I watch him walk out of the gated pool area onto the beach.
“Hugo, wait.”
He turns around and says, “If I had real money, I would show you what a real big romantic gesture is,” he says.
And with that, he walks away.
The hairy knuckled man has wandered away too, and soon Stella returns to the pool.
Let’s go for a dip in the ocean,” I suggest. “I need to clear my head.”
“Everything OK?” Stella asks.
I nod. “Yeah. No. I don’t know. It’s been a weird morning.”
Without another word, Stella slips her arm through mine and we wander out into the surf together. I dive into the waves head first, because there is nothing quite like sticking my head underwater to block out the silliness of the world around me.
Chapter 15
Hugo
She looks like Venus emerging from the sea, and I feel like a perv.
I’m home, dammit. I’m just trying to enjoy my day on my boat on the water, and she’s right there. I’m not trying to peep, but she’s ... right ... there.
God, look at her. All wild hair and tanned curves, dripping in saltwater, and nearly naked in a brightly colored, barely-there bikini.
Fuck me. The memory of holding her close to me, caressing those breasts, kissing those nipples, owning that incredible ass is slamming back into my memory. Even more precious is the memory of holding her as she slept.
The bottom of her swimsuit is tied together with strings and all I can think is how easy it would be to take one string and give it one gentle tug.
And take what’s mine.
This is wrong.
I’m going insane.
And then I hear her laughing with her friend, and I remember how madly I love her sweet spirit. Right or wrong, I love this woman.
And I have to have her.
But she doesn’t want big gestures, she doesn’t want my undying admiration, and she doesn’t want to be rescued.
I’ll sit here and wait until she’s ready to give me a chance. I can wait forever if I have to.
Chapter 16
Laney
Well shit.
This was supposed to be a sight-seeing day but the rain is coming down in buckets, so our crew decides to gather at Stella and Luke’s hut to play some Uno and wait out the rain.
As I’m chopping fruit for a salad to snack on while we play, something feels off.
I gather up my courage to ask the family if they mind if I invite a guest to join us. Hugo hasn’t bothered me in two whole days. He’s just there, on the deck of a barely-seaworthy sailboat in his marina, doing his best to mind his own business.
And it’s killing me.