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KAYLA
Two weeks with Dylan romancing me... I didn’t think I would be able to fight that.
He was my constant. We would never be able to work as a couple. He was too nice. I liked my boys bad and spontaneous. Dylan didn’t have a spontaneous bone in his body. Everything had to be scheduled and figured out, and while it drove me nuts, I relied on him. He was the foundation of our company. He was the foundation for my sanity. If something went wrong with him, who would I have to fall back on?
If we got into a romance together, I could pretty much guarantee I would push him away at some point. It’s what I did. Pretending guys were the ones who chose to leave was my failsafe. If I made them leave, then it wasn’t a big deal when they left. I was okay with it because I’d decided I didn’t want them around anymore, like when they got too close or hit a level of intimacy I wasn’t ready for. Most of them weren’t fans of my relationship with Dylan. Another reason to kick them to the curb.
A guy that was too close was one who could hurt me. I wouldn’t tolerate that kind of pain.
Dylan was as close as I could possibly allow and I didn’t want to lose that by adding the complications of the heart.
A break did sound appealing and we were already in Hawaii. A collection of the positives drowned out the negatives. There was only one bed but he’d offered to sleep on the floor, so my arguments were null and void. I was still weak enough from the bug I didn’t want to fight about anything. I gave in and the small glimpse of triumph in his eyes frightened and exhilarated me at the same time.
Dylan got me up and out of bed to go to the beach for a swim.
As if I was solar powered, I relished the warmth of the sun. I was still too weak to go swimming or to fight any rip tides so I stayed on the beach. Signs up warning of Box Jelly Fish and Portuguese Man-of-War marred the view until we moved further onto the sand, closer to the water. I sat on a towel with my legs drawn up and a book resting on my lap. The umbrella Dylan had set up protected me from the burning power of the sun. I poked my toes out of the shade, still warmed by the comforting breeze off the water. I couldn’t focus on my book with Dylan dipping in and out of the slight waves. He was very distracting looking with a muscular chest and the back of a runner. I may or may not have drifted in and out of sleep.
Every time I woke up Dylan was somewhere new. At one point he bobbed in the water, taking in the sun. He was close enough to see his features but far enough I couldn’t tell if he was looking at me or not. Another time, I looked and he waded closer to me, the sun glinting off the smattering of hair on his wet chest.
Why had I never noticed how beautiful he was? It must be the bug talking. I had always noticed his good looks, but as he got closer and I could see the ripples of his muscles and the tenderness in his eyes, I wondered just what it was I was running from.
Slipping back into sleep and then awake again became a pattern. I woke up to find Dylan lying on the tile beside me. His hands were out by his sides and his legs were stretched out flat. His form was in the sun while I was still in the shade.
I spoke softly, hoping he wouldn’t hear me but I just had to say it. “I don’t tell you this but I’m so grateful for you. I’ve never told you how beautiful you are, when you should hear it all the time.” Not telling him before was a way to protect myself. I laid back down, the warmth of the sand beneath the towel enveloping me.
The ambience of the island was dragging me under, and I hoped it wouldn’t haul me all the way into the dream world Dylan wanted me to create with him.
We weren’t together.
We weren’t married, and nothing we did was going to change that. Well, unless of course we got married. Why would I think that? That wasn’t an option.
After a few minutes, Dylan turned his head to me, his eyes bleary from just waking up. “Did you want to go to dinner tonight or stay in? We could order out, if you’d rather stay in.”
Following an afternoon of watching him swim, I didn’t know if I wanted to be inside with him for very long in such a romantic arena. There were emotions and longings that demanded to be met. Having dinner together would turn into watching a movie on the bed and getting comfortable. With the way I was feeling on that island, I may or may not try to kiss him. I didn’t have a lot of self-control and my lack of self-discipline was showing.
We weren’t going to be together. We weren’t even going to entertain the idea of trying out the marriage thing. I’d already put my foot down.
So why was his suggestion so appealing?
I shook my head and rolled over on my side, yawning. “Let’s go out. I’m feeling like Italian or something. Does that sound good?”
Dylan’s slow, sexy smile could have meant he’d read my mind and knew I was avoiding being alone with him anywhere private. “I rented a bike. We can take it up the street to this little Italian place I wanted to try when I first got here.”
A bike? Like a motorcycle? Dylan was a safe guy. He didn’t do motorcycles. If he did, when did he learn to ride and why didn’t I know?