A/N: Would love it if you could vote and comment if you like it, thank you SO much!! I also added a new, sexier book trailer to the side if you'd like to check it out! This is a super long chapter, for some reason, so I hope you enjoy it! xoxo S
My near bursting bladder woke me the next morning. After I went the bathroom, I looked in the mirror and gave a little yelp -- my mascara and eyeliner had apparently taken a little trip down my face in the night resulting in the face in the mirror bearing an uncanny resemblance to Alice Cooper. I was also wearing exactly what I had been the night before. I cleaned up my eyes with a makeup removing cloth and was lazily brushing my teeth when I heard a rustling from the main living area and froze.
Had Maggie returned? Or maybe it was the maid? Although there were several reasonable explanations for who was out there, a niggling sensation in the back of my mind said that it wasn’t either of those people.
I rinsed my mouth out and walked back into my bedroom, trying to figure out what would be the easiest way to ascertain who was out there. I creeped quietly down the hallway and peeked around the corner into the dining room, which opened up into the living room.
Where Alex was standing at that moment, by the couch, folding up a blanket and looking directly at me.
“Hi,” I yelped, caught. I really should have done something more with myself before I went investigating.
“Good morning,” he said with a huge grin, his clothes looking slightly rumpled but somehow still absolutely perfect.
“I’ll be right back, just a minute,” I scurried away as quickly as I could. I changed into a tank with a built in bra and some sleep shorts, figuring I didn’t want to look like I was trying too hard, especially as he knew I had, until a minute ago, still been wearing last night’s clothes. Although wearing those clothes was much better than, say, waking up completely naked with Alex in the bed next to me.
Dying to get a few answers about all that, I returned to the living room. I gave Alex a shy smile as I sat down on the overstuffed chair beside the couch where he was sitting and jumped right to the point.
“Um, this is completely mortifying to ask, but what exactly happened last night?”
“After we kissed out on your porch -- I’m assuming you remember that much? I’ll take your red face as a ‘yes’ -- you invited me in. We continued in the living room for a couple of minutes, then said you had to go to the bathroom. I got worried after about 15 minutes and went to find you. I found you in what I assumed was your room, passed out on the bed, still fully clothed. I figured you wouldn’t appreciate me undressing you, so I left you as you were and pulled the sheet over you. I made myself a bed here on the couch -- which is quite comfortable, by the way -- and that brings us to now. How are you fairing this morning?”
“Ok, not as bad as I should be feeling, honestly. How about you?”
“Surprisingly decent, considering how legless I was by the end of the night. I’ll feel better after a shower though, that much is certain. Let’s make a pact to not drink nearly so much today, fair?”
“Fair.” While I was quietly overjoyed that it sounded like Alex still wanted to spend the day together again after I made a bit of a drunken fool of myself yesterday, that feeling was nothing compared to the relief I felt knowing that nothing had really happened between us the night before. Although I really liked Alex, I would have been beyond upset with myself if, after all these years, I lost my virginity in a black-out stupor.
The fact that I’d never had sex wasn’t something I ever talked about or shared with anybody, I'd never even told Maggie. I wouldn’t have lied if questioned about it directly, but thankfully no one had ever thought to ask. I honestly don’t think it ever crossed anyone’s mind that I was a virgin -- I certainly didn’t fit the stereotype, as insulting as that stereotype was to virgins everywhere.
If you’d told me when I was 18 that I’d still be a virgin at 24, I would have been both completely crushed and more than a little pissed at my future self. I hadn’t really dated anyone in high school -- I was kind of a late bloomer and that combined with a really, really small dating pool, most of whom I’d gone to school with since kindergarten, led to me focusing more on friends, academics, and extracurricular activities than boys, much to my parent’s delight.
But I was bound and determined to change that when I went to college -- I was going to drink, I was going to stay out late, and I was going to meet some guys! Bye bye, good girl; hello, good times!
My first semester met and exceeded all my expectations -- I joined a sorority, made a ton of fantastic friends, went to parties every weekend, and kissed a lot of cute boys. But still, nothing serious.
Second semester seemed to be following the same course, until one night I hooked up with the wrong guy. It was at a house party off campus, I was pretty drunk and somehow got separated from my friends, which rarely happened. I went to a pretty small state school and I’d never felt the slightest bit unsafe anywhere so it didn’t cross my mind to be concerned.
The guy I’d been flirting with all night led me into an empty bedroom. After some pretty intense kissing, he tried to maneuver me back onto the bed. When I resisted and suggested we go back out to the party, he shoved me back onto the bed underneath him, crushing me with his weight. He then ground his mouth against my closed lips, pushing his hands up under my shirt as I shoved and squirmed under him.
Before things went any further, I was saved by the room’s actual owner coming in, who, not at all realizing that I was an unwilling participant in what was happening, yelled at us to get out. I sprinted out of there as quickly as I could and ran all the way back to my dorm room, crying the whole way. I didn’t even know the guy’s last name so I couldn’t report him or anything, I felt so powerless and stupid for letting myself get in that situation.
After that, I was pretty freaked out around guys for awhile -- it took me some time to want to go out and be social again, and much longer than that to flirt and want to kiss anyone. By the time I was totally over it, I'd decided that I wasn’t going to sleep with someone just for fun, I was going to wait until it made sense. I didn’t need marriage, I didn’t even need love necessarily but I’d be damned if I just gave it away after waiting for so long.
However, had I realized how long I’d continue to wait for such a moment, I might have rethought the whole thing. Being with Alex made me think I might have been onto something though -- I’d never met someone I clicked with like I did with him. A day without drinking would be good to see if this was really true or if our chemistry had been alcohol-enhanced.
“Any thoughts as to what we should do today? Besides just not drinking,” I asked.
“I didn’t say not drink at all, just much, much less. What would you be doing if I wasn’t here?”
“Very little -- I’d beach, eat, beach some more, maybe nap, eat again, night swim, then bed.”
“Perfect. Let’s do that then.”
“You sure? Not everyone is as into total sloth as I am, I’d be happy to do something else if you wanted to,” I said. The more I thought about it, the more I’d realized there was a lot of stuff I’d like to do with Alex. “Like we talked about yesterday, I had thought about going for a horseback ride at some point. And they have these cool open-air movies you can drive to in your mule -- it’s like a drive in theatre, do you have those in England? That’s right up my alley, it’s just not something I’d have wanted to do by myself but now that I have some company, I’d love to go.”
“The movie sounds like a lot of fun, but do you mind if we just lay low today? I’d love to spend time with you but I’m really here for relaxation so your first plan sounded ideal to me.”
That brought to mind a question that had been lingering since we first met, although I wasn’t sure exactly how to phrase it. “I know I was kind of a jerk about it earlier, with the whole ‘only a total sad bastard would travel by themselves’ but what made you want to go on vacation by yourself? It’s kind of an unusual choice for someone our age.”
“I know,” he said, then hesitated as he seemed to be figuring out how to answer my question, “I’m not sure what to even say. I suppose I was having some sort of not-quite-mid-life crisis?”
“John Mayer calls it a ‘quarter life crisis,’” I supplied, trying to help.
“Does he? I like that, it sounds much better. So I found myself in the midst of a quarter life crisis with nothing on my calendar for a few weeks, so I found the most remote, secluded place I could to escape to. My plan was to stay away from my phone, tv -- I wouldn’t even talk to anyone, really. Of course, then I saw you and all my best intentions went out the window…”
My cheeks warmed, flattered by his comment. “Maggie and I are doing the whole no technology thing too, except for e-readers and iPods of course; it’s very freeing, isn’t it?”
“It is. I’ve never really been so cut off from everything and I’m enjoying it,” he said with a smile. He then slapped his hands on his knees. “Ok, we’re wasting valuable beach time. I’m going to head to my place to shower and change into my swimming shorts. I’ll be back in a half hour or so, if that works for you?”
“Yes, perfect.”
“It’s a date, then,” Alex said, giving me a little wink as he stood. He leaned over and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before he left.
Ever punctual, Alex was back right when he said he would be. I was waiting for him on the porch, freshly showered and ready to go. He grabbed my flowered beach bag and slung it over his arm, which should have made him look ridiculous but somehow didn’t. He then reached for my hand and gave it a quick kiss before we took off, with our hands swinging between us as we walked down to the beach.
The spot I’d used the previous day was open; in fact, most of the beach was open, not that it had been very full any other day I’d been there.
“This good?” I asked Alex, motioning to our spot from the day previously.
“It’s perfect. I have nothing but fond memories of this place.”
We unpacked and got spread out, I plugged in my speakers to my iPod so we could have some music to relax to. After reading for a bit -- me from my Kindle (I was still working on ‘The Duke’s Desire,’ despite Alex’s mockery) and him from a real paperback book, some thriller I’d been seeing everywhere -- I started to get distracted by this gorgeous man sunning himself next to me. I kept glancing over at him but he seemed completely absorbed in his book, damn him. I eventually couldn’t take it any more and found a reason to talk to him.
“What’s this scar from?” I asked, leaning over to his lounge chair and touching a spot on his cheekbone, just below his sunglasses on the outside of his face.
Alex groaned, setting his book aside, “I’m not telling you. Just imagine something dashing and daring and we’ll pretend it was that.”
“Nope, not going to work, tell me!!” I insisted.
“Well, it fits brilliantly into your vision of me as a posh toff, that’s for sure,” at my quizzical look, he clarified, “Forgot who I was talking to for a moment -- rich, I meant rich. The scar is from a polo accident, I caught a mallet in the face during a match once. I probably should have gotten stitches but I didn’t. Thought a scar would make me look more manly and rugged.”
“A polo injury is better than anything I could have imagined!” I laughed, clapping with glee. “I was thinking it might have been an fencing incident, but polo is way better. You are so, so fancy, Alex.”
“And you are easily the cheekiest female I have ever met. I must be mad as a bag of ferrets for choosing to spend time with you, when you wind me up constantly.”
“Are you purposely using the most obscure British slang you can possibly think of or are you just making those up? ‘Mad as a bag of ferrets’ can’t even be a real thing!” I said, dying with laughter.
“Oh, it’s all real. God’s honest truth.”
“I’m using that all the time when I get back, I love it!” I said, still laughing.
“Come here, you,” he said, reaching for me as he moved over to sit on my lounge chair, “I have to kiss you now, there’s no way around it.”
I put my arms around his neck and slid my hands into his hair, pulling him down to me. I peeked quickly around to make sure no one was paying any attention to us. As we were pretty much alone on the beach, I didn’t feel bad for a moment as he placed his arms on either side of me, leaning over me as I laid back on my chair, as we kissed. I got completely lost in the moment and tried to pull him completely on top of me, but he pulled back, laughing. “That’s quite enough for public, you little minx.”
I blushed but couldn’t resist one more quick kiss before he went back to sit on his chair again.
“I know we pretty much just got here and it seems silly, as the ocean is literally steps away but would you want to go swimming in a pool instead? I like a quick dip in the ocean but the novelty of it wears off really quickly -- I get one mouthful of salt water and I’m over it.”
“I completely agree, I’m a much bigger fan of pool swimming, although it feels wrong given you can swim in a pool anywhere.”
“I know, but no one needs to know -- I won’t tell if you won’t,” I joked, looking around conspiratorially. “We can use one of our pools, yours or mine?”
“You have that beautiful infinity pool, let’s use that. Do you even really want to swim or is this just a ploy to get me in a more private location so you can have your way with me?” Alex teased.
“I-I-I, that’s... no, that’s not what I meant at all!!” I stuttered. I honestly hadn’t even been thinking about that, although I could see why he would assume that given the fact that I brought it up immediately following his “little minx” comment. My previous blush was magnified by tenfold, at least. “I’m just getting really hot,” I started to explain, then at Alex’s laughing side eye, I protested, “No, I meant like temperature hot, from the sun, not THAT kind of hot. Oh shut up, I’m going to stop talking now.”
“Shut up? I don’t believe I even said anything.”
“You said plenty with that look and you know it. Butt face.” I grumbled.
“Butt face? Butt face? I haven’t heard that in ages! You are so going to pay for that!” Alex grabbed me and hoisted me over his shoulder, ignoring my laughing screams, as he ran us both into the ocean. “Close your mouth if you don’t want a saline gargle!”
When we emerged from under the waves, he pulled me close to him in the water and murmured into my ear, “You can now disregard that whole ‘close your mouth’ thing I said previously,” as he gave me a deep (and salty) kiss. Since we were already in the water, we ran and played in the surf for a while before packing up and heading back to my house.
Before hitting the pool, we grabbed a quick lunch on the deck. I was unprepared for how secluded the pool felt in comparison to the open public beach we’d been on previously. Swimming in the relatively small space with Alex, with neither of us in many clothes, and the trees sheltering us from the view of everything but the ocean, felt very intimate and seductive. Had I realized that, I might not have made the suggestion to swim there, not that I didn’t enjoy being alone with Alex but it just made me feel a little uneasy about his expectations for what was going to happen.
I hadn’t needed to worry though; as everything had been with Alex, swimming was a fun and relaxed time. We talked and laughed, splashing each other and generally acting like kids most of the time.
We discovered that the best place to be in the pool was leaning up against the outer edge of the pool, where we could look out into the Caribbean Sea at all the boats, big and small, that were passing by. Though we weren’t far apart, with about a foot of space between us, I noticed Alex inching closer and closer to me as we talked. I looked out into the water, away from him, at something he’d pointed to out on the horizon, and when I turned back, we were shoulder to shoulder.
“Don’t think I didn’t notice you sneaking over towards me.” I smiled to take the sting out of my words as I playfully swam backwards away from him.
“And here I thought I was being all stealthy. All my efforts were for nought, it seems, as you’re now farther away from me than ever before.”
I swam back towards him, wanting to be close to him as much as he apparently wanted to be to me. “What did you plan to do with me once you’d gotten within striking distance?” I asked.
“I can honestly say I just wanted to be near you, Charlie, I hadn’t thought much further than that.”
Now that we were face to face, he slid his hands down my arms, linking our hands together under the water. Using our clasped hands, he pulled me closer to his chest. He smiled down at me and I couldn’t resist, I pushed up on tiptoes and softly kissed him. He let go of my hands and wrapped his arms around me, which I appreciated as he could then hold me up so we were closer to the same height. It was incredibly erotic to feel his entire body pressed up against mine in the water, particularly when I was no longer touching the bottom of the pool and swayed towards him with the movement of the water.
It was incredibly difficult to not just let my legs float up and wrap around his body as the kiss got deeper and more intense but, after my behavior the night before (at least the parts I could actually remember), I wanted to show a little bit more restraint. Especially as I had no desire to actually have sex in the pool right then. Alex too seemed aware of how quickly things could escalate in that setting and kept things very PG. Well, maybe PG-13, but he kept his kisses to my neck and above and his hands moved against my back but he never touched any other part of my body.
With one last kiss on my nose, Alex moved slightly back from me, keeping his hands on the bare skin of my waist. “For dinner tonight, how about we have your villa’s staff set up a picnic on the beach for us? I saw it suggested in one of the brochures, they’ll make it all and bring it down, and it’s not your typical picnic -- it said that it comes complete with china and linen on a picnic table.”
“That sounds amazing. I’ll put a call in as soon as we get out, is there anything in particular you want to eat or should I just let the chef pick something out?”
“I’m sure whatever they pick will be great. I’m not sure about your chef, but everything prepared by mine has been fantastic.”
“I actually haven’t used ours at all, but I know she’s supposed to be great -- the employee that showed us the villa said she’s been here for 25 plus years. And this doesn’t seem like the type of place that would keep around someone that was subpar. Anyway, Maggie went with Jack the second day we were here and I felt bad about having her cook for just one person, so I’ve just been eating out or fixing something for myself. I know it’s silly to not be using such an awesome feature of staying here, but I just didn’t want to put her out.”
“You’re too kind, Charlie, clearly much nicer than I am.” He gave me a quick kiss on my hair. “Rather than going to my place, is it ok if I just shower here before dinner? I threw some extra clothes in my bag this morning when I went home to shower, in case we decided to go out for lunch so I can just wear that for dinner, if that’s fine with you? You can go first though as I imagine it takes you longer to get ready -- without shaving, I only need a couple minutes.”
“Of course, I have all the stuff you’ll need in there. I’ll set out a clean towel for you when I’m done.”
We got out of the pool, drying ourselves quickly with towels to avoid dripping all over the interior of the house. I called in our request for a picnic dinner and jumped in the shower, leaving Alex out on the deck with a drink, his book, and some music. Once I was done and Alex was taking his turn, I grabbed my makeup bag and clothes to give him a bit of privacy and went to use Maggie’s bathroom, knowing she wouldn’t mind at all, even if she were staying here.
I kept my makeup very light and natural as we were dining outside and put on yet another casual short dress, this time wisely pairing it with flip flops. I went out into the living room to wait for Alex and he came out of my room at almost the same time.
“Hi.” I smiled at him from across the room. He looked delicious, as always.
“Hi,” he returned. “You look perfect.”
“Thanks, you too.” I walked over beside him. “You’ll be happy to see that I wore more comfortable shoes tonight so no dramatic scenes tonight regarding my footwear. Are you ready to go?”
The picnic was as fabulous as it had been described. Our chef, fully uniformed despite the casual setting, prepared a delicious meal for us consisting of Greek salads, grilled mahi-mahi with anchovy sauce, and, for dessert, an insanely delicious orange marmalade soufflé. We devoured everything in front of us and I decided then and there that I was going to use the chef’s services the rest of the trip, no more of this feeling bad for making her cook for one. It was too good to deny myself.
After we finished our dinner and thanked the chef profusely, Alex suggested a walk down the beach to watch the sunset. As we were on the west side of the island, we had an incredible view of the sun sinking slowly into the water. I’d tried to watch the sunset every night I’d been there because it was so magnificent, but being on the beach, hand in hand with Alex, was by far the best experience I’d had. As the sun finally dropped out of sight, Alex took me into his arms and we kissed. At that moment, I knew -- I was going to sleep with this man. Everything in me wanted to and I couldn’t think of a single reason to delay it past this evening. Meeting Alex had been entirely unplanned, but as much as the control freak inside me wanted to disagree, most of the best things in life are often those that are the most unexpected. And who was I to fight that?