“And classy.” Kelly nodded. “How romantic.”
Rhees only saw how Paul had seized control over the trip, after all, and she fumed. She knew the men were bodyguards, not just drivers and the information rubbed her wrong. It was bad enough the two men followed them around everywhere they went, a real driver would wait with the car, but every time Rhees left the group during their shopping excursion, or to use the restroom, one of the men followed her—one bodyguard for nine girls, one bodyguard just for her. She wondered if the other girls noticed the steam that had to be coming out of her ears.
It had been a whirlwind day that wore Rhees out. By midnight, she asked if they could go back to the suite, another Paul upgrade surprise. The party didn’t stop at the room and someone complained about running low on ice. Rhees volunteered to get it as an excuse to have a minute to breathe.
The girls were nice, and Rhees did have fun. She wouldn’t let her annoyance with Paul, and the fact that most of the girls at her party were members of the Paul’s Former Coitus Club, keep her from enjoying the thoughtful gift, but the quick break would do her some good.
As soon as the door closed behind her, she leaned against it and let out a long sigh. She almost cried. The pressure of socializing and being upbeat got to her. She thought about Paul and in spite of her resentment, the humiliation, and anger about being treated like a child, she missed him.
“Miss Williams?” One of the bodyguards stood next to the door like a sentinel. She hadn’t noticed until he said something. “Is everything all right, Ma’am?”
“Um . . .” She felt so embarrassed about getting caught enjoying a mild breakdown. “Yes. I’m just getting ice.”
“Let me get Cuevas to stand watch, and I’ll get the ice for you.”
“No, that won’t be necessary. I can get the ice.”
“I’m sorry, Ma’am, but I have strict instructions not to let you go anywhere unattended.”
“Okay.” Rhees rolled her eyes. She didn’t want him to get fired.
He knocked on the door directly across the hall, another suite, and she realized how much money Paul had spent on this shower slash bachelorette party. Cuevas opened the door. His suit appeared a little rumpled from trying to get some sleep for his upcoming shift to stand watch at her door—so someone would be standing there—all night. She rolled her eyes again.
“So, what security firm do you work for?” she asked, making polite chit chat on the way to the ice machine.
“Safetynet Security, Ma’am.”
“Do you know Paul, Mr. Weaver?”
“No Ma’am, not personally, though he’s hired the firm in the past for friends of his, visiting the mainland.”
“Hmm . . . what did he tell you about tonight?”
“Mr. Weaver wanted to make sure you and the girls were safe . . . especially you. He made it clear you are the most precious target we’ve ever guarded.”
“Target? How did you know which one was me?”
“Pictures. He emailed your picture to the firm.”
“Do you get bored out here all night?” They’d made it back to the room. “Would you like me to bring you a drink? Some food? There’s more than enough.”
“No. Thank you, Ma’am. It’s my job. Enjoy the rest of your party.”
Rhees walked back inside. She dropped the ice bucket off on the kitchen counter, grabbed her phone, and went into the walk-in closet, away from the party, and dialed.
“What’s wrong?” Paul barked, sounding frantic when he answered.
Rhees exhaled and smiled. It was so good to hear his voice. “Thank you, Paul. I love you.”
“Thank you? How a-bout, Oh, Paul, I misss you. I wish I’d ne-ver come all the way to the main-land. I could be h-oome with you riiight now . . .”
“That’s the other thing I called to say.” She giggled.
“Wha’d are you than-king me for?”
“For caring about me so much that you’d hire two bodyguards to keep me safe—in spite of how I resented it, at first, and because you only hired them because you couldn’t be here to protect me yourself. Because I’m a dummy, and I told you I really, really wanted to do this on my own . . . when I didn’t, and you let me, and you took the time and effort—and MONEY to make this night special for me even though you didn’t want me to come, and I wish I hadn’t.”
“Aaand . . .?”
She giggled again. “Sorry, I’m sure there’s more, but it’s late, and I’ve had a few drinks. I’m afraid that’s all you’re going to get from me tonight.”
“Aw shoot. I like hearing why you love me and think I’m ga-reat.”
“I’ll tell you what, start a list, and tomorrow, I’ll sign off on everything you come up with, K?” She could feel him grinning his goofy grin on the other end of the line. “I miss you.”
“I miss you too. Are you at the hotel yet? I’m coming. I want to be with you.”
“Really?” She thought through the logistics of him getting there. “Wait, you’d never make it before we’re ready to head back in the morning.”
“Oh, yeah.” He sounded so disappointed. “But it’d cut off a couple of hours. I’d see you sooner.”
“Tempting, but use the time to get some rest, please. How did your party go?”
He laughed. “It’s good—not over yet. I’m da-runk.”
“I could tell by the way you’ve been slurring words.”
“The guys said we have to hit every bar on the is-land and have at least one drink at each one. Don’t think I’m going to make it. Haven’t been da-runk in a while, got da-runk faster than normal, and didn’t take as much to get da-runk.” The line went silent for a moment.
“Paul? You still there?”
“Yeah, just thinking. I’m relieved Taye and the guys couldn’t make it down for the party. I mean, I’d love them to be here, and I’m glad they’re coming for the wedding, but Taye’d be trying to convince me to take advantage of my laaast chance as a seen-gle man.”
Rhees didn’t say anything for a minute.
“I asked Christian and Rick to make sure I don’t m-mess up.”
“All of the girls I’d normally be worried about are here, with me,” Rhees said sheepishly. “And I asked Dobbs to look out for you, too.”
“Aw, thank you, Baby, but you for-gawt a few of my old haunts–or Coitus Club members. They’re here, following me around—hovering. But don’t worry. I’m not ee-ven tempted. Ee-ven da-runk, I don’t want anyone ex-cept my nectarine.”
“I’m happy to hear.”
“I asked Claire to look out for e-you.”
“I figured.” She thought about how differently they each used the words, look out for. “And don’t forget the six hundred pounds of protection outside my door. Thank you.”
“I couldn’t let anything happen to you before I finally get to have my freakin’ way with you!”
“Only one more night after this one.”
“Yeah, one more night.” He blew out a loud breath.
“Paul?” She sounded scared to ask, but she had to. “Are you sure you want to go through with this?”
“No—yes . . . I don’t know. I’m scared shitless, Dani Girl.”
She grew quiet again.
“I ne-ver thought I’d get married. Yes, I am un-shhure . . . and scared to death, but the thought of ne-ver seeing your face again, ne-ver waking up to you awll wrapped around me, ne-ver hearing you laugh—that scares me even more.” He paused. “Are you shhure you don’t want me to come to you? Because I really wawnt to come to you. Remember on Christmas Eve, you said, if I promise to marry you, we could have sex that night?”
“Um, yeah. Where are you going with this?”
“I shhould’ve taken you up on it—almost did. I wawnt you,
Dani Girl—I’m coming right now.” It sounded like he put his hand over the phone and yelled. “Randy! Come on. I need you to take me to the mainland.” He was back on the line. “I’m coming.”
“Paul! No. You’re right, you should have taken me up on it—then, because I’ve changed my mind a—”
“Aw, come on, Baby!” Paul out-and-out wailed like a two year old. “Don’t do this to me. Tell me you’re ready–you don’t need more time, do you? Oh, Gawd, please, no. I don’t know how much longer I can wait.”
“Only until our wedding night!” She giggled. “Calm down, Baby. I’m not backing out on you or changing my mind about that, I swear. It’s just, we made it this far. We may as well go the distance, don’t you think?”
“Good hell, Dani Girl. You just gave me a heart a-ttaack. You have no idea what awll this dreaming of a life with you has done to me. I mean, at first, I neeeded to control my-self—I was an animal. Being good around you challenged me, and I needed a good challenge in my life again, but now, since Costa Rica, coming to grips with my feelings –He’s freakin’ outta control!”
“Wedding night!” she assured. There was a long pause on the other end of the line. “Paul? You still there?”
“You called me Baby.”
“Yeah.” She casually brushed that aside, too worried about what was wrong with him. “You sound choked up. Paul? What’s wrong?”
“You’ve never called me Baby before.” His voice sounded raspy and he went silent again. She didn’t know what to say. She heard him sniff. “Once—when it was just pretend, but you’ve never called me anything but Paul.
“Well, ta-wice, but the first time—” his mood swung back to upbeat, “—you added the word ‘big’, which kind of changes the meaning. You’ve called me a few other choice names too . . . but Rhees?”
“Yeah,” she answered, still surprised at how one little term of endearment had affected him.
“That is sooo haawt!”
She sensed his huge smile, even if she couldn’t see it.
“That’s it—I’m coming to get you. I love you sooo much—Randy! Where are you, Raan-dee?”
“No. Get some sleep, Paul—Baby. I love you too, but you’re drunk. Randy’s probably drunk too—you’ll both kill yourselves if you try to cross the channel tonight. Go sleep it off. I mean it!”
“Aww,” he whined. “I’m not going to be able to sleeep anyway, all alone, with you so far a-way.”
“Have one more drink—you’ll sleep. I’m positive of that.” She giggled. “Two more nights. We can make it.”
“You’re sure you’re not just fa-reakin’ out on me again?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “My fa-reakin’ out days, amazingly, are over since I fell in love with you. I’ve never felt this way before.” They both sat silent for a couple of minutes. “Um, I guess I should probably go.”
“Aw . . . I don’t want you to go.”
“Me neither.”
“Aw, damn the time. Two more days.”
“We’ll be married by the end of the second.”
“Yeeah. It’s weird, huh?”
“What’s weird?”
“That if I did come get you tonight . . . for the reason I wawnt to come get you, I’d be screwing ev-ery-thing up, pun intended. But two nights from now, purr-fectly okay.”
“Yeah, weird.” She giggled. “Paul?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you, Baby.”
“I love you too, Baby.”
“Good night, my pretty beautiful man.”
“Did you ser-iously just call me pa-ritty?”
“Nope.” She giggled.
“I could’ve sworrrn I heard you call me pa-ritty.”
“I called you pretty beautiful, like kinda beautiful.”
“Pfft,” he said at her term and then laughed. “Good night, Princess.”
It was her turn to scoff. “Good night.”
They both waited.
“Hang up, Paul.”
“You first.”
“No, you.”
“No.”
“I love you. See you tomorrow.”
Chapter 4
“We’re here, Baby.” Paul softly kissed each of Rhees’ closed eyelids. “I can’t believe you can sleep right now. You’ve slept almost the whole way.”
He’d waited until the last minute to wake her, after spending the last two hours and forty minutes furiously bouncing his leg and tapping his thigh with his fingers. The anticipation of their destination, his plans, their plans, made him wish he could get in a good session of hard, physical exertion to work off his nervous tension.
The bus he’d chartered to get everyone from the capital, pulled through the gate of the Historical Park. The ruins where they planned to have the wedding loomed ahead.
“Hmm?” Rhees stirred, raising her arms up, over her head, in a long stretch before she smirked. “I didn’t sleep well last night. My snuggle buddy wouldn’t snuggle with me, and to top it off, he shook his leg all night, vibrating the bed—kind of like he’s doing now.” She opened one eye, her gaze going directly to his bouncing leg.
“Sorry, I couldn’t sleep, and I couldn’t chance touching you.”
“Hmm?”
“Snuggling—I couldn’t chance it. I’ve been a little wound up, but now I’m just so relieved I didn’t screw it up.”
The bus came to a stop and the driver opened the door. The people in the seats ahead of them, all friends from the island, and a few from the States, made their way off the bus.
“Mmm . . . it’s close.” She looked up at him and smiled adoringly. He kissed her cheek.
“Yeah, I know.” His lips made their way to hers and he kissed her passionately.
“Wow. That’s some kiss,” she said breathlessly when he finally pulled away.
“I’ve been holding that in for a while, my promise always in the back of my mind. But I figure I can’t get too carried away—well, I fully intend to get too carried away later tonight, after I make you a new promise—my vows.”
He kissed her again and they both moaned deliciously, pawing at each other as much as possible with a bus seat armrest between them. She finally sighed uneasily, and Paul pulled back to check on her.
“You’re scared.”
“No.” She dropped her gaze. “I’m not freaking out, I promise, but maybe—maybe, I am a little nervous.”
“I know, and that’s okay.” He put his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her forehead to his lips. “We’ll take it slow. We’ll go at a pace you’ll be comfortable with.” He took her hand in his and brought it to his lips. “It’ll be my first time, too.”
Her confused eyes darted up to meet his. “Liar.” She smiled like she thought he’d only said it to tease her.
“Serious. One hundred percent.” He gave her a little more time to be confused, taking a second to enjoy watching her try to figure it out before sharing his recent thoughts.
“As in, your first time in months?” she attempted to clarify.
He shook his head, still with a look on his face to suggest he had a secret.
“What is on that brilliant mind of yours?”
“Okay.” He grinned. “I’ve had a lot of sex with a lot of women. You know that.”
“I don’t care about that. You know I don’t.”
He nodded in agreement.
“I’ve had sex, but that’s all it’s ever been. Tonight will be the first time—” He pressed his lips to her forehead again. “I plan to make love to you. It’ll never be just sex between us. I love you too much.” He paused to clear his throat, and then panted out a laugh, surprised at himself for getting emotional.
“I can’t wait to have every part of
you, take my time with you, for you. I plan to make tender, adoring, glorious love to you, as my wife, my partner for the rest of my life, the most exquisite woman I’ve ever known, the only woman I’ve ever loved. So yes, my beautiful Danarya, it will be my first time, too.”
She blinked a few times, never taking her eyes off him. She took a breath, and opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but she didn’t. Her eyes welled up instead, as she nodded in understanding, before she buried her face into his neck.
“I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
She shook her head against his shoulder, trying to get a hold of herself. “You’re so perfect,” she choked out.
“God, I’m far from perfect.” He glanced down, uncomfortable with the description. “I got that out of a fortune cookie.”
She let out a half-laugh, half-sob and they gazed at each other for a second, smiling giddily like two kids overcome with puppy love.
“Not perfect, but I’m better than I was. You’ve made me a better man than I’ve ever been.”
She reached for his cheek when Taylor’s voice broke the spell. They hadn’t noticed he’d boarded the bus again, and stood, looming over them.
“Glad you two are blissfully in love, but that selfish sentiment has made you oblivious to the rest of us.” Taylor and Paul locked eyes as Paul tried to decipher how much his friend had heard. Taylor gave nothing away, but the somber look in his eyes didn’t match his words. “We have needs, too. We’d just like to get this mushy stuff over with so we can get drunk and work on finding our own destinies. I’ve seen at least four of the local girls out there, waiting for me to declare my undying love for them . . . behind the storage shed.” Taylor laughed.
Rhees made a disgusted noise and Paul rolled his eyes.
“I’ll go take care of the last minute details.” Paul leaned over to give Rhees a quick peck on the lips. He looked her over, as if taking her in for the last time, but then smiled so big, he worried he’d pull a muscle in his cheek—but he couldn’t stop. “This is it.”
“Yeah,” she said back with her own excited smile.
Wet Part 3 Page 5