Page 3 of Natural Deception

"Since when do you jump on a plane because of a letter? You didn't even know if the offer was legit."

"I checked it out, obviously. Wasn't hard to find the resort website. Then I called the airline and found out there was a reservation for me." She lifts her brows. "What about you? What drew you to this place? You know I don't believe in coincidence."

Neither do I. Vanessa is too smart to believe whatever bullshit I might invent to explain away the situation. But I can't tell her the truth. She'd whack me on the head with a terracotta condom bowl. Yeah, there's one right behind her. I doubt she noticed. My ex-wife is laser focused on me, and she wants an answer to her question. What kind of lie can I believably feed her?

There's no way on earth that I'll tell her the truth. Not yet. I need to ease Vanessa into it.

"I got a letter too," I say. "We both lucked out, huh? I guess whoever sent out the invites thought we were still married."

"But you live at a different address, and I have a different last name."

Damn. I've always loved that she's whip smart, but right now, I wish Vanessa would develop a sudden case of the dumdums. "Uh, there are probably mailing lists that haven't caught up with the fact we're divorced. The post office must know to forward those to you."

"Uh-huh. Do you think I'm a moron?" I open my mouth to respond, but she throws a hand up to silence me. "I don't care how it happened. We're both here, and I intend to have a good time."

I open my mouth again.

She holds up a hand again. "We will not be vacationing together. This might be a small island, but we will steer clear of each other. Got it? I'll enjoy my vacation, and you can enjoy yours."

What else can I say? "Yeah, sure. Separate vacations."

Vanessa turns and walks away.

I can't resist watching her sexy ass while she sashays down a trail that leads into the woods. She doesn't trust me. She thinks I'm hiding something from her. And she's annoyed that I'm here, horning in on her tropical holiday at a naughty resort. Well, she's not wrong about that. I do have an ulterior motive, but it's not what she thinks.

Four hot young women amble by, and they all smile at me. One even winks.

Even if I wanted to find a holiday lover, I couldn't do it. A fifty-five-year-old divorced guy has no business trying to seduce nubile twenty-somethings. But that's not the reason I won't dip my toes into those waters.

I want my ex-wife back. I'm still in love with Vanessa.

Christ, I wish I'd realized a lot sooner that I would never love anyone else and that we just needed to spice up our lives. The divorce had been a mistake. Now I have two weeks to convince Vanessa of that.

How did we wind up on this island together? I sent her that letter.

A trio of women who seem a little older, probably in their forties, walk past me. They smile and wave. The only reason women are eying me like I'm a sirloin steak with all the fixings is because I spent the past year working out like a maniac---all to impress Vanessa.

I consider wandering down the trail she had taken, but I don't want to become a stalker. So, I head out to the pool on the other side of the main building. The pool snakes around that side of the resort and includes little huts where swimmers can kick back before they dive in again. I'd met a few people here earlier, but I don't fit in with the younger generations. They want to drink appletinis and check their cell phones every five seconds.

What's wrong with a cold beer and conversation?

I wind up bypassing the pool and going to my room instead. I came here to win back my wife. Can't do that by ordering room service and watching dirty pay-per-view movies. I want to fuck my ex-wife, not watch other people getting it on.

After twenty minutes of twiddling my thumbs, literally, I suck it up and head out to enact my evil plan. I need to convince Vanessa that we should never have split up and that I can give her the excitement she always wanted in the bedroom. I'd balked at playing games. It seemed... I don't know. Unmanly, I guess. If I'm ever going to seduce Vanessa into taking me back, first I need to seduce her into fucking me. I'm a data scientist, not a lothario. But I'm also pigheaded, as Vanessa always used to tell me.

So yes, I will get her back. I just have to hope she never finds out that I tricked her into coming to this resort.

I head out beyond the main patio, down the same trail Vanessa had taken earlier. Two young guys nod to me and smile as they pass by me, walking in the opposite direction. Everybody here seems happy, from the guests to the employees. I've felt more relaxed ever since the moment I stepped off that spiffy little plane and onto the solid ground of Heirani Motu. That's the only reason I have the balls to enact my plan.

Offshoot trails lead to various other locations on the island, and signs tell me where each one goes. I bypass the waterfall trail. Vanessa would be more likely to head for the beach on her first day here. Some of the young women who had admired me earlier walk past me now on their way back to the resort building. They smile and wink again. Jeez, don't these women have anything to do besides flirting with men? When I'd been a young guy, girls weren't so brazen.

Times change. But I'd rather rewind than fast forward.

At last, I reach the end of the trail and see the beach ahead of me. I hope it's not packed with young people. Or packed at all. I need to get Vanessa alone. Fortunately, it seems like not many guests have made it to the beach yet. I step onto the sand, swiveling my head left and right. I'm searching for ex-wife, of course. But I don't see her. Maybe she went somewhere else, like the waterfall. I could waste hours trying to find her. I didn't bring my phone with me because this is supposed to be an escape from reality, and a cell phone doesn't mesh with that idea. If I want to call Vanessa, I'll have to go back to my room to grab my phone.

Laughter erupts from further down the beach, beyond my sight.

I know that laugh. It's Vanessa. I jog down the beach and duck around an rock outcropping into a sheltered spot shaded by the fronds of a palm tree.

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