Sinful Suspense Box Set (77 page)

Chapter
4

In my madness of attempting to shove everything I owned into two pieces of luggage, I’d nearly forgotten my passport. I was in the midst of my frantic search for it when my mom walked in. Had to come up with a way to get my damn key back.

“New pearls?” I asked. “They’re beautiful. Now please help me find my passport.”

She stood in the center of the room like a Rodeo Drive mannequin and I found myself scurrying around her. “Please, Mom. The airport shuttle is picking me up in half an hour.”

“Your sister is devastated that you’ll be missing her wedding.”

“No she’s not. She was fine with it. Besides, she’d decided it was time to change her bridesmaid line-up. She was tired of having me as maid of honor.”

Mom did not move from her spot. “Michael said Regent Realty has only had two successful transactions in the last year.”

I stopped and faced her. “You had Michael check out the company?”

“Yes, so shoot me. I’m a worried mom.”

“I wonder if I left it in my medicine cabinet.” I hurried past her but she grabbed my arm. “Jay, please reconsider. Michael said you can have a job in one of his offices. The pay is good and you won’t have to travel to some third world nation.”

“Tahiti, Mom. You and Michael honeymooned on Bora Bora remember?”

I rummaged through the medicine cabinet. No passport.

I raced back to the living room. “Mom, please. I’m in total panic mode.”

She sighed loudly and strolled to the kitchen. She pulled the canister marked tea from its spot next to the other canisters that I never actually used. She opened it and pulled out my passport. Ancient looking macaroni noodles rolled off of it onto the kitchen counter.

“How the hell did it get in there?”

“When you moved in I told you to use a canister for hiding important things.”

The old passport in the noodle trick. It was all coming back to me now. I momentarily wondered what I’d hid in the others, but time was disappearing and I still had to get dressed.

I took the passport from Mom. Botox prevented her from looking truly worried but I could see it in her eyes. “I’ll be careful, Mom. I’ll email you daily and call when I get a chance. Try not to worry.” I hugged her and kissed her cheek. “And for what it’s worth— I love that you still worry about me.”

***

Nick sent a text that he and Taylor were in the terminal waiting area and to find them as soon as I was done checking in. My dreams of first class champagne were dashed, but at least they still sold those cute mini bottles in coach. I needed one right now. I hadn’t seen my new boss since the interview. We were basically strangers, but I figured we would have an eight hour flight to get to know each other.

The airport was always a crazy stream of hurried travelers and there was no way not to get stressed. A nervous stomach had made breakfast impossible and now my stomach lining was so empty it felt like my stomach was eating itself. I stepped into one of the shops and grabbed a bag of trail mix and a couple of magazines and then took a deep breath and headed to the waiting area.

Nick’s head was easy to spot. Even slightly slumped in the chair, he was taller than everyone sitting around him. Even his partner, Taylor, seemed impossibly small next to him and he wasn’t a particularly short guy. I had opted for flat sandals to wear with my favorite green sundress, so I would look positively miniature next to him.

Taylor spotted me first and waved me over. “You made it,” he said with a bright smile. His boss, on the other hand, could only muster a nod of the head. His shoulder length black hair was tucked behind his ears as he stared down at his phone, showing off his long curtain of black lashes to their best advantage. He was obviously thrilled to see me.

“So have you ever been to Tahiti?” Taylor asked, his blue eyes sparkled with enthusiasm. It was hard not to like the guy instantly.

“No, I’ve never been there. I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve hardly been on any vacation in the past few years. I’ve been a workaholic, which ended up being a waste of time in the long run. I did travel to Mazatlan with a boy— a friend, but it turned out to be a lousy trip.”

A small laugh came from the direction of the otherwise silent boss. He still hadn’t looked up from his task of texting. Then I momentarily wondered if he was texting a girlfriend and that thought dampened my spirits. Of course it was stupid of me to think that a guy like him wouldn’t have a black book list as long as a spoiled child’s Christmas list. I decided to ignore the derisive laugh and continued my conversation with the much more congenial Taylor.

“I take it you’ve been to Tahiti .” I said.

“Me? Heck no. It’s way beyond my budget. When Nick said we were starting up the Tahitian office, I was definitely not disappointed.

“I’ll be right back.” They were Nick’s first words. He stood and left the waiting area. I glanced at him as he walked away. His Levi wrapped tush did not disappoint. As I looked away I realized that every female in the vicinity, with the exception of a toddler, was watching him walk away.

“Will we be staying in a hotel?” I asked.

“No, that gets pretty costly. We’ve rented a house for the month. It actually worked out to be more affordable.”

Apparently they were working within a limited budget, but a house sounded better than a hotel.

“You’ll have your own room and bathroom, of course,” Taylor said. His phone buzzed and he fished it out of his pocket. He looked at the screen, jumped up, and walked away as he answered it. “Where are you at?” was all I heard him say as he too left the waiting area.

There was an hour before boarding so I decided to browse the duty free shops. I was still hungry and airplane food was usually inedible. I wandered into a cookie shop and ordered two chocolate chip cookies and a coffee. As the girl filled my coffee cup, my eyes caught a tall figure standing outside. It was Nick. Taylor was next to him and they were talking to two guys. One was wearing army boots and a leather jacket, the other had neck tattoos, a shaved head and a gargantuan build. Sketchy was the word that came to mind. But it seemed that Nick and Taylor knew them. The conversation looked serious.

“That will be eight dollars,” the girl said.

I looked back at her. “Sorry, here you are.” I handed her a ten and peeked through the window again as she went to the register for my change. The chat group had broken up, and I spotted Nick and Taylor returning to the waiting area. The other two guys had disappeared completely. All I could think was that they happened to run into a couple of old college buddies in the airport.

They were both sitting again when I returned. This time Nick looked up at me, but it seemed he was mostly interested in the cookie I was nibbling because he was staring at my mouth.  I dug the other one out of the bag and held it toward him but he shook his head. Taylor, on the other hand, accepted it.

“So, exactly what will I be doing at the office?” I asked. I looked at Nick but Taylor answered.

“Office stuff, you know. Filing, answering phones, setting up appointments.” He talked over a mouthful of cookie.

“Sounds easy enough.” The conversation died at that point and I sipped my coffee to fill the time gap.

Nick slouched down farther in his seat, stretched his long thick legs into the aisle, and lifted his arm to comb his hair out of his face as he dropped his head back against the chair. If the airport hadn’t been so noisy, I’m sure I would have heard the collective gasp from the women sitting along our row. As he lowered his arm I noticed a tattoo of the letter N poking out from the sleeve of his t-shirt. I looked at his face. His eyes were closed.

“What?” he asked without opening his eyes.

“What what?” I asked.

“You are bursting with a question. I can feel it.”

“Me? Nope. Just sittin’ here admiring the splendor of the airport.”

“You can look. I don’t mind,” he said without lifting his head or opening his eyes.

I reached over and slid the sleeve of his t-shirt up. Running along the back of his arm, the word
dragon
started at the top of his massive bicep and ended at the bottom of it. My heart fluttered a moment as I slid my fingers back down that same unbelievable bicep and released his sleeve. I shouldn’t have had that coffee.

He lifted his head and looked at me. Another flutter. Damn that caffeine.

“It’s the nickname I earned when I was in the military.”

I nodded. “I guess that makes you the guy with the dragon tattoo.”

Taylor burst out laughing.

Nick rested his head back and closed his eyes again. “I guess it does.”

“That was a good one,” Taylor said. He smiled at me. “You’re going to be a nice addition to the team, Jayden.”

“Team?”

“Uh- uh well, office team I mean.” The guy flustered easily.

“Taylor,” Nick said from his reclined position.

“Yeah, Boss?”

“Shut up.”

“Right.” Taylor grinned shyly and sat back against the seat.

A few minutes later it seemed that Nick had fallen asleep. I took the opportunity to peek at him and assured myself he was just as glorious asleep.

“So he was in the service?” I asked Taylor quietly.

“Paratroopers. He was one tough dude. He was slated to train for the SEALS too,” Taylor glanced over at Nick to make sure he was still sleeping. He lowered his voice to a whisper. “But one day on a jump, one of his buddies passed out in the air before he could open his chute. Nick shot toward him and managed to reach the guy but his buddy panicked as he came to. Nick had to struggle to keep him in his arms. He opened his chute later than it should have been and Nick took the brunt of the fall on his left leg. Compound fracture of the femur. His buddy survived with only a few scratches. Nick nearly bled to death before the medic got to him. Needless to say, it cut short his military career.”

“Taylor,” Nick’s deep voice startled both of us.

“I know, I know— shut up.” Taylor sat back against the chair and we waited for boarding.

Chapter
5

Since Nick had booked the flights so late, we had to sit in different locations on the plane. I’d ended up next to a woman with a four year old, naturally. The little boy started off calmly enough but an hour into the flight, when he realized he was going to be stuck in the same seat for a long time, he started to get antsy. His mother tried to placate him with a constant stream of vanilla wafers, but eventually he started crushing them in his tiny fist so he could throw the crumbs up in the air as “fairy dust”.

Taylor had ended up next to a honeymooning couple who could not keep their hands, or mouths, off each other. I glanced back around my seat at him several times and he would smile weakly back at me and wave. Nick, on the other hand, managed to land a seat between two attractive girls. He was sitting a few rows behind me and when the two girls found their seats their eyes had glittered with stars. I could hear them speaking animatedly to him for the first several hours, but his responses were short. He was not a man of many words.

Three hours, one completely inedible meal, two mini bottles of wine, one chick flick, and forty rounds of the Spongebob theme song later, I was close to throwing open the emergency hatch to search for a quieter place out on the wing. Apparently there was more sugar in vanilla wafers than one would have thought. The flight attendant must have sensed my misery.

Her name was Amanda and she was sent from heaven. She stopped her cart in the aisle and leaned over me to talk to the distraught mother of Jimmy, a name I would now never consider naming my own child. “Excuse me, but I have an empty row at the back where the passengers upgraded to first class at the last moment. Maybe he would like to lie down there with you.

Jimmy’s mother looked skeptical about that. She smiled hesitantly up at wonderful, marvelous Amanda. “Let’s give it a try.”

I yanked in my feet, and Jimmy and his mother scooted past me and disappeared to the back row.  I stuck in my earphones, found some decent music, and relaxed back with a sigh. It would be the first peaceful moment of the flight. Within moments I was floating off into a semi-sleep state with visions of me lying on the beach when two large legs slid past mine and a body plunked hard onto the seat next to me.

It was Nick. He threw a furtive glance toward the restrooms at the front of the plane then sank down as if a man his size could hide on a plane or anywhere for that matter. His knees pressed against the reclined seat in front of him as he scooted down farther.

I could not hold back a smile. “Maybe if you put on a pair of sunglasses they won’t know it’s you.”

He sighed. “I now know everything I didn’t want to know about both of them, including the size of their bra cups.”

I looked at him and was pleased to discover that I found myself less and less nervous in his vicinity. Of course, it could have been the bottles of wine. “They discussed their bra size with you?”

“Not with me but around me. I had no choice in the matter and for added effect they both took turns brushing their ti— their breasts against my arm while they spoke excitedly about their lingerie.”

“Actually, most guys would have liked that.”

  “I guess, but it all depends on who’s doing the brushing.” His brow tucked together as he reached under his bottom and brushed the seat with his hand. “Am I sitting on sand?”

“It’s fairy dust,” I said confidently.” “Why didn’t you move so they could sit together?”

“I suggested that but then they got into an ugly argument about who would still get to sit next to me.”

I laughed. “At least you’re not Taylor.” I leaned into the aisle and looked back at Taylor. It seemed his seat mates had tired for a moment and they were sleeping.

Giggles floated out from the bathrooms up front. “Shit, here they come,” Nick said with a groan.

“Maybe if you curl up into a little ball they won’t see you,” I suggested.

The first girl spotted him before they’d even put one foot in the aisle. She scowled at me coldly. Great, now I was the bad guy.

“I don’t think you’re going to get out of this. They look like women on a mission.”

They were several seats away when Nick suddenly leaned over, took hold of my face, and kissed me. At first it was a clumsy, hard kiss done for show, but then suddenly the touch of his hands softened and his mouth and tongue tenderly caressed my lips. His mouth lingered on mine long enough for the two girls to make five trips up and down the aisle. Reluctantly he stopped but his hands and his gaze did not leave my face. After a long, intense moment, he let go and sat back. A huge stretch of awkward silence followed.

It was broken by the arrival of Taylor. I was both relieved and annoyed to see him. He fell over Nick’s long legs into the empty seat.

“Oh my God, save me,” Taylor blurted. “It’s like getting trapped on a porn movie shoot and never getting to actually participate. You would think that on an airplane with a complete stranger sitting next to you, it might slow down the urge some,” he shook his head, “not with these two. I mean at one point they pulled a blanket over themselves and they thought they were being discreet but the noises . . .  and the moaning. I had to go to the restroom twice to relieve—” Then he stopped as he suddenly remembered that I was tucked over on the other side of his giant friend. “Well, you get the picture.”

“I’m trying my hardest
not
to get the picture,” I said.

The side of Nick’s mouth lifted but he had not spoken one word since the kiss. My best new friend in the world, Amanda, was pushing the beverage cart down the aisle. Suddenly I needed another mini bottle of wine. Hopefully it would knock me out until the wheels of the plane touched ground.

***

The Tahiti Airport had a name but it had far too many vowels in it to allow for proper pronunciation. It was peaceful and quaint and everything that LAX wasn’t. An older man with a long grey ponytail, faded jeans, and sandals met us at the terminal. His name was Pierre and having just landed in Tahiti I’d expected an accent but it was more Bronx than Paris.

Nick and I had hardly spoken since the ‘quick hide me’ kiss incident. Uncomfortable tension was not the way I wanted to start my new career with my new boss, and I had every hope that we’d get past it soon. It was a strange kiss though and at this point it seemed destined to fall in line behind other unexplained phenomena like crop circles and the popularity of disco music.

“Ay, Nick,” Pierre said as he took my hand and kissed the back of it, “only you would manage to hire a goddess like this for the office. I’ll have to come round more often.”

“Did you rent me a bike?” Nick said without any confirmation on my goddess status. I, for one, approved of it.

Pierre held out his arms. They were covered with Polynesian style tattoos— again a stark contrast to his accent and mannerisms. “Yeah sure, I missed you too, Nick.” He waved his arm toward the luggage carousels. “This is from your flight. Let’s get your things and go. These crowded airports give me a headache.”

***

My first mental note of the trip— never leave late for an appointment. The streets were narrow and crowded and pedestrians seemed to walk willy-nilly all over the damn place. Pierre drove casually with his wrist hanging over the top of the wheel so he could use his hand, the one which should have been holding the steering wheel, to point out different places along the way. He was driving slow enough that he had time to turn completely around in the driver’s seat and face Taylor and me in the back. He obviously liked to face people when he spoke.

At one point we were coasting along and Pierre turned around to tell us about this great little seafood restaurant when a bicyclist rode out in front of the car. Taylor and I gasped but with incredible reflexes, Nick reached over, grabbed the wheel, and maneuvered the car safely around the cyclist. Pierre, seemingly unaware that he’d nearly run down a man on a bike, continued with his description of his favorite fish marinated in lime juice and coconut milk.

Once we’d made it safely past the houses and businesses of Papeete without killing anyone, Pierre turned the car down an even narrower road that was lined with lush green foliage and a plethora of palm trees that would put Las Vegas to shame.

Taylor and I, both Tahitian virgins, had our faces plastered against the car windows like two kids driving through Santa’s Village at the North Pole.

“Damn, I’ve never seen water that blue in all my life,” Taylor said.

“I’m awestruck. I mean, you see the pictures on-line, but you never expect it to be this breathtaking,” I said. “There will be beach time, won’t there?”

“Businesses usually shut down around noon for a long break.” Pierre turned around as he spoke even though the road was windy. At least this time we were only in danger of taking out a palm tree. “That gives you plenty of time to slip into that itsy bitsy bikini of yours and head out to the beach.” He winked at me and turned back forward.

He clapped Nick on the shoulder. “That is, of course, unless this slave driver makes you work through the lunch hour,” Pierre added. He smiled over at Nick. “Well? What do you say, Boss?”

Nick shrugged his massive shoulders. “I’m still thinking about the itsy bitsy bikini.”

Taylor looked over at me with anticipation. “Well?”

“All right, my bikini is itsy but it’s hardly bitsy. I mean a girl has to think about her reputation.”

Pierre and Taylor’s laughter filled the car, and I was sure I caught a glimpse of a smile on Nick’s face but it could have been my imagination.

We pulled up to a house that was semi-ranch style and semi-beach hut. There was a motorcycle parked out front. The whole place was awesome, and I still had a hard time believing that just last week I’d been flaked out on the couch stuffing my face with junk food.

The furniture inside was sparse and totally outdated making it even more awesome.

“I guess the vintage look is back,” Taylor said as he set his bags on the floor.

Nick poked his head into one of the bedrooms. “I don’t think vintage ever left this place.”

I dropped my heavy suitcase on the floor. “I love it. My great-grandmother had a couch just like this.”

“Wait until you see this,” Pierre lifted the blinds. There was slivery-gray sand and turquoise water as far as the eye could see.

“Holy hell, that is picturesque.” I walked to the window and looked out. “With this view, I could sit on cardboard boxes and sleep on pieces of newspaper and it would still be heaven.”

Taylor stood next to me at the window. “Have you ever been snorkeling, Jayden?”

“As a matter a fact I have. Once. And it was very traumatic. My grandparents took us to Hawaii when I was ten. We went snorkeling and a very rude fish swam directly into my swim mask. Scared the crap out of me.”

Taylor laughed. “Well, I’ve heard the fish in Tahiti have better manners, so you’ll have to try it again.”

Nick’s phone rang and he walked into the bedroom and shut the door behind him. Pierre shot Taylor a secret
only friends understand look
.  “Is Frankie still calling him?”

Taylor rolled his eyes. “Is the sky blue?” He patted his stomach. “Well I don’t know if it’s the three hours added to the day or the disgusting plane food but I’m about to waste away.”

“Thank God,” I said, “I was hoping someone was going to bring up food. I poured the last crumbs of my trail mix down my throat two hours ago.”

Nick came back out of the bedroom. Of course now I was dying to know who Frankie was. He didn’t look pleased or upset so it seemed to be a neutral phone call either way. “Did someone mention food?”

Pierre clapped his hands once. “I know the perfect place and it is in walking distance.”

“Any chance I can shower first?” I asked. “I feel like I have jet lag residue on my skin.”

“That works out well,” Pierre said. “I’ve got an errand to run first. Then I’ll be back.”

One day when I was a teenager and Josh Kincaid had dumped me for Lisa Duncan, my mom tried to console me with a batch of oatmeal cookies and a mother-daughter chat. She’d handed me a napkin to blow my nose, and I peered up at her through bleary eyes and asked her why we needed guys since they served no purpose except to annoy us. She promptly answered that without men there would be a lot of unopened pickle jars sitting in the fridge. We had a good laugh over it, but when I moved into my own place I realized it was true. And I had a three year old jar of spaghetti sauce on my kitchen shelf to prove it. I was definitely having a pickle jar moment but it was my sun block instead. After nearly breaking my teeth out trying to open it, I pulled on my robe and poked my head out of the bedroom. I was hoping to spot Taylor but Nick was walking past.

He stopped and looked at the bottle in my hand and seemed to instinctually know, through some guy code, that he was required to open it. He reached for it and loosened the cap with no effort.

I took it from him and removed the cap. Apparently my bottle was still feeling the effects of cabin pressure. A stream of white cream squirted out and I threw my hand up to avoid getting it in my eyes. I stared down at the dollop that had landed on the rug. “I’ll clean that up.” I looked up at him but he was not looking at my face.

“Nice,” he said with a lazy smile.

I glanced down and was horrified to find that during the lotion explosion, my boob had sprung free from my loosely tied robe. I pulled the robe tightly around me and shut the door. I’d never had brothers and I’d never lived with a guy so I was going to have to remember the hazards of the loosely tied robe . . . among other things. I should have been mortified but I figured we were even on the awkward moment scale now, his rather dubious kiss versus me flinging my boob at him. In fact, the more I thought about it, he still had the upper edge with that damn kiss.