Page 78 of Beached Wedding

“No.” I was still telling myself this was another erotic dream that could be tucked away as a private aberration. I swept the fall of her hair behind her ear. “You?”

She caught my hand and spoke into my palm. “No.”

But shadows entered her eyes right before she hid them with her lowered lashes. She rolled away and sat up on the far side of the mattress and stayed there. Her narrow back slowly lengthened as she straightened her shoulders, gathering herself.

I stacked my hands behind my head so I wouldn’t reach for her. I watched as she rose and sought out her underwear, then stepped into it. She absently traced her thumbs around her hips to smooth out the twists. It was a tiny thing to notice and enjoy, but I did.

She shrugged on the robe and bent on the way to the door to pick up the letter from Shane. She folded it carefully, tucking it into the pocket of her robe, looking again at the yellow sticky note I’d left on the front of it. She glanced back as she opened the door, more beautiful than anything I ever seen, flushed with sex and slumber, mouth pink and eyes wide with— Christ almighty. If that wasn’t love shining in those big brown eyes then the emotion didn’t exist.

My chest filled with thorns and roses. Yearning and gratification.

She walked out, leaving a hook in my chest that pulled me to sit up. I almost called her back, but the door clipped shut and I dropped my head into my hands in defeat.

Because I had nothing to say. I had no plan, no offers or promises I could make. Every part of my life that I wanted to share with her would be dismantled by the very act of asking her to share it.

What else could I do, though? Pretend this hadn’t happened? This hadn’t been a quick fuck or rebound sex. It had been intimate and meaningful. What we’d just done would have been life altering even without all the repercussions threatening in the background.

My phone on the chair pinged with yet another incoming text.

I swore and walked over planning to shut it off. Maybe crush it under my heel or drop it over the balcony. Anything to make it shut the hell up.

I glanced at the screen, though.

“Oh, fuck.”

ASHLEY

“Hold the elevator!”

I shot my hand into the crack and almost got it pinched for my effort, but I hit the stopper and the doors clunked open again.

Someone at the back of the crowded car sighed impatiently.

The elevators were busy, full of conference-goers and families needing breakfast and sporty types who liked a morning run. I’d had to wait a few minutes for one to even arrive and someone from the dinner cruise had come along to chat while I did. I’d had to find polite words when my brain was still in bed with Fox.

We’d had sex. Really good sex. The kind of sex that made it impossible to imagine sleeping with anyone else ever again. I couldn’t sleep withhimagain, though. Even I, with my aspirations that were doomed to crash, had enough grasp of reality to know when something really was too grandiose to wish for.

So I’d walked away and here Fox was, racing after me, making my heart soar to unimaginable heights. He’d pulled on boardies but nothing else, not even flipflops.

That wasn’t the face of a man chasing down a woman in an airport or holding a boombox above his head to woo her, though. That was grim disaster shouldering in to stand before me while the doors closed behind him.

“What?” I asked with growing dread.

“Shane’s here.”

“What?” My reaction was dramatic enough that all the heads in the elevator turned to stare at me. “Here?” I pointed at the floor. “In the hotel?” Was I screeching? I think I was screeching.

“On his way. He landed an hour ago and was renting a car.”

“What does he want?”

The elevator stopped and Fox shifted into my space to allow a handful of people to get off around him, then he stepped back, giving me room again. “He wanted me to fetch him. I was surfing and missed his text.”

Then I had called Fox on the hotel phone. He let me into his room and we’d?—

I covered my mouth.

The elevator stopped again. More people got off while we stood there in dumb silence.

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