Page 41 of One Night in Hawaii

I dug through the little drawer where I kept phone chargers, chapstick, and whatever. I saw a blue wrapper and grabbed it. “Yes!”

He jerked it from my hand and tore it open while I jerked his shorts down for the second time that night. He rolled it on and then jerked my bikini bottoms down. He lowered his mouth to mine and kissed me with a little less urgency. He took his time, swirling his tongue around mine. My hands ran down his back and reveled in the feel of his corded muscles.

He leaned back and looked down at me. I reached up and touched his cheek. In that moment, I felt completely connected to him.

Out of nowhere, the sound of a shrieking bird cut through the moment.

“Fuck!” He shouted and hopped off me.

“What the hell?” I asked.

I wasn’t sure if we were being invaded or what the hell was happening.

“My phone,” he said. “I left it on board.”

He walked out of the room and to the couch where everyone tossed their keys and stuff. I stared at him in disbelief. He was standing naked in my kitchen with a condom hanging on to what had been a beautiful erection.

17

ARCHER

Iwas lost in the moment, my body anticipating what I expected would be one of the best sexual experiences of my life, when the ringtone I set for Ashley shattered the silence. My heart lurched as I pulled back from Shiloh. The look of shock on her face pissed me off even more than the shrieking bird sounds coming from my phone. My erection was gone just as quickly as it had come on.

I dug through the jackets and blankets and found my phone. I took a deep breath, preparing myself to answer the call and still my anger.

“What?!” I shouted into the phone. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Archer?” Ashley’s voice came through the phone, soft and hesitant.

The anger I had been holding back bubbled up inside me and I felt my grip on the phone tighten. Ashley had ruined the moment, the perfect moment I had been hoping for since I first laid eyes on Shiloh.

“What do you want?” I spat out, unable to keep the anger from my voice.

“I… I wanted to apologize. I know you’re angry, but I still feel terrible for what I did, for just leaving like that. I know it must have been very hard on you.” Her voice cracked and I could tell she was trying not to cry. It was bullshit. It was how she manipulated people.

“The fuck you are,” I spat.

“I want to fix this,” she said. “Please, Archer. We planned a great life. I panicked but I’m ready to commit now.”

“The hell you are. You just want my money. You humiliated me.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. I just wanted to tell you that I still think about you every day and how much I still care.”

“You don’t care about me,” I said.

I looked into the room and saw Shiloh jerking on clothes. Her anger was written all over her face. I didn’t blame her. The phone call came at the worst possible time. The one time I didn’t leave my phone on vibrate.

“I do care,” Ashley said.

“I know what you’re doing,” I told her. “You’re still playing games.”

“Look, we can work this out or you can get used to seeing me in your boardroom.”

The barb hit hard. If she got on my board, I would never be free of her. That was a fate worse than marriage. Screaming over the phone would solve nothing.

“That’s never going to happen,” I said.

“There’s an expiration date on this,” she reminded me. “If you don’t marry me, I will enforce the contract.”

---