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IN WHAT FELT LIKE SLOW motion, I watched Eric get out of the pool. The water trickled down his bare chest and through his golden hair as he slicked it back in the sun. His lips parted, wet from swimming, and his green eyes locked on nothing but me as he walked slowly forward. I couldn’t see the look on Tom’s face, but I could imagine it wasn’t pretty.
And all that was before Eric kissed me.
“What the—”
My quiet gasp was cut short as his warm lips closed over mine. Despite having just gotten out of the pool, his body was hot from the sun, and he pulled me into him, saturating my tiny suit as his hand ran up through my hair.
I honestly didn’t know what to do. He was a flat-out phenomenal kisser, and we were right in front of Tom, so I naturally kissed him back, except...what the heck?!
He finally pulled back an inch or two, just far enough that I could see his smile. For a moment, I was simply dazzled. The ‘Eric Street Legend’ suddenly made sense and I found myself murmuring, “Are you sure you’re gay?”
He laughed softly, hands still wrapped around my waist. “Afraid so.” His head leaned down, and he kissed me once again. “But it is fun to cross the line every now and again.”
“I’ll say...” I tried to hide my giggling as his eyes flickered at the speed of light over my shoulder.
“He’s still watching, by the way,” he murmured, running his hands down my back. “He can’t seem to stop...”
My eyes fluttered momentarily, and I took a casual step back. “That’s great, but um, I’m going to need to stop.” I laughed breathlessly. “That is unless you want to really cross the line.”
He took my hand with a wink and led me toward the bar. “It’s been known to happen on occasion...” he chuckled, “...when the mood strikes.”
We ordered two mai-tais and settled down on a pair of lounge chairs. Tom had momentarily frozen when he saw our little display, but had recovered himself now and was settled on a chair himself—one that kept us in constant view. It was like that staff meeting all over again. I was petrified to be on such display, but Eric seemed to know exactly what to do.
“Turn over,” he instructed, gesturing to my chair.
My face blanked. “Excuse me?”
“Trust me,” he winked, “we’re here to put on a show, aren’t we?” He picked up a bottle of suntan lotion from the wet stones. “And besides, we don’t want you to burn. You’ll look terrible at the big luau tonight.”
Hiding my smile, I turned over and lay on my stomach—well aware of the fact that Tom was watching every move. I expected it to be a little more discreet than what ended up happening, but I didn’t think that ‘discreet’ was in Eric’s vocabulary. In a swift motion, he was straddling my chair, perched seductively over my back as he wet his hands with the lotion.
I cast a sudden, nervous glance around—hyper anxious as to who might be watching. He sensed my concern and shh’d me before I could even talk.
“No one else from the office is here,” he assured me. “They’re all either jetlagged and napping before the party, or on a jeep tour of the island. I made sure. Now please, Jenna, you’ll make me look bad. Just try to relax.”
His hands came down over my shoulders, soothing the tension out of my body just as easily as his words. What started out as an already sensual massage, quickly escalated—flaring up my blood every time he leaned down suddenly to kiss my neck.
“I don’t know how we’re going to go back to being just friends after this,” I said only half-teasingly. “Seriously Eric, you’re amazing at this.”
He chuckled quietly. “I told you—I’d make it up to you.” His hands slipped down my sides, and I stifled a groan in the pillow at the top of the chair. “Besides, I have a perfect view.”
Perfect view?
I lifted my head a fraction of an inch and burst out laughing as I looked down the beach to see the ‘David statue’ man playing volleyball with some friends.
“Nice,” I joked. “Very subtle.”
He laughed as he stood up. “Another round?”
“Yeah,” I replied, getting to my feet. “And why don’t you bring it to the pool—I think I’m going to get in.”
He squeezed my hand and headed back to the bar, past a row of openly salivating women who watched his every move. I stifled a smile as I walked down the steps into the warm water. If only they knew...
The water felt incredible, and I had waded in up to my waist when a cool hand brushed my arm. I turned around with a smile. “Eric, this is seriously the best—”
The smile froze on my face when I saw Tom standing behind me. I hated to say it. I really did, but as magnificent as Eric looked coming out of the water, Tom matched it in full force. What was worse...I knew his body. Every line. Every muscle. Every scar.
My eyes traced down over his chest as a strange combination of lust and nostalgia washed over me. How many times had I jumped up and wrapped my legs around his waist? How many times had those hands wrapped around me?
“That was quite the show you two put on...” he said softly. The light sparkling off the water danced in his eyes and I had to remind myself to breathe.
“Not a show,” I said casually, taking a step away, “just a little suntan lotion.”
Tom grinned. “Right. So did you tell your new boyfriend all about my nefarious plans? Should I be worried he might try to kick my ass? Where is he, anyway?”
We both glanced over my shoulder to where Eric was talking a little too enthusiastically with the cute bartender. I ground my teeth together and turned back with a forced smile.
“I didn’t tell him anything because there’s nothing to tell. We’re done. I’m with Eric now.”
Tom’s eyes sparkled. “It certainly looks that way, doesn’t it?”
Something about his tone made my skin run cold, and I glanced back at the bar nervously before taking another few steps away. Fortunately, this time, Eric caught my eye, and he paid for the drinks quickly before coming to join us.
“Mr. Larchwood,” he said with a rather smug-looking grin, “strange how we keep running into each other.”
Tom shrugged, playing along. “It’s a small island.”
“You can say that again,” I muttered, thinking back to our shared cottage.
Tom lifted his eyebrows and shot me an amused smile while Eric casually pulled me back against his body, leaning us up against the stone wall.
“So I have to admit, I was kind of surprised Jamie asked you to be in the wedding,” he said in a deceptively friendly tone. “I didn’t know you two knew each other that well—he’d always made it seem like you made it a rule to never mix with your employees...”
The layers of implication in that statement were too numerous to count, and I cringed back against his bare chest as I waited for Tom to respond. Much to my surprise, he not only kept his cool, but he seemed to rise to the challenge.
“Well, I’d never want to do anything to cross the line—especially as someone in a managerial position. I wouldn’t want anyone to get fired...”
I felt Eric flinch behind me, but he kept a steady smile. “No—no one would want that.”
In the awkward silence that followed, I downed my second drink and quickly relieved Eric of his own. The men watched with amusement as I tossed the empty cups on the side of the pool and waded further out into the water.
“Cool—well—I’ll just leave you guys to it. I’m just going to go...you know...” my voice lowered to an anxious murmur, “...avoid this conversation entirely.”
Leaving them to each other, I swam out around a bend in the water, coming to stop in a little-enclosed cave that separated one pool from another. I stayed there for a few minutes, perched up on one of the underwater rocks along the side, as I tried to calm myself down.
This was getting out of hand. This little stunt of Eric’s and mine was only supposed to be the occasional rescue at the office—a temporary situation until Tom came to his senses and tried to move on like I had done. It was never supposed to turn into an out and out war. Because as much confidence as I had in Eric and his seemingly magical abilities, I’d seem Tom in action one too many times. He was not a man who lost. It was only a matter of time...
“So I have to admit, your friend is charming.”
At this point, I wasn’t even surprised when it was Tom, not Eric, who joined me in the cave. Why not, right? The hits just kept coming.
I tried to smile but failed miserably. “Boyfriend. And yes, he is.”
Tom grinned and perched up beside me on the rocks. “Everyone seems to think so,” he continued. “All the women...all the men...” My heart froze, but he just smiled innocently as he went on. “It seems like there’s no one he can’t charm.”
I cleared my throat quickly and looked away. “You should take notes. Where is he, by the way?” I added in muted panic.
“Oh, he got a call from work he had to take. I expect he’ll be quite some time.”
This time, my eyes narrowed, and I looked right at him. “Really? He got a call from work wired to him here in the Bahamas, right now?”
Tom shrugged innocently. “PR is a demanding job, Jenna. I don’t think people like you and I can really even understand it.”
“Shut up.” I finally grinned, dropping all pretenses. “What did you do? Track down his list of clients and persuade one of them to get arrested or something?”
Tom’s face lightened in surprise, and he looked at me curiously. “That’s actually exactly what I did. How did you know?”
I rolled my eyes and started to swim away. “You’re wasting your time—”
“No, I don’t think so.” He grabbed my arm and dragged me back to him through the water. “I don’t think so at all.”
I could feel my heart pounding in my wrists, beneath where his hands held me captive just inches from his body. There was no one else in the cave. No one who could see us. Despite all my extreme precautions, again, it was suddenly just Tom and me.
“Jenna—” he breathed, leaning into me.
“That’s enough,” I reprimanded, tugging at my wrists. “Tom, how many times do I have to say it—you’re the one who ended things, not me.”
He loosened his grip, but didn’t release me. “And now I’m the one starting them back up again. There’s a nice symmetry to that.”
I glared, tossing a few loose curls from my face. “And what—you don’t think that I should have any say in that? You think it’s all about you?”
“Oh no, Jenna,” he said almost tenderly. His hand came up—he needed only one to keep me there—and he gently brushed away the curls I had missed. “I want to make it all about you.”
For a moment, just a moment, I lost myself completely. I had been waiting for so long to hear those words—those exact words—and I couldn’t find it in myself to resist them now. My legs circled around his as he pulled us even closer in the water. We were touching now—skin to skin—and his hand came up around my cheek as he leaned in to kiss me.
“Except you want it to be secret,” I whispered.
He stopped moving, and I pulled back.
“You want it to be secret,” I said again. “And the second that things get too hard, the second your father even glances our way, you’ll take off for the hills and leave me there.”
His head bowed, and he let go of my wrist. “I don’t know what other way it can be,” he admitted in a whisper. “I can’t just throw away years of work, my career—”
“And I’m not asking you too,” I said firmly. “But here’s the thing, Tom—I didn’t just like you. I fell in love with you. And that’s not something I’m willing to keep secret. Not that. If I had just liked you less—just seen this as a fling—maybe it could have kept going. But it wasn’t that for me.” I looked up sadly. “And I don’t think it was for you either.”
When he finally looked up, his eyes were just as sad as mine. “No. It wasn’t.”
“Then there you have it.” I pulled in a shaky breath. “That’s a hard line. It’s over. I may not like it, but it has to be.” It was quiet for a long time before I added rather unconvincingly, “And then, of course, there’s Eric.”
For the first time, a ghost of a smile lit Tom’s face. “Of course. There’s Eric.”
We fell silent again. It went on for so long that I’d just started to swim away when he shook his head with a little shrug.
“I don’t care.”
I paused in my retreat. “What?”
“I don’t care about any of that. I don’t care about the rules, about the ‘hard lines,’ and I certainly don’t care about Eric.” His eyes glowed with such determination that a shiver ran up my spine. “I want you, Jenna. I need you. I don’t care what it takes. It’s going to happen.”
I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what to do. In the end, I just left. But I couldn’t erase the words. I couldn’t forget the look on his face. And his promise hung heavy on the air in between us as I swam back out into the light.