“I believe we have cheeseburgers in this hotel,” he said, a smile lighting on his lips. “While we pride ourselves on being a five-star experience, we also cater to families with small children.”
“No, I’m sick of being cooped up in this hotel. Let’s go out. Let’s go find a cheeseburger and then let’s hit the beach. That ocean’s been calling me ever since we got here.“
She disentangled her body from his and disappeared through the door that connected their two bedrooms. “I just have to find a suit and some kind of wrap.”
He got out of the bed, standing up to zip his pants.
“Look in the top left drawer,” he called to her, once again getting caught up in her enthusiasm, even if it was for something as run-of-the-mill as a cheeseburger. He couldn’t remember the last time he had bothered with such a plain meal.
“No, you didn’t!” she screamed. Two minutes later came running back into the room, dressed in a yellow polka-dot bikini. “I can’t believe this still looks good on me! Though, thank the heavens you got it in a few different sizes. I’m definitely not as skinny as I was in grad school.”
“I like your body even more now,” he told her, his eyes clouding over with lust. “We will go find your cheeseburger, but when we get back to the room, I will take you with this bikini on. In the Jacuzzi or in the pool. I have not decided yet, but you will leave the suit on while I am inside of you. I will make you come twice, once with my hand and once with my cock. Then I will bring you to the bed, pull the bikini bottom aside like this....” He made a gesture of pulling the crotch of her bikini aside with two hooked fingers. “And I will make you come a third time with my tongue.”
The smile faded from her face and she adjusted her stance. “Alexei?”
“Yes?”
“If your goal is for me to stay constantly turned on for the rest of this vacation, then it’s working, baby.”
He smiled again. Her candidness about sex used to be one of the things he loved about her. One of the many things he could admit he missed about her now.
“Come,” he said, holding his hand out to her. “Let our real vacation begin.”
Chapter Sixteen
OF ALL the deals they had struck, the last couple of ones turned out to be the easiest to stick to. Eva found it scarily easy to pretend she and Alexei were any other couple, as opposed to people engaged in a two-week affair compelled by blackmail. The first couple of days there were a few “you are pushing a button” moments on both their parts, but by the end of the first week, those had died off and they’d really started to simply enjoy each other.
It helped that they were running all over the island like twenty-somethings on Spring Break as opposed to an international businessman and a small town social worker. Neither of them were used to taking vacations like the ones offered by South Padre Island. Alexei had told her prior to this, he didn’t “believe” in vacations. “You do not become a successful businessman by taking vacations.” And the few vacations Eva had gone on since their break-up had involved Aaron and places more geared toward kids than adults.
But they’d both managed to keep up their side of the bargain, and she’d found being with Alexei in this way made it very easy to forget who she was in real life. Just like in grad school, he treated her like she was the sexiest woman on the planet. He listened to her stories and really seemed to respect what she did for a living even though it paid so much less than what he did. He’d even stopped shaving, and within a few days, he looked like a slightly older version of the bearded man she’d fallen in love with.
The days flew by and before she knew it, they only had forty-eight hours left before she was due back home.
Alexei seemed to realize their time together would soon be coming to a close, too. He didn’t say anything, but kept them in the room more, making love to her in long, intense sessions that suggested he was attempting to get his fill of her before they parted ways.
She didn’t mind, since she was also having trouble with the sun setting on their time in paradise. But no matter what scenario she ran in her head, there was no way to keep the relationship going that guaranteed her and Aaron’s safety.
If she told Alexei about his uncle, who she had heard him talking to on the phone at least three times during their vacation, he might not believe her. If he did believe her, it might not be enough for him to want to come back to her. For all she knew, Ms. Threesome was primed and ready and waiting for him back in New York.
If she did tell him, and he did believe her, then there was still the chance he’d want nothing to do with Aaron. He’d had a vasectomy, for heaven’s sake, which didn’t exactly scream, “I want to be a dad.” Even if he could tolerate Aaron, she couldn’t see any scenario in which he didn’t flip out because she’d kept his son’s existence from him.
Emilio had visited the suite a few times to have him sign contracts and receive instructions about how to handle a few business problems that had come up. From what she could see, Alexei was in the habit of using whatever weapon he needed in order to win his business battles. And if it came down to a battle with her, she had no doubt he’d use Aaron to get back at her.
“Eva?”
Eva jerked out of her thoughts and came back to the present in which she and Alexei were lying on their stomachs, side by side, on a large beach towel facing the crashing surf just a few yards in front of them. “Did you say something?”
“Yes, I was saying I’d like to go to The R for dinner tonight.”
“That’s fine,” she said. “You’ve got to be sick of all the non-gourmet food I’ve been forcing on you.”
He ignored her quip and said, “I would like to know where you were just now.”
She shrugged and told a half-truth. “Just thinking about all the stuff I need to do when I get back to Drummond.”
He nodded. “I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how well the business runs without me. Emilio has run our office well in my stead. But perhaps this is not the case with your office.”
Eva shrugged. “Berta’s supposed to be my assistant, too, but she always puts the stuff I give her on the backburner. I’ve never come back from vacation and not had to do all the stuff I asked her to do when I was away.”
“You just saved the entire town of Drummond from ruin. She should be grateful.”
“Um, well, we told a cover story about me going on vacation with Layla, so she doesn’t exactly know what all I’m doing for Drummond. And in any case, my dad and her pretty much blame me for getting them into this position in the first place.”