Page 87 of What Happens in Paradise

Bob was waving to the woman and on his way back to the car. I instantly wished he had taken longer.

‘That was close,’ I said.

‘Too close.’ Jasmine smoothed down her dress and straightened in her seat.

For the rest of the journey, we managed to keep our hands and mouths apart, but it was torture.

But the hardest part was when I walked Jasmine to her room and knew I would not be able to follow her inside.

‘So…’ I stood in front of her. ‘Tomorrow, I guess we will be very busy with the management.’

‘Yes,’ she sighed.

We stood in silence again, neither of us knowing what to say. Eventually, I spoke.

‘Duerme bienand I hope tomorrow is productive for you.’

‘Hope you sleep well too and you enjoy working with the chef.’

I hated how everything was so formal and awkward. But we both knew that from now on, we had to be extra careful.

‘Hasta mañana,’ I said.

‘See you tomorrow,’ Jasmine replied and let herself in her room.

I opened my door then leant against it, wondering how I was going to survive the night without her.

31

JASMINE

My head was spinning. I’d spent the whole morning in meetings with Hortense, the Love Alchemist Empress (basically head of guest relations), going through all my observations and findings so far and trying to nail down which locations we both felt were best to add to the itinerary.

It was difficult because Hortense obviously knew a lot more about Jamaica than I did. But at the same time, my experience of the Love Hotel brand and the kinds of customers we attracted superseded hers. The way I saw it though, it wasn’t a competition. The goal was to combine both of our strengths to come up with a formidable itinerary that our guests would enjoy and most importantly, that would help them fall in love.

Thankfully, she had another meeting to get to, so now I was in the office alone. But instead of grabbing lunch, I had to do the thing I’d been putting off for days: speak to Hazel.

I’d messaged first thing this morning to let her know I’d give her a call once my meeting had finished with Hortense to fill her in on the visit to Rick’s Café.

I knew she would’ve expected me to call over the weekend, but I was having too much of a good time and didn’t want to leave our happy bubble.

It wasn’t just the amazing sex that blew my mind. It was those other moments too. Walking hand in hand along Seven Mile Beach talking about everything and nothing and of course, the way he’d opened up to me.

I’d always wrongly assumed that because Alejandro was so gorgeous, he must be a ladies’ man, taking advantage of his youth and good looks. But when he revealed he’d been in a committed relationship for three years, that shocked me.

My heart broke for him when I heard about how he’d tragically lost his girlfriend. Especially knowing that he’d also lost both his parents when he was still a teenager. To go through so many tragedies at such an early age must have been horrendous.

I imagined that kind of trauma forced him to grow up faster than most teenagers. Which could be why he seemed much older than his years. Then again, I wasn’t a psychologist so I couldn’t say for sure.

What I did know for certain though was that it couldn’t have been easy to talk about or for him to even consider moving on, so it meant a lot that he trusted me enough to share something so personal.

And when he confessed that I was the first woman he’d been with since his girlfriend passed, I was stunned and honoured.

I hadn’t been with anyone since my divorce, but that was completely different. Alejandro taking that step was a big deal. I was glad that I was able to help him get back into dating again.

Now that his desire had returned, no doubt once we went back to Spain, he’d be making up for lost time. Even though we had an amazing connection, I still had to be realistic. This could never be something serious.

Last night, I’d barely slept. I couldn’t stop thinking about Alejandro and wishing he was there in bed with me. I got myself so worked up that I’d used my vibrator and although it did the job, it couldn’t even begin to compare to the countless spine-tingling orgasms Alejandro had effortlessly delivered.

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