by Stacy Eaton
I stared at my reflection, unsure if I wanted to step out of the dressing room, but then I nodded to my reflection and turned to whip back the curtain. One look in his eye, and I was glad I had.
Chapter 7
Rye
My eyes kept straying to my left hand. The wooden circle around my ring finger felt odd, yet entirely right. What had gotten into me to even play this little game with Amy?
Yeah, we’d connected, and there was something there, but even she knew that once we left, the little fantasy would be finished. That gave me pause; I wasn’t sure I wanted it to be.
I was paging through a magazine about the island, but my mind was as far away from the articles as I was from home. She lived in Maryland, I lived in Pennsylvania. I traveled all the time, she had a daughter—a daughter. I hadn’t even asked her how old she was. Did that make me a rude bastard because I hadn’t asked? No, I didn’t think so. Our time together had been more about our personal needs than the other aspects of our personal lives. If we opened up and shared those kinds of things, how would we feel about one another then? Would knowing the details of the other person’s life ruin the fantasy of our island affair? Would it solidify a relationship that could never go anywhere and cause more harm to us both as we parted?
I frowned at the page as I flipped it. Man, I already knew that I would never forget this woman. She had crawled right into that spot that I’d never let anyone into and curled herself around the beating muscle. Damn—
The curtain pulled back, and Amy stepped out. The dress she wore was vibrant and flowing and gave a great view of her shapely calves. Her shoulders were bare, and I could imagine spreading kisses over them from one side to the other as we stood on the beach in the moonlight.
She stepped out, appearing a little nervous, and I swallowed the urge to attack her. “Um, wow.”
“Do you like it?”
“I do.” It was all I could say. Had I opened my mouth again, I would have been telling her how much I wanted to slip my hands under that fabric and touch her skin.
Somehow, she knew what the dress did to me because she spun in a circle, and a playful and sexy smile eased over her lips. Wait till we get back to the hotel, I thought to myself.
“I have one more thing to try on.”
I nodded, and the moment she pulled the curtain closed, I was able to breathe as I began to recite companies on the Nasdaq list: Apple, Citigroup, Google, Microsoft, General Electric, Bank of America, Ford. I kept the list going until I had my hormones under control.
“Your wife is very beautiful.” The clerk captured my attention as she paused by my chair. “It is so wonderful to see a man and woman so much in love. You are newlyweds?”
It was on the tip of my tongue to say that we weren’t in love, or married, and that we’d not even known each other twenty-four hours—wait, we hadn’t even known each other a day? Despite my befuddlement, I smiled at the clerk and replied, “Yes, we are.”
I glanced at my watch and frowned. Twenty-six hours ago, I had been standing at the altar learning that Autumn was pregnant with another man’s baby. The dressing room curtain whipped back, and my world tipped on its side as my eyes landed on Amy.
Holy mother of god. She was wearing white linen pants that were so thin I could see her skin under it. My gaze immediately raced up her legs to her hips and I swallowed. The material was a little denser there, but I could still make out her body underneath. The top was made of the same material, and her heavy breasts sat perfectly in the cup of the blouse. Her nipples were hard, and so was I.
Amy sauntered out of the dressing room looking sexier than I could ever have imagined. She’d been amazing when she’d strutted around naked back at the bungalow, but now, with the subtle hints of what was underneath, she was a complete vixen. I couldn’t speak, and it was obvious she didn’t need me to.
“You like?”
I nodded slowly.
“I can tell.”
I kept nodding because I had no control over my body. She spun around and winked over her shoulder. Her round butt cheeks filled out the backside of the pants, and I groaned and put my hands over my face.
I thought I heard someone laugh, and then I looked around and sought out the clerk who was over near the register. “Excuse me.”
“Yes, sir?”
“Everything that she tried on except the first three, she gets. Help her pick out some shoes and get anything else that she needs.” I handed her my credit card. “I need to run an errand, and then I’ll be back. Just put it all on that and give her my card. Tell her I’ll meet her back here in a little while.”
“Of course, sir.”
I hustled out of the boutique and looked both ways. I was about to go back into the store to ask directions when I saw a sign down the block and headed that way.
I felt like a teenager about to go on my first big date, instead of a thirty-eight-year-old man who had been with quite a few women as I stood in front of the small collection of condoms. We were here anywhere from three days to nine days, so say we were here nine days and we had sex at least twice, that’s eighteen condoms needed. What if we had sex three times? That would be twenty-seven. They had one large box of twenty-four. Should I get that one and another smaller box, or should I just get a smaller box of twelve?
The image of Amy in that last white outfit filled my mind, and I grabbed the variety pack, and another box of twelve. The young male clerk looked at the boxes and then at me, a cocky smirk on his face. “Honeymoon?”
“Yes,” I replied embarrassedly, and my cheeks warmed as I blushed.
After he’d rung up my things, he put them into a small paper bag and then winked at me. “Have a great time.”
I thanked him and headed back toward the shop where I’d left Amy. She was still inside but now dressed in her khaki slacks and my blue shirt knotted at her waist looking over all the items on the counter. “I’m not sure I need all this. This is a lot of money.”
“Your husband said to get it all for you,” the clerk told her.
“Yes, your husband said to get it all.” I put my arm around her and kissed the side of her head.
“Where did you go?” Amy asked, and I held up the paper bag. “Oh!” She turned back to the clerk, “Fine, we’ll take it all.”
I chuckled under my breath as I leaned toward her and kissed the side of her head. She glanced my way, a wicked gleam in her eye, and I immediately pictured that white outfit. “I think maybe we need room service at the bungalow tonight.”
“No, you’re taking me out,” she replied saucily. “We can save that for tomorrow night.”
“Okay, you’re on.”
Once we had finished, we walked out of the shop with six bags and a receipt totaling almost two grand. That was a drop in the bucket compared to how much I would have spent if Autumn had been here. She would have been three, if not four, times more expensive, and those wooden rings we’d purchased would have been the last thing on Earth that she would have allowed on her finger.
I pulled Amy to a halt, dropped the bags I was holding, and grabbed hold of her face, pulling her in for a passionate kiss. She was shocked at first, and then she wound her arms around my neck, the bags she held bouncing against my back.
“What was that for?” she asked after I’d caressed her cheek and retrieved the discarded bags. I glanced around and found people smiling at us from all directions.
“Because I wanted to, wife.”
“Well, feel free to do that anytime, husband.”
“I will.” We decided to hail a cab back to the resort and hit the pool after we broke open the box of prophylactics that I’d just purchased. As it was, we used two before we donned our bathing suits and meandered toward the pool. I laughed to myself as we walked past the bar. Yesterday at this time, I’d had a date with one of those stools, now I had a date with an incredible woman that I’d never seen coming.
We chose a couple of chaise lounges off to the far side, and I too
k a couple minutes to rub suntan lotion on her back and shoulders. When I reached down to rub it on her chest, she swatted me away playfully.
For the next two hours, Amy and I relaxed by the pool, ingested a couple of fruity drinks, and enjoyed the vacation atmosphere, all the while either chatting aimlessly about the things we saw or our favorite things in life, like foods and drinks, and even cars and sports teams. Come to find out, Amy was a college football fan, and rooted for the Gators in Florida where she’d gone to college.
When we decided it was time to head back and dress for dinner, Amy grew quiet. “I’m going to go back to my place for a few minutes.”
“You feeling okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine, but I need to make a phone call and check my emails for work.”
“Ah, time to check in with the real world.”
She glanced out at the horizon. “Yeah.”
“I guess I should probably do that myself, although if I looked at my work emails, I’d end up working all night.”
“Don’t look at those,” she laughed. “We have plans for tonight.”
“Oh, did you decide to wear that white outfit tonight after all?”
She whipped her long hair back and forth as she shook her head. “No, but we do have quite a few colorful pieces of latex to get through before we have to leave this island.”
“All right,” I grinned down at her. “What time should I pick you up?”
“How about you give me an hour?”
“An hour?”
“Yes, I want to primp and make myself look beautiful.” She frowned. “Okay, so maybe forty-five minutes, I forgot I don’t have any makeup.”
I tossed my towel over my shoulder as I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her in close. “You are beautiful without makeup, Amy. You don’t need that stuff to impress me.”
“Who said I wanted to impress you? I saw this really hot guy in the hot tub.”
I laughed. “The one that was about thirty years older than you and wearing that yellow banana hammock?”
“You saw that, huh?”
“Everyone saw that, and it was more than most of us wanted to see.” I kissed her again. “I’ll see you in an hour.”
When I entered my bungalow, it felt very lonely—too lonely. I tossed the towel over a chair and made my way over to my cellphone. I had fifteen missed calls, and I spun through them. Nine were from my brother, two from Finley, two from work, one I didn’t recognize, and the last one was from Autumn. I frowned and clicked over to my voicemail box. I paid for the service that converted the voicemails to text and scrolled through to see that Autumn hadn’t left a message. Everyone else had, including the number I didn’t know which was work related.
I skimmed through the messages and laughed out loud as I watched my brother rise into hysterics and then come crashing down. His last call had been an hour ago. I knew that I needed to reach out and calm him down.
I picked another number first, though, and she answered on the second ring. “Oh, my god! Your brother is going ballistic! What the hell did you do, Rye? He said you got married!”
“Relax, Finley. Is he there with you?”
“No, I’m on my way back from Robin’s. Did you really get married to someone else?”
“No, I didn’t, but don’t tell him that. Amy and I are just—” I paused. What exactly were we doing? Having a hot love affair? Becoming friends? Forming a future?
“Just what, Rye?”
“I don’t know, Finley. It’s different with her, different than it’s ever been.”
“Don’t take my head off, but do you think it could possibly be rebound lust?”
“Rebound lust? Is that even a thing?”
“Well, I’ve wondered that myself with your brother.”
“You think he was having rebound lust with you?” I asked shocked.
“No, I thought maybe I was having it for him. I mean, I did just get out of a relationship.”
“Which sucked.”
“Yes, it sucked, but it was a relationship. Your brother came along and treated me like someone special, and I began to wonder what it could be.”
“You thought it was rebound lust.”
“I did, but not anymore.”
“Well, what is it?”
She hesitated. “I’m falling in love with him, Rye, and I think he feels the same.”
“I know he feels the same, Finley.”
“You do?”
“Yeah, I know my brother better than anyone, and I know what he looks like when he’s in love.”
“And you think that’s what he is now, in love with me?”
“If not completely, he’s well on his way. Fall for him, Finley, he’ll catch you, and he’ll never let you go. You two are good for each other. In fact, you are amazing for him, and I should thank you for that.”
“Aw, Rye, that’s sweet of you to say.”
“It’s the truth.” We talked for a few more minutes, and I told her that I would let Roan stew overnight and then call him tomorrow and explain. After we hung up, I wandered into the bathroom, excited to be getting ready for dinner with Amy. I paused when I saw my reflection, and my heart felt like it skipped a beat. On my face was the same look that I’d just told Finley my brother had for her. Was it possible that I could fall in love with Amy this soon after meeting her?
Chapter 8
Amy
I booted up my laptop, opened my Skype, and called Cammie. I’d spoken to her yesterday morning, but today I’d received an email from Joanne, my friend and Cammie’s caretaker, saying that she was taking her into the doctor in the morning. There had been no follow-up email, so I assumed all was well from the visit.
I called Cammie’s tablet and as it rang and rang, I wondered where she was. Normally, she took it with her everywhere and answered within a few rings. I frowned as I stared at the unanswered line and waited a few more seconds.
I turned it off and pulled up my email to contact Joanne. I didn’t have international calling on my cellphone, and I hated the thought of adding to my bill here at the hotel. I sent Joanne a message asking her to let me know how things were, then I headed into the bathroom to shower. I even took my laptop with me in case Cammie called me, but she didn’t.
By the time I was ready for dinner, I was working myself into a tither over not having heard from Cammie or Joanne. I wandered over to the phone and stared at it. Maybe I should call and check in. The cost of calling would be worth the peace of mind. Wouldn’t spending twenty dollars for a couple of minutes be worth it to ease my fears? Yes, most definitely.
I sat on the edge of the bed and dialed. It took a few moments to connect and then the phone rang—and rang—and rang. The voicemail didn’t even come on, and I was on the verge of panic when a knock sounded at my door.
I quickly hung up and found Rye looking wonderful in light-gray slacks and a watermelon-colored silk shirt.
“What’s wrong?” he asked the moment he set eyes on me.
“I can’t get a hold of my daughter or Joanne.” I explained all that I had done, and he pulled up his phone and punched in a few things.
“You live in Maryland, right?”
“Yes, near the shore.”
He turned his phone toward me. “Looks like they are having bad thunderstorms right now. If your voicemail isn’t even coming on, I bet the power is off, and they have no internet either.”
“Ah,” I instantly calmed. We did lose power occasionally when heavy storms rolled through. “I bet you’re right.”
He slipped his phone into his pocket and put his arms around my shoulders. “Give it a little while and then you can try again.”
“Actually, I feel much better. You’re right. The power is probably out, and I have nothing to worry about.” I wound my arms around his neck. “Thank you.”
Rye’s features softened as he gazed down at me, and for a moment, we were the only two things that existed. My chaotic life back home faded, my daughter
and her health faded. Financial issues and work stress all dimmed in comparison to the man before me.
Oh, god, this was going to hurt to leave him. There was no doubt about it. If only I could steal him away from his life and bring him back to mine. I almost laughed out loud as he took my hand and we headed for dinner. I could never imagine Rye in my life. My condo was a two-bedroom with small bedrooms, one bath, a family room, kitchen, and a balcony, but it was only a block from the ocean, and it was mine. Cammie and I didn’t need much, just a home, food, and each other.
Rye and I strolled along the walkway to the other side of the resort where the more famous restaurant, Winds of the Sea, was located. This was the restaurant where the famous chef Rick Bogar hung his aprons. It was rumored that he had not only a different apron for each day of the week, but also different aprons for the time of day. I wasn’t sure why he would need so many, and it was one of the questions I wanted to ask him.
As we approached the maître d’ stand, Rye curled his arm around my waist. “Waterman, party of two.”
“Mr. Waterman,” the man gave a slight bow to him, “will you and your wife please follow me?”
I giggled to myself as we walked behind the man toward the far wall, although we didn’t stop there. The maître d’ kept going out through the archway to a walkway that led to the sand. In the near distance, I saw a dozen tables for two scattered about, and half a dozen waitstaff overseeing those tables. “You got us a table out here?” I whispered toward Rye, and he nodded and looked away.
“Mr. and Mrs. Waterman, your table. I hope this location suits you.” The man held my chair out for me and then placed my napkin delicately over my lap once I was seated.
“This is perfect, thank you.” Rye glanced around before taking his seat.
While Rye and the maître d’ spoke, I took note of the other diners. The tables were far enough away from each other that, with normal conversation, patrons wouldn’t be overheard over the sounds of the surf and the light breeze. There was no music, but there was no need for it either. In the center of our table, there was a large hurricane lamp decorated with dried seaweed and shells. It was simple and elegant, and I studied it so I could make something like it when I got home. I was always looking for craft projects to do, and sometimes I’d even make some to sell for the summer tourists. Cammie always enjoyed doing that, and one of the stores on the boardwalk always took my items when we had any inventory.