Page 92 of Revenge Honeymoon

Emily pointed the ATV away from the murky middle and skirted around the outside of the massive puddle. Branches caught at her face, but she didn’t care. She had to find a guide ASAP. This would not do at all.

When they hit a large dip in the trail, Max’s other arm curled around her. His hard chest pressed up against her back, and his grip around her middle seemed more intimate than necessary for a tagalong on the back of an ATV.

All kinds of things fluttered inside her stomach: butterflies, bumblebees, maybe even hummingbirds.

She closed her eyes briefly. She wanted this. She wanted him. She wanted all of the awkwardness and the stupid things she said and did last night to go away. She wanted the words he’d said—'I think I love you’—to be real, to be genuine.

“Why did you lie to me, Emily?”

His question gutted her. Whathadn’tshe lied about?

“Lie?” she asked, slowing down for a curve in the trail. The beauty of the jungle had become a blur. Her whole being focused on Max’s body touching hers and how much she wanted his hands to stray from their solid position on either side of her hips and work their way upward to her breasts.

“About the reason for you and Ruby to be on the cruise.” He leaned away from her a fraction and his voice grew fainter. “I saw the banner like everyone else. What’s going on?”

The whine of the engine made it difficult for her to hear him. “I’m sorry.” She let up on the gas. The ATV came to a slow stop.

“What are you doing?” Max’s grip relaxed.

Emily took off her helmet and hung it on the handlebars. She probably looked like the muddy Bride of Frankenstein, but did it matter? He deserved the truth—the entire truth—from her. Her reasons for hiding it from him were no longer valid. “I want you to be able to hear me, and I don’t want to make up any more stories. After last night—” If only she could go back and do things differently. “I want to be honest with you.”

Maybe he’d hate her once he heard everything, but the guilt she’d been dragging around would finally disappear.

“Okay.” Max’s voice dropped a few notes. That low grumbly sexy thing he’d done last night. Was he even aware he did that? “Go for it.”

As they sat back to front on an ATV in the middle of a Mexican jungle, Emily poured her heart out. “Ruby and I came on this cruise together because I was the maid-of-honor in her wedding. And, well, that wedding didn’t happen. Her fiancé left her at the altar. So I suggested we take the honeymoon cruise they’d already paid for to turn it into something positive.” The heavy weight that squished her heart a week ago returned. How awful it had been to see the look in Ruby’s eyes when she realized Tyler wasn’t coming. “I mean, a tropical cruise? With drinks and music and adventures? I thought it would take her mind off her horrible, awful fiancé who’d turned what should’ve been the most wonderful day of her life into one of the worst. We didn’t mean to lie to anyone. Not really. But when we were standing in line to board, Ruby made me swear not to tell anyone what happened. She’s my best friend. What could I do? I wanted her to be fixed. I wanted her to be happy again. I’d do almost anything to make that happen.”

“Even pretend you were newlyweds.”

Did Max chuckle? Was he maybenotmad at her deception and lies?

“Yes, even that.” Emily smiled to herself. “But that day on the pool deck, I drank too much and blurted out the truth—so the story spread around the ship and turned into something worse than it actually was. I was so worried you’d figure it out, so I kept on with the lies when I should’ve told you everything. Then the photos happened and all of that.”

“Right.”

Max climbed off the ATV and loosened the chinstrap on his helmet.

“Hey, wait, no,” Emily said following after him.

“I shouldn’t have agreed to that—the picture of Ruby.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets. “You have no idea how embarrassed and stupid I feel after you found those photos.”

“I shouldn’t have snooped.”

“I shouldn’t have kept them.” He lowered his gaze, and his face grew splotchy. “But I couldn’t help myself. I knew right then I was falling for you. I couldn’t get you out of my mind.” He pulled off his helmet and kicked some loose gravel near the edge of the trail.

“Oh.” She bit her lip. Should she confess? Should she tell him how she’d noticed him that very first day at the pier before they boarded? How she’d fantasized about him? “I’m sorry I said the sex was nice.”

He froze.

“It was so much more than nice.” She stepped toward him. “It was, well, probably the hottest sex I’ve ever had in my whole life.”

She’d never been so vulnerable. So exposed. Her usual reaction to anything embarrassing would be deflection—humorous deflection. But not this time. It might be her only chance with Max, so she had to try. Even if it ended in failure. He was worth it.

“Oh, Emily.” His green eyes lit up, and he reached out to caress her jaw. “I want that to be every day for you. Every single day.” He drew her toward him, and his head bent down to hers. “If you want me to,” he whispered mere centimeters above her lips.

Could this really be happening? Could she, a mud-covered, sweaty mess in the middle of nowhere, be talking with Mr. Gorgeous about a relationship? Like more than a cruise fling? Something with permanency and a future and all of that?

He kissed away every thought in her head and even the mosquitoes that buzzed around her disappeared.

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