“So…now what?” I asked, passing the keyboard to Derrick so he could type up a list of everything he’d lost.
The officer just shrugged, her bun so tight on the back of her head that it pulled at the corner of her eyes and made her whole face look stretched. “Nothing,” she said blandly. Once again, I was met with boredom.
“Nothing?”
“She’s useless,” came a voice from behind us. A guy and girl around our age or perhaps a tad younger were sitting in chairs next to the door. “She doesn’t care about you or your problem.”
His friend, a pretty blonde with a lace crop top and high-waisted shorts, nodded. “We’ve been here three hours, and it’s just to report a lost passport. They literally don’t care.”
I shook my head, a nauseating wave of fatigue swamping me like a sudden tsunami. “Then what’s the point of all of this? Why do they even exist?”
They both shrugged. “No clue,” he said. “But the embassy told us to come here before we went back to them to get issued a new passport. Where are you guys from?”
“Victoria in British Columbia…Canada.” I smiled, suddenly wishing I was back home and away from this godforsaken place.
“Calgary,” Derrick muttered. He’d been rather surly since we’d left the hostel, mostly quiet, but grunting orders at me when he had to talk. For the most part, I’d just kept my mouth shut and did as he said.
“Hey, cool! We’re from Vancouver.” The girl grinned. “Though I grew up in Victoria. Matt’s kind of lived all over.”
“I was born just outside of Calgary though,” he said with a nod.
She rolled her eyes and got up and extended her hand. “I’m Elissa, and this is Matt.”
I took her hand, the immediate relief of finding more of Canada, more of home, my people, my kin, filling my heart and easing the pain of the day just a little.
“Piper.” I smiled. “And this is Derrick.”
“So,” Elissa started with a grin, encouraging me to come and sit next to her, while Matt was finally called up to the counter and Derrick continued to fuss around on the computer. “What happened?”
AFTER I SPILLED my guts and caught Elissa up to speed, she just sat there, eyes wide and mouth open. And then, in true Canadian fashion, she hugged me. It didn’t matter that I’d met this woman less than ten minutes ago; we were friends. Just like that. Such was the life of a backpacker.
“Well, we’re staying in a dorm room at our hostel, but there is an empty bunk bed. You guys are welcome to follow us back and stay there.”
I swallowed, suddenly loving the idea of being surrounded by more people from home. I’d traveled abroad to experience other cultures and meet people from all over the world, but all I wanted to do right now was go home. But because I couldn’t just hop on the next plane bound for Vancouver International, being in a room chock-full of fellow Canadians was probably the next best thing.
A scowl-faced Derrick came and joined me on the chairs. “Let’s go. We need to find a new hostel.”
I nodded. “Yeah…uh. Elissa invited us to join them back at their hostel. They have a spare bunk bed in their room.”
He nodded. “Sure, whatever.” Matt joined us, and then the four of us hailed a cab.
We loaded our backpacks into the trunk, and then everybody piled in. My eyes went wide at the sight of the bulletproof Plexiglass bubble the cab driver had encased himself in. What fresh hell had I just flown into? A country where their cabbies didn’t feel safe unless they drove around town like a beta-fish.
“I know, eh? Freaky. Doesn’t exactly make you feel safe.” Matt snorted, turning around from the front passenger seat and taking in my shocked eyes. “They’re all like this. Armed robbery is huge here. And because cabbies deal so much in cash and carry it all on them, they’re big targets.”
I shook my head. “That’s insane.”
“We’re here!” Elissa cheered, bailing out and knocking on the trunk so that the cab driver could open it from the inside. He popped it, and she and Matt helped us with our backpacks.
“It’s a party hostel,” she warned as we made our way up to the front door, a camera tucked discreetly at the corner blinking red. They flashed wristbands, and then the door clicked open, and we followed through a series of doors the same as the front. Each door opened only once their wristbands had been made visible.
Finally, after about the fourth door, we emerged into what I can only describe as an international 4 p.m. rave. People from every corner of the world danced to some techno-pop song in a room down the hall, while strobe lights flashed and black lights illuminated everything and anything into a Day-Glo hue.
We walked up to the front desk, heavy-hearted and unsure of what we’d just gotten ourselves into (once again), and to the heavy bass of David Guetta, whoops and hollers, and the chanting of “chug, chug, chug” followed by “yeahhhh.” We got our wristbands and then entered the world of Hostel Travesura International.
“This is it!” Elissa announced, unlocking the door and letting Derrick and I walk in first. “It’s not much. But it’s home for now.” Her mouth drew down in disappointment. “We’d planned to go to Mancora, but Matt lost his passport, so we have to stick around.”
The room was L-shaped, with three sets of bunk beds. Two sets were tucked around a corner, while the third bed, the empty one, was the first thing you saw when you walked in.
“Is there a safe or a cabinet we can lock?” Derrick asked. His cantankerous demeanor still not having seemed to dissolve.
Matt nodded and then walked over to the far wall. “Everyone gets a locker. You can put your own lock on it, or rent one from the front desk.”
Derrick nodded and then went to work unloading his bag.
“We’ll leave you two to unpack,” Elissa said softly, coming up behind me and resting a hand on my back. “But come meet us downstairs in a bit. It’s Music Bingo night in the bar, and the food at this place is actually pretty good.”
We didn’t talk much as we unpacked. In fact, we hardly said two words to one another the entire night. We unpacked in silence, we ate dinner in silence and then we got drunk off our faces and won prizes in music bingo, all without conversing at all. He just sat there with a pissed-off scowl on his face, his eyes like two gray thunderclouds of rage.
IT WAS NEARLY two thirty in the morning when we finally staggered up the stairs to our room. Elissa, Matt, and their friends Rita and Karina were all still downstairs dancing on tables and doing shots with a group of Argentinian soccer players.
I stumbled into the bathroom and started to brush my teeth, hating going to bed without minty fresh breath and hating even more when I woke up with the taste of my last drink in my mouth the next morning. The door to the bathroom opened up, and Derrick stalked in. His brows pinched while he opened up his toiletries bag and squeezed toothpaste out onto his brush. We stood there, eyes locked in the mirror, both of us foaming at the mouth like rabid mongoose, rhythmically brushing our teeth.
I spit and rinsed and then wiped my mouth. “You’re being an asshole,” I said, with a slightly drunken slur to my speech.
He spat and rinsed. “Excuse me?”
“This isn’t my fault, you know?” My hands on my hips, I snagged his eyes in the mirror.
“Are you saying it’s mine?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“Then why am I an asshole?”
“Because you’re treating everyone like garbage. You’re angry.”
He shot me a look and then went to the task of removing his contacts. I turned away. I just couldn’t handle watching someone jam their finger into their eye. Ray had worn glasses and contacts as well, and it freaked me out to watch him put them in and take them out. I was equally disturbed by the site of blood. Med school, no matter how well I had scored on the MCAT, had never been in my future. And I had deliberately avoided any form of criminal law as well, just in case I had to look at images of gruesome murder scenes, instead sticking to corp
orate law. And look how well that had turned out!
“And you’re not angry?” That chip was still there on his shoulder, and his tone was proof of it.
I snorted. “Of course, I am. I’d like to find the fuckers and castrate them and their first-born sons myself. But I don’t shut people out when I’m angry.”
He flicked the contacts into the garbage and then turned to face me. His hard, shirtless body was big and menacing in front of me. I swallowed and took a step back. “Well, I do. Give me some time, okay?”
I couldn’t handle how intense his stare was, and I let my eyes fly to his big, sexy bare feet. “Okay…you’re not mad at me, though?” I don’t know why I felt the need to ask. I’d done absolutely nothing wrong.
A knuckle came up under my chin, and he tilted my head up until I was forced to look back into his eyes. “No. I’m not mad at you.” He dropped his hand and then turned around to leave the bathroom, I followed him.
“Okay.”
“You take the top bunk.” He ordered. “They look sturdy enough, but if for whatever reason they collapse, you’ll be less hurt, because having me fall on you could be really dangerous.”
I shrugged again and started to climb the ladder. “Okay.”
He flicked the light out and climbed into bed. “Goodnight, Piper.”
I pulled the sheet up to my chin, the need to cry suddenly grabbing hold of my chest and throat so fiercely I could hardly breathe. I squeezed my eyes shut. Hot tears trickled down onto my pillow, and the vice around my ribs began to squeeze.
I felt him shift in the bed below and then heard the strained squeak of the metal frame. “Piper.”
I opened my eyes. He stood in front of me, but all I could see was his head. The moon was peeking out from behind the drawn blind and was casting beautiful shadows across his stubbly face.
I fought to control my breath as it came out in staggered gasps.
“Piper.”
“It’s nothing.” My voice caught in my throat. “Goodnight.”
“Piper.”
“Go to sleep, Derrick.”
“Piper.” Then he reached for me. I was drawn to him, drawn to his kindness, his charisma, the quiet power and confidence that seemed to percolate around him like an invisible ball of energy. I scrambled over the small bed rail, and he caught me, cradling my body against his. He tucked us both into his tiny twin bed, spooning me, protecting me with his warmth. I was asleep in seconds.
CHAPTER 4
I didn’t even hear our roommates come in. The wild partiers were as quiet in the room as they were loud down in the bar. But I knew they’d come home. Daylight poured in through the sheer blinds, and I slowly let my eyes adjust to the light, while images of bodies, still dressed and drunkenly heaved onto beds, came into view. It looked as though they’d all collapsed into bed. Shoes were still on feet, glow-sticks were still around necks, and I think Matt still had a beer bottle in his hands by the looks of it. But I took inventory of rising chests and snores, and everyone still seemed to be alive.
I wiggled and was immediately greeted with a masculine grunt behind me, followed by warm, hairy arms pulling me tighter against a hard chest. It only took a couple of seconds for me to remember where I was, and who I was with, and despite the circumstances of the last twenty-four hours, I smiled. I squirmed in his arms more and closed my eyes. And that’s when I felt it. That all too familiar prod, in the backside.
I swallowed, but then pushed into it and rotated my hips. He growled behind me. “Morning.”
“Morning,” I whispered.
“Sucks that we can’t take advantage of such a great hard-on, eh?”
I chuckled low in my throat and brought his hands down to my breasts. “Yeah…is it really that great?”
“Mhmm,” he hummed, thrusting it between my legs. “Super hard.” He nipped my earlobe.
I reached behind myself and fished him out of his boxers. It was great, big and firm and silky smooth. I wanted it. I needed it. We’d been through hell; we were shredded, we deserved to feel good.
“I won’t tell if you don’t.” I started to awkwardly stroke him while encouraging his curious hand to travel down and beneath my pajama shorts.
“You’re dirty.” His teeth grazed my shoulder. “I love it.”
“We need this.” Suddenly breathless, I let out a contented sigh when his fingers started rubbing circles around my clit.
“We do.” He bucked into my hand as I ran my fist up his length, from root to tip and back.
“Fuck me, Derrick…please.”
His was voice husky and rough behind me. “God, I love it when you beg.” He quickly pulled his hands from my body and shed his boxers, I shimmied out of my shorts and underwear but then resumed the spoon position. If any of the roommates did wake up, the spoon position would be the most inconspicuous, and we could probably get away with just closing our eyes and feigning sleep.
“Shit!” His breath was warm on my ear and neck, sending a frisson of need straight to my core. I squeezed my legs together, desperate for some friction. “Condoms are across the room in my bag.”
Fuck! “I, um…I have an IUD.” His fingers had found my clit again, and my eyes were threatening to roll out of the back of my head. “And…and I’m clean.”
“I’m clean, too,” he whispered, pushing himself further between my legs, demanding I let him in. And dear God, did I ever want to. “Just got tested.”
I swallowed. “O-okay.”
“You’re sure?”
I grinned and craned my neck around to look at him. “Fuck me, Derrick …please.”
His smile was pure masculine triumph, and he captured my pleas, fucking my mouth with his tongue. Deep and commanding plunges while his lips grabbed and pulled, claiming all of me. It was a messy kiss, not comfortable and incredibly awkward, but somehow it just added to the moment, to the forbidden exhibitionism of it all. I spread my legs for him; he found my cleft and thrust inside.
A room full of sleeping people, people we’d just met, and we were humping like dirty cavemen. Each finding solace and comfort in the body of the other. We’d lost so much. I’d lost so much, and not just yesterday. I felt like the last few years of my life had been filled with nothing but loss. First my aunt, then my grandmother, and then Ray. I needed to feel something besides grief. I needed to feel good. I needed to feel alive. And God, if Derrick didn’t make me both.
I pushed myself onto him, taking all of him, feeling him slide in and out of me, my body gripping him tightly. “Fuck, you’re so snug.” His teeth grazed my earlobe then traveled down my neck. The man was a vampire, and I loved it.
“Oh God,” I whimpered, moving my hand down so I could rub my clit, but he figured out what I was doing and batted my hand away.
“Let me do the work. You just enjoy.” He started to tease. Pinching and pulling, only to mix it up again and massage lovely little circles around my swollen nub, until I was seconds from combustion.
“Derrick, I’m close.”
“Oh God…” he groaned. “You’re fucking perfect. You know that?” His fingers picked up speed, while the rhythm of his thrusts began to falter, he was close. He pinched my clit. “Come for me, Piper, come hard, baby.”
Waves of pure, unadulterated ecstasy rippled through me as I tumbled off the cliff. He’d kept me riding that sweet paper-thin edge for so long that my body was positively screaming for release, and threatening to revolt it I didn’t get it soon. When he finally let me go, I was swept up in a vortex of sensations. All good. All amazing. My entire body, even my brain was on fire. It was all so hot. So forbidden. We hardly knew each other, we weren’t protected, we were in a room with other people, and yet for some reason, all those wrong and naughty things felt so incredibly right.
The orgasm continued to unfurl in my belly as I pulsed around him, drawing him deeper into my body, willing him to find his own release. And he did. Teeth found my shoulder again, and he bit down hard, muffling his snarls of
satisfaction against my skin. I was excited to check the mirror later for bite marks. The sick and twisted part of me kind of hoped there’d be some.
He grunted a few more times behind me, his body trembling in the aftermath of his climax, while his hand came up and he cupped my breast. “You’re amazing.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re pretty amazing yourself.”
“Oh shit!” He had started to slip out.
I squeezed my legs together and cupped my mound, wondering how the hell we were going to get ourselves out of this situation. We were both naked from the waist down, and it was a twelve step walk to the bathroom, past the beds of dead to the world roommates. If I tried to get dressed under the covers, I’d make a giant mess. Crap! We’d been so caught up in the moment we hadn’t thought about what we’d do afterward.
“Wait a sec,” he said, sitting up in bed behind me and rummaging around under the blanket for his underwear. He pulled them on and slid out of bed, a still fairly impressive tent pitched in his front of his shorts. But he didn’t seem to care and walked right past the passed- out foursome and ducked into the bathroom, bringing back a wad of toilet paper. He handed it to me and I shoved it between my legs. I slipped on my underwear and shorts and quickly scurried off to pee.
I joined him back in bed a moment later, then suddenly I found myself beneath him. “I’m sorry I was such an asshole yesterday,” he whispered, biting my lip, which forced my eyes to roll into the back of my head.
I fluttered my eyelashes at him and let my arms float up to rest on his shoulders, my fingers playing with the silky soft hair at the nape of his neck. “It’s okay. Yesterday was rough.”
“It just takes me some time to process things. Study all the angles before I react. But I was a jerk, and I’m sorry.”
I rubbed my nose against his. “And I’m a hothead who acts first then thinks about it later.”
“Quite the pair, eh?”
Tropical Tryst: 25 All New and Exclusive Sexy Reads Page 167