Quaid’s staring cockily at me from the side of the boat, one brow up and a smug grin plastered on his face.
Of course it was him.
The asshole.
“Just protecting my Princess’s virtue.” He shrugs unapologetically.
I roll my eyes. He sure as fuck wasn’t doing a good job of “protecting” Valentina’s virtue the other night. It took everything in me not to rush into the room with the way she was screaming out so loud.
Lucky fucker.
Even though the water’s cold, it still doesn’t stop me from getting hard at the thought of it being me in that room with her. I don’t know what I’m waiting for.
She’s given me all the signals that she’s ready.
She’s certainly catching up for lost time with Quaid and Logan. I’ve been in a perpetual state of turned on from the way these three can’t seem to keep their hands off each other.
Again, what am I waiting for?
Valentina leans over the side of the boat, unfortunately giving Adonis a perfect view of her ass that he is fully taking advantage of.
I can’t kill the tour guide, I reminded myself. I can’t kill the tour guide.
At least not while we’re still on the water. I can however, be persuaded to murder the fucker if Valentina decides to invite him to the little harem she’s created for herself. It’s a nasty thought, and I know that would never be something Valentina would do.
But I’m irrationally angry right now. And therein lies the problem.
Despite the fact that I’m the one who brought us all back together, I still have a lot of anger inside of me. And surprisingly to me, it’s not necessarily about having to share her. It’s just about everything. About time lost. About her leaving in the first place. About how mysterious she’s being right now, with her guarded secrets and gentle smiles to discourage us from demanding the truth out of her.
I know all is not how it seems.
Add my self-imposed celibacy into the mix, and I’m all sorts of fucked up.
I’ve always liked sex…a bit rough.
I’m afraid that if I do give in to my urges and finally take Valentina to bed, that I’ll unleash a monster her fragile body won’t be able to handle. That I would be too rough with her because of my rage.
I’m an asshole, but I would never intentionally want to hurt her. I’d rather hurt myself.
Which is what I’m doing, walking around with blue balls all the fucking time for the last few weeks.
“How’s the water?” Valentina asks, leaning over the boat to touch the water.
“Why don’t you come in and find out?”
Right as I say that, Logan scoops her up in his arms and jumps into the water, sending a wave of water right at my face.
For the second time in less than five minutes, I find myself sputtering out seawater.
I hear Valentina’s laughter, and any annoyance I have disappears right away. Valentina used to laugh all the time when we were younger. Now her laughter is few and far between. I’m sure she would say the same about me though too. Although, the difference is that I’ve never smiled very much, least of all laughed.
Only really for her.
Valentina swims over to me after attempting to dunk Logan, something he obviously goes along with, because we’re all as pussy-whipped over this woman as one can be.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers softly, in that sweet way of hers that always manages to break down my defenses.
I pull her towards me, and she wraps her legs around me, something my stiff cock did not need. She must notice my erection, but she doesn’t say anything, she just cradles my cheek with her hand and looks at me like I’m a much better man than I am.
I’ve somehow always been Prince Charming in her head, while in anyone else’s story, I would have been the villain.
“You don’t have anything to apologize for,” I say begrudgingly, not sure if I mean the words that are coming out of my mouth.
“Do you think you’ll ever be able to forgive me?” she asks.
Logan begins to swim over to us. “Let’s talk about this later. Dinner tonight, just me and you.”
Her eyes light up, and I can’t believe that I’m lucky enough to be able to see that. I can’t believe that she has that look for me.
Logan tugs her away from me as Quaid cannonballs in, splashing all of us. I feel like a kid again. Memories of our summers swimming in the little river back in San Antonio dance in all of our minds, and for the next hour, we swim and splash each other, trying to recreate the best years of our lives.
I’m chasing after Valentina in the water when all of a sudden, she screams.
“Shark!”
She frantically begins to swim towards the boat as I look around for a fin. There’s a cackle in the air as a dolphin darts up in front of the boat, jumping out of the water not more than ten feet away. Valentina stops swimming, her face an ashen color. Logan swoops in and grabs hold of her, comforting her from her terror-filled moment.
I look over at Quaid, and he’s struggling not to laugh. And then suddenly, both of us are laughing. Valentina tries to look mad, but soon she gives in to the fit of giggles and bursts out laughing right along with us. I’m not going to admit how fast my heart started racing at the thought of a shark being nearby, since the scare was worth it just to hear her laugh.
Adonis calls out that lunch is ready, and we all swim back over to the boat.
Quaid and I both glare when Adonis helps Valentina get on the boat, making sure to touch as much of her naked waist as possible.
You can’t kill him, I remind myself again.
There’s a spread of various kinds of cold meats, breads, crackers, and cheese waiting for us on a large tray, and we dig in.
Valentina asks Adonis what it was like growing up here, and he regales us with stories that pretty much sound like what growing up in paradise would be like, if I’d ever stopped to imagine it.
“We should get a vacation house here,” Quaid interjects, looking around at all of us. “We could all pitch in, and it would be a place that we could just get away from it all. I bet we could find one while we’re here this week and get it all set up.”
Logan nods, interested, but Valentina’s gone even paler than she was at the threat of the shark. She looks like Quaid’s offered to off someone rather than buy a vacation home.
Quaid looks at Valentina eagerly. “What do you say?”
Valentina takes a long sip of her lemonade, obviously stalling. “Maybe we should wait on home purchases until we figure everything out,” she finally replies.
A somber dark silence ensues.
I say dark, because none of us take what she just said very well. Because it sounds like she’s thinking this thing between us is still temporary.
“Excuse me?” Quaid rebukes, and there’s a threat in his voice that’s a far cry from the class clown persona Quaid always seems to have going on.
Even Logan looks pissed, and he’d probably jump into shark-infested waters if she asked him to.
The anger inside of me, that’s always waiting there just under the surface, grows.
Valentina looks startled, like she doesn’t quite know what’s going on or why Quaid would be talking to her like that.
Adonis, who’s been listening avidly, finally figures out this isn’t the kind of “fun” conversation he should stick around for. Astutely, he takes his lunch and heads to the cabin area of the boat to give us some semblance of privacy.