Page 87 of Revenge Honeymoon

“No,” said Emily.

“I don’t think so,” said Max.

Why did it hurt so much to hear him say that?

“Looks like your friend might’ve skipped out on you.” Max leaned in and pointed at the banner sailing by for a fourth time.

Emily swallowed.

The woman with the crab flag stared up at the sky.

He must hate her guts. She’d told him the sex was ‘nice.’ Probably the worst insult a woman could give a man. Then, she’d sneaked onto his laptop and fooled around with his files.

“Great. We’ve got everyone here then.” The woman tucked the crab flag under one arm. “Ruby Evers won’t be joining us.” She crossed her name off the list on a clipboard she carried.

“Excuse me.” Emily’s voice squeaked. “How long is this excursion?” If she had to be trapped with Max, she wanted to know how many hours she’d have to endure.

“Ninety minutes on the bus each way, thirty minute safety briefing, two hour ride.” The woman screwed up her mouth as she thought through the timeline. “Five-and-a-half hours.”

Emily’s stomach rolled.

She didn’t have to do this. She could leave. The group was still on the pier. Nobody could make her ride on an ATV. How would Ruby even know?

She glanced over her shoulder.

“So you’re going to chicken out?” Max smirked. “Hope I’m not scaring you away.”

She deserved the snark he threw at her, but she wasn’t ready for this. Her plan in the middle of the night had been to avoid him for the last few days of the cruise. Then she’d hop in a taxi, ride to the airport in Tampa, and never see him again.

But then the river rafting trip in Jamaica filled her mind. She’d been terrified of that, too, and she’d had a blast. Wasn’t it about time she started enjoying life instead of being afraid of it? Besides, she had the courage to leave her full-time job and start her own business from scratch. Should she really be scared of learning how to operate an ATV? It was about time she grabbed life by thecojonesand stopped waiting for life to come to her. If this was Ruby’s revenge honeymoon, maybe this was Emily’s revenge on all the people in her past who had made her feel less than—the cool girls in middle school, the immature boys in high school, and the bad boyfriends who’d torn down her self-confidence.

She sneaked a glance at Max. He’d never made her feel anything but confident about herself. Too bad she’d screwed things up.

Thrusting out her chin, she answered him, “Nope. I’m all in. What about you?”

“Bring it.” His voice rumbled, like a tiger on the prowl or a leopard stalking its prey.

A zing of electricity ran down her spine. Is this what it felt like before someone fainted? A hot flush. A lack of air. Spots in front of one’s eyes.

The woman with the crab flag clapped her hands. “All right, folks, time to load up on the bus. We have a bit of a drive to reach the trails, so let’s get moving.”

Emily immediately strode to the front of the crowd. Since it was all newlywed pairs, she wanted to be able to choose her seat and place her bag next to her so that Max didn’t have any ideas. Or was she flattering herself? Would Max even want to sit next to her?

Maybe zooming down jungle trails on an ATV was the thing she needed to move past her feelings. Shake it all out. Reset her mind. All she had to do was pretend Max wasn’t there.

Easy peasy.

* * *

The safety brief ended. One of the guides, his name had been Miguel or Mateo or maybe even Marco, had run through the operation of the ATV. Although he’d asked for hands of anyone who’d never driven an ATV before, Emily’s had been the only one, and she was beginning to wonder if he’d even noticed. He’d mentioned a key, a button, a clutch, a gear shift, and the brakes in rapid accented English. The part she’d focused on the most was about how to apply the brakes.

The review flew by in what seemed like minutes. Minutes for her to grasp the whole concept. Minutes that were a fuzz in her brain now. A very faint fuzz.

“Do you think you got all that?” Max asked.

He’d had the audacity to stand right behind her during the briefing. How was she supposed to concentrate on all the important stuff Miguel/Mateo/Marco was saying with sexy Max vibes invading her mind? He was doing it to bug her. She knew it.

But, oh, did her traitorous mind want to revisit last night. The feathery touch of his lips on her collarbone, his caressing hands on her breasts, and when he kissed his way down to...

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