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“I know. I thought it might be easier to take a bath.” She gestured to the separate tub. Truthfully, she’d forgotten that she had to keep her foot dry. That seemed to be the least of her problems. The total loss of memory about what had happened last night was her major concern.
“There’s probably a plastic laundry bag somewhere if you’d like me to seal up your foot.”
That sounded like a better idea. A long soak in the tub would feel wonderful, but if she wanted to wash her hair, the shower would be best. “Good idea, but I can handle it myself.”
Bree heard Nick go outside and she searched the room for the laundry bag while trying to put two and two together. The hard part was that she had no two and two to put together. Her memory was completely blank.
She had drunk a lot more than she usually allowed herself, that much was clear. After she’d passed out in the doctor’s office, embarrassing herself beyond measure, she remembered coming to and finding the doctor almost finished stitching her foot. Nick had actually been very sweet by distracting her while the nurse gave her a tetanus booster shot. Bree moved her arm tentatively, happy that it didn’t hurt too much, at least not yet. Although nothing was as bad as her headache at the moment.
She remembered Nick walking her back to her cabin. But wait a minute... They’d stopped walking when they’d heard laughing in the distance and Bree had recognized her girlfriends’ voices. So they’d followed the sound to the hot tub. Right, the hot tub.
Amber had been curled up in a towel on a lounge chair, an empty champagne bottle on the ground next to her. Hannah had sat on the edge of the pool, dangling her feet in the water. Roxie. What had Roxie been doing? Oh, right. She’d been in the hot tub with a couple of other people.
She remembered something else, but had no clue how much time had passed between the two memories. There was something about a boat. Had they been on a boat?
The rest was a blank until she woke up this morning next to Nick. At least they’d been fully clothed.
Had they slept together? Evidence pointed to them doing just what Nick had suggested. Sleeping or—more precisely—passing out.
Nick walked back into the cabin then, ending her musings. He headed directly to the small kitchen sink in the corner of the cabin and washed his hands.
“Have you been tested?” she asked.
He spun around. “Tested?”
“Yes. Have you been tested for...for STDs?” The thought that she might have been so stupid made her stomach roil.
“Did you remember something from last night?” he asked, instead. He turned away to finish washing his hands as if she’d merely inquired about the time.
“I don’t like to take chances in case something happened between us. Just answer the question. Have you, or have you not, been tested recently?” She could barely breathe, anticipating his reply.
He dried his hands on the towel hanging on the side of the upper cupboard and finally faced her, a dead serious look on his face.
“Yes, I’ve been tested. You don’t have to worry.” He was hiding an emotion that Bree couldn’t quite decipher.
“You don’t have to worry about me, either,” she said quickly, in case that was what his reaction was about. Her gynecologist tested her yearly, but you had to be having unprotected sex to contract an STD.
That counted her out since she hadn’t had sex since—
“Did you find a plastic bag?” he asked.
She was happy to change the subject. “No, I got distracted.” Trying to remember if she’d screwed up last night.
He walked to the closet next to the bathroom door and opened it. He reached in for the dry-cleaning bag hanging there. “This will work perfectly. Do you have a rubber band or something to go around your leg to seal it?”
She nodded and hobbled to the bathroom where she had a hair scrunchie she thought would fit over her foot and ankle. He’d followed her and she handed it to him.
“Sit down over there.” He pointed to the closed toilet.
“I told you I can do it myself.”
“I heard you the first time,” he said. “But if your head feels anything like mine, then it’s going to explode if you lean over.”
As much as she wanted to argue, she knew he was probably right.
She took a seat and watched the top of his head as he dealt with the plastic bag, wrapping it tightly enough around her ankle to keep out water. He looked up at her and asked, “Is that too tight?”
She shook her head, and that same vague memory came to her as his gaze met hers. She couldn’t wrap her head around it because it didn’t make sense. “Were we on a boat last night?”
“A boat?” he asked. “You remember being on the boat, too?”
So there was a boat.
She nodded slightly. “We were all there. You, me, my friends.” She paused. “Wait. There was another guy there, too.”
“Pete. Pete Buchanan.”
She nodded. “Yes. That sounds familiar.”
“He’s my cousin, although he’s legally my brother. My parents raised him after his mom and dad were killed in a car accident when he was eight.”
“Oh, that’s terrible,” she said. “So it was his boat we were on?”
“No, we borrowed it from a friend of his who lives in San Juan. This vacation was all Pete’s idea. He thought I needed to get away, stop focusing on work so much.”
“Sounds familiar,” she said. “That’s exactly what the girls said to me. ‘Go have a vacation fling,’ they said. ‘You work too hard.’”
“I guess we have that in common,” he said quietly.
He was being very nice to her, and she hadn’t been as thankful as she should be. In fact, she’d been openly hostile. Opening her mouth to speak, she was suddenly very aware that he still had his hand on her calf. Their eyes met and she couldn’t look away. Without thinking she put her hand to his bearded cheek, remembering the softness of it when he’d kissed her on the beach.
She wanted him to kiss her again. In fact, she wanted more than a kiss. She wanted him. All of him. She wanted to take her girlfriends’ advice and have that vacation fling.
With Nick.
She leaned in and he did, too. When their mouths met, she knew for sure that nothing had happened between them last night except for that kiss on the beach. She definitely would have recalled the electricity between them.
Nick rose, pulling her up with him until they were both standing. He deepened the kiss and her body kept screaming that she wanted more.
He suddenly lifted her, and her legs wrapped around his waist. He carried her to the bed without removing his mouth from hers. She touched him everywhere she could reach—his back, his hair, his face, his arms, his butt. She couldn’t get enough.
He caressed her, as well, his large hands learning her body. When he stopped kissing her suddenly and pulled back to look her in the eyes, she groaned. She didn’t want him to stop. She didn’t want this to be a repeat of how he’d ended their kiss on the beach.
“Are you completely sober?” A strange question to ask her at this moment.
“Yes, I’m sober. Why?” She ran her hand down his chest to his abs, lingering on the button at his waistband.
He grabbed her hand and held it in his. “I’m serious. I don’t take advantage of inebriated women. I’m pretty sure neither of us was in good enough shape to do anything last night, but if you’re sure you’re sober enough to consent—” he grinned and waggled his eyebrows “—then I plan on taking full advantage.”
She grinned back. “Would you like it in writing or is my word good enough?”
His answer came in his extremely adept actions. Words were definitely unnecessary.
CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_5f1eec34-b02d-56db-b2da-df2509aaa536)
QUITE A WHILE LATER, after a most satisfying time in bed, Bree and Nick moved their activities to the shower. Still breathing hard, Nick reached around Bree’s wet and sexy body to turn off the water. She was facing away from him, and when she leaned back into him, she ran her hands up and down the outside of his wet thighs. He kissed the side of her neck and pressed his hand to her abdomen. He slowly inched upward until he cupped her breast, teasing her nipple between his thumb and forefinger.
He kissed her shoulder and groaned. “You feel so good,” he whispered close to her ear before reaching for a towel for her and then one for him.
“Need help?” he asked when she turned toward him as he toweled off his hair.
She grinned back. “I think you’ve been quite enough help, thank you.”
He opened the glass shower door and exited, wrapping his towel around his waist and securing it.
“I’m starving,” he said as his stomach growled. “Want to grab breakfast?”
When she didn’t say anything, he turned to look at her. She’d wrapped her towel around her body and now held on to it tightly between her breasts. She seemed to be surprised by his question.
“It’s just a meal,” he said. “I could use some coffee and about a gallon of water. Plus food.”
“I know. But...the girls will be expecting me.” She removed the wet laundry bag from her foot and tossed it into the trash can.
“Sure. I understand. I hope they’re feeling better than we were when we woke up.” He grinned. “My head still feels like it could explode any minute.”
“Could have fooled me,” she quipped as she ran a comb through her hair. “Your head didn’t seem to bother you a little while ago.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, I think I may have found the perfect hangover cure.”
She smiled at him in the mirror and he felt an unfamiliar twist in his gut. He really enjoyed being with her. “Maybe we can get together later today. You’re here until tomorrow, right?”
“Right. We leave tomorrow. I don’t remember what time. I’ll have to check and see what the girls have planned.” She sounded hesitant.
“Is something wrong?” He suddenly felt slightly unsure of himself.
She hobbled past him to the bathroom door and turned to face him. “No, nothing’s wrong.” She smiled, a pleasant smile. Almost a sympathetic smile. One to let him down easy? “I’ve had a great time with you, Nick—”
“But that’s it,” he finished for her. He raised his hands. “Hey, I get it. A vacation fling and all that. What happens here, stays here.” He could feel his blood pressure rising as he spoke. “We both have lives to get back to.”
“You’re not upset, are you? I thought you’d be relieved that I’m not going to become clingy just because we had sex.”
He should be feeling relief. He’d come here for the same reason. To relax for a few days before returning home to the problems that were mounting for him there.
He didn’t need to add another to the list.
“You’re right. Anything more right now isn’t an option for me anyway.”
“Same here,” Bree said. “My friends say I’m married to my job.”
“And what do you say?”
“I say I’m dedicated to my company and have no time or interest in a relationship.”
* * *
AFTER NICK LEFT, Bree limped around her cabin as she slowly got dressed. She could tell that Nick hadn’t liked that she’d been the one to say that nothing would come of the good time they’d had together. She really liked Nick, but she also knew that being in a relationship would take up too much of her time and she wanted to focus on her company right now.
She braided her wet hair and made her way toward the breakfast buffet in the main lodge of the resort, although she had no appetite. Which was surprising after all the physical activity she and Nick had engaged in. In fact, the mere thought of food had her stomach reacting negatively. What she really wanted was coffee. Maybe that would help this awful hangover, because the large amounts of water she’d consumed in her cabin hadn’t done a thing for her.
As soon as she entered the large dining room, she nearly left again but was stopped by her friends waving to her. The smell of the food was upsetting her stomach even more. She was definitely avoiding alcohol for the near—and far—future.
Maybe she just needed dry toast and some precious coffee. She was well-known for not being able to function without several cups of the stuff during the day. So she headed to her friends’ table, and they pulled up another chair for her to join them. They all started speaking to her at once.
“How are you feeling?” Hannah wanted to know.
“You don’t look so good,” Amber said, not hiding the truth. “Is your foot bothering you?”
“Why don’t I get you a coffee,” Roxie suggested, and left the table before Bree could reply.
“My foot’s the least of my problems. Can someone tell me what happened last night, please?” She looked directly at Amber and then Hannah. Although after what had taken place between her and Nick this morning, it didn’t matter so much whether they had done the nasty during the night. She’d just like to fill in the missing hours in her memory bank.
“You don’t remember?” Amber asked, while Hannah seemed to go slightly pale.
“I wouldn’t be asking if I remembered.”
Roxie set a cup of black coffee in front of Bree. One whiff of it nearly did her in, and she pushed the cup away.
“You really must not be feeling well,” Hannah said unnecessarily. “You never turn down coffee. Can I get you something else?”
When Bree could answer without gagging, she said, “Maybe dry toast.”
“I’ll be right back.”
“Thanks,” Bree whispered as Hannah left the table.
“Maybe you should go lie down for a while,” Roxie suggested.
Bree shook her head. Her hands flew to her temples as she reminded herself not to shake her head unless she wanted the feeling of a jackhammer through her skull. How had she managed to have incredible sex with such a terrible hangover? Obviously, her body had compensated for her discomfort. Not that sex with Nick had been anything but spectacular.
“I’m not going anywhere until I find out what happened last night.” She paused, squinting her eyes. “Were we on a boat?”
The women grinned. “Yep,” Amber said. “Nick and his cousin, Pete, took a boat here from San Juan. Too bad you don’t remember anything because you were having a great time.”
“Yeah, but you weren’t very good at the drinking game we were playing,” Hannah said as she set a plate with dry toast in front of Bree. “That’s probably why you don’t feel so good now.”
Bree gave her a forced smile, knowing better than to nod her head. “Nick told me about Pete. They were raised as brothers after Pete’s parents died.”
A collective “oh” came from her friends.
