It’s warm, but it still cools me down.
I’m just wading down the side of my villa when I hear that deep, husky voice that I’ve very quickly become familiar with, and it sends shivers skating up my spine. Along with the embarrassment filling my chest. I seem to feel that particular emotion around him a lot.
“Should I ask why you’re in the lagoon, fully clothed?”
Of course he’d catch me doing something weird right after our little flirty moment. Because, you know, life hates me.
I turn to look at him. The sun beating down has me shading my eyes. He’s wearing shorts but different ones. These look like running shorts, and he has running shoes on his feet. But the chest is still bare. Yay for me.
“Thought I would check and see if I’d left the door to the deck open. Save me going all the way to reception to get a key.”
He nods. “Good idea.”
“I thought so.” I grin, and he smiles back at me.
“Well, I’m going for a run. You want me to stick around while you check the door?”
“Nope, I’m good. But thanks for the offer.”
“Okay. Later then.” He waves a hand and takes off jogging down the jetty.
Yes, I stand there in the water and watch until he disappears from my sight. I wasn’t going to miss out on the chance to watch him running. All those muscles flexing.
I turn back around and wade my way around my villa until I reach the steps. Grabbing the handrail, I hoist myself up and climb the stairs.
Reaching the top, I see the sliding door is wide open. Bingo!
Finally, something has gone right for me. Unless I’ve been robbed, that is.
Not that I have much to steal. I didn’t bring a lot of money, as it’s all-inclusive here, and my iPhone isn’t the latest one. It’s actually a couple of numbers back.
I walk inside, dropping my shoes onto the floor, and see the champagne bottle I emptied last night, discarded on the bed. At least one of us got to sleep on it.
I check my bag and find everything still in there, including my phone, of which the battery is dead and needs charging. Pretty sure I forgot to ring Aunt Jenny—unless that’s one of the things I did remember to do.
I’ll charge it up later. First, shower.
six
Dillon
While I was having my breakfast, consisting solely of carbs and caffeine, Najam—the really sweet receptionist who checked me in yesterday—came over to my table. She’d forgotten to give me my itinerary of activities yesterday, which I’d already booked and paid for long before arriving here. Most of them are the things that the prick wanted to do. There is only one thing on there that I picked out and booked—an island hop, where you get to go and spend the day on a small private island with just the two of you. Not sure I fancy doing that alone. I’d literally shit myself and have visions of being forgotten about and abandoned there, alone for the rest of my life. I have an overactive imagination, okay? That’s what having the mind of a writer is like.
And it appears that I’m snorkeling today. For fuck’s sake. All I wanted to do was eat my breakfast and then lie on a sun lounger and read a book.
I don’t even care about snorkeling. It was the prick who wanted to do it.
“We need to experience everything while we’re there, Dill,” he said.
He forgot to mention that he was also experiencing my mother.
And honestly, I always hated it when he called me Dill. I’m not a bloody herb, for Christ’s sake. Ugh. Total twunting prick. Whom I will not be giving another thought or brain cell to for at least the rest of today.
So, now, I’m on my way to the boat dock—after a quick trip back to my villa to change out of the bikini I had put on under my shorts and tank top, which I’d planned to spend the whole day sunbathing in, and now, I have on a more sensible swimsuit. I figure I’ll need to be a bit more covered up to go snorkeling. Alone.
Yay for me.
I wonder what West is up to today.
I haven’t seen him since he took off for his run. He wasn’t at breakfast, although I did eat late due to showering, washing my hair, and finally unpacking my suitcase.
But I wasn’t looking for him, obviously.
Well, I was. But just so I could avoid him.
Suuure.
Okay, I wasn’t looking to avoid him. I’m not actually sure why I was looking for him at all.
When it comes to West, I don’t know if I want to hide from him or jump into those strong arms of his, which I already did last night when I climbed up that big body and made him carry me back to the villa. So, yeah, it’s probably best to refrain from all urges to leap into his arms the next time I do see him. I already made a massive twat out of myself last night. Best not to keep adding more twattish behavior to it.
Thinking about last night though and how kind West was to me, looking after my drunken arse and letting me crash in his bed, maybe I should have offered him the empty place I have on this snorkeling trip, which was meant to be the prick’s. I mean, it is already bought and paid for, and he was really nice to me last night.
Although I guess it might be a bit weird, inviting a total stranger on a random snorkeling trip with me.
Only he’s not a total stranger. I slept in his bed last night and spent the evening drinking in the bar with him even if I do only remember the tiniest portion of it.
I don’t know why I’m even stressing over this. He’s probably already got plans today with whomever he’s here on the island with. And I’m still not sure whether he’s single or seeing someone even though that itch in my brain is telling me I know the answer and that he’s single, but I don’t know if that’s actual truth from something I learned in my inebriated state last night or just wishful thinking on my part.
No, not wishful thinking! Because it doesn’t matter to me either way if he’s single, married, or has a harem. I’m here on this honeymoon turned single girl trip for no other reason than to heal my wounded heart. Not hook up with a gorgeous American dude. Even if he does look like the love child of Brad Pitt as Achilles and Chris Hemsworth as Thor and is the hottest man I have ever seen.
Ever.
Yes, the second ever was needed.
Not that any of this matters anyway because I didn’t offer him the ticket and I’m stressing out my hungover brain with crap that has zero relevance or point in my life.
Okay, so I’m just going to stop thinking about it now and try to enjoy this solo snorkeling trip of mine.
I walk out of the cover of the palm trees and across the beach. I can feel how hot the sand is, even with my flip-flops on. It’s a scorcher of a day. I already applied sunscreen, but I’m glad I put a bottle of it in my beach bag because I’m gonna need another application. I have pretty good skin. I don’t burn and tan easily. But I don’t want to age my skin prematurely or risk skin cancer, so I always apply a good factor sunscreen in the heat.
Leaving the beach, I step up onto the jetty, where a group of people are already standing under the cover of the open building that sits at the end. To the right is another smaller building, which looks like a hut, and next to that sits a docked boat—or dhoni, as they are called here in the Maldives—which I’m guessing is what will be taking us out to the reefs today.