by Kelli Walker
“A cabana?” I asked.
I looked over at Grier and furrowed my brow before Silas cleared his throat.
“Mr. Robbins is fine. Hydrated. Fed. Rested. Miss Ratcliffe is healing well. She broke her ankle, so she’s in a cast. The two of them are in a cabana as well, and they haven’t surfaced much. I’ve been updating them daily on your condition, but other than that I’ve been giving them their space,” Grier said.
“That’s good. I’m glad to hear it,” Silas said.
“What cabana?” I asked.
“It’s a private place on a stretch of beach on the St. John’s side of Antigua and Barbuda. You’ll be in a private hut with Silas’ hut next to yours. Grant and Angel aren’t too far from you guys. They’re closer to the hospital in case something happens to her ankle. I tried to get them back to the city, but neither of them would budge until we had the two of you,” Grier said.
“That sounds fine, Grier. Good work. I’ll want to rest for a day or two before I venture back,” Silas said.
“I don’t need a hut. You can send me on,” I said.
“Nonsense. You’ll rest with us. You’ll have your own space. Someone to cook for you, I’m sure,” Silas said.
“None of that is necessary. If it’s all the same to you, I’ve had enough of island living,” I said.
“You’ll stay in the hut and rest, Val.”
The command of his voice caught my attention. I whipped my head over to him and his stern gaze fell upon me, and something flipped in my stomach. I gazed into his hardened green eyes, trying to process what they were saying. My hut was next to Silas. That meant we would be seeing more of one another. What did that mean for us? With how close we had grown on the island? I felt something warm encompass my hand and I looked down, watching as Silas wrapped his fingers around my skin. I drew in a slow breath, trying to calm the swirling questions in my mind.
A little more time with Silas did sound nice. Especially when I wouldn’t have to cook, or clean, or do virtually anything other than exist.
“Will there be hot water?” I asked.
Grier and Silas both chuckled as his hand squeezed mine.
“Yes, Miss Bouchard. There will be hot water,” Grier said.
“Then count me in,” I said, grinning.
And the way Silas’ eyes sparkled made me wonder what kind of adventure I was headed into next.
Silas
I sat down in a lounge chair on the balcony of my private cabana as the wind caressed my face. The second the helicopter landed, the only thing I could think about was getting a shower. Grier had a private car take Val and I to our huts, and during the ride I tried to convince her to stay with me.
But no matter what I said, I couldn’t convince her to stay at my side.
It didn’t matter. At least, I told myself it didn’t. She’d be right next to me in the other hut anyway. Even though that didn’t seem like enough. Grier dropped us off and I walked into the hut, allowing the air conditioning to waft over my body. And it felt good. Hell, it felt more than good. I never thought my dick would get hard standing in some fucking air conditioning. But it did.
I groaned as I peeled my disgusting clothes off and took the longest shower I could have ever imagined.
Now, less than twenty four hours later, I was kicking back in a lounge chair and looking over the private stretch of beach that was left to only myself and Val. The coast of St. John’s was magnificent. It made me fall in love with the beach all over again.
But something still felt as if it was missing.
I looked over at the hut beside me and found Val standing against the railing. She looked refreshed. Showered. Clean. Her jungle woman blonde hair was no longer massive and knotted, but smooth and glistening. It reflected the sun and its rays as her lightly-tanned skin simmered in the evening rays. I smiled, however, when I saw her clothing.
I knew she wouldn’t have anything to wear, so I told Grier to get her some. He wasn’t my personal assistant, but Angel was incognito with Grant and I wasn’t going to disturb their time together. They knew we were back and that was all that mattered to me. Grier grumbled about it, but apparently he got it done. Val was standing on the porch of her private beach hut with shorts around her thighs, a tank top around her torso, and a sheer wrap wafting in the ocean’s salted breath.
Her gaze fell out over the water and her brooding brown eyes were unreadable. Such a stoic woman, and after our time together on Montserrat I understood why. I stood to my feet to get a better look at her. To mimic her motions and see if I could catch another side of her I hadn’t seen yet. But the second I moved, her head whipped over.
And she smiled.
Oh, how my heart fluttered. It brightened up my world. Made the sun seem hotter on my face. Val didn’t smile often. She smiled more than she did when I first met her, but it still wasn’t often. But when she did, her face ignited. The gray specks in her eyes sparkled and her white smile danced. Her eyes crinkled closed and her cheeks filled with a healthy color that contrasted the tan of her skin beautifully.
I didn’t think she could get any more beautiful until she smiled.
Before I could catch myself, my legs carried me to the stairs. There was a staircase that walked me down from my back porch to the sand, and soon my feet dug into the soft, malleable substance. My eyes stayed on Val as she watched me walk over to her, the confusion in her stare evident. I made my way for her staircase. The one that led from her balcony to the sand. And I began to ascend it so we could share the same space.
It felt wrong to not be near her.
I walked over to her, standing beside her before our gazes turned out towards the water again.
“I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy the ocean view after Montserrat,” I said.
“I’m still not sure I do,” Val said.
“The air conditioning is nice.”
“I could’ve made love to the appliance.”
I chuckled as a giggle fell from her lips.
“Do you like the clothes?” I asked.
“So you’re the one I have to thank for that,” she said.
“Depends. If you don’t like them, Grier’s to blame.”
“All I know is we landed this morning, I came in and took a shower, fell asleep on the couch, and woke up to a closet full of clothes.”
“You fell asleep on the couch?”
“That’s all you took away from that statement?” she asked.
“You’ve got a massive bed in your own private bedroom and you slept on the couch?”
“I never said the ocean wasn’t beautiful. Merely that I didn’t know if I would enjoy it.”
“Oh, so you were testing out the view.”
“Maybe. Or maybe I was too tired to get my ass up after I’d flopped down onto it.”
My shoulders shook with my laughter before we both drew in a simultaneous breath.
“Are you sure I can’t convince you to come stay with me? There’s two bedrooms in my hut,” I said.
“And like I said four times in the car ride over, I’m fine. Having separate spaces will be a nice way for us to adjust from the island. It’s equal parts--.”
“Physical and mental adjustments. So you’ve told me,” I said.
“Then stop challenging what I say.”
“I can’t help it. I miss you.”
I dropped my gaze to her face and tried to read her reaction. But if I looked down upon her face to read her reaction, but if she had one she didn’t show it. Disappointment flooded my gut as I turned my face back out towards the sun, watching as it approached the top of the ocean water.
“What time is it?” I asked.
“Judging by the position of the sun, I’d say it’s just before five o’clock,” Val said.
“Have you eaten since we landed?”
Her stomach growled out the answer to my question and a grin slid across my face.
“No, I have not,” Val said, giggling.
“Why don’t we go get some dinn
er then?”
“I think I might just stay in and order something. Maybe pour me a bowl of cereal.”
“We just survived for two days on a single stingray, and you want cereal?”
“A woman wants what she wants.”
Her eyes turned up to mine and it took all I had not to reach up and cup her cheek.
“Let me take you out to dinner, Val. To thank you for everything you did for me.”
“With all due respect, Silas, the massive payment that dropped into my account the afternoon is your thanks,” she said.
“Then let me take you out to dinner to show you how appreciative I am of your efforts.”
“And again, the nice tip you left me does the same thing.”
“I see that fighting spirit is back.”
“It never left. It simply got buried underneath some… stuff.”
“Then let me take you out to dinner because I want to feed you something more than stingray,” I said.
I figured she would fight me. I figured she would come up with another reason as to why some agreed upon payment was enough for what she did. I braced myself to fight my position because I wasn’t leaving without a ‘yes’. I wasn’t leaving her balcony without the chance to take her out.
But I didn’t have to fight with her like I thought I would.
“I think that something other than stingray sounds nice,” Val said.
“Pick you up at seven?” I asked.
I made my way for the stairs as another giggle slipped from her lips.
“Then I’ll see you in a couple of hours, Silas.”
Valencia
I smoothed my hands over the one of the dresses I found in the closet. It wasn’t a formal dress or anything. Just a nice silky sundress. But, it was the first dress I’d ever worn in my life. It felt weird, feeling my thigh rub together whenever I took a step. It did look nice on me, though. The swirls of tropical colors along the black background of the fabric. I almost didn’t need anything else with it. I slipped my feet into a basic pair of black flip flops before I pulled my hair up into a bun, then grabbed a pair of earrings and slid them into my ears.
I had to wrestle with them for a while before they finally went through.
My ears stung, but they were worth it. The black-and-silver hoops glittered the way my dress did. I took a look at my wallet on my bedside table and sighed. I wasn’t sure what I needed to carry with me on something like this. Did I need my wallet? My money? Was Silas paying for something like this? The last date I had been on was a coffee meet up around the corner from my office, and I ended up paying for both of our cups of coffee. Was this even a date?
It felt like one. Especially after he said he missed me.
A tingle trickled up my spine. The tone of his voice in those three words communicated everything I needed to know. At least, everything I hoped was true. I shook the thought from my mind. This was dinner. Just dinner, and nothing else. It could be professional. It could be a blanketed ‘thank you’, like he had mentioned earlier.
Or it could be something else.
I looked at myself in the mirror and shook my head. I needed something to cover up my arms. The gauze wrapped around them from my injuries would really put a damper on dinner. I picked up the sheer black overlay I had been wearing earlier and slid it on, and just as I went to look in the mirror once again a knock came at the door.
The minute I saw Sila standing there, I was stunned. It felt like someone had slapped me across the face. The man looked gorgeous. And I mean, stunning. His tailored navy pants fit his thick legs beautifully, rounding along his ass in ways that made me want to beckon for him to twirl. His button-down shirt was tucked into the hem of his pants, and the yellow made his black hair pop and his green eyes twinkle. His sleeves were rolled up, showcasing the veins of his pulsing forearms. His chiseled jaw was set in a lovely little smirk. One that told me I was in for much more than simply dinner for the evening.
“You look wonderful, Val.”
His voice ripped me from my trance and I nodded.
“You don’t look too bad yourself,” I said.
His chuckle sent shivers down my spine. Had he caught me staring? Of course he had. I was standing right in front of him. Staring him down like a piece of fucking meat.
Damn it.
I thought we would be heading for a restaurant. Getting into a car and going into town. But instead, we turned and he escorted me underneath my balcony. And right before my very eyes, situated between both of our cabanas, was a table with some lit candles and food that was sizzling hot.
“Silas. What in the world is all this?” I asked.
“Dinner,” he said plainly.
“But it’s…”
“Underneath the sunset?”
I whipped my eyes over to him and snickered.
“It’s very romantic,” I said.
“Do you not like it?”
“I didn’t say that. It’s just… not what I expected.”
“Did you expect me to take you to some busy restaurant where we’d have to yell over one another to be heard?” he asked.
“Well, yeah. I guess.”
“Yelling isn’t really my style. Here, take a seat.”
He pulled my chair out from underneath the table and I sat down. The water lightly lapped at our toes, making me smile as it ebbed and flowed from the ocean to the shoreline. The smell of the steak and lobster tail was enough to make me salivate, and the red wine in the glass in front of me made my heart skip a beat.
I loved red wine.
“I hope you enjoy your steak medium rare. If you don’t, I can have my chef make it again,” Silas said.
“There’s no other way to eat steak, unless you like it tough or still mooing,” I said.
“A woman after my own heart.”
My knees grew weak at the statement, and I thanked my stars that I was sitting down.
“I thought about taking us out to a nice restaurant before taking a walk on the beach, but I figured that was a little reminiscent of our time trying to survive,” he said.
“Maybe just a little bit,” I said, grinning.
“I figured we could enjoy the breeze of the ocean and a home-cooked meal by the sea without being reminded of our trials.”
“This is too much, Silas.”
“And yet, for some reason it doesn’t feel like enough.”
My eyes danced around his face as he picked up his fork and knife. He began digging into his food, and the actions made my stomach growl out again. But I couldn't take my eyes off him. It was like I was physically incapable of doing it.
“Val.”
His rumbling voice ripped me from my trance yet again.
“You need to eat.”
My eyes fell onto the fork just beyond my lips. The meat looked tantalizing and my saliva glands kicked into overdrive. I parted my lips and wrapped them around the fork, immediately sinking my teeth into the most tender piece of steak I’d ever eaten.
I moaned as I slid it off the fork and I felt Silas’ eyes heavy on my face.
“So, tell me something about yourself,” I said.
“What would you like to know?” Silas asked.
“Do you have any hobbies? You know, when you’re not building your financial empire?”
“I enjoy reading.”
“What do you read?”
“Self-help books. Magazines to keep up with current trends in the market.”
“Anything that isn’t for work or self-betterment?”
“I enjoy a good erotic novel every now and again.”
I dropped my fork into my plate as I choked on the piece of lobster I almost swallowed down the wrong pipe. Silas threw his head back and laughed as my eyes widened and I reached for my glass of wine to wash it all down. I drank a little more than I should have at once, and the second the alcohol hit my stomach I felt my head spin.
“Just kidding. But the look on your face was priceless,” he said.
&nb
sp; “Warn me next time, huh? I didn’t struggle for five days on an island to be killed by a piece of cooked lobster.”
“At least it’s good?”
I looked up and him and laughed as I shook my head.
“Do you read much?” he asked.
“I don’t.”
“Do you go to the movies?”
“Being cooped up in a room with a bunch of people I don’t know? Hardly.”
“Do you go shopping? To the spa? Out for walks around the city?”
My face fell and as cocked my head off to the side.
“I don’t know. It was worth asking,” he said.
“My version of fun is doing exactly what we just did for five days, but without a person to take care of and without the looming idea of death.”
“Hey. I chipped in here and there as well. Remember when I carried you two and a half miles?”
“I didn’t say you didn’t chip in. I merely insinuated that I was with someone. Usually, I’m not.”
“You enjoy being by yourself, don’t you?”
“I don’t think ‘enjoy’ is the right word,” I said.
“Then what would be the right word?”
“I’m used to being alone,” I said.
“But you don’t want to be?”
“I don’t know how to interact with people. I never bothered to learn. It didn’t seem important. I did fine on my own, so why disrupt that balance?”
“You seem fine interacting with me.”
Because I enjoy interacting with you.
“I guess there’s an exception to every rule,” I said.
“Do you like the fact that I’m an exception?”
I took the last bite of my steak as my eyes panned up to his.
“I think I’m beginning to,” I said.
The two of us ate the rest of our dinner in relative silence, finishing off the bottle of wine between us. The silence that hung between us was comfortable. Not at all awkward like it used to be. I sat back in my chair and pulled my wrap around me, my eyes falling onto the setting sun. It was almost below the water. It cast its final color across the sky as Silas and I sat there on the beach with our stomachs full and our minds content.