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By the time I got back to our cabin, I was a nervous wreck. I was simultaneously turned on and felt like I wanted to hurl all at the same time. While the idea of touching this man and having him touch me back titillated me, it also meant having sex with someone who wasn’t Dwayne. Sex with Dwayne had been so predictable that there was never anything to get nervous or excited about.
Jasmine, stop thinking about Dwayne. You’re about to have sex with a different guy. A ridiculously hot guy.
Shaking the insecurities away, I reached for the door but paused when I heard something odd coming from inside. I triple-checked the cabin number to make sure I had the right room. Did I hear crickets?
I knocked once and slowly opened the door, wondering if locusts had invaded the room. “Shawn?” I stepped inside, trying to see in the dimmed lighting. Once my eyes adjusted, I was no less confused.
“Good evening, Mrs. Maven. Your honeymoon suite is prepared.” When he opened the bathroom door fully, light filled the room, allowing me to see what he’d been up to.
“Um...what’s all this?” I asked, not sure if I should be bewildered, elated, or horrified.
Along the floor was a scattering of the colorful hair clips I had packed to spice up my pixie cut for the evening. A few strands of pearls and chains were tossed decoratively on the bed. He’d placed a scarf over one of the lamps, but the material was too thick to show much light. When I looked back at Shawn, his shoulders had slumped.
“I didn’t have time to hunt down flowers as it took me almost ten minutes to find our room. I’m directionally challenged, and so, well, I had to improvise rose petals for other pretty things.”
I suppressed a grin. “And the crickets?”
He glanced down at Dwayne’s sound machine. He couldn’t sleep without some ambient noise.
“Well, there isn’t a radio, because...no signal and some moron convinced me to leave my cell phone in a locker, so I can’t play music on that. I debated using sounds of the ocean but thought it might be moronic, considering we’re on the ocean. So, I went with crickets.” His face crumpled. “I was going for romantic, but this looks more like Home Alone. Let me clean it up.”
“It’s lovely,” I said, walking over to the lamp and taking the scarf off. “All but this. This is a fire hazard waiting to happen.”
“Right. Sorry. This was a bad idea. I swear it was better in my head.”
“Hey, no. This is perfect. Dwayne would have never done anything like this. In fact, no guy has ever done anything as romantic as what you improvised.”
“Well, that’s because I’m amazing,” he said, coming over to me. Before he reached me, however, he flinched. His face crumpled in pain as he lifted a bare foot.
“Hair clip?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said, bending down to rub his foot. “At least the pearls will be less painful.” He nodded toward the bed.
“Or maybe we toss the top sheet right to the ground?” I suggested coyly.
Without another word, he spun around and ripped the bedspread off, and threw it to the floor.
“Well, someone is eager.”
“Is it wrong if I say yes?” His eyes were seriously hungry as he looked down at my sundress.
Suddenly, I felt uneasy as my hands wrapped around my waist. Was I ready for him to see me naked? Dwayne knew about all my body insecurities. And we almost always had sex in the dark. My mouth went dry, as I tried to decide if I was ready for this moment or not. While I most definitely wanted to have sex with him, mentally, I was still scared.
“Look, before we do this, we should probably talk.” I didn’t want to be a Debbie downer, but it seemed like we should set some boundaries of what this week would be and what it wouldn’t be. I needed to make sure I protected my heart. This week would be a bit of fun. Nothing more.
“I think I already know what you’re going to say,” he said, pulling me to sit next to him on the bed.
“You do?”
“You’re worried about STDs. I know, I told you I had a lot of blurry college days, and believe me, I was worried about it too. When I sobered up, I realized how reckless I’d been with my body. I had a full workup to check for it all. To say it was a stressful week is an understatement. But, by some miracle, I’m clean. It’s not a thing I take lightly anymore. Nor do I suspect, do you. I checked the bags. You packed condoms.”
“I did.” I shrugged. “I’m nothing if not prepared.”
He gave me a grin. “I like that about you. Have you been tested recently?”
“I had a physical before the wedding... She didn’t mention anything being off, but I didn’t know about Dwayne’s relationship with Emma, so honestly, maybe you shouldn’t sleep with me?”
“Or we could practice safe sex and burn through the double pack of condoms.”
“Right.” A double pack. I’d been a tad optimistic when I’d packed those.
“And I’m sure the gift shops have more when we run out of those,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows up and down.
“You plan on going through forty condoms in one week?”
“Try and stop me.” He smirked.
Damn.
I needed some air. There was no way I could stay in this room one more second without tearing off his clothes, which should be a good thing, but I needed to think this through a little more. If I slept with him, there was a very good chance I’d fall in love. And that was something I wasn’t sure I was ready to do. With anyone.
“Would you hate me if we went to see the show before we, well, performed a show of our own? It’s just, they don’t repeat the acts and this comedian is supposed to be very good—”
“You want to go listen to a comic, over screwing our brains out to the dulcet sounds of crickets mating?”
I swallowed down my desire. “I do want to have sex with you. Honest. Like, really want to. I—” I let out a slow breath. “I think I may need a little time to get used to the idea that I’m here with some other man versus the guy I thought I’d be here with. Don’t get me wrong, you are hot as hell, and I absolutely plan to screw your brains out... I just—”
“You need a minute to process,” he finished for me.
“Yeah. Is that okay?”
“It’s more than okay. Why don’t you head down and save us some seats? I’ll take care of things here and join you in a few.”
I was about to ask what things he needed to take care of, but when he stood up, I knew what those things were. The guy was hard. He needed a moment of his own.
Giving him a quick nod, I grabbed my bag and headed straight for the bar. This was gonna be a night for some liquid courage.
