“This is aguest room?” she asked.
“One of them.” It wasn’t a lie.
Jacqueline gave me a look but didn’t argue, setting her bag down near the bed, then moving to the doors leading to the balcony. “That’s going to be an incredible view to wake up to.”
“One of many,” I said before I could stop myself. I quickly cleared my throat and started backing toward the door. “It’s definitely worth the flight, but in order to wake up to a gorgeous view, you need to get some sleep. We’ll figure everything else out in the morning. Good night, Jacque.”
“What about you?” she asked. “Where are you sleeping?”
“Another room,” I said, jerking my thumb down the hall. “Second door to the left from you.”
“Alright.” She nodded, already turning back toward the view. “Good night, then.”
“Sleep tight.” I spun around and left her to it, heading to my own room and shutting the door behind me, but knowing that she was so close kept me up much longer than I’d anticipated.
After grabbing a quick shower and getting into bed, I just lay there, staring at the ceiling with the faint sound of the ocean drifting in through the open window and my brain refusing to shut off.
Frankly, I was excited, but not for the boring show of bopping around with investors. Instead, I was thinking about her and all the things we could do together. There were a lot of ridiculous, unnecessary activities people like me paid too much money for, and I wanted to pay for it all to get to share it with her.
I must’ve dozed off eventually, because the next thing I knew, a screech tore through the house, yanking me out of a weird, overtly sexual dream.
I was out of bed before I was even fully awake, adrenaline hitting fast and hard. I yanked open the door and ran down the hall in nothing but my boxers. My heart was pounding as I skidded around the corner, every sense on high alert. After that dream, I was on edge, a little heated, and a lot confused.
“What?” I shouted, scanning the space as the kitchen came into view. “What’s wrong?”
Jacqueline stoodonthe kitchen island, barefoot and clutching a frying pan like she was about to go to war. Her hair was a sleep-tangled mess, her eyes wide and locked on something on the floor. I blinked a few times, starting to think that there was no intruder.
“What are you doing?” I asked, still half ready for a fight. “What’s with the frying pan?”
“There,” she snapped, pointing downward. “It’s right there, Jesse.”
I followed her line of sight until I finally spotted the problem. Not a burglar but local wildlife. A rather large millipede was making its way across the floor, but the many-legged monstrosity, while hideous, couldnothave been the reason for that sound.
“That’s it?” I asked, scrubbing both hands over my face in an attempt to calm my heartbeat after that rude awakening. “It’s not even dangerous.”
“Itcrawled over my foot,” she retorted, clearly horrified. “I was making coffee!”
I bit back a laugh but put my hands up in surrender. “Yeah, okay. Just stay there, City Girl.”
She finally lifted her eyes away from it to scowl at me. “That thing attacked, and you’re from Chicago.”
I grinned at her before grabbing a glass from the counter and a piece of paper from a drawer. “I’m on it. Don’t worry.”
“Don’t let it get away,” she yelled when I walked around the other side of the counter. “God only knows where it’s going next.”
“It’s not outrunning me, Jaque. We’ll be fine.”
“You don’t know that!” she snapped. “Throw it into the sun. Or the ocean. Or both.”
Once I reached it, I crouched and trapped it quickly in the glass, sliding the paper underneath before carrying it to the door. I tossed it into the yard instead of the sun, then called to her over my shoulder. “Congratulations. You survived your first Hawaiian wildlife encounter.”
Adrenaline was still buzzing under my skin when I got back inside, my heart not quite ready to slow down after the way she’d screamed. I cocked a hip against the counter, exhaling as I looked over at her. “Are you okay?”
She was still on the island, holding the frying pan and glaring at the spot where the millipede had been like it might come back with reinforcements. “No. I hate it here.”
I laughed, eyeing her for a second. My body was definitely still lingering on that dream, but right then, I was more curious about something else that had just occurred to me. “How did you even get up there?”
“I jumped,” she said, incredulity twinkling in her eyes. “It scared me to death!”
