Tropical Heat

by Stephanie Bedwell-Grime

  “If I what?”

  “You know, want some privacy.”

  So he wasn’t impervious. She thought she saw the hint of blush beneath his tan. “I think it’s a bit too late for that. I imagine I’m in the doghouse.”

  “Sorry,” she said again and wanted to bite her tongue for apologizing so much. Where did that urge come from?

  “It’s not your fault. The hotel messed up. They thought you were a guy. When I got their email, so did I.”

  “When I got an email saying my roommate was named Jesse, I assumed you were female.”

  He raised an eyebrow.

  “No way I could make that mistake in person.” Sydney cursed her fair coloring as a deep blush worked its way up her neck and into her cheeks.

  Jesse tipped his head back and laughed heartily. “Thanks, I think.”

  “You’re welcome.” She took another sip of her drink and vowed it would be her last. Obviously, it was making her say things best left unsaid.

  “So, what do we do now?”

  “I guess we make do for tonight. Tomorrow morning we’ll check with the desk to see if anyone’s checked out. Maybe another room will become available in a day or so.”

  “Sounds like a plan. I’ll sleep on the—”

  “There you are!”

  Sydney turned to see a group of guys descending on them. The blond-haired buff guy at the front of the group caught sight of her. His gaze flicked from Jesse’s face back to hers. “Whoa!”

  Jesse’s head jerked up at the sound. Sydney studied the two men. At first, she’d thought Jesse self-assured, even cocky. But contrasted against this newcomer, she realized she’d been wrong. The blond jock stood over six-feet tall. His chiseled jaw and full lips gave him a pretty-boy look, but his mouth quirked into a smirk that bordered on nasty.

  Jesse shot him a warning glance, which he ignored.

  “You are getting way too much action tonight.” He turned to the group of men behind him and whistled with admiration. “A round of applause for our buddy Jesse.”

  “I’m not—” Jesse protested, to no avail. They broke out in a rowdy bout of hoots and clapping.

  “Sure you’re not,” said a sandy-haired guy at the back of the group. “A while ago we saw you going up to your room with one woman. Now you’re at the bar with another. Didn’t know you were such a player!”

  “Guys,” Jesse said. “Enough.”

  “Come on, take a bow.” This from the blond guy.

  “No.” He stayed resolutely in his seat.

  Another round of hoots and shouts. Eventually, they subsided.

  “This is Sydney, my … roommate. Sydney”—Jesse motioned to the blond guy with the model looks—“meet my friend, Ethan.” The way he said “friend” made it sound like anything but. Still, he continued. “Ethan’s getting married, so we’re all here to celebrate his wedding.”

  Oh, great. Just what she needed. A bunch of guys intent on helping their friend have one last fling. She felt that tightness beneath her ribs again. Taking a deep breath, she forced her shoulders to relax. Just because Jesse had come for a week-long bachelor party didn’t mean it had anything to do with her. Except for having to sleep in the same room, they didn’t have to spend any time with each other. Her heart sank further. She’d been kind of hoping to spend a little time with Jesse. He’d been such a gentleman since they’d gone to the front desk, feeding her, getting her a drink. She glanced at the bleary-eyed group of jocks in cargo shorts and t-shirts, each holding a beer. If this was the company he kept…

  “…And this is Noah.” Jesse gestured to the sandy-haired guy. “And the rest of the groomsmen, Josh and Lucas.”

  Sydney pitied the bride. Worrying about those party boys making it to the wedding sober would have given her nightmares for weeks. Then again, maybe the bride was at the next resort having her own bachelorette party. Her shoulders tightened with tension. Not only was she stuck with Jesse for a week, she was stuck with his friends in the wedding party. She took a deep breath and rolled her shoulders. Whatever any of them were doing down here in the tropics was none of her business. She intended to keep it that way.

  “Wait a minute.” Apparently the significance of what Jesse had said was starting to sink in. “You said she’s your roommate?”

  Jesse nodded. “The hotel messed up.”

  Ethan gave him an expression full of pity. The groom obviously saw her as an impediment to Jesse’s fun.

  “Bummer, man,” Ethan said.

  “Yeah, bummer,” Noah echoed.

  Lucas offered his friend his own pitying look.

  “Well, thanks a bunch,” Sydney shot back, irritation getting the better of her. She’d come to have her own fun. She hadn’t counted on the hotel messing up, either.

  Josh spoke up for the first time. “Maybe it’ll work out okay.”

  Sydney studied him for a moment. He had a head of brown curls that stood out in all directions, giving him a tousled, yet loveable vibe. He didn’t have the jaded attitude his friends did. He seemed … well, more like Jesse.

  “Look, guys,” Jesse cut in. “Do you think you could give Sydney and me a minute here?”

  Ethan offered them a lecherous wink. “Sure, no problem. We’ll give you a minute. By the looks of it that’s all our friend Speedy here needs.”

  With that they walked off toward the bar, chuckling and hooting as they went.

  Sydney watched for a moment as they grabbed wicker stools at the bar and proceeded to chat up a couple of blondes holding fruity drinks. “Great.”

  Jesse’s gaze darted in their direction. “I’m sorry about that. They totally misinterpreted the situation.”

  “I think they totally misinterpreted the amount of liquor they can hold.”

  He smiled. A nice smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes. She got the impression he didn’t do that often. To her surprise, she found she wanted to be the recipient of that smile. “Yes, I think they’ve definitely done that. But Ethan’s about to get married. He wants to sow the last of his wild oats, as my grandpa used to say.”

  “Aren’t you supposed to be done sowing by the time you propose?”

  Jesse studied her face. What he saw there, she couldn’t tell. She forced her expression into a more neutral one.

  “Yes, I imagine you should,” Jesse said.

  “And you’re here to help him sow some oats?”

  His expression hardened. Something flickered in his dark eyes and then was swiftly gone. For a moment, Sydney thought she’d seen a reflection of her own pain, but she couldn’t be sure.

  He stared out past the patio tables into the dark roiling sea. He was silent so long, she didn’t think he had anything more to say.

  “No,” he said finally. “I’m here to help my best friend celebrate the last days of his bachelorhood before he marries my ex-girlfriend.”

  Chapter Two

  Now why had he told her that? Why had he spilled his guts to a total stranger? His entire plan of action for this trip was to romance as many women as he could, to make it appear like Ethan’s betrayal hadn’t hurt him at all. Jesse ground his jaw shut to prevent any more damning revelations from escaping.

  He gazed into Sydney’s green eyes and saw the one thing he really didn’t want: her pity. Her disapproval he could stand. He hadn’t come here to be liked. He’d come to get rid of his pain, to wipe the memory of his loss from his mind once and for all. He wasn’t prone to much introspection, but in the quiet hours of the night, he was forced to admit he and Gracie weren’t meant to be a couple. They’d gone through a lot of rough patches. He’d thought of breaking it off many times. Turned out Gracie had been pouring out her heart to Ethan. Ethan, his so-called best friend.

  When Gracie had broken up with him, at first he’d been relieved. No more pretending. No more trying to make it work. Still, when he’d learned she’d run from him straight into Ethan’s arms, it really stung. By then he’d said he was okay with parting ways. Which only led
to more pretending. Because he really wasn’t cool with Gracie and Ethan being a couple. By the time Ethan had asked him to be his best man, he’d kept the deception going so long, he almost believed it. So, here he was in paradise with scantily-clad women all around him and all he could think about was the one he’d lost.

  Well, that wasn’t quite true. A great deal of his thoughts had been taken up with the unexpected roommate sitting across from him now. Her blonde hair hung in tendrils where it had escaped her braid. He longed to reach over, undo the clasp, and set her hair free. He imagined those blonde tresses blowing in the night breeze and swiftly smothered the thought. She had eyes as green as the ocean. Her fair skin had already turned pink on her cheeks and her nose from the little bit of sun she’d received. Her prim blouse and capris did nothing to hide her curvy figure. An image of what those curves would look like in a bikini wafted through his imagination. There’d been no mistaking the heat in her eyes when she’d seen him nude. Visions of them tangled in sweaty sheets on the king-size bed in their room flitted through his mind. He quickly squished them into submission.

  Because he had the sense she had no idea of the impression she was making on him, or on any of the other men passing by. Nor would she be susceptible to a cheap pick-up line. She seemed all but blind to her beauty. She had a seriousness about her that told him to beware. She’d likely suffered her own loss. He could tell. She was dealing with it by covering up her attractiveness and her sensuality. He intended to cope with his loss by doing the opposite. Or at least he had until he’d found out he had a female roommate. One who might be in his room every time he brought a woman back. Talk about cramping his style.

  “I’m sorry about your ex-girlfriend and your best friend,” she said, breaking into his thoughts. “That’s really rough.” She still looked at him with an expression of pity. That had to go.

  “No worries.” She raised an eyebrow and he felt obligated to add, “I’m happy for them, really I am.”

  “That’s big of you.” Her full lips drew down into a frown. Again, he had the feeling she was covering up a deep hurt of her own. “I don’t know if I could be so understanding.”

  Oh, no, now they were delving into feelings and all that messy stuff. The very things he’d come here to escape. He had to say something quickly in order to avoid a long uncomfortable conversation about love and loss.

  “Well, life goes on.”

  She straightened her shoulders. “I suppose it does.” She took another sip of her drink.

  He changed the subject. “So, how are we going to make this work?”

  “I think we need to set some ground rules.”

  Jesse suppressed a groan. Rules. Great. Not what he wanted. He’d intended to spend this week completely free of rules entirely. The only rule he subscribed to was having as much action as he could in seven days, before he had to watch Gracie marry Ethan. “What kind of ground rules?”

  In the candlelight, he watched another blush creep over her face. “The kind where we decide what we’re going to do if we want to bring someone back to the room.”

  “Obviously, we can’t do that together,” he blurted, then realized what he’d said. “Unless, of course, you’re into that kind of thing.”

  “I’m not into that kind of thing,” she said with such disdain he laughed. “And I don’t want to listen to you doing the nasty while I try to sleep.”

  He held up his hands. “Okay, fair enough. I don’t want to vicariously participate any of your romantic conquests, either.”

  “All right, so how are we going to work it then?”

  “How are we going to know if the other needs some privacy?”

  “We need a system.”

  “What kind of system?”

  She appeared to think about that for a moment, her blonde eyebrows drawing together. It made her look serious, yet adorable somehow. “I know! We need some code words, like they do in spy movies.”

  He laughed again. “Like what? The room’s all yours Agent Syd. I struck out tonight. Not that I’m going to,” he added quickly.

  She giggled. The spontaneous sound seemed to surprise her and she covered her mouth with her hand. “Sure,” she murmured. “Something like that.”

  “And we just meet up here at what? Midnight? And announce that to each other?”

  “Might work.” She took another sip of her drink and gazed at him over the rim. “What happens if we both want the room? Because I don’t think you should be so certain I’m the one who’s going to strike out.”

  ****

  What she’d planned, Sydney thought later as she tossed and turned restlessly, was to enjoy the company of as many men as she could in the king-size bed. Which worked far better in theory than in reality. Jesse had gallantly offered to take the pull-out couch, even though his legs hung over the end. Tomorrow, she’d apply herself to the task of finding an appropriate bed partner. But right now she couldn’t seem to stop thinking about the man on the pull-out couch next to her.

  She’d turned out the lights while he’d been in the bathroom brushing his teeth, but she could see by the moonlight leaking around the edges of the drapery he’d been nude when he crawled under the sheet. The springs of the couch had groaned in protest. It wasn’t made for his six-foot-tall frame. Still, he’d been kind enough to take the uncomfortable bed. That thought warmed her heart.

  Go to sleep, she willed her overactive imagination. She was exhausted. An entire resort full of single men awaited her in the morning. She intended to get her groove back. She intended to show Jesse he wasn’t the only one who’d be needing privacy in the room. Her honor demanded it.

  So, why didn’t that idea appeal to her? She was tired was all. She forced her eyelids to close. But then couch springs protested again as Jesse shifted his weight. Her eyes flew open.

  He lay on his side, his legs drawn up nearly in the fetal position just to get his bulky frame on the narrow mattress. For several long moments, she watched his shoulders rise and fall with his regular breathing. Knowing he couldn’t see her, she stole the opportunity to study him blatantly. His curly hair was dark against the white pillowcase. Her gaze traveled over his taut biceps, and she wished she could get out of bed and run her palms over all that muscle. His broad shoulders tapered nicely to a thin waist. His leg covered his crotch, so she couldn’t see what lay beneath the thin white sheet. But the one glance she’d stolen when he’d come out of the shower had been enough to fuel her imagination. She bit her lip.

  Jesse turned over. His dark eyes locked with hers. Too late to pretend she’d been asleep. He’d caught her watching him.

  His full lips quirked into a smile. “Can’t sleep?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know why. I’m tired enough.”

  His self-satisfied smile told her he’d seen through the lie, but was giving her the chance to wiggle out of it. “Strange bed?”

  Sydney nodded. “I can switch with you, if you like. Doesn’t seem like I’ll be getting much sleep anyway.”

  His gaze flickered wistfully to the king-size bed, but he shook his head. “No, I’m fine here. Try to get some sleep.”

  Right, she thought. With a gorgeous hunk of manflesh lying naked under a sheet mere feet away from me. Sure.

  Still, she forced her eyes closed again and tried not to think of those hard thighs and the taut butt she could still picture her mind’s eye. Tomorrow, she mused. Tomorrow she had to get some action one way or another. She had to end the one-year drought that had her fantasizing about her roommate.

  ****

  He should have taken her up on her offer. But he couldn’t in good conscience subject anyone to this uncomfortable couch that even now had a spring sticking into his ribs. He wasn’t going to get any sleep anyway. Not with her lying so close.

  She’d done everything she could to make herself as unattractive in bed as she had on the beach, down to covering herself in a shapeless gray t-shirt. He hadn’t been able to tell in the dimness, but
it appeared to have belonged to an old boyfriend. No sexy lingerie for Sydney. He wondered if she’d brought any with her. Her regular breathing told him she’d finally fallen into a deep sleep. Briefly, he entertained the idea of getting up and rummaging through her open suitcase, but the thought of getting caught deterred him. What could he say? Just wanted to borrow a bra? Still, he couldn’t help wondering if hidden under all those baggy clothes was a red bikini and maybe a lacy black bra and thong. No, he decided finally. White cotton was more likely.

  Still, there was something to be said for white cotton. It reminded him of his first high school conquest in the back of his dad’s Taurus. The thought of Sydney in a blinding-white bra and panties made him rock hard.

  She made a soft sound in her sleep and his gaze jerked to her face. She’d finally undone the braid. Blonde hair cascaded over the pillow case, highlighted by a ray of moonlight. Bathed in that silver glow, she looked like an angel at rest. Long blonde lashes rested on her cheeks. Her full lips parted slightly. She stuffed one hand beneath the pillow as if she needed something to clutch in her sleep. The baggy t-shirt did nothing to hide the swell of her breasts. He imagined with her fair coloring her nipples would be a luscious pink. He longed to take one in his mouth and lave it to a hard peak.

  Jesse groaned softly. This line of thinking wasn’t helping him get to sleep. But he couldn’t prevent his gaze from following the contours of her body over her thin waist to the flare of her hips. The thought of those curves and those long legs was going to drive him crazy by the end of the week if he didn’t do something.

  Tomorrow, he vowed. Tomorrow he’d make it his number-one priority to meet as many women as possible. He’d be the one claiming rights on the room tomorrow night. That ought to put Sydney out of his mind. And it would show Ethan he wasn’t missing Gracie at all.