by Nikki Winter
“I am not—”
He angled himself forward and took possession of her mouth. It wasn’t a greeting or something you gave in passing to your mate without really considering the contact. No, he made sure to suck the breath from her lungs. He made sure that any and every objection that had been ready to fall from her lips was swallowed in the fray of his oral assault. Eli clearly didn’t give a fuck about the fact that they were in public or that their friends were standing just a few feet away, possibly gawking. He cleared all thought, all reason and all irritation with the simple caress of his mouth. And Carmen, Carmen stood there and took it. She took everything he had to give and found herself clinging to him when she should’ve been ready to let go.
He flicked his tongue against hers, took hold of her bottom rim between his teeth and then released it. His smile was slow and lazy. “Good morning.”
Carmen sucked in a deep breath, blinked to clear the haziness from her vision. “Hi.”
Chuckling, Eli ran his thumb over her jaw, hauled up his backpack and strolled past her to check out. Disoriented—and quite frankly so fucking horny that she could barely stand straight—Carmen watched him go.
“Oh Lucy,” Addison commented from a few feet behind her, a thick Cuban accent clouding her voice. “Youse got some ‘splainin to do.”
***
“You can stop looking at me like I’m going to strip you right here,” Eli calmly stated, continuing his task of ripping open sugar packets to dump into his coffee.
He could feel Carmen eyeing him.
“I’ve no idea what you will or won’t do,” she muttered.
His lips twitched as he finally raised his gaze. “And yet, there you sit rather than making an excuse to stay as far away from me as possible.” He tilted his head just a bit to the left. “Tell me something, Carmen, if I make you so uncomfortable, why are we going to have sex later tonight?”
She closed her eyes and he could see a smile forming around her mouth. “You’re such a presumptuous ass.”
“Then get up from the table,” he told her. “Get up, walk away and ignore me for the rest of the trip.”
When she looked at him, her stare was narrowed. “Don’t challenge me.”
Eli simply quirked a brow and sat back, waving a hand.
Carmen’s palms hit the table and she moved as though she would rise. His fingers curled around her wrist. Their eyes met.
“Don’t.”
“Then stop making me want to,” she whispered. “I prefer you when you’re behaving like a goddamn adult. This cocky football captain shit isn’t a turn on, Elijah. Not in the least bit. Either cut it and show me what I saw last week or leave me to my original plan because believe it or not, I can pretend like you don’t exist.”
Eli slowly released her, sitting back with a hard breath. He was acting like a twat and she was right to call him on it. The whole point of Carmen’s ignoring him for so long was because of the very thing he was exhibiting right now—arrogance. The problem with that Carmen Sanchez was not a sure thing. She never would be. Predicting what was crossing her thoughts was about as easy as predicting when he’d die—impossible. He’d gotten so accustomed to women doing whatever they could to get and keep his interest that he’d fallen back into the same routine: a flirtatious smile, a few compliments and comments birthed from pure egotism. Losing the little ground he’d gained with her was right on the horizon if he didn’t remind himself of who he was dealing with at the moment.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, clenching his hands.
“What?”
He swallowed, caught her eyes and enunciated, “I’m sorry.” He nodded to her seat. “Would you please sit back down and tell me the first place you’d like to go tonight?”
She eased back into the chair almost warily, like she was waiting for Hyde to return with a vengeance.
Eli gripped one leg of her seat and pulled it until she was directly beside him. She shot him a look but he simply grinned, placed her cup in front of her then slung an arm across the back of the chair.
Looking thoroughly annoyed with his antics, she told him, “Well, Addie was looking through the resort’s activities and apparently tonight kicks off the first in a line of decade themed parties they’re supposed to be having at one of the clubs.”
He sat back a bit. “Mak told me about that. This one is supposed to be the 70s right?”
She nodded and tucked a fly-away-piece of hair behind her ear. “I packed some stuff I found in the back of my mom’s closet.”
Leering, he said, “Did you now?”
Carmen pinched his nipple through his shirt. “No hay fantasías enfermizas sobre mi madre!”
“Ow!” He rubbed the now sore spot. “English, woman! Speak English! And don’t do that again unless we’ve established a clear safe word!”
She pointed a manicured finger in his face. “My mother is not here for your perversions.”
Eli tucked in his lips. “But I have a crush on her. And she does funny things to my—okay, okay! I’m kidding!” He reached out to pull her back to his side. “Calm yourself, female. While I find Miss Angie attractive, she frightens me. And not in an amusing way. I literally wouldn’t close my eyes around her.”
Smirking, she retook her place. “As you shouldn’t.”
He buried his nose in her hair. “I’d close my eyes around you though. But only if I were really tired… and sure that no blunt or sharp objects had been left in your presence.”
She grinned. “That’s so sweet.”
“Really? Sweet enough that you’d let me feel you up right now?”
“You’re pushing it, Aaronson.”
Sighing, he replied, “A man can dream, Sanchez. A man can dream…”
***
“Land!” Addison cried. “Glorious, beautiful land!”
Maikao’s head dropped forward. “The dramatics, stop them.”
She shook her head, stopping to spin in a circle. “You don’t understand! After being confined for an eternity—”
Carmen and Maikao shared a look as he corrected his fiancée. “You mean seven hours?”
“Eternity!” she bellowed.
He blinked. “Right… I’m just going to go to baggage claim now and behave as though this entire thing”—he waved at Addison’s shimmying form—“isn’t taking place.”
“Oh but it is,” Eli whispered in an ominous tone. “It is.”
He shot Carmen a wink before following the other man.
“God, I’m so happy to be back here,” Addison breathed, her eyes wandering about the airport. “It gets better every time we come.”
The first vacation their mothers had ever taken them on had been just after their first year in business. With Selena’s incredible taste in fashion and Angelina’s charm and social capabilities, the pair had opened a joint salon and spa that became quite popular.
Shortly after Addison and Carmen’s high school graduation, their mothers’ establishment went in the black and to celebrate, they’d decided to do something worthwhile and took the trip. It was, and would always be, one of the most humbling experiences of Carmen’s life. To see her Mamá evolve from a struggling teen to a college graduate to a business owner had been incredible to say the least.
The second time Carmen and Addison returned to Mexico was after their college graduation and the third was once Addison was hired in pediatrics and Carmen’s restaurant was featured in a half an hour segment on a Latin food network. Neither could’ve predicted that their next trip would be for marriage.
Carmen was beyond excited for her friend. Growing up without a bevy of male influences in their lives had left them on unsteady ground when it came to knowing what to expect from men. Dating had been a bit of a struggle when they’d first started, unsure and a little naive. There were only so many lessons their mothers could teach and only so many Google searches they could do on the opposite sex. Eventually, both had to throw themselves from the nest and take a nosedive into a place
that was insanely frightening and unpredictable. Each landed hard and found themselves falling over and over again but, they never lingered, always pulling the other back up. The day Addison told Carmen about Maikao was the day Carmen knew her friend had fallen and wouldn’t be getting back up again ever.
She’d watched the two, noticing the subtle changes in body language whenever they found themselves in one another’s presence. She’d caught the way one would look at the other when they thought no one was paying attention and she knew. Why it had taken so long for the pair to admit what they felt, Carmen didn’t know but she was grateful for it. Their happiness gave her the tiniest bit of hope that at some point, she’d find what they had for herself.
“Your luggage, Amante Sanchez,” Eli said, coming up beside her with her suitcase.
She shot him a look. “You’ve got a Spanish dictionary in your pocket don’t you?”
He waggled his brows. “Would you like to stick your hand in and see?”
Her lips twitched. “Me gustaría, pero me temo que me hubiera decepcionado con mi descubrimiento. Luego, su nombre sería Sir Lápiz para el resto del viaje.”
Addison burst into laughter.
“I’ve told you, woman! English! Use English!”
Ignoring his bellowing, Carmen pulled her suitcase along, following the airport’s signs towards the cab and shuttle area. If nothing else, the next few days would be entertaining.
Eight
Eli felt incredibly anxious and he had one individual in particular to blame for said anxiety. For days on end he’d found himself drifting in and out of his last encounter with Carmen, considering all of the different ways it could’ve gone. His original intent was to leave her with the same lead weight of hunger he’d had sinking in his gut since their first meeting and instead, he found himself left with stained jeans and a dark, dark mood.
He’d had forced himself to stay away from her. There had been no calls, no going by the restaurant and he’d avoided all conversation concerning her with Maikao. He’d spent several days feeling like a tire that had been pumped with entirely too much air. He was a man on the edge and it was all of her fault! What the fuck had he been thinking touching her and then strolling off as though he could go back to daily life without a second glance? Clearly, he’d lost his shit.
Ten minutes between her thighs and she had him sniffing after her like a fucking teenager who’d had his first wet dream about a crush. How was that okay?! It wasn’t and it never would be again! Why? Because he was headed down a slippery slope. For the first time in years Eli actually wanted to get to know the mind attached to the vagina. It was strange and frightening and made his palms sweaty.
“I am fucking losing it,” he murmured, following the movement of Carmen’s hips as they reached the hotel concierge desk. The thirty minute ride from the airport had left him jittery. He kept looking at her, wondering what she was thinking, wondering if she’d thought about him as much as he’d thought about her this week; wondering if she’d truly give into spending the rest of the trip with him. She was so goddamned hard to read that he found himself waiting for a sign—any sign—that she was just as ready to explode from the tension as him. Eli was fucked and not in the way he so desperately wanted to be.
This, this thing, was different. There would be no cat and mouse games, no coy touches, no sly flirting or gentle brushes when the mood suited them. No, this was raw and unfiltered, heavily peppered with honesty and topped with enough fire to incinerate the skeleton of an elephant. One thing, if nothing else, was very obvious to Eli, Carmen wouldn’t be easy. Not in words and not in bed. Whatever she was looking for, she didn’t see it in him and that bothered him on some level. Inexplicably, it made him want to try harder to get her to see it. Eli didn’t know when they’d shifted from crooked grins and fast sentences spilled in a heated moment but the change was unsettling.
Pursuing Carmen wasn’t the difficult part. It was fun, intoxicating. What made him pause, left him disquieted, was questioning what would happen when he actually got her. Because he wasn’t delusional enough to think one quickie foreplay session on her office couch had been what he needed to surpass all her pawns and take the queen. This was much more complicated than that. This morning she had told him that he needed to show her what he’d shown her days ago. The question was—what was that?
“Mr. Aaronson?”
Eli blinked, his focus returning to the hotel receptionist gazing at him. “I’m sorry, what was that?”
She gave him a patient smile. “I said there’s been a bit of a mix-up. It appears that the room you booked was marked for a week from now rather than today.”
Addison came to stand beside him. “Are you saying he doesn’t have a room?”
The receptionist winced. “Unfortunately you’re arriving right around the time that co-eds and spring break vacationers do and with the mistaken reservation…”
“I’m fully ass out. Pale cheeks to the wind,” he completed for her.
Her face and neck reddened. “Since it was an error on our part we’d be more than glad to send you to a neighboring resort, all expenses paid.”
“Oh no, no, no,” Addison chimed in. “I’m getting married on next Friday and he has to be staying here.”
Maikao put a hand on her shoulder. “Sweetheart—”
She turned, her brows arching in clear warning and her fiancé—a man twice her size—ducked behind Carmen, pushing her in front of him. “Rational!” he yelled. “Let’s be rational!” Peeking around the woman in front of him, he looked at the receptionist. “How far is the neighboring hotel?”
She glanced down at the computer screen before her. “For one that’s up to the same standards that we have here, it would be about two hours away.”
Eli hiked his pack up. “I’ll just have to get here a bit earlier for the rehearsal—”
“He can share a room with me.”
He didn’t move, not even an inch. His question was slow and quiet, “What was that?”
Carmen sighed, stepped up beside him and told the receptionist, “He can share a room with me.”
Looking over his shoulder, he found Maikao and Addison wearing the very expression he was sure he had at the moment—complete and utter astonishment.
“Let’s not make a huge deal out of this,” she continued. “Because huge deals make me twitchy and when I get twitchy people end up sobbing… sooo...” She cast her gaze back to the young woman across the counter. “I’m going to need another key.”
Well… shit.
Apologizing again for the mix-up, the concierge handed off the keys, Carmen held one out to Eli, swiftly turned on her heel and walked towards the bank of elevators not too far away. Glancing at the soon to be wedded couple, he shrugged and started to follow.
“Wait,” Maikao said stepping away from Addison.
Eli stopped and his friend came close enough to put both hands on either side of Eli’s face, leaning forward until their foreheads touched in a position that could’ve been misconstrued greatly.
“If I haven’t told you lately,” the other man whispered. “I love you.”
“This is strange. I don’t like strange. Stop being strange.”
“My friend, you are venturing into dangerous and unknown territories. Greater men have been leveled by the threat you are about to face. You need to understand the gravity of what you’re up against. Carmen Sanchez.” Maikao squeezed either side of Eli’s face. “Carmen. Sanchez.”
“Addison?” Eli called.
“Yeah?”
“Are you sure this is the person you want to spend the rest of your existence with?”
“Meh,” she shrugged. “I’m kind of stuck now. No choice really.”
“Right,” Eli replied slowly, still locked between Maikao’s hands. “I understand there’s a boat dock not too far from here if you want to rethink that.”
“I would but he’s really great in bed,” Addison answered exhaling. “And I have needs.
”
“I feel as though no one is taking me seriously,” Makiao announced. “I need to be taken seriously!”
Eli batted his hands away. “The only thing that is being taken seriously here is your palpable insanity! You think I should be afraid to share a room with Carmen? My friend, this is my moment, my calling, my time.” He pointed to the glass ceilings. “The planets are aligning as we speak to possess this groin,” he gestured to his pelvis, “with the power to drill through cement. If anyone should be wary here, it should be her.” Reaching out, Eli patted Maikao’s face. “Fear not, for I am walking through the gates of my destiny and I shall do so with a mighty sword as my weapon.”
Maikao nodded. “I’m honored to know such a fierce soul.”
“As you should be.”
“My God,” Addison murmured a few feet away. “This is what I’m committing myself to? Maybe I should find the boat docks because clearly…”
Glaring, Maikao swung towards her. “Quiet, female! Your lord is speaking!”
“My lord? My lord?!”
Eli quickly gathered his things and ducked away before the carnage could begin.
***
She’d lost her goddamn mind. That was the only explanation for inviting the devil incarnate to share her room. Wasn’t this entire thing about keeping her head on straight, keeping things with Eli in perspective so she wouldn’t lose sight of what this was? And yet she already had, hadn’t she?
Carmen sucked in a deep breath and stepped onto the elevator as the doors parted, trying to figure out exactly where all her reason and capability to use logic had gone. Right as she leaned against the back wall, the doors began to close again but wound up stopping as one large hand shot out, halting them.