He leans over and kisses my neck, my cheek, my hair.
He whispers French words into my ear while he gathers me up in his arms and carries me to his bathroom. I don’t understand a word he says, but maybe I’m not meant to. He’s saying too much, too fast.
We shower together, taking our time as we soap off the massage oil. I touch him in ways I’ve always imagined I would. He’s still hard, but he winces when I wrap my hand around his length. I know he’s overly sensitive, but then so was I. He didn’t go easy on me, so I don’t go easy on him. I drop down to my knees on the cold tile floor as he blocks the stream from pouring down onto me. I wrap my mouth around him and suck until he’s first begging me to stop, and then he’s begging me not to stop.
We’re lost to each other again in that bathroom, and then in his bed.
We don’t make it out of his bedroom the rest of the night.
On the door of the villa hangs a sign: Do not disturb.
And no one does.
Nine
I wake the next morning with an ache between my legs.
That’s never happened to me before. I’ve never had sex so many times I’m physically exhausted from it.
I smile and roll over, peeling my eyes open.
Noah sits in a chair by the terrace window, sipping coffee.
He has his laptop open, and he’s scrolling down, reading something.
I think I’m being sneaky, watching him like this, but apparently not.
“Good morning,” he says, glancing playfully at me.
I smile and burrow deeper beneath the covers. “Morning.”
“Are you hungry?”
“Starved.”
“If you can manage to get out of bed, we can walk down to the restaurant. I forgot to leave our breakfast order on the door last night, and I’m too hungry to wait for room service to arrive.”
Reluctantly, I sit up, realizing a moment too late that I’m completely naked. I yank the sheet up to cover myself, but not before Noah gets an eyeful.
He cocks a brow and shakes his head, not saying a word.
I laugh and do the classic—and frankly, ingenious—move of wrapping the sheet around myself like a toga so I can hobble out of his bedroom and dash across the villa to my own room. I shower and dress quickly, tossing my hair into a braid underneath a white sun hat.
Noah waits for me out in the living room, looking altogether too handsome with his freshly showered hair and slightly unbuttoned shirt.
I’m uneasy as I approach him, wondering if the magic from last night has worn off now that we’ve had an hour apart. He senses my reluctance, sighs, and reaches out for me, gathering me against him so he can drop a kiss to my lips.
“Together, Lindsey. We’re together.”
“Are we?”
“Here and back home,” he assures me, lacing his fingers through mine as we leave the villa and head toward the restaurant.
“What will your sister say?”
“I don’t know. Let’s call her at breakfast.”
My jaw drops. “Are you serious!? She’ll be able to tell something is up immediately. I don’t think I’ve stopped blushing for twenty-four hours.”
He laughs. “That’s sort of the point. I want them to know about us.”
I pick up the pace, my brain starting to work itself into a tizzy. “Okay, right. Yes. We’ll tell her and Connor today—get ahead of the story. We don’t want them to think we’re sneaking around behind their backs.”
I don’t hear what he says because I’m too busy planning what I’ll say to Natalie on the phone.
Once we take our seats at our table and order breakfast—and by order, I mean point to something random on the menu without even looking—I pull out my phone and FaceTime Natalie.
It rings a few times before it finally connects. Connor and Natalie are squashed together on their end of the call, smiling. They’re perfectly adorable and overly eager to hear from us.
It only occurs to me after we’ve all said hello that they shouldn’t be at home right now. It’s a work day.
“What are you guys both doing at home?”
“What? Oh!” Natalie looks at Connor and they immediately speak over one another.
“Connor’s work thing got canceled.”
“I’m doing my work thing online!”
Noah laughs and shakes his head in disbelief.
“What’s really going on?” I ask skeptically.
Natalie blanches. “All right…so, Connor didn’t really have a work thing, but in our defense, Noelle really was sick.”
“With ear infections?”
“Well…she had a runny nose. We weren’t sure if it would develop into ear infections!”
“You guys are SUCH LIARS!” I say, unable to stem my laughter. “If Connor didn’t have to work and Noelle wasn’t sick, why’d you both bail on our trip!?”
Natalie squirms and looks to Connor for backup, but he holds up his hands as if not wanting anything to do with this situation.
“You tell her,” he says. “It was your idea in the first place!”
Natalie groans. “Okay, hear me out. You’re finally single, and so is Noah. I’ve seen the way you two have danced around each other for years—”
“We have not!” I protest, though I know we absolutely have.
“Anyway, I just thought if there was ever a time for you two to really get to know each other better, it’d be on this trip.” She beams. “So, is it working?”
I look up at Noah, almost annoyed by the truth.
We can’t tell them we’re dating now. They’ll never stop gloating. Natalie will call herself a matchmaker for the rest of her life! They’ll think this was all because of them!
“We…” I start, unsure of where I’m trying to go with the sentence.
Noah clears his throat, trying not to laugh.
“Why does Noah look so damn pleased with himself?” Connor asks suspiciously.
“Oh, nothing. He’s just…sunburned.” I try and fail to kick Noah under the table before continuing, “Yes, sure, we are enjoying ourselves.”
“Have you been swimming a lot?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Going out to the ruins?”
I blush thinking about the way we made out like teenagers until we got in trouble. “Yes. They were very…old.”
Natalie’s eyes narrow. “Something’s up.”
I shake my head vehemently.
“You’re blushing!”
I fan my face. “It’s hot down here! We’re like three feet from the equator!”
“OH MY GOD!” Natalie screams, dropping the phone. “ARE YOU GUYS HOOKING UP?! WAIT—don’t answer that! I don’t want any details! Ew ew ew.” Then something dawns on her and she shifts gears. She picks up the phone again and says, “Wait…it’s only been like two days since you arrived! I figured it’d take the whole week before one of you finally made a move!”
Noah takes the phone out of my hand and aims a good-natured smile at his sister.
“Natalie, the truth is, I’ve had a crush on Lindsey for a few years now.”