Page 96 of Faking the Pass
But I felt guilty. He’d probably woken up with crippling back pain from sleeping on the floor—or on that tiny office loveseat.
The entire next day was uncomfortable. He was clearly avoiding me. That was probably for the best.
Lines were starting to get blurred here.
Last night, I’d been teetering on the edge of erasing them altogether.
But the fact remained I couldn’t be casual about this. And Presley hadn’t argued with me when I’d told him that.
I laughed at myself. What had I thought would happen when I made that confession?
He’d tell me it wasn’t casual for him either?
He’d fall at my feet and declare his undying love after a few weeks of knowing me?
Yes, he’d said that hewantedme. I already knew that.
There was a truckload of undeniable sexual tension between us, but that would probably be the case with pretty much any heterosexual man and woman stuck together in a small house on a beautiful island. Probably.
Anyway, Presley had said as much.Harmless vacation sex, he’d called it.
For me—when it came to him—there was no such thing as harmless sex.
I’d been trying to pretend not to care, but there was no more denying it. This was so much more than a fake relationship for me.
The potential to get my heart broken here was staggering.
Nearly as staggering as the long, hard pressure I’d felt against my abdomen when Presley had pinned me up against the wall, kissing me like he was starving and I was the best thing he’d ever tasted.
I hadn’t been able to keep myself from bringing my hand between us and touching him there.
And when he’d pushed the top of my sundress down to expose my breasts and breathed the word, “finally” against the tip of one, I’d nearly melted to the floor.
He’d sounded almost worshipful.
No, Rosie, what he sounded was incredibly turned on and very ready for some casual vacation sex.
I couldn’t let myself give in to wishful thinking and start imagining there was any more to it on his part.
Which meant I needed to do my best to avoid him as well. It was the only way I’d get through the rest of this trip with my heart intact.
Claiming to need a day out of the sun, I went back to the bedroom after breakfast, shut the door, and watched a movie.
When it ended, I still wasn’t ready to leave my little sanctuary, so I called Danielle to check in.
For the past few years, she’d been the voice of reason in my life, and I was feeling a desperate need for some of that right now.
My gaze went to the window that looked out over the pool deck. Presley had decided to go for a swim here at the house instead of down at the beach today, and the sight of Presley Lowe in swim trunks was enough to make any reasonable woman start questioning reality.
As the phone rang, I watched him move across the pool with swift, powerful strokes. Reaching the end, he put his big hands on the ladder rails and hoisted himself out of the water, giving me a tantalizing view of his wet chest and abdomen, the muscles putting on a show no movie could ever compete with.
I hit the button to close the blinds.
“Hello?” Danielle finally answered. She sounded excited. “Is this Mrs. Presley Lowe?”
“For the moment. How are you?”
“Great! It’s so good to hear from you. I didn’t think you’d have time to call from your honeymoon.”
