“Until I get home, we’ll keep playing Mathlon. As soon as I get back, I’ll take you out for ice cream. Or whatever you want. I promise.”
Ice cream andMathlon?If I were Cole Campion’s girlfriend, I’d want something better than that. Like a good dicking-down. Funny how in the year we’d worked together, I hadn’t once thought about Cole’s anatomy—aside from a grudging recognition that he looked mighty fine in a suit—but now that I’d seen him in skintight underwear and knew what he was packing, it was all I could think about. It was a good thing he was off-limits. Shit, what if I’d actually tried to land that kiss on his lips, then trailed my hand down under the water to the band of his?—
“Bye. I love you.”
My cheeks grew hot with shame. He had a girlfriend whom he loved, and I was thirsting after him. I was a terrible person. Not only for the thirst, but also for my part in making him miss the holiday with her.
When he rejoined me in line, I said, “You should go. If you leave now, you can still catch your flight home.”
“No, I’ve made arrangements for things back home. We’ll go back together. Meanwhile, I’ll work on a hotel reservation. Would you rather stay in the city or go to the beach?”
“The beach? How far away is that?”
“Not too far. Less than a couple hours’ drive.”
“Then beach.” There would be plenty of activities to occupy me and keep me away from too-tempting Cole. “If that’s all right with you?”
“Sure. We can come back on Sunday and spend the night close to here so we’re in line when the embassy opens. With luck, we could make it home Monday night.”
He’d be back in Cait’s arms in only five days. Good.
“Okay.” I shuffled forward in line. “Though I could still make it in the door today.”
He looked at the fifty people in front of us. “Yeah, right.”
This was one of the many times Cole turned out to be one hundred percent correct.
16
A RIDICULOUS BIKINI
Most-desired superpower?
Cole:Flight. Then Bridget and I wouldn’t have to rely on the airlines.
Bridget:Ooh, that’s a good one! I’ll pick super speed because then I could get more work done faster.
COLE
Bridget O’Brien’s bikini was ridiculous.
It was blue, like her eyes. Blue like the woven vinyl cushions of the loungers we’d settled into at the hotel pool. The bottom was modest, with low-cut leg openings, and the waist rose high, almost to her navel. So there were no more glimpses of her lower butt cheeks.
The top was the ridiculous part. It was a single ruffle. No straps. What was underneath? Was it a spandex wrap? Or only her bare breasts? I’d been praying all morning for a gust of wind to lift the ruffle and prove it one way or the other, but so far, noluck. It was a sunny, windless day, and the ruffle stayed firmly in place over the low swell of her tits.
She turned her face away from me, then back, and lifted her sunglasses. “What are you staring at?”
Shit, I’d been caught. Thank everything holy, I was wearing sunglasses and she couldn’t see what I was actually obsessed with. “I thought I saw a scarlet macaw behind you,” I lied.
“Really?” She turned to peer at the line of nearby trees for almost a minute. With a level of fortitude I didn’t know I had, I didn’t take the opportunity to stare unimpeded at her breasts. “I don’t see it.”
“It’s in that coconut palm. I’ll let you know if it comes out.”
“Thanks. I still can’t get over the fact that birds I’ve only ever seen at the zoo live here.”
“Costa Rica is an amazing place.”
She could’ve reminded me she’d been the one to bring us all here and prove how cost-efficient and valuable the office was, but she didn’t. Instead, she said, “Strange Thanksgiving, huh?”
