by Nana Malone
She had been in a long-term relationship with a professor. She had liked him; he was smart and funny and good on paper, but he never made her feel the way Marc did. It might have been because she hadn’t been in love with him. She broke up with him when she stopped convincing herself she was.
“You’re staring at me.” He bent over to retrieve his pants.
“Your ass is amazing. I might have to get a picture of it before you leave.”
“You like it?” He turned around and she could see his erection forming. Her heart pounded a little faster as he crawled back into bed and pushed the hair out of her face.
“Are you leaving?”
He kissed down the column of her throat. “Do you want me to?” His hand cupped her breast, stroking her nipple until it was a hard little point.
She thought about being coy, about giving him a smart-mouth answer, but all she said was, “No.”
“Good.” His lips touched hers, giving her a long, deep kiss that made her insides flutter. “Because I don’t want to go.”
“You were reaching for your pants. You don’t have to stay.”
“I was looking for this.” He showed her the gold foil packet in his hand.
“Judging by what’s going on between your legs, we’re going to need that.”
“You do that to me.” Marc kissed her once again, one of those slow pecks that she was growing to love again. He lifted his head and looked down at her. “I don’t want this to be over yet. I don’t think I can get enough of you.”
If she were naive she might think he was talking about more than this week, that he was talking about a future with her, but she knew that was silly. After they left this beautiful place, he would go back to his life and she would go back to hers. “It’s not over yet. We have the rest of the week.”
He nodded. “Two more full days.” She could have sworn she saw disappointment in his eyes, but she was sure her mind was playing tricks on her.
“Maybe I could go to your bungalow tonight and we could test out that bed?”
“Yeah.” He wrapped one of her curls around his finger. “We could do that.”
“Don’t sound so excited about it. You’re likely to have a heart attack.”
He grinned at her, kissing the tip of her nose. “I was just thinking about all the things I would like to do to you in the next few days. I don’t think I’m going to have enough time to get everything accomplished.”
“I guess you’re going to have to prioritize.”
He bent to kiss her chest, right where her heart was beating. “I guess we are just going to have to start right here with breakfast.”
“Breakfast? What are we going to eat?”
“I don’t know what you’re going to have, but I’m getting ready to have some of you.”
* * *
“No scuba diving for you today?” Asa asked Willa as she lay next to him on the beach late that afternoon.
“No. I’m a little too afraid of a malfunctioning oxygen tank. You know I killed somebody off that way in my second novel.”
“You’re paranoid, aren’t you?” He grinned.
“A little bit. I went whale watching this morning with Carlos’s sisters and I kept thinking about all the ways people could die at this resort. Whale watching is a good one. What if the boat never came back and the killer faked their own death on the boat so they could commit murder undetected?”
“You’re sick.”
“I’m not. I worked in forensic pathology for years. You would be amazed at the many ways people die.”
“No, I’m not amazed. I’m a paramedic. I like my people living.”
“Me, too,” she agreed. “Dead people are no fun in real life.”
A boat pulled up onto the shore on the almost-deserted beach. She watched Marc emerge first. He had gone with Virginia, Carlos and Carlos’s newly arrived best friend. They had gone their separate ways after spending the morning in her bed. She hadn’t wanted to. If it had been her choice they would have stayed there all day. But they both knew they couldn’t. They both knew they were there for Virginia, to celebrate for her.
Still, she had missed him, and not just the sex, either. She liked being around him and talking to him, and feeling him near her. That wasn’t supposed to happen. She was still supposed to hate him. She was just supposed to be enjoying his body and the way he made her feel. She wasn’t supposed to like him so much, to feel that soft ache when he was away from her. They had just spent five hours apart. They were going to spend the rest of their lives apart, and if she had missed him now, how was it going to be when she went back to New York?
Marc trudged up the sand and collapsed right on top of her. She smiled when she felt his still-damp body make contact with hers.
“Did you have fun?” she asked him, rubbing her hand over his bald head.
“Saw some fish. Saw a huge manta ray. Then saw my life flash before my eyes. I’m exhausted, but it was amazing.” He looked right into her eyes. “I wish you were there with me to see it.”
She felt that stupid tuggy feeling in her chest again, the same one she felt when she was seventeen years old and first falling in love with him.
“What about me?” Asa asked, breaking the moment. “You don’t wish I was there, too?”
Marc lifted his head to look at his best friend. “When you look this good in a bathing suit I’ll wish you were with me, too.” He rested his head on her chest and she couldn’t help but to stroke his sleepy face. She knew Asa was watching. She knew everybody thought they were together, and she couldn’t keep denying things, especially when he was touching her like this. “Did you have fun whale watching?”
“Yes. Asa and I were just talking about it. I’m pretty sure my next novel is going to be about a woman who fakes her death on a whale watching trip.”
“Yes, and you could have her stalk her husband before she kills him. He would think it was her but no one believes him,” Marc said.
“Yes, and it would slowly drive him to madness, but instead of her killing him, she drives him to kill himself. It’s got to be in some kind of grand fashion, too.”
“She needs a good motive. I always kind of feel sorry for your murderers.”
“Me, too. It shows you that almost anybody can be pushed to kill.”
“You guys are crazy!” Asa sat up. “Both of you. If you two aren’t together you should be, because both of you are certifiable.”
“We’re plotting. Stop being dramatic.”
“Yeah, you’re plotting someone’s death.”
“It’s not a real person, Asa,” Marc said. “Dr. Arthur here writes some really good stuff. Get your head out of your ass and read.”
“I did. The first book creeped me out, Wil. It made me wonder what went wrong in your childhood.”
“Nothing went wrong!”
“Excuse me?” One of the hotel’s staff came up to them with a note in his hand. “Mr. Simpson?”
“Yes?” Marc lifted his head, looking at the man with suspicion.
“You have a message. I was told to tell you that it was an urgent matter that couldn’t wait.”
Marc sat up, taking the paper from the man. “It’s work. I have to respond to this. I might be a while.”
He left with the man and Willa didn’t see him until the next day.
* * *
“I want you to be my maid of honor,” Virginia said to Willa the next afternoon. They were in Virginia’s luxurious cabin, which was high in the trees and looked like a magical tree house.
“What?” The request took her by surprise. The wedding was the next night. She and Carlos were having such a small ceremony, Willa didn’t think that they would do any of the traditional things.
“I’ve known you since I was six.
How could I not have you by my side when I get married? We planned our imaginary weddings together.”
“Yes, but I was the one who was supposed to marry the professional athlete, not you.”
Virginia grinned happily at her. “Yeah, it’s funny how things work out. The last person I’d ever thought I’d end up with is the only person I ever want to be with.”
Her mind unwillingly turned to Marc, whom she hadn’t seen since he left the beach the day before. She knew he was fine, that he must be working, but she had missed him last night, unable to sleep because she was waiting for his knock on her door. She had started this trip hating him, but things had changed so quickly. “When did you know he was the one?”
“When being without him became too hard and the only way I felt balanced was knowing I would be with him.”
“I found you.” Marc walked in then, looking rumpled and exhausted. Her heart sped up at the sight of him. “No one knew where you were. I was getting worried.”
She left her seat, her feet moving toward him, her mind almost completely blank except for thoughts of him. She wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in the crook of his neck. His five-o’clock shadow scraped her skin, but she didn’t care. “What do you mean you were worried about me? I haven’t seen you in twenty-four hours and now you show up here all rumpled. I was starting to think those organ snatchers you had spoken about when we first arrived finally got to you.”
“My organs are intact,” he said, brushing a kiss across her forehead. “It’s my soul you should worry about.”
“What happened?”
“Sex scandal. Hookers. Three of them. Mr. Morality and Values got caught with them in his car. They want us to spin it as if he were counseling them. I’m not sure how the public is going to buy that when nobody was wearing pants, but we’ll make it work.”
“Is it always like this?”
“Yes.”
“Why do you do it? You work with people you don’t like. You stand up for things you don’t believe in.”
“It’s my job. What do you expect me to do?”
“Something you like. Something that makes you happy. This doesn’t make you happy. You’re in the most beautiful place on the planet with people who love you and you let your job get in the way of that. Why do you always let things get in the way of people you love?”
“We’re not just talking about my job anymore, are we?”
“We are talking about your job. We are here for five days to celebrate Gin’s wedding and you have gone missing for twenty-four hours without a word to any of us.”
“You’re mad at me.”
“You’re damn right I’m mad at you.”
“Why?” He slid his hands up her arms, narrowing his eyes at her. “Why are you so mad at me?”
“Because you weren’t here. Because we only have these five days together,” she said. But as soon as the words flew out of her mouth, she wished she could suck them back in.
“Whoa,” she heard Virginia say from behind her and she remembered her best friend was there. She turned to look at her, lost for words. “If you tell me there’s nothing going on between you now, I’ll smack you.”
“Okay. Maybe there’s a little something going on,” Willa admitted, “but it didn’t happen until after we had dinner on the beach.”
Virginia threw up her arms in frustration. “That’s the first thing that should have come out of your mouth when I saw you this morning.”
“Yell at her later. I need to steal her for a few minutes. Let’s go, Dr. Arthur.” Marc looked at her with triumph in his eyes. And before she could protest he was pulling her out of the room.
“Where are you taking me?” He didn’t answer, just kept tugging her away from Virginia’s bungalow, but he didn’t take her to one of the paved paths that led back to the center of the resort. He took her into the thick trees that surrounded them. “Marc!”
He stopped abruptly, pushing her against the nearest tree. She should have smacked him, but she couldn’t deny the excitement that spiked inside her when she saw the look in his eyes. Desire. He wanted her. He stepped closer, sliding his hands over her waist, not giving her a moment to take in a breath before he kissed her hard. His hands were all over her. She felt them hot on her skin, under her dress, cupping the backs of her thighs. She felt his mouth, too, hard, insistent, wet. If he weren’t holding her so tightly against him she would have slumped over. Her body couldn’t support itself, couldn’t stand on its own. All it could do was experience him and his touch and the thousands of feelings that were running through her.
He broke the kiss, but only so he could set his lips on her neck, kissing her in the spot he knew made her go weak. “What are you doing?”
“Baby, if you don’t know—” he slid his large hand further up the back of her thigh to her behind, where he cupped her cheek “—I’m about to make it crystal clear.”
“You’re trying to get into my pants,” she moaned as he kissed her throat. “But I’m mad at you. How does that turn you on?”
“You’re mad at me for not being around for the last twenty-four hours.”
“Yeah, only I didn’t realize I was mad until you came back.”
He gifted her with a beautiful smile and then captured her lower lip between his teeth, giving it a playful tug before he slid his tongue deep inside her mouth. She almost got caught up, lost in him again, but she pulled away.
“Why does that make you happy?”
“Why are you so mad? You said this was just a fling.”
“Well, just because this is just a fling doesn’t mean I wasn’t waiting to hear from you all day. It doesn’t mean that I didn’t wait up all night for you to knock on my door. It doesn’t mean I didn’t miss you!”
“I missed you, too,” he said softly. “I had to go into town yesterday because the resort doesn’t have video conferencing. I didn’t get finished with that mess until 2:00 a.m. I wanted to come by to see you but I didn’t want to wake you, and I didn’t want you to think I was coming over just to have sex. Then I was on the phone all morning with my boss trying to come up with a plan, but I could barely focus because I was thinking about the next time I would see you. The fact that you missed me, the fact that you want to spend as much time with me as I want to spend with you, tells me that you have feelings for me.”
“What?” She tried to pull away from him. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“It’s not ridiculous. I have feelings for you, too. When I look at you, when I hear your voice, when I see you smile, it reminds me that you’re not just some girl I dated. You were someone I loved, and no matter how hard I tried, no matter how many women I’ve dated, I can’t seem to get you out of my mind.”
She stood there stunned by his admission, her heart pounding against her rib cage. Yes, she had missed him. Yes, he made her feel heady and happy, and beautiful and wanted. But it was nothing. And if it were, it could easily be blamed on the setting and nostalgia and a slew of other things she couldn’t explain. It wasn’t real. She would go back to her life and he would go back to his, and those feelings would fade. Life would go back to normal and he would be just another pleasant memory.
She didn’t want to fall in love.
She liked her single-girl lifestyle.
She liked not missing anyone.
She liked being in her head all day.
“Willa.” He whispered her name as he brushed his lips across her cheek, bringing her out of her thoughts. “Say something.”
She looked up at him. Into his beautiful expressive eyes, and realized that in that moment, she didn’t want to be in her head. She didn’t want to be alone with her thoughts. She only wanted him.
“Take me back to your place.”
She didn’t remember the journey back to the bungalow. All she c
ould remember was being breathless, feeling her heart pounding and the blood rushing through her ears. He led her inside, closing the door behind her. They stood there for a moment, silently staring at each other. She still didn’t know what to say to him, how to respond to his beautiful words, so she stepped forward and kissed him, wrapped her arms around him, saying with her mouth what her words couldn’t. “Make love to me,” she managed to get out in the brief moment their lips separated.
“Bedroom.”
“Too far. Can’t wait.” She unzipped his pants, reaching her hand inside to stroke him. He cursed, shoving up her dress so he could tear at her underwear. She became frantic then, ripping at the buttons on his shirt so she could feel his skin. She was just smoothing her hands over his chest as he leaned her against the wall and put a condom on and pushed inside her.
She was ready for him; the throbbing between her legs was so intense it was nearly painful. He didn’t go slow this time; there were no gentle long strokes. His pace was quick and hard. It was too much and not enough at the same time. She pushed back against him, meeting him stroke for stroke, crying out his name, saying words she couldn’t remember.
“I can’t hold on much longer. You’ve got to come for me, Willa.”
“I’m just waiting for you.”
He paused for a moment, looking at her with such intensity it made her tremble. He kissed her again, sealing his mouth to hers as he pumped hard inside her. Climax hit hard then and he let go, too, calling her name. She felt dazed and breathless and tingly. No coherent thoughts ran through her mind. She just felt satisfied and warm and for the first time in a long time, she felt happy.
* * *
It was one of those moments Marc wished didn’t have to end. Willa was wrapped around him, her lips on his throat, her hair brushing against his chin. He felt like that little thing that had been missing from his life was finally there. But he knew they couldn’t stay like that, with him still inside her and her pushed up against the wall. It was one of the few times he had completely lost control with a woman, wanting her so bad that it didn’t matter where they were.