Tempting Victoria

by Mina V. Esguerra

  “It did look like a party house,” she'd told him. “Everything should be intimate. Let's not make them think they're expecting guests.”

  When he got back upstairs, he found her sitting by the table, as if it had been set for her, against a backdrop of dozens of lights scattered all over the balcony. Against the darkness, the night sky, the sea in the distance.

  If only she didn’t think he was shit.

  “Beautiful,” he said, meaning her.

  “Thanks,” she said, referring to the lights. Also beautiful, but not as much as her. “These are my secret weapon. Like little stars. Without the fire hazard.”

  “They're going to be blown away.”

  “You want to do your sound check now?”

  He did, but he almost didn't want to lose sight of her, and he wasn't going to see her when he was playing from inside one of the bedrooms.

  “Later,” he said. “We have time.”

  “Help me get all the lights then?”

  “You're not leaving them here?”

  “They're needed tomorrow. I don't want Trent and Nyssa to see where they'll be.”

  Made sense. Nathan began with the lights lined on the railing. They were larger than he’d thought, these circular lights, fitting like large coins in his palm. If any of these had been knocked over to the other side by the wind, they'd be falling right into the pool. “What if your client's girlfriend says no, despite all this?”

  Victoria laughed. “You mean after flying her to Mexico, taking her out to see marine life, giving her dinner with the best private view on the island?”

  “Yeah, that.”

  “That's not our problem, is it?”

  “You won't think the time I spent chopping melons was a waste? If she dumps him right here?”

  She was retrieving lights from a potted plant hanging from the wall and turned to look at him. “This is what you were thinking of all night?”

  “Just wondering why a guy would go through all of this. If a girl wants him, she just does, doesn't she? She won't need all this.”

  “You are absolutely right.”

  He paused. “I thought you'd more strongly defend your reason for being here.”

  “I'm here because the guy's paying me to dress up his proposal. It would be nice if she said yes, but who knows, right? A proposal won't make the marriage.”

  Nathan dropped the lights he’d collected onto the table. “I’m surprised at how much I’ve agreed with you so far, Victoria.”

  “How much of a bitch did you think I was going to be?”

  “That’s not it at all.” Well, a lot more than this.

  “I wouldn't be surprised if you did,” she said, picking up some lights off the floor now. “I haven't been very friendly to you.”

  “You didn't have to be,” Nathan assured her. “I was practically a stranger. You shouldn't be too nice to strangers.”

  “Another rule?” She was smirking, but at least she looked relaxed. Comfortable. She was looking out past the balcony, toward the sea. “I don't think I mentioned it in my notes, but Trent is thirty and Nyssa is thirty-eight. Based on what Trent told me about her, she seems to be over the marriage thing and might be with him because she thinks he isn't going to go there.”

  “Well then she's going to be in for a surprise.”

  “This is all about her though. From the big things to the little touches, it's everything he knows about her, that he thinks will be important.”

  Nathan mentally ran down the list for the weekend, the details that seemed random but really weren't. “I get it. Could go either way for them though.”

  Victoria shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe we're just waiting for someone to prove we were wrong. I’m curious to find out if I can make someone believe that a lifelong commitment is real.”

  “You don’t think you can?”

  She smiled, and it was a touch sad. “I don’t know.”

  It confused him for a moment, how Victoria could throw everything into this display of affection when she hadn’t bought into its intended result. Her dedication didn’t betray that. It made him want to—and then it was the first time he’d said it aloud. “I think lifelong commitment is real.”

  The way she reacted, it was as if he’d pulled a prank on her. “No shit. Nathan Grant believes in lifelong commitment?”

  “I’m serious.” He also didn’t realize that her response would sting as much as it did.

  “I’m aghast. You believe that?”

  “Because of what, that one relationship of mine you thought you knew something about?”

  He got her then, and her eyes dipped in apology.

  “My parents are a solid couple,” Nathan said. “Still together. With every indication of staying together. They were also an...arranged kind of relationship. A marriage of convenience.”

  Victoria blinked her big eyes at him. “What?”

  “They were friends,” he continued. “Co-workers. Something happened to her visa and she wouldn’t have been able to stay here.”

  “But they’re still married,” she said.

  “They’re in love. The way they talk about it, it surprised them both too.”

  Victoria was quiet and busied herself with putting the lights back in a bag. “Nathan, I don’t know what to say.”

  Great. He’d spooked her. “I just wanted to say that I know that lifelong commitment is real, but it’s not like this. It’s not pretty lights and expensive vacations.”

  She nodded. “It’s sensible people making decisions that make sense.”

  “You agree?”

  Victoria sighed. “I’m very surprised about that. You should do your sound check now.”

  ***

  “Nathan, what time is it…?”

  “I just had a question.”

  “How about I call you? So we can charge it to Trent.”

  He waited, and less than a minute later her call came in. He said, “Victoria. I was thinking.”

  Nathan had been thinking about her, was what he was thinking. He wanted to apologize for something. Or he just wanted to keep talking to her, because it was late, and he was up, and he didn't want to cross the narrow street, knock on her door, and have it slam in his face.

  “They got to the house okay,” she was saying. “There was a little confusion over where to get the keys, but...”

  “Victoria,” Nathan gently interrupted her, “are you in bed right now?”

  “Yes, but...what? What is this?”

  “Hang up if it makes you uncomfortable,” he said. “I just...I want to hear your voice.”

  “Do you? That's not what this sounds like. Your rule, Nathan.”

  “I am painfully aware of how much I'm not touching you right now. The rule is not being broken.”

  She laughed, which trailed off into a whimper. “Nathan. You don’t have to…”

  “I don’t have to what?”

  “Is it because I said what I said? You don’t have to do this because I’m attracted to you. I didn’t say that to make it easier for you—“

  “I didn’t say it earlier because I didn’t want to freak you out, but I’ve been thinking about you since we first met. You’re beautiful. And I like what you do, everything you’re into.”

  “Yeah. Right. Funny you bring this up when we’re on an island together.”

  “You know why I haven’t talked to you since then? Because when I asked Chris if you were seeing anyone, he was so goddamn happy about the idea that I should ask you out.”

  “Oh.”

  “You get where I’m coming from?”

  “That does sound suspicious.”

  “Any idea why he’d get any satisfaction from inflicting us on each other?”

  “Maybe he thinks I’m too much for you. I’m too much, period.”

  “Or he thinks I’m too much for you.”

  While she was silent, he heard only what he assumed was her breathing. “Don’t you hate it when people assume things about y
ou?”

  Did he ever. Damn Chris if he thought someone like Victoria would take him down a peg. Nathan was done being a coward and avoiding this.

  He called her in the first place thinking he'd feel some kind of relief, hearing her voice, but it was momentary, replaced all too soon by something else. Need. Knowing he wasn't done yet. Like there was something he had forgotten, something he should say. Even her skeptical tone was feeding it rather than killing it.

  “What do you want us to do about it, Victoria?”

  “Maybe...” she said, “maybe you should touch yourself. Right now.”

  Fuck. He wanted to. He knew he was going to, at some point tonight, to end his misery, but hearing her suggest it nearly made him lose it. He wanted to say something but couldn't, afraid he'd chase her mood away. Not when she was finally this playful, this open.

  He slipped a hand underneath the waistband of his boxers—he was in bed and only in his boxers—and cupped himself.

  “You're touching yourself right now?” she asked him.

  Nathan grunted.

  “Are you hard enough?”

  If that didn't do it...and it did, damn it, his dick jerking in his hand, harder now. Nathan freed himself from his boxers entirely with one hand, keeping the other glued to the phone on his ear.

  “Did you...did you want me there in your room tonight, Nathan? Touching you? Did you want my hands wrapped around you right now?”

  He began to stroke himself, once gently, and then harder, knowing this wasn't going to be a slow ride. He felt the moisture his hand was spreading onto his dick. He was leaking already, probably since he heard her voice.

  Nathan groaned. It was torture not being able to say anything. He wanted to tell her how inadequate his hand was, that he would rather be sinking into her tight, sweet—

  “I wonder what you'd taste like,” Victoria purred. “How you'd feel if I take you, suck you like a lollipop. I wonder if I could take you all in. In my mouth. In my throat.”

  Damn it. Damn to hell. The sweet, curious shtick was doing a number on him. He wanted it, everything she was saying, everything else his imagination was supplying.

  “But I won't let you come in my mouth,” Victoria was saying. “I'd want to feel you coming inside me.”

  Holy fuck. One last stroke and Nathan let himself go, come streaking up his abdomen. He stifled his scream, probably sounding like a wild man being strangled.

  And then he was just breathing, gasping, one hand still on the phone. The phone that was still at his ear.

  “Nathan?”

  “Yeah, Victoria.”

  “You okay?”

  “Yes. Yeah. I am.”

  “Good night. So I'm...I'm not charging this as a work call, just so you know.”

  He laughed. “Good night, Victoria.”

  Chapter 7

  Victoria was used to waking up knowing she was several hours behind on something. The to-do lists that ruled her day didn't go away at night; they lay dormant, respectfully letting her rest, until the morning came and the list would be in charge again.

  She knew not to fight this and that her life would be easier if she succumbed to it. Haley called it Victoria on autopilot, and it was true, in a way. She would wake up and go through maybe five items on her list without being fully aware of her actions yet.

  Victoria was knocking on Nathan's door at the Blue Seas B&B at six a.m., with a cup of coffee, because it was on her list of things to do. Before realizing that she probably needed to have prepared more for that first time, after.

  “I'm up,” Nathan said. He'd answered the door naked—no wait—half naked, and the awareness of what Victoria had done that night hit her more effectively than the damn espresso. “Good morning.”

  “I...good morning.” Her mouth and body were still on autopilot, even though the conscious part of her brain was already off off off! He was, in this state, the most gorgeous she'd ever seen him. He was so...himself. Pure Nathan.

  Victoria kept talking, like a robot. “You've got them from seven onwards. If they make it back in time for lunch, they have a table at Quinta. But no rush—let them keep at it if they feel like it.”

  “Good morning.” He said that again, slowly this time, in that same leisurely way that he grabbed the paper cup out of her hands.

  He was smiling. But that was all he said.

  “But you know all this, because of the checklists,” she said. “And I...have stuff to do. Which you know about too. I'll see you later, then.”

  Before she knew it she was back in her small room, with her own coffee, laptop screen flashing at her.

  Here it began to sink in, the words she'd said, what he must have done with those words. To himself. Unless she was imagining things.

  She didn't see it happen. He barely said a word on the phone while it was supposedly happening. He didn't say a word this morning.

  Plausible deniability.

  No rule broken, not yet. Victoria blinked at her laptop and officially woke up.

  ***

  Nathan once considered doing this for a living. Being a diver. Running a tour. Maybe tending bar to make ends meet. Then he met people who lived that way in the time he spent traveling back and forth learning to dive and visiting different reefs. They seemed like they didn't mind being rolling stones, gathering no moss. The idea was intriguing, but he couldn't see himself doing it for very long.

  The great thing about coming back was that the people acted like he'd never left. He'd spent stretches of time in Mexico (mostly Cozumel) during the past five years and even though a new building or bar would pop up here and there in between, much of it remained the same.

  Like his friend, enigmatically-named “Bolt,” who never stopped hassling him about getting a girlfriend. Bolt was twenty years older than Nathan and probably thought of himself as a mentor figure. (Annoying uncle was more accurate. Or at least what Nathan imagined one to be.) Women, girlfriends, relationships. Bolt talked about them all day.

  Bolt owned and steered the small boat that carried Nathan, Trent, and Nyssa on the waters just off Cozumel. Many of Nathan's friends on the island owned boats and could do this for him if they weren't at their restaurants or dive shops. But he liked Bolt the best, and he thought Victoria would appreciate the best. Nathan only needed the ride anyway; he’d planned their stops himself. The thing about snorkeling in Cozumel was that, by a certain time of day, everyone was doing it. You'd be running into tour groups at every reef worth visiting, getting an eyeful of swimming tourists more than actual marine life.

  And he needed marine life for them to see, because the damn conversation kept going back to him every time they got back on the boat. Damn Bolt.

  “Where were we on that?” Trent asked as soon as he hoisted himself back into the boat through the small ladder hanging off one end. Nathan had just helped Nyssa return to her padded, but wet, seat.

  Bolt handed his female passenger a bottle of water. “Mommy issues.”

  “That I don't have,” Nathan grunted.

  “It does happen,” Nyssa said. Apparently she worked as some sort of behavioral psychologist, which was just Nathan’s luck. “We model our early relationships on the ones we saw growing up.”

  “My parents are fine,” Nathan said. “They're not responsible for anything I did with my dick.”

  Trent settled into his own seat and laughed. “Dude, she's just getting started.”

  “I'm not suggesting anything about your upbringing, Nathan,” Nyssa continued. “Just that, how old are you again?”

  “Twenty-three.”

  “That's it. You're still young, when it comes to this. A lot of what you do will seem like your own decision, but is probably reactionary.”

  Nathan looked out into the sea instead, assessing the crowd of tour boats that were going to be heading their way. He should be thinking about whether he should skip Gold Reef, but he couldn't escape this conversation. “Can you write a note that says that for me, so I can tel
l people that science confirms it?”

  “Science doesn't excuse being an asshole,” Bolt said.

  “Some friend you turned out to be,” Nathan retorted.

  The traitor instead turned to the couple. “He thinks there's a kind of woman he can be buddies with, and a kind that he fucks, and a kind that he'll...”

  “Marry. Fuck, friend, marry,” Trent said.

  “Bolt thinks because he's had three wives that everyone wants one,” Nathan said, finding it inconvenient to have to defend himself.

  Nyssa rolled her eyes. “God forbid women let you decide where to put them in your labeled compartments. Nathan, what you're going through is natural.”

  “Did you just give him a pass?” Trent was incredulous.

  “It's not right,” Bolt was saying. “It's not right to be a heartbreaker.”

  “That's not what I am,” Nathan said.

  “If he's seeking out women who have the same, er, interests, then we let him do it. Are you being an asshole about it, Nathan?” Nyssa asked him.

  He felt like he was being grilled by his math teacher. “I try not to be.”

  “Well, that's not good enough. You can't try. An accidental asshole is still that.”

  “I'm sure you're all going to tell me how not to be one.”

  “What about Victoria?” Bolt said, and until that moment Nathan realized that he had not yet, fully, been thrown under the bus.

  “Victoria Bennett?” Trent piped in. “What about her?”

  “I'm working with her,” Nathan said, throwing Bolt a look. He should not have shared the information (that he was in Mexico with her, that she was scorching hot) with his friend, but he needed the boat and of course Bolt asked about women…

  “I've heard that before,” Bolt said with a snort.

  “Who is Victoria?” Nyssa asked.

  “Josh's sister,” said Trent, and Nathan remembered that they were all degrees from each other at home.