Afternoon Rhapsody: Bandicoot Cove 2

by Jess Dee

  Somebody wound an arm around her shoulders and left it there, a pleasing and familiar weight she hadn’t expected at a hen’s night. Her nose filled with an intoxicating scent—mellow notes of the outdoors and subtle suggestions of man and musk. Mmm, now if she could just bottle that scent, she could keep it beside her bed to sniff at night. And in the morning. And perhaps once or twice during the day as well.

  “Finn,” she called to the bartender, and when he turned to her she asked, “is it my imagination, or is there a man shtanding next to me?”

  Finn set a glass in front of her, filled to the brim with an icy, red mix. “It’s not your imagination at all, ma’am. There’s a man right beside you, with his arm around your shoulders.” He stepped back as if to move away.

  “No, wait,” Bee stopped him.

  Finn looked at her enquiringly.

  “Ish…Is,” she corrected, “he cute?”

  The bartender raised an eyebrow. “Cute?”

  “You know,” she said conspiratorially. “Good-looking. Shexy. With a lower lip that tashtes…tastes like…” She searched for the right word. “Heaven?”

  “Er…” Finn rubbed his hand over his chin. “Yes, ma’am. He’s all of those things. Cute, shexy, good-looking. And his lower lip? More a taste of creamy chocolate than heaven, I’d say.”

  Bianca gasped, horrified. “You’ve tasted it?”

  Before Finn could answer, a voice broke in. “No need to say any more. I’ll take it from here.”

  “No worries, mate. She’s all yours.” Finn grinned at him. “Nice lip, by the way.” And then he was gone, walking away to serve someone else.

  Bianca turned to him. “It is a nishe lip,” she agreed with a nod. “Very nishe. Makes me want to nibble on it.”

  She leant in and did just that, taking his luscious lower lip between her teeth and nibbling away.

  Rick emitted a strangled moan, caught her face in his hand and gently disengaged his lip from her teeth. “Unless you want to explain to every female relative in your family what you’re doing with your soon-to-be ex-husband’s lip in your mouth, I suggest you stop doing that, now.”

  Worry besieged her. “Do-do you think they’ll want to nibble on it too? What if Finn shpread the word it tastes like chocolate? Which it doesn’t, by the way. More like heaven, for sure. But they’ll all want a taste anyway.” The thought perplexed her, and unsure how to deal with hundreds of family members bearing down on Rick’s lip, she sought an answer in her freshly made strawberry daiquiri.

  She didn’t find an answer there, but she did find a mouthful of something so delicious she took another sip. And another. Finn was a good bartender. No, a great bartender. He hadn’t forgotten about the double shot of rum. The alcohol burned a nice little trail of numbness down her throat.

  “May I have a sip of that?” Rick asked.

  Bianca immediately handed over the glass, chastising herself for not thinking to offer him any. How rude was she?

  He took it, set it down on the counter—far out of her reach—and with his hand placed on the small of her back, urged her to walk with him. “Let’s go, Honeybee.”

  But…but she hadn’t finished her drink. “Go where?”

  “Back to your room.”

  She glared at him, appalled. “It’s Mack’sh hen’s night. I can’t leave.”

  “Sure you can. Look, the party’s almost over, anyway. Lots of people are leaving. Including the bride-to-be.”

  Bianca looked up just in time to see her brother whisking Mack out of the room. “Oh. You’re right.”

  “Walk with me?” he asked.

  She agreed and let him lead her out into the quiet, balmy night air and across the lush hotel lawn. “I don’t shuppose you wanna stop and make a baby on the way?” Struck by inspiration from Mack, she showed him her thumb and forefinger, holding them an inch apart. “Just a little one.”

  Rick snorted. “You, my lovely wife, are loaded.”

  She was? “With what?”

  “Alcohol. You’re drunk.”

  Oh. Right. She frowned. “Drunk people can still make little babies.”

  He wrapped his arm around her again, and she leant into it, grateful for the support. She didn’t remember walking being quite so complicated before.

  “They can indeed,” Rick agreed. “But I am not making a baby while my wife is trashed.”

  She brightened immediately. “If you bring me a strong coffee, I’ll be fine. Then we can make a baby.”

  “Bee—”

  “Just a little one,” she hurried to remind him. “A little baby, not a little coffee. I think I’ll need a big coffee to do the job.”

  “A big coffee will not sober you up. Five liters of the stuff wouldn’t do the trick.”

  She sighed. “You’re just saying that ’cause you don’t want a baby.”

  “I’m saying that because you’re plastered, Bee. And as adorable as you are plastered, I’m not prepared to discuss the semantics of you getting pregnant when you can barely put one foot in front of the other.”

  “Oh.” Disappointment engulfed her. “You noticed?” She thought she’d done a good job of hiding her unsteadiness.

  “Me and everyone else on the island.”

  “Rick?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Would it be okay if you carried me the rest of the way? I, er, don’t think I can make it back to my room on my own two feet.”

  He placed a tender kiss on her forehead. “I think it would be very okay.”

  Chapter Ten

  Bianca awoke to sunlight blazing through her window and Rick standing beside her with a bottle of water.

  “Rise and shine, sleepyhead,” he said. “You’ve got a big day ahead of you, and it’s already noon.”

  Bee bolted upright and immediately wished she hadn’t. Pain streaked through her head, making her wince.

  Rick uncapped the bottle and handed it to her, along with two white pills. “Panadol. I figured you’d need them this morning. Make sure and drink all that water. We need to rehydrate you before the wedding.”

  The wedding! It was just a few hours away, and she wasn’t ready. She dutifully downed the pills with some water, grateful to have Rick there looking after her. Then she made her way slowly to the bathroom where she brushed her teeth and washed her face.

  The glare from the sun made her squint as she gingerly picked her way back to bed. “You spent the night here last night.”

  He’d spent the night cuddled against her back, and she’d relished each second of it.

  Rick closed the blinds, providing instant relief. “I plan to spend every night with you from now on.” He sat on the edge of the bed. “You’re my wife, Bee. We need to be together. I think we established that pretty effectively yesterday.”

  It was only when his mouth tilted upwards that she realized he was staring at her chest. She looked down to find herself naked from the waist up. All she wore was a pair of panties.

  She pulled the sheet up around her breasts tentatively. Hasty movements were murder on her head. “All we established yesterday was that we love each other and still want to be married. We didn’t actually resolve the key problem.”

  “That’s because you didn’t give me time. You had to hurry out and help Kylie with the party. If you’d just hung around a little longer we could have sorted it out there and then.”

  She took another long sip from the bottle. Her shoulders heaved with a huge, despondent sigh. “How do we resolve this, Rick? How do we find a middle ground between you not wanting to have children and me wanting a whole heap of them?”

  There really was no solution. None at all. She tried not to let the hopelessness overwhelm her again.

  “How about we start with just one child and take it from there?” Rick asked.

  Bianca froze mid-blink. She couldn’t open her eyes. Couldn’t breathe. “I-I’m sorry. What did you say?”

  “I said, let’s start by having one child, and see how thing
s work out from there.”

  “You…um…” She had to clear her throat to speak. “You want to have a child? You…you’d have a baby with me?”

  He took her hand in his, held it so tenderly tears welled in her eyes. “Do you have any idea how many nights I spent alone this last year?” He shook his head. “Too many. No one should have to endure that kind of forced isolation. It’s a killer.”

  Bianca didn’t want to talk about loneliness or nights by himself. She wanted to focus on the real issue. “Rick…”

  “It gave me time to think, Bee. Plenty of time. To realize what I missed and what I wanted most in my life. I missed you. I missed my wife and my best friend. I missed the woman who makes me whole. I wanted her back. And the more I thought about that, the more I came to understand there was only one thing that could be more fulfilling than having you back in my life. And that would be having two yous in my life.”

  She gulped, barely able to believe what she heard.

  “I never wanted children before, because you gave me everything I needed. You alone were enough for me to be happy. And if I’m honest, I was scared to share you with someone else. Selfishly scared. But now I can see that I’d still have you if we had a child. I’d just have more. I’d have you and our baby. I’d have two of you, and that…that…” For a long moment he couldn’t talk. “That wouldn’t just make me happy. That would fill up my life in ways I never imagined possible. I couldn’t have imagined it before, because I didn’t know what it felt like to be so truly alone.”

  “You-you have to know that more than anything in life, I want to have your baby, Rick. I want us to be a family and not just a couple.”

  He nodded. “I’ve always known that, and now I understand it too. It’s what I want as well. But…”

  “But?”

  ”I can see a baby in our future. One, maybe two. But the idea of a whole houseful of kids…” He grimaced. “I’m not there, Bee. I’m not sure I can deal with that.”

  She shook her head. “That’s okay by me. That is so okay. We can start with one. Just one, and take it from there. I’ll be happy with two or three or ten, but if one is all you can cope with, I’m good with that.” Just as long as she had a baby, Rick’s baby, to hold in her arms, she’d be okay. Because if she had Rick and she had a child, she’d have a family. She‘d have what she’d yearned for, for so long.

  “I’m good with two.” He smiled, and the smile was more dazzling than any sun could ever be.

  “I’m good with you.” She smiled too. “I’m better with you than I ever was on my own.”

  “Just promise me neither of us will ever have to be on our own again, and I’ll be happy.”

  “Neither of us will ever have to be alone again,” she told him. “Not ever.”

  And that was all he let her say, because his mouth was on hers, and he was kissing her, and words were not necessary again for a very long time.

  Bianca kicked off her shoes as she walked onto the beach. The sand was warm, but not hot enough to burn her feet as she’d feared. Besides, she didn’t need the heels to feel a hundred feet tall. She just needed Rick. And now that she had him again, she was tall enough to touch the clouds.

  She glided down the makeshift aisle with Kylie and Sienna beside her, grinning as she saw her brother up ahead, a look of sheer happiness on his face. She knew he didn’t see her. He searched only for the woman walking behind her in a simple white shift dress. The perfect dress for a beach wedding.

  Bianca scanned the seats, seeking out one person. She found him easily. He was the one gazing back at her with an ocean of joy in his eyes. His smile broadened as their eyes met, and she wondered if she’d ever felt this happy or content. The only day she could think of that might equal this one was her own wedding day.

  Rick sat a few seats down from the aisle, making it difficult for Bianca to give him the little gift she’d brought for him. But that didn’t stop her. She paused to whisper in the ear of her second cousin, who sat on the edge of the same row as Rick, and handed the gift to her, asking her to pass it on.

  The woman looked confused but handed it to her husband beside her. Bee continued up the aisle until she stood close to Aidan. While every person at the wedding stood and turned to watch the bride walk over to meet her groom, Bianca turned to face her husband.

  Two days ago, she’d been determined to return home and finally sign her name to those damned divorced papers. Now instead of picking up a pen, she and Rick could destroy the pages together.

  Rick stood by his seat with a bemused smile on his face. In one hand he held the small box she’d found for him, the box where she’d carefully printed the words, Go ahead. Burn them. In the other he held a match that he’d taken out of the box.

  As their gazes caught and held, Rick struck the match, and together they watched the flare of a flame that promised to burn away every last barrier to their happiness.

  About the Author

  Apart from her family and friends, Jess Dee loves two things: romance and food. Is it any wonder she specializes in dee-liciously sexy romance? Jess loves hearing from readers. You can email her at jess@jessdee.com or find her at www.jessdee.com.

  Look for these titles by Jess Dee

  Now Available:

  The Tanner Siblings

  Photo Opportunity

  Ask Adam

  Circle of Friends

  Only Tyler

  Steve’s Story

  A Question of…

  A Question of Trust

  A Question of Love

  Fire

  Winter Fire

  Hidden Fire

  Three of a Kind

  Going All In

  Raising the Stakes

  Full House

  Bandicoot Cove Anthology

  Exotic Indulgence

  Island Idyll

  Speed

  See You in My Dreams

  Colors Of Love

  Print Anthologies

  Risking It All

  Three’s Company

  Red Hot Winter

  Three of a Kind

  Tropical Desires

  Coming Soon:

  Two To Tango Anthology

  A Touch of Confidence

  Print Anthologies

  Red Hot Weekend

  Bandicoot Cove: Tropical Haze

  Rhythm Of The Night

  A photographer, a firefighter, a rake. Let the debauchery begin!

  Sunset Heat

  © 2012 Lexxie Couper

  Bandicoot Cove: The Wedding, Book 2

  When Kennedy bolted after a mind-blowing one-night stand with a sexy Australian firefighter, she never expected to be standing in front of him four months later on a tropical island resort. Naked, thanks to her phobia of butterflies.

  Trouble is, she’s equally turned on by Luke and his hunky British cousin. Not exactly how she’d intended to spend her first day as Bandicoot Cove’s official photographer.

  Luke never planned on falling for the feisty, flirty American he met at a New York bar. Now that he’s face to face with her again, he has two questions. Why did she run? And why can’t he stop thinking about sharing the woman of his dreams with his cousin?

  Addison invited himself along on his cousin’s trip for a weekend of no-strings-attached sex. But he wants to get to know Kennedy on all levels. Seriously, this is no way for a rake to behave. And how the hell is he going to tell his cousin he’s interested in the very woman Luke can’t get out of his mind?

  Warning: The setting sun isn’t the only thing heating up Bandicoot Cove, because when the word “threesome” gets thrown into the mix, it’s seduction on a global scale. (Note: No butterflies were scorched during scenes of burning passion.)

  Enjoy the following excerpt for Sunset Heat:

  He ground his teeth, staring hard at her. “Both of us?”

  His gut churned. When the hell had he stepped into a bloody soap opera?

  Soap opera? How about porn film? One you’re mo
re than interested—

  “Both of us?”

  Addison’s refined voice made his stomach roll some more. He tore his stare from Kennedy’s face and gave his cousin a quick look. Addison seemed stunned. And more than a tad interested.

  And aren’t you? In what Kennedy is offering, aren’t you also…interested?

  “Both of you.” Kennedy’s American accent was stronger than before, and the words left her lips with a slight tremble. “I tried to fight it. I really did, but…”

  Luke clenched his fists tighter, returning his attention to her. Every fiber in his base male DNA screamed at him to voice the unspoken suggestion hanging between them all.

  Remember her confession back in the New York? Remember her fantasy? Maybe it wasn’t a drunken joke as you first thought?

  “I’m very interested in both of you.” Kennedy’s gaze moved from Luke to Addison and back to Luke. It was as direct as her words, holding Luke to the spot. His cock twitched in his cargos. His blood roared in his ears. “I’m sexually attracted to you both and think…”

  Her voice faded away, pink heat painting her cheeks. Beside Luke, Addison let out a slow breath. “Think what?”

  Luke swallowed at his cousin’s question. On one hand, he wanted it out there. The thing hanging between them. Threesome. Ménage a trois. He wanted someone to say it so he could stop wondering if it was just him aching for it. He wanted someone to say it so he could walk up to Kennedy, the woman who—four months ago—shared with him the best sex of his entire life, the woman who—an hour ago—told him he was Rebound Guy, yank her to his body and take possession of her mouth. Kiss her until she begged him to fuck her. Fuck her until she begged him for more. He wanted someone to say the word “threesome” so he could bury himself in her heat again, even if it meant sharing her with Addison.