“I’m really glad I ran into you,” he says. “You know, the Junkanoo festival is this week. Are you going? I’ve never been, but it’s supposed to be like a cross between Mardi Gras and the Fourth of July. Or maybe more like one of those big luaus they have in Hawaii.”
“I might check it out. Sounds like it could be a blast.”
“It’s supposed to be a really big deal at this resort. The concierge said that guests from all the other hotels on the beach come here to participate, too. There’s live music, costumes, a parade…”
“I’m sure there’s great food, too,” I muse. “Have you had fried conch yet?”
“Not yet.”
“You’ve got to try it,” I tell him, realizing I’m slurring my words a little. “Anything with conch, really. You can’t vacation in the islands without eating your fill. Or ‘conching out,’ as I like to say.”
Ted laughs at my dumb joke, but suddenly all I’m thinking about is that first day I met Sebastian on the beach and offered him my conch salad. My mood deflates a little. Yes, I’m enjoying my time with Ted, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but I can’t help wishing he was someone else.
Not that I can fault Sebastian for not being here. He didn’t know I was coming to the beach bar. Neither of us reached out to the other after I abandoned him with my parents at the hotel restaurant, and maybe it’s better that way. Maybe it’s best to let our brief affair fade into memory already.
But as I look over at Ted and find him smiling warmly at me, I get the urge to be done with this flirtation. I don’t want him to get the impression that we’re going back to one of our roomstogether, and honestly, I don’t think I can stand to be on this hot, crowded beach for one more minute.
“I think I’m gonna call it a night,” I say with a rueful smile.
To my relief, he doesn’t try to talk me into staying longer. He just stands and helps me up from the chair. I bend over to grab my coverup and as I struggle to get my arms into it, I waver a bit on my feet.
“My heels clearly aren’t made for the sand,” I say with a laugh, toeing them off, and he’s gentlemanly enough to pick them up and hand them to me.
“You going to be okay getting back to your room?”
“Oh, of course. I’ll be fine.”
“Cool. Well, it was really nice to meet you, Blair. I hope we run into each other again.”
“You too, Ted. Have a good night.”
As I walk away in my bare feet as steadily as possible, I realize he mentioned the Junkanoo but didn’t invite me to go with him. He didn’t ask for my number, either. I feel equally jilted and relieved.
12
SEBASTIAN
Today has feltlike the longest fucking workday I’ve ever experienced. Between the high of my sexcapades with Sunshine—Blair, I remind myself—and the visceral shock of seeing her at the hotel restaurant with the Tisdales afterward, not to mention my incredibly frustrating efforts to train Daisy properly for the concierge position, I’m ready to go to my residential suite and crash out in front of the big-screen TV for the night, maybe with an order of pad thai or some sushi. I could use a reward.
I’m still reeling with the knowledge that I’ve fucked one of the agency’s bachelorettes. It’s not just unprofessional, it’s forbidden. Unfortunately, the fact that Blair is off-limits is only making my craving for her even more powerful. The more I try to convince myself I’ll never touch her again, the more my balls ache, the more I’m haunted by the memory of her pussy clenching around my cock, the taste of her sweet juice on my tongue. I need to get it together. Shake her off.
But as I stride through one of the back corridors of the resort, responding to one last work email on my phone, a door swings open down the hall, and the familiar scent of sandalwood hits my nose.
My head whips up and I take in a pair of blue eyes, a mass of blond waves, and the easy smile that’s had me hooked since the first day I met her. Sunshine. Blair. No—Miss Tisdale. That’s all she is to me now. And she’s walking toward me in the tiniest string bikini I’ve ever seen, her coverup flaring out to her sides, her tits bouncing with each high-heeled step. Fuck.
“Good evening, Miss Tisdale,” I say in my most professional tone. “Can I help you with something?”
She stops in front of me, just out of arm’s reach. “Actually, maybe you can.”
I catch the faint scent of masculine cologne and gin mixed with her perfume, and a surge of jealousy has me seeing red. I try to shove the feeling of possessiveness away. The ill-advised fling I had with Blair Tisdale is over. It’s no concern of mine what she’s been getting up to, nor with whom.
Locking her gaze onto mine, she suddenly sways a little on her heels, and that’s when all reason flies out the window and my protective instincts go into overdrive.
“Did something happen? Did someone…take advantage?” I ask, my skin crawling at the thought of another man touching her without her consent.
“No,” she says, cocking a hip at me as her smile widens. “Not yet anyway.”
I don’t miss the fact that she’s flirting, daring me to make a move, giving me those come-hither eyes. But even if I hadn’t just sworn her off, there’s no denying the fact that she’s drunk. And even if I can be a wolf sometimes, when it comes to intoxicated women, I am nothing if not a perfect gentleman.
