around. I don’t know them.”
“Maybe not, but they would’ve gotten to know you pretty damn well during the ensuing criminal trial.”
“Do you really think any cop would’ve arrested me for simply wanting to consummate my marriage to my beautiful bride? Lack of self-control isn’t a crime.”
“It is when the failure to control yourself results in you committing a crime. Having sex in the lobby of a hotel is definitely a crime.”
“I’m a man in love. No one would blame me. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’d have been able to spin it against the hotel for not having a room for us.”
“Not being able to get a room at a h
otel doesn’t constitute a justifiable excuse to escape criminal charges for sex in public. Can you imagine the consequences if it did? People would be banging all over every lobby of every nice hotel. Especially over holiday weekends. It would be a disaster.”
“Wow. You really don’t like sex in public, do you?”
She shrugged. “I wouldn’t know and we’re not discussing this anymore. I just really can’t believe the manager took you seriously. That’s the point of this conversation.”
“Nah, the point is he was right to take me seriously because if I was married to you and I’d already been forced to keep my hands off you for the entire flight, you better believe I’d have made good on my threat if they didn’t give us a room.”
“The flight is less than fourteen hours long. It’s hardly as punishing as you’re making it out to be.”
“That’s fourteen fucking hours of sitting next to you and keeping my hands to myself. It’s way more punishing than I’m making it out to be.”
She turned her head to give me a look, but our gazes caught and held for longer than either of us intended for them to. There was incredulity in her deep blue depths, but there was some heat there too. It seemed talking about this was turning her on.
I didn’t have to know her well to know she’d never admit it, but I wasn’t about to ask anyway. She wasn’t the only one getting turned on, and I still didn’t want her to know I was attracted to her at all.
If I did, I wouldn’t put it past her to kick my ass out of the bungalow.
Her tongue darted out and she swiped it across her lips before giving her head a little shake. “Not being able to have sex for fourteen hours is hardly anything. Let’s just leave it at that.”
“Fine. As long you know we’re agreeing to disagree on your final statement.”
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