Page 32 of Slow Burn (The Boston Beauties)

Marcus smirked, ‘That would have been a fun afternoon.’

I did a double take of him. Did I hear him right, did he just tell me he was gay? I would have never guessed.

‘Nah, I’m not that into orgies,’ I joked.

‘Fine, you take one, I’ll take the others.’ He winked at me.

I laughed, ‘I had no idea…’

‘That I like dudes?’

I noticed he didn’t say he was gay, interesting.

I smiled, ‘That you were into threesomes.’

He shrugged, ‘Honestly, I don’t know that I am,’ and smiled thinking about it. ‘But then again, I don't know that I’m not.’

We both laughed. ‘I’m pretty sure, I’m a one-man kind of gal myself.’

‘To each their own,’ he said as the waitress returned to take our orders.

He ordered a burger with cheese and extra bacon, fries and onion rings.

I ordered a personal meat pizza, saving more room for something sweet later.

When the plate of onion rings arrived, I was nearly salivating. Marcus narrowed his eyes at me and challenged me, ‘You’ll have to fight me for them first.’

‘Fuck off, you whip my ass every day.’ I reached over and took a few.

He looked behind me, ‘And look at how nicely it’s shaping up.’

I smiled at him, happy that he noticed. ‘Still a ways to go.’

‘Not that much, I hope you know how hot you are already,’ he told me, taking a bite of his burger.

I didn’t know how to take that comment, unless he was bi-sexual.

In all the time we had known each other, he hadn't asked me many personal questions, for which I was rather grateful. I liked him and felt a friendship forming. I would hate to have to blatantly lie to him.

After the shopping trip, Marcus and I started spending more time together and often went on excursions whenever he had a day off. I started to do my own thing in terms of training with the direction of Marcus, and took days off whenever the opportunity to leave the resort presented itself. He opened up more about himself as the month went on, and we ended up spending the Christmas holidays together the week the retreat was closed, flying to New Zealand so I could spend some time exploring that country. He didn’t have much family he was close to, and the ones he did have were not kind to him and his mother during her illness, so he didn't have time for them in his life.

I was having a hard time being away from my family. After my near meltdown at Thanksgiving, I knew I needed a distraction for my first Christmas ever away from my family. I was hoping it would be my last, but likely it wouldn’t be.

When I mentioned my plan to travel over Christmas to him soon after our shopping trip, he asked if I would mind if he tagged along. I welcomed his company.

During one of our nights out in New Zealand, I’d seen him checking a girl out, which confirmed to me that he was bi-sexual. After a few drinks, I had enough drunk courage to ask him, ‘Do you think I’m pretty?’

‘Sarah, you, my darling, are smoking hot,’ he wrapped one of his perfectly sculptured arms around my shoulder.

‘Then why don’t you look at me like you just looked at her,’ I pointed to the leggy blonde with a tall sexy man. ‘Or him for that matter?’

‘Because I have the feeling you are off limits,’ he replied, looking straight into my eyes. ‘Tell me I’m wrong and I’ll fuck you tonight.’

I sighed, he was right. ‘I thought so, I figured you have a man you plan to go home to, but he’s not the man you have left…’ He took another drink of his margarita. ‘I also don’t think your name is Sarah.’

‘It’s what my ID says…’ I stated, starting to panic.

‘I don’t care, all I know is that you are an awesome girl, you are tough as hell, and I hope that when you are finally ready to leave the resort, that you keep in touch, because I really do like you and want to be your friend.’

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