Tropical Tryst: 25 All New and Exclusive Sexy Reads

by Nicole Morgan

He tied the drawstring at his waist and cracked open the door. Juanita was kneeling by the closet that held her suitcase, a few flimsy bits of cloth dangling from her fingers. “Oh, that’s right, I remember now,” Ryan told her. “Carmen said she couldn’t find your bathing suit, so she packed one of hers.”

  Juanita glared at the offending garment. Her voice was choked. “I can’t wear this.”

  “Carmen said she was sure it would fit.” Ryan closed the bathroom door and moved to stand beside her.

  “It’s not that. We’re the same size. But I wear one-piece suits. Carmen likes bikinis.”

  Ryan stared down at the bright floral-printed swimsuit. It wasn’t the skimpiest of its kind he’d seen, but clearly it wouldn’t cover much but the essentials. His eyes flicked to Juanita, tracing her curves. Damn, he wanted to see her in it. Although, to be strictly truthful, what he really wanted to see were the parts of her not in it.

  He swallowed. He needed to handle this carefully. If Juanita got the slightest hint of what he was thinking, she’d never agree to put on the suit. And then she wouldn’t get to enjoy the water slides, which she was clearly eager to try. He’d hate for her to miss out. “It looks fine to me. I saw plenty of women in two-piece suits out there.”

  “I’m sure you noticed every one.” Her tone was tart, but the undertone was teasing, not accusing.

  Ryan spread his hands and quirked his eyebrows, then returned to a matter-of-fact expression. “You can always wear a t-shirt over it if you want.”

  Her tense shoulders relaxed. “I think I will. It will keep me from getting sunburned, too.” Her smile made up for any disappointment Ryan might have felt.

  He moved out of her way, and she took the swimsuit into the bathroom. Ryan retrieved a can of sunscreen from his suitcase and went out onto the balcony to spray it on his chest and arms. When Juanita joined him, he handed the bottle to her, careful to keep his gaze away from where the lower edge of her t-shirt revealed a hint of bright fabric and her long, shapely legs. “Could you get my back?”

  “Sure.” Ryan turned around, closing his eyes as the cool mist hit his shoulders. It traveled back and forth until it reached the waistband of his trunks. “Mind if I use this, too?” Juanita asked.

  “Go ahead. I brought plenty. Give me a squirt for my face first, though.” He held out a palm, and she sprayed a generous portion there.

  Ryan rubbed it over his cheeks, nose, and forehead. He kept his face averted as Juanita extended her arms one at a time to spray them, then moved on to her legs, but he watched out of the corner of his eyes.

  She pulled up the hem of her t-shirt, revealing the smooth brown curve of her belly rising above the narrow band circling her hips, her navel a neat dimple in the center. The wet sunscreen made her skin gleam for a moment before it dried. Ryan knew he shouldn’t be watching, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away. She dropped the hem and pulled the neckline down to one side, exposing a bare shoulder crossed by a spaghetti strap. She sprayed sunscreen there and across her chest and the soft upper curves of her breasts. Then she pulled down the other side to reach the skin there.

  She cleared her throat, giving him an excuse to turn back to her, trying desperately to keep his face pleasantly neutral. She handed him the bottle and turned around. “Would you get my back?” she asked over her shoulder. “I don’t trust the thin fabric of this shirt to keep all the sun out.”

  “Sure,” Ryan managed as she tugged her shirt up, exposing a breathtaking expanse of skin. He applied the sunscreen meticulously. The last thing he wanted was for her to suffer the hot pain of a sunburn, or for ultraviolet rays to damage the perfection of her body.

  “Here, too, please.” Juanita lifted her thick, wavy ponytail aside. Ryan sprayed the nape of her neck, trying not to imagine what it would feel like to smooth his hand along the graceful column, or bend to stroke it with his lips and tongue. He’d get a mouthful of bitter sunscreen if he tried. It would serve him right.

  “Thanks.” Juanita dropped her hair. She hesitated, then turned toward him. “Could you get my face, too? If you don’t mind.”

  Ryan swallowed. “Of course.” He sprayed the cool liquid onto his fingers and spread it across her cheeks, then moved to her forehead. He paid particular attention to thoroughly covering the bridge of her nose and the tops of her ears. Her eyes were closed and her face tilted trustingly up to his ministrations. Her skin was soft under his fingers, the delicate muscles beneath firm and springy. He wanted to keep caressing her face for hours. She made no move to open her eyes or pull away, even when he went back over the areas he’d already covered with a second coat. Finally, when he could no longer maintain the pretense that he was touching her for any reason except his own pleasure, he dropped his hands and stepped back. His voice sounded hollow and distant in his ears. “There you go.”

  She sighed and opened her eyes. They met his for a breathless instant. Then she grinned and turned to the door. “Let’s go swim.”

  “Grab a towel.” Ryan picked up one of the big blue beach towels the cruise line provided.

  Juanita took the other and slung it over her shoulder. “Do they mind if we’re barefoot?”

  Ryan stole a glance at her long, graceful toes. “I don’t think so.”

  She nodded and left her sandals on the floor. Ryan led her out of the room, down the hall, and up onto the deck.

  Juanita passed him as they emerged into the sunlight, making a beeline for the slides. “I’m trying the red one first.” The long red tube started at the highest point of the tangle, looping in giant corkscrew turns all the way to the bottom. “Which do you want to try?”

  “I don’t care. Whichever has the shortest line.” There were two other slides besides the red one, one orange, one yellow. All three shone bright in the tropical sun, vivid and gaudy.

  She swatted him lightly on the arm. “Stand in line with me so I don’t get bored.”

  “If you insist.” He would have, even if she hadn’t asked. He wasn’t about to miss a single instant in her company if he didn’t have to.

  They rode an elevator up to the level where the entrance to the slides was located, then climbed several flights of steps to reach the top of the red slide. The line wasn’t bad, only about a dozen people long. Most of them were kids and teenagers, but a few other adults waited as well. Not that Juanita seemed to care, and Ryan didn’t if she didn’t. She was as excited as any of the children. He loved how much happier she seemed today than yesterday. Now that her stress and fear had receded, the real Juanita was free to emerge. She drew Ryan even more powerfully than the terrified woman in need of his protection had.

  When they reached the tiny platform, Juanita gripped the rail and swiveled to take in the view. “I think we’re even higher than we were on the ropes course.”

  Ryan pointed to the far end of the ship, where part of the course was visible. “By at least two stories.”

  She nodded, then turned to gaze inland at Belize’s green hills. “It would have been nice if we could have gotten off the ship.” She turned resolutely back to watch the girl in front of her seat herself in the shallow plastic trough at the head of the slide. “But I’m having a great time here.”

  An idea occurred to Ryan. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t want her to get her hopes up and then be disappointed. But he silently planned what he would do, determined to offer her what she wanted if it was possible.

  The girl pushed herself forward and vanished into the tube. At the attendant’s signal, Juanita climbed into the trough and sat down with a splash. She gripped the metal handles and glanced over her shoulder at Ryan. “I’ll wait for you at the bottom.”

  “I’ll be right behind you,” Ryan promised. The attendant nodded to Juanita. She took a deep breath, then propelled her body into the tube. She slid through the glowing red tunnel, around the first curve and out of sight.

  Ryan seated himself in the cold water and waited for the attendant to release him. Finally the signal came. He
pulled against the handles. The water flowed beneath him. The plastic slithered under his thighs, smooth and slippery. The air inside the tube was warm, the light ruby. The slope steepened and the current accelerated. The tube curved, sending him sliding up the round wall. It cut back, and the water swished to the other side, taking him with it. Faster and faster he slid. The tube bent to the left and kept going. Centrifugal force pushed both him and the water high to the right. Ryan laughed with the thrill of mounting speed. After an endless time twisting left, the tube abruptly cut back right, flinging him hard up the far side, water sloshing and spraying. He flailed to catch his balance as the tube straightened again. It leveled out, and the top opened to the blue sky. Ryan coasted to a stop in the shallow pool at the slide’s base.

  Juanita was there, extending a hand to help him scramble to his feet. The soaked t-shirt was plastered to her body. He drank in the sight. Her eyes were alight and her steps quick as she dragged him back toward the stairs. “Now the orange one.”

  They rode each of the three slides at least a dozen times. Once they took a break to squirt each other with water cannons. Later they directed streams from hoses into a giant bucket until it tipped over and dumped its contents on the delightedly screaming children below. Juanita decided the yellow slide was her favorite, so they rode that one another half-dozen times in a row.

  Ryan would have happily followed her around the water playground for hours more, but eventually the attendants blew whistles and directed everyone to the exits. Juanita sighed, but obediently shuffled through the gate. She was shivering, Ryan noticed. He was cold, too. The sun was sinking toward the horizon, no longer offsetting the chill of the wind on their wet bodies.

  He motioned her toward a different set of stairs. “The adults-only area is up here. They’ve got hot tubs.”

  “I don’t mind the kids,” she protested. “There are hot tubs down on the fifth-floor deck, too.”

  “I don’t either, but these are closer. If they’re too crowded we’ll go down there.”

  Ryan chose the hot tub on the western side of the ship. It held three other couples, but there was plenty of room left. He climbed up, then descended the steps into the steaming water. The heat soaked into his body, easing his shivers and melting away tension. He turned to offer Juanita his hand, enjoying her sigh of appreciation as the warmth enveloped her. He led her to an empty spot on the bench that encircled the oval tub.

  The other couples introduced themselves, and they chatted for a while. All of them were friendly and welcoming, as everyone he’d met so far on the cruise had been. Two of the couples had spent the morning on shore excursions and kept the rest of them entertained with detailed descriptions. Ryan particularly enjoyed the second couple’s account of ziplining through the jungle treetops and tubing through a series of caves. It sounded like the sort of thing Juanita would love. Once glance at the longing fascination on her face told him he was right.

  He would follow through on his plan, he silently promised her. And he wouldn’t stop there. Maybe it would never be safe for her to leave the US again, but America was a big country, filled with adventures and history and natural beauty enough to last a lifetime. He’d make sure she got the opportunity to experience as much of it as he could manage.

  He was picturing climbing down into the Grand Canyon with her—his parents had taken him there once as a child, but he’d never been back—when his thoughts slammed to a halt against the hard wall of reality. They weren’t going to be doing anything together after they got off the ship. She’d want to put this whole horrible episode behind her and get on with her life as best she could. She wouldn’t want Ryan around as a constant reminder of the worst days of her life. She’d bid him goodbye and never look back.

  Beside him, Juanita made an annoyed sound. He glanced over to see her struggling with her t-shirt, which had trapped the bubbles rising from the hot tub’s jets and ballooned around her. Ryan pinched his lips together to keep from laughing as it defeated all her efforts, popping back up as soon as she shoved it down, rapidly refilling every time she released a big pocket of air.

  She glared at him as she tucked the edges under her. “It isn’t funny,” she hissed.

  He solemnly shook his head, although he couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth turning up.

  Juanita glanced at the other couples, who were politely ignoring her struggles, then back at Ryan. She wrinkled her nose. “Oh, forget it,” she muttered. With one swift motion she jerked the t-shirt off over her head, then wadded it up and shoved it onto the ledge behind their heads. “Much better.” She sighed and settled back into the water, turning a little to lean against Ryan.

  He reflexively put his arm around her, trying desperately not to stare. But her position gave him an unobstructed view of the valley between her breasts and the smooth curves on either side. They weren’t especially large, but they were perfectly proportioned to her petite frame, and their graceful shape drew Ryan’s eyes no matter how hard he tried to drag them away.

  Her bare skin pressed against his arm and side. His hand cupped her smooth shoulder. Strands escaping from her wet ponytail tickled his neck. Every touch set his body humming in response.

  He did his best to conceal his reaction, but from the knowing glances the other couples kept giving them, he wasn’t very successful. The women looked indulgent. The men looked envious. Every time one of them let his eyes wander in Juanita’s direction, Ryan wanted to pull the concealing t-shirt back over her body. Or else punch the offender in the stomach. Or maybe throw him out of the hot tub with a growled warning to leave Juanita alone.

  The other men weren’t the ones who posed a danger to her, though. Their glances were brief and only casually admiring. Ryan was who Juanita needed to beware. If she gave him the slightest encouragement he would be all over her. He wasn’t sure he could restrain himself even if she didn’t.

  For a while he distracted himself by watching the glowing pinks and oranges the setting sun flung across the sky. Juanita lifted her face, drinking the beauty in. The other couples made appreciative comments, pointing out particularly vivid places and favorably comparing the display to the much less impressive one the evening before.

  The splendor faded into soft gray twilight. One couple excused themselves and left. The other two lingered a while longer, but eventually they, too, bid Ryan and Juanita goodnight and climbed out of the tub. The lounge chairs scattered around the deck emptied as people went to get ready for the early seating in the dining room. The few who remained must be assigned to the late seating, like Ryan and Juanita were. But there weren’t many of them, and their numbers dwindled the darker it got.

  The hot tub lights gave the water a soft aqua glow. Juanita snuggled against Ryan. “This is nice, having it to ourselves. I hope nobody shows up for a while.”

  “I hope not,” Ryan managed to echo. She’d turned so one breast pressed into his side and her face angled up toward him. Her eyes were soft and dreamy. The tip of her tongue peeked out and ran along her upper lip.

  Ryan yanked his gaze away. He had to come up with something to break the mood, or he’d lose all control. “How did it happen? Your arrest, I mean. Were you at home, or at work, or…”

  Her eyes widened and she swallowed. The way she shrank into herself made Ryan feel like the world’s biggest jerk. But she didn’t pull away, and her gaze didn’t leave his face.

  After a moment she answered, her voice small and nearly emotionless. “I was in my apartment, eating breakfast and checking my email, just like I did every morning. I didn’t have any warning at all. I mean, I’d heard about DACA being canceled, of course, but it had been a few weeks and nothing had come of it, so I thought it was going to be okay.” She reached for Ryan’s hand and gripped it hard. “They grabbed more than three hundred of us that day. Mostly people who’d signed up as soon as the program went into effect. Over the next few weeks they got hundreds more. Apparently people are getting smart and going into hiding, but t
hey keep finding them and making more arrests.”

  Ryan wanted to say something comforting, but there was nothing that wouldn’t sound shallow and feeble next to the depth of pain in her words. And she only paused for an instant before she resumed talking, the story pouring out of her in that quiet, impassive voice. “Someone banged on the door, and a voice shouted ‘Police!’ I thought there must be some sort of emergency, a fire or a burglary or an attack, and they’d come to help. So I opened the door.” She shuddered. “A bunch of big men in dark uniforms were there. One of them pointed a gun at me and shouted, ‘Don’t move.” The others pushed past me and started searching my apartment. The one in charge shoved an envelope into my hands and said something about a summons to a hearing. But I was too terrified to understand what he meant. Or to move, or to speak. I couldn’t do anything but stare at the gun, at the big dark hole where the bullet was going to come out. I remember trying to think of a prayer to say, Our Father or Hail Mary or something solemn like that. But the only one I could remember was, ‘Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake—’” Her voice broke, and she buried her face in Ryan’s chest.

  He held her while she trembled. He couldn’t tell whether or not she was crying, because any tears mixed with the warm water. But he knew she should be, and he knew she needed him to support her.

  And to listen to the rest of her story, because she started talking again, her face still pressed into his body. “It seemed like hours that we stood there, although I guess it must only have been a few minutes. Then the rest of the men came back with the can of pepper spray I kept beside my bed and the one from my purse. They told me they were taking me to detention and put handcuffs on me. They weren’t tight enough to hurt, but the metal was cold. One of the men grabbed my arm and hustled me out the door. The gun kept pointing at me the whole time. They took me down the stairs and along the sidewalk to the parking lot where their cars were. The lights were on, spinning around, red and white, so bright they hurt my eyes. They pushed me into the back seat of one of the cars and slammed the door.”