Affair on the Beach

Chapter 3

I ran all the way to the locker room amidst the bewildered stares of Rony and Hudson at the bar. Hudson said something, but I was too busy tugging off my clothes to register any of his words. Besides, I wasn’t sure he was talking to me anyway. I had my shirt off by the time I opened my locked door. I throw the T-shirt in and scoped up my caftan. In seconds, I had its voluminous fabric covering my body. My hands were shaking by the time I was wriggling out of the tight shorts. My lungs were taking in too much air than they were capable of holding in. The building ache in my chest and my increasingly short breaths signalled an impending hyperventilation fit. The last time that happened to me I’d read that my favorite romance author was in the hospital. Of course, this time, my breathing had nothing to do with worrying if new books would ever come from said writer and more from the touch of a complete stranger who was awakening feelings I didn’t understand, let alone thought I could experience, in me. Sure, I’d read about these feelings in books. I’d seen countless heroines go through the same flight response to the touch of a smoking hot piece of man, but Rony was right. The actual experience was vastly different from words on a page and my imagination. The way my skin prickled like little fires were lit beneath the surface was disconcerting. And the worst part? I liked it more than I thought I ever would, and all because of Xavier Solomon, a man leagues beyond my reach.

I shoved the shorts and apron into the locker and slammed the door shut. The silence in the locker room made the act sound louder than it should have been. I didn’t care what Rony and Hudson thought I was doing in here. I needed to channel some of the energy zinging through me. I wasn’t sure anymore when my fear turned into frustration. I yanked the tie holding my hair, taking a couple of strands with it. Then I run my fingers through my scalp, scratching an itch that wasn’t really there. Where the hell was my straw hat? What a time to remember it. Maybe it was gone forever. I lamented its loss for a second.

“What’s gotten into you?” Rony asked from the door.

I jumped. My skin crawling from her sudden appearance. I guess I shouldn’t have been that surprised. Rony may be flippant and annoying sometimes, but I knew she would hide a body for me if I’d ever asked her to.

“Jesus, Rony, you scared me,” I said, rubbing my chest. I leaned against my locker, feeling tired, like all the adrenaline in my system ran out and I was crashing.

Rony moved away from the door and closed it behind her. “Why so jumpy?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know.” It was the truth. Honestly, I didn’t have a clear answer for myself let alone my best friend. “I was wiping down the tables by the beach and there he was all sexy and lickable—”

“Lickable?” Rony smirked. “Oh my, TW, what a naughty mind you have.”

I grimaced. If she only knew. All those erotic romances read more like instruction manuals most of the time. The things I know about wax and whipped cream I wouldn’t be caught dead articulating to anyone. Well, maybe when I was caught off guard, but usually, I could put a tight lid on what I knew.

“Does Hudson need me anymore for the day?” I asked. I breathed in through my nose in an attempt to catch my runaway breaths.

Rony tsked and crossed her arms over her ample chest. “Shifts done.”

“I’m feeling tired. Can I go back to his house and take a nap or something?”

“You’re not hiding away in a book again, are you?”

I winced. That was precisely what I planned to do after a long shower. I needed an escape from thoughts of Xavier Solomon and get my bearings back. With one touch, a fleeting one at that, he managed to tilt my world off kilter. I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it at all.

Oh, who was I kidding? I liked it a little bit. More than I thought I ever would. Hell, I was ready to give him anything he asked for in that moment. And that freaked me out. I always laughed at the heroines in books who struggled with their lack of self-control around the hunky hero. Now, I was one of them. What they felt really did happen in real life. And Lord, it was mind boggling. Whatever happened to Bookworm Tamara? Self-confessed wallflower. Would rather stay in with a book than go out?

I shook my head to clear the thoughts pinging one after the other like messages in an inbox. “I just need a shower. It’s been a while since I’ve waited tables and I’m beat.”

Rony regarded me sceptically. “This doesn’t happen to have anything to do with Xavier, does it?”

“I just need a shower, Rony, that’s all.”

“Well, make it a cold one.” She handed me a set of keys. “Carmela should still be there. She’ll show you to your room.”

I took the keys gratefully. “Thanks.”

“I’ll stay here and hang out. There’s a bonfire later. I’ll be by to change and we’ll go together.” She narrowed her caramel eyes at me. “I better not catch your nose in a book when I get back.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” I smirked and gave her a hug. Then I left the Shack with a small wave to Hudson. Xavier Solomon was nowhere in sight. Good. I couldn’t handle another run in with him so soon. He must have gone surfing again.

I walked back to Hudson’s house shoulders drooping forward. I was more tired than I had initially thought I was. Well, a three hour bus ride, a lunch shift, and a gorgeous god of a man would do that to any girl.

I stopped abruptly and frowned. Why did thoughts of Xavier Solomon keep invading my head? I didn’t mind appreciating how yummy his sculpted body was, but it was more like how women ogle underwear ad models. I never really understood those. The boxer briefs were for guys, but the ads with the half-naked men were clearly aimed at women. Weird. I looked up at the blue sky and breathed in the sea air until my shoulders went up to my ears. I had knots in places I didn’t know I had. Ah, tension, this was what it felt like.

I rolled my shoulders and neck before proceeding up Hudson’s immaculate lawn to his front door. I tried the knob, and as suspected, he never locked it in the first place. Could Maverick Bay be like one of those mythical places where everyone knew everyone so they didn’t lock doors anymore? I smiled. Very quaint. I pushed the door open and entered the threshold to be greeted by the round posterior of an equally rotund woman. She was in the process of picking up my bags.

“You must be Carmela,” I said, startling her in the process.

She spoke a quick prayer in Spanish before switching to English. “You are Mr. Hudson’s house guest.” Her smile was winning and welcoming.

I nodded. “I’m Tamara Winters. It’s nice meeting you.” I reached out and she shook my hand with a strong grip. I liked her more for it. Strong grips spoke of strong personalities; at least, that was what I read somewhere.

“Come.” She picked up my bags. “I show you to your room.”

Bewitched by her already, and reminding myself that Hudson and Rony had indecent amounts of money, I followed Carmela into the house. The interior was sparsely furnished, but very clean. Carmela’s handy work, I was pretty sure. Everything was in white except for touches of color like a teal throw pillow or a black vase. The lounge chairs on the deck caught my interest. They faced the ocean and looked comfortable enough to read in all day. Ah, the temptation.

I gave the chairs one last fleeting glance before I followed Carmela down the hall. She opened the third door to the right and entered. When I stepped in my heart stopped. The room was larger than my apartment and had a view hotels charged through the roof for. A huge four poster bed with white wispy curtains dominated the room. I ran to it and flopped onto the soft mattress. The sheets were like feathers on my skin and the pillows were better than butter.

“You like?” Carmela asked as she deposited my bags at the foot of the bed.

“Not like.” I shook my head. “Love! I may never leave.”

“Very good.” She smiled that winning smile. “I unpack for you?”

I remembered the dozen paperbacks I had in my bag and didn’t want Carmela to think I was some crazy person who lugged around that many books. I forced myself off the bed and said, “No need. I’ve got it covered. Thank you, Carmela.” I scratched my cheek, remembering why I was there. “If you could show me to the shower that would be great.”

Without hesitation, she opened another door in my room which led to an opulent bathroom with an outdoor shower connecting to my own personal deck. My jaw dropped. Hudson had to have serious money to afford a place like this. I’d heard of beach houses, but this place was insane. The tax alone surely cost more than my annual income. I had to stop myself from shaking my head in disbelief. Rony did say we were on vacation. Might as well enjoy the place while I was here. Consider it payment for services rendered at the Shack, I thought to myself. Yup. That was exactly how I was going to think about it to keep from passing out. I’d already fainted once today and I didn’t want a repeat.

“Thanks, Carmela,” I said.

“You’re welcome, Ms. Winters.”

“Please, call me TW.”

Carmela looked confused for a second then she nodded. “Yes. Would you like a sandwich, Ms. TW?”

I raised my hand. “Just TW.” My stomach grumbled when it heard the mention of a sandwich. “And yes, a sandwich would be great.”

“Yes, Ms. TW. I will bring it in fifteen minutes.” She left me standing there all chagrined.

I hefted my rolling bag onto the bed and proceeded to unpack. Rony said summery, so I brought mostly maxi dresses and pedal pushers. T-shirts were abundant too. Sandals. Flip flops. I lifted my one piece and frowned at it. I’d love to go swimming, but I’d have to work myself toward it. No matter how much I loved my body, the sexy walking around Maverick Bay was daunting to be a part off. I promised myself that once I was more comfortable, I’d go for a swim. The crystal clear waters couldn’t hold me off for long, regardless of the bikini clad women with me.

I stacked my books in two neat piles beside the bed for easy access before I moved all my clothes into the walk-in closet attached to the bathroom. I gaped at the clothes already there. All designer. All my size? I check each and every one, my mouth open while I did it. They were all my freaking size! Why would they be in my size? And who bought them for me?

My heart beat so hard in my chest that I almost ran out of there to catch the next bus out of Maverick Bay. Then after moving away from the closet and thinking things through I rationalized that Rony might have had something to do with this. It had to be her because Hudson didn’t know me at all to buy me clothes. And if he did, it would be super creepy. I couldn’t sleep in the home of someone who knew me that intimately without my knowing about it. But why ask me to pack if there would be clothes waiting for me here?

I stopped myself. That was a stupid question. Of course I would be suspicious if Rony said not to pack anything. I shrugged. It was nice of them to get me clothes. Expensive ones at that, but it didn’t mean I would wear them. Even the five swimsuits in different designs hanging at the end of the hanger bar.

Resolving to ask Rony about the clothes when she came back, I picked out a black and red maxi dress and underwear to match from what I’d packed and made my way to the bathroom. The white tile was offset by blue trim, which gave the place added light. The gold on the claw foot tub was probably real. The bath products top notch. Bath sheets, not towels. I whistled.

“So this is how the one percent lived,” I said.

I glanced at the outdoor shower and shook my head. I wasn’t ready for that yet, so I used the indoor shower closet instead. It had a glass door which slid to the side easily and a shower head so big I believe it was designed to mimic rain coming down. My eyebrow couldn’t help but go up. Why would Rony want to run away from a life like this? She could be living in some penthouse somewhere, yet she chooses to live in an apartment as small as mine.

As I stripped, I added another resolution to the growing list in my head. Need to know more about Rony and her life.

I stepped into the rainfall created by the showerhead. The water was pleasantly cool and the pressure just right. I needed to save up and buy myself one. After showering underneath that showerhead, I didn’t think the normal kind would ever do the trick for me.

I reached for the shampoo and worked a dollop into my hair. It smelled of jasmine. I inhaled deeply. I felt myself relaxing more and more. By the time I was rubbing body wash over myself, I was in my version of heaven.

I didn’t leave the shower until my fingers resembled prunes. I could live in Hudson’s shower. I really could.

I was drying my hair when Carmela called from inside my room to tell me my sandwich was ready and that she’d brought along a glass of iced tea with it. I thanked her before braiding my hair down my back.

Dressed and smelling wonderful after helping myself to the vast array of lotions, I stepped into my room to discover that Carmela had prepared a small lunch table at the deck for me beside one of the lounge chairs. Giddy, I grabbed the topmost book on the stack by my bed and proceeded to spend the rest of my afternoon lazily flipping through pages and pages of romance. Yes, this was the life, and going back to the city afterward would be really hard.

“Tell me what you want,” he whispered into her ear before taking her lobe between his teeth.

She groaned, kneading his shoulders like a cat.

He licked her ear. “Say it.”

She shivered. “You. I want you.”

“I knew it!” Rony’s screech started me enough to almost fall off the lounge chair. Why did she always choose to disrupt my reading at the most critical moment? I huffed, ruffling the wisps of hair the breeze coaxed out of my braid to tumble over my forehead.

Rony stomped to my side. “I knew you’d be reading again!”

“When did it get dark?” I blinked. How did I miss the setting sun? I regarded the book with a frown. “You’re right,” I said.

That deflated some of Rony’s mounting anger. “Right about what?”

She still had her hands on her hips, so I wasn’t out of the woods yet. “I’ve been reading all this time and I missed the sunset. I didn’t even look up once to notice it. Would have been beautiful, I’m sure.”

Rony exhaled the rest of her wrath and slumped into the seat beside mine. She took my half-empty glass and finished off my now tepid iced tea, the ice cubes having melted hours ago.

“You’re lucky there’s another one tomorrow,” she said.

“True, that.” I smiled then pouted, setting the book aside before Rony had any thoughts of tossing it with the first one this morning. What I wanted to ask her when I was in the closet came back to me. “I want to ask you about something.”

She returned the glass beside the empty plate. “Shoot.”

I hesitated then met her gaze. “The clothes in the closet, why are they all in my size?”

She brightened. “Do you like them? I think I have the makings of a really good personal shopper, if I do say so myself.”

My pout grew deeper. “They’re nice, but you didn’t have to buy me new clothes, Rony. It’s too much.”

“Can’t a friend do something nice for a friend?”

“Not that nice.”

The hurt on her face made me regret my words immediately. I took her hand in mine and squeezed. “They’re nice. Thank you.”

And just like that, her hurt vanished. “Good!” Then it was her turn to frown. “Since I already pulled you away from your afternoon reading, are you ready to talk about why you ran home like the devil was after you now? And don’t give me the same lame excuse of being tired. I was willing to let it slid then but not anymore.”

I leaned back in my seat and covered my eyes with my arm. I groaned. “Why do you have to remind me? I was happy to forget about it already.”

“TW, we’re best friends right?”

I heard the uncertainty in Rony’s voice. “I’m still trying to figure that one out.”

“Well, friends tell each other everything. You never know, I might be able to help you out. I’m known to do that on occasion.”

“Not with this.”

“And your books can?”

Again the hurt. I heard it more than saw it.

“I’m starting to realize that my books aren’t the answer,” I said. “But they sure help me escape.”

Rony poked me on the arm. “Not everything is worth escaping from, TW. You can’t spend the rest of your life reading books.”

“Try me.”

“Don’t be stubborn. I’m not blind. I saw the way you were looking at Xavier.”

The mention of the god had me sitting up and staring at Rony. “What do you mean?”

“You like him. It’s obvious.”

Frustration bubbled in my chest. “Rony, I don’t know him well enough to like him. Sure, he’s delicious to look at, but I like ogling male models too, it doesn’t mean I like them.”

Rony shrugged. “Okay, maybe it’s too early to tell if you like him.”

“You think?”

She winced at my tone. “Why did you run away when he touched you? It wasn’t like he kissed you or anything.”

Oh, his touch. Just thinking about it caused my face to flame. Even in memory, the feel of his fingertips on my skin was enough to make me swoon. And that was my problem.

“How could one touch make me feel the way I do?”

“Like what?” Rony urged.

“Like …” I searched for the right words. “Like I was hot all over. Like someone lit sparklers beneath my skin.”

“And that’s bad?”

I shook my head, turning my gaze to the deep purple sky. “Scary. I don’t even know him and yet he makes me react the way the heroines in my books do when the heroes come along.”

Rony pursed her lips. “But that’s fiction.”

“Exactly!” I looked back at her. “I didn’t think that was possible outside of a book.”

“I hate to use your own words against you, TW, but weren’t you the one who once told me things in books are based on fact? That somewhere in the world someone was going through whatever it was you were reading?”

I had to laugh at that. I did say those words. “Except vampires and werewolves and everything else in the paranormal genre.”

Rony chuckled. “Yeah, expect for those things.”

I caught the nervous energy surrounding my best friend. “What’s up?”

“It’s just.” She paused.

I waited.

She started again. “It’s just, are you going to let those feelings scare you from exploring something new? Or should I say someone?” She wiggled her eyebrows at me.

I gave her a deadpan stare. “No one is exploring anything, thank you very much!”

“Oh, come on, TW! How will you know if you don’t try?”

“You know what happens in novels when the plucky best friend says something is worth a try?”

“Plucky?”

Ignoring Rony’s attempt at misdirection, I continued. “The heroine usually finds herself in a wealth of trouble. It’s like when those characters enter the room they know they shouldn’t enter and then they discover the ghost or slasher waiting for them inside when it’s too late? Well, that’s what happens when you give something or someone a try.”

Rony laughed. “Last I checked, I don’t think Xavier has a slasher bone in his body.”

My brow furrowed. “How long have you known him?”

She blanched. “Long enough. He’s best friends with Hudson.”

I wasn’t convinced, but before I could press Rony for more information, she stood up and slapped my thigh. “Have you tried the shower? I’m so wanting one right now.”

Distracted by my new love affair with the rainfall showerhead, I sighed. “Can I live in your shower? Where the hell did Hudson find that showerhead anyway? It’s insane.”

Rony grinned. “They’re killer, aren’t they? It’s the one we use for our resorts. The manufacturer makes them exclusively for our company.”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course they do.”

“I can have Hudson get you one for your shower if you want. I’m sure he has some lying around somewhere.”

“No, thanks.” I raised my hands in refusal. “The clothes are more than enough already. You don’t have to give me anything else.”

Rony made that mewling noise she always did when she couldn’t have what she wanted right that instant. I had a sinking feeling I would find that showerhead installed in my shower when I got back to the city. I wasn’t used to Rich Rony. She hardly made an appearance when we were in the city. In fact, coming to Maverick Bay was the only time Rony having money ever came up.

She stretched like a cat under the sun and smiled at me. “I’m going to grab a bite then shower. I’ll be back in an hour and we’ll go to the bonfire together.”

Ah crap! I completely forgot about the bonfire.

I was about to beg off when Rony gave me the you-are-coming-and-there’s-nothing-you-can-do-about-it look. I quelled underneath her stare.

“What?” I asked when it became apparent she was waiting for something.

“Say you’ll come,” she said.

“As long as I get to bring my book.”

“You’ll come, the book stays, and I don’t throw it out. How does that sound?”

How did I ever think I could out negotiate Rony? She may run away from her life of money, but she had a head for business. That or I was really weak against her. I’d rather delude myself with the former rather than accept the latter.

“Fine. The book stays here,” I said, heaving a I-give-up sigh.

Rony treated me to an excited-slightly-mischievous smile. In short, a smile I found absolutely suspicious. One that told me I would surely regret whatever she had planned for me later tonight.

“Be ready in an hour,” she said then sauntered out of my room.

An hour? I looked at my book and smiled. I had about a hundred pages left. An hour was more than enough time to finish the rest of the story. I really wanted to know if Ashley would ever admit to Max that she loved him despite his penchant for s*x in strange places.