by Leen Elle
The Caribbean! Well, that changes a few things.
I bit my lip. "I'll think about it." I finally said, going back to my book.
"I knew you'd say yes."
* * *
"I can't wait to see you in a bikini." Aaron grinned as we boarded the ship. It was packed, but as we made our way to the more elegant suites, the crowd began to thin.
"I'll make sure to drown before you see me in a bikini. Besides, what made you so cocky all of a sudden? Didn't I reject your ass already?" I asked, lashing out at old wounds. Aaron frowned.
"I forgot how pessimistic you are, just find our suite damn it."
We found our suite, and let me tell you, I can't eve began to describe how incredible it looked. We had an amazing view of the ocean, and the furniture was so comfortable. Even the fruit seemed like it came from some enchanted island. I went into the bedroom, and in my awestruck stupidity, I forgot that the bastard made sure to order one suite for the both of us. There was only one big bed.
"Oh, and by the way, I'm not a gentleman, I get the bed." He grinned.
"The hell you won't, I'm getting it." I threatened.
He shrugged. "Whatever, we could share."
The nerve of the guy, but I wasn't going to let him win.
He started to strip.
"What are you doing!" I cried.
"I'm changing into my vacation clothes, aren't you?" He asked, taking off his pants. I grabbed my bag and went to change in the bathroom.
"I hate you…"
"It's not all about you, babe."
We walked around the ship, correction, I walked around the ship, Aaron was just being annoying and followed me around. I turned to him in annoyance. "You know, this won't be a vacation for me if you're here, can't you go do something else and leave me alone?" I asked.
He grew irritated himself. "I paid for this cruise, I do whatever the hell I want, and if it means trying to spend time with my wife, I will!"
"I don't want to spend time with you! I'm better off on my own!"
"Fine! I hope you fall off the ship, what a shitty mistake this was!" He yelled, not caring about the people around us.
"Screw you!" I shot back. He stormed off, leaving me standing by myself. Of course, our fight didn't stop him from asking me out to dinner, and it sure as hell didn't stop me from saying no, so our ten days on our amazing cruise was off to a rocky start.
However, Aaron always found a way to change things.
It was our third day on the ship and I was about to take a nice bath when the there was a knock on our door. I reluctantly went to go answer it, hoping it wasn't someone announcing different activities again. I opened the door and a young woman flashed me smile. She was blond, her long hair reaching past her waist. Her eyes were the brightest blue eyes you could come across, and she was really beautiful, more beautiful than me, and I didn't like that.
"Who are you?" I demanded, not trying to sound nice, not that I ever was.
"Oh, I apologize, my name is Cynthia, Cynthia Emmons. You must be Jasmine? Sorry, it's just that Aaron told me to meet him here, we are going out to dinner." She explained.
I didn't like Cynthia.
"Dinner? With you? Why?" I asked.
"Well, we met while playing volleyball, and we became good friends. We're just going out to dinner, you could join us if you want." She added hastily after seeing the look of incredulousness on my face.
"There's no need, Jasmine already said she was ordering food service." Aaron said, suddenly appearing at my arm. His eyes were glowing. "Should we go?"
"Er…sure…" Cynthia said in a whisper. They walked away, arm in arm, and I slammed the door shut.
* * *
It was late, and Aaron still wasn't back. I turned the pages of my book furiously, ripping a few pages. Why should I care? It wasn't my business who he met or slept with, not that he was sleeping with her, could he be sleeping with her? I gripped the book tightly and cursed them both for keeping me awake. She was prettier than me, damn it, I can't stand people who have something better than me, I'm a very envious person. Everything about her was perfect, and I didn't even know her that well.
I heard footsteps. I quickly turned off the lights and waited in the dark.
"I had a great time, I'm sorry if you have problems with your wife because of me." I heard Cynthia said.
"Little bitch…" I whispered.
"Don't worry, we've always had problems." Aaron said reassuringly.
"Are you sure? I mean, I don't want to seem like the 'other woman'." She replied.
Aaron's voice turned hard. "You aren't the other woman, she is. She's been it plenty of times." I clenched my fists.
"Aaron, don't…" She said in a disapproving tone.
"I can't stand her sometimes, I can't help but feel…" I couldn't hear what he said, since he dropped his voice. Cynthia let out a laugh and I felt furious; they were making fun of me!
"That is completely normal, Aaron, when it comes to things like this, there's no discrimination-"
"I just don't like it, okay?" He cut in angrily. Cynthia gave another small laugh.
"We'll talk tomorrow, okay?" She asked.
"Fine, but I don't want you discussing this stuff with anyone else."
"Oh, Aaron, good night." I heard her walk away. When I heard Aaron fumble with the door, I flew from the couch and ran into the room. I quickly stripped from my robe and fumbled around with blankets and hopped into bed. I pulled the covers up over my head just as Aaron opened the bedroom door. I heard clothes being discarded and felt the heat of his body as he climbed into bed. He was motionless and I figured he fell asleep. I was about to sit up to make sure when I suddenly felt a hard hand run down from my shoulder all the way down to my stomach. My eyes widened as he trailed his fingers down my thigh. I was about to sit up and smack him to Barbados, when he suddenly withdrew his hand, sighed, and turned his back to me. I waited a few more minutes and finally he went to sleep.
The blankets were suddenly to hot to bear, and I shoved them away with my legs.
"Rock climbing?" Aaron asked as we ate breakfast the following day.
"Yes, I love rock climbing." I told him as I placed a strawberry in my mouth.
"I know that, but why? Didn't you say you wanted to do things by yourself?" He asked. Ah, yeah, before Cynthia came along and placed her pretty little feet into hostile territory.
"Look, if you don't want to join me fine, I was just getting bored." I said, letting the bait sit there, until he finally took it.
"Okay, we'll go rock climbing…" He didn't seem to enthusiastic about it. He probably was hoping to spend time with Cynthia. That made me really annoyed.
"I'm going to go change. Wait for me."
When we arrived at the place to rock climb, Aaron was already sickly pale. "Are you alright?" I asked.
Aaron rubbed his eyes. "Er…yeah, I'm just not to fond of…" He trailed off.
"You're scared of heights?" I asked. This was unbelievable.
"Fine, let's go do something else." I sighed. Aaron grabbed some gear.
"No, I said I was going to rock climb with you, didn't I?" Someone helped him into the climbing gear and he already was placing powder on his hands before I could even start on my gear.
"You don't have to do this." I told him.
"Just shut up and climb." He muttered. It was pretty funny watching Aaron struggle to get to the bell at the top. I taunted him and teased him, and he cursed back up at me. We were both near the top when I noticed how bad Aaron was shaking.
"Hey, stay focused." I told him, but he wasn't listening. Suddenly, he lost his footing and leaned back ominously, the fear in his eyes clear on his face. I knew Aaron was going to be okay, the cables would catch him, but that didn't stop me from crying out. "Aaron!" I screamed as he fell back, what brought fear in my voice, I don't know, but fiery determination crossed his features and he caught himself. I watched in surprise as he climbed back to the top and rung the bell. S
lowly he started to lower himself down.
"Are you okay?" I asked as we reached the ground. He wiped the sweat from his face and tried to catch his breath.
"Yeah…let's go."
* * *
"We really get to visit Jamaica?" I asked as the ship prepared to dock.
"Well, we do, it was in the package I bought." Aaron said, packing a few things before we left the ship.
"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked.
He shrugged. " I wanted it to be a surprise."
"A surprise?"
Aaron led the way off the ship, as I was following him, I spotted Cynthia leaning over a railing. "Um, I forgot something, you go ahead." I said.
"Whatever."
I made my way to Cynthia and she spotted me. She flashed me a radiant smile and it made me hate her more. "Cut the crap, just what is going on between you and my husband?" I asked.
Cynthia was taken by surprise. "Huh? What? There's nothing going on. We're just good friends."
"So giggling and laughing and going out to dinner are all what good friends do? Coming back late, being out doing heaven knows what behind some boxes or other." I said. Cynthia seemed horrified.
"No! I'm married! I would never do anything that will make me unfaithful to my husband! This is a misunderstanding!"
"Humor me." I said angrily.
"He only wanted my advice. That's why he asked me out to dinner." She said.
"Advice for what?"
"His marriage of course, I'm a marriage counselor he met me by chance." She explained.
"Marriage counselor?" I asked stupidly.
She nodded. "Yes, your marriage is crumbling, isn't it?"
"What's it to you?" I snapped. She flinched.
"I apologize for any trouble I caused." She said. I put my hands up.
"Just butt out, and let me tell you, this isn't my bad side." I warned. I turned and left.
Aaron and I were walking wordlessly along the beach. He was obviously thinking about something, and I was still stuck on marriage counseling. What the hell? Was Aaron really trying to fix his relationship with me? Not that we had a relationship in the first place. How…awkward…if he was starting to develop any real feelings for me…
"You grew up on a ranch, right?" He asked. I was momentarily distracted from my thoughts.
"Yeah." I said. I looked out at the ocean and saw how beautiful it was. The water was crystal clear and I could see the coral reefs and the many fishes swimming about. I dipped my foot in the water, it was cool.
"Are you pleased?" He asked.
"What?" I asked.
"Are you pleased with what I gave you?" He asked.
"The cruise? I'm not going to lie, it was a pretty great experience, minus all the crap." I responded, letting the water lick my toes.
"Glad to hear, um, do you like riding horses?" He asked. I looked up from the water.
"I grew up on a ranch, Aaron, of course I do." I said.
He then pointed in the distance at a man guiding two beautiful horses towards us. "Would you like a ride?" Aaron asked.
"You paid for these?" I asked as I got on the black horse as Aaron settled himself on the white one.
"Yeah, I figured since there are no ranches in the city we live in, you'd miss riding one." He said.
He figured right.
I looked at him. "I didn't know you could ride a horse."
"I didn't, I had to take horseback riding listens." He shrugged.
I blinked. "Wait, you mean all those 'appointments' were really just your classes?"
"Yeah…" The horses started walking.
"How about rock climbing?" I asked.
"That too."
"Why?"
"I just wanted to ride horses with you, okay? Stop making things difficult." He said in slight embarrassment. We were silent. Aaron went against his fears and went through the trouble of learning how to ride a horse because he wanted to spend time with me. I felt…confused.
Ah damn…
I felt his eyes on me and I turned to look at him. He was staring at me with hunger entwined with affection, and I didn't know what to do.
"What?" I snapped.
"I have a proposition for you." He said, smirking.
"What kind of proposition?" I asked warily.
"Let's have a race." He said.
"What's the catch?" I asked, not really wanting to know.
"Well, if you win, I will no longer bother you, and I could let you live your life how you want, no strings attached." He said. I narrowed my eyes.
"And if you win?" I asked.
"You let me spend the night with you." He finished. I glared at him coldly.
"You're making a deal wit the devil." I said through my teeth.
He smirked. "Scared?"
"You're on."
We were off. The sand flew behind us, and the wind hit us right in the face, but I made sure my horse went as fast as it could go. I couldn't let him win, I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't! His horse was neck to neck with mine, and if I screwed up, then I would be at the mercy of Aaron Hale. He caught my eye, and the look in his eyes were blazing with this intense fire that it nearly suffocated me. He really wanted this, and he was determined to win. The sudden feeling of his hand on my body flashed wildly in my head. I could have easily won, I've been around horse most of my life, I could have won. However, I don't know what, but something on God's green earth made me do something crazy…
I let him win.
* * *
"I already stripped for you, now I deserve something in return." I said, covering myself in a towel. He groaned, and fell on the bed.
"Isn't this supposed to be my night? I did win."
Only because I let you win.
"You have to put me in the mood, I put you in the mood." I countered, covering myself tightly.
"You're not in the mood?" He asked in slight disbelief. Actually, I was, but I wasn't going to tell him that, wink, wink.
"No, I did the stripping, not you." I told him. Aaron started to strip. "Not like that! I won't get in the mood like that!" I cried.
"Then how? Because I'm only this close to raping you." He said. I slowly sprawled out on the bed on my stomach.
"Give me a massage." I said. I was teasing him, and it was pretty fun. He grabbed my shoulder and turned me over.
"No, I want you now." He said, looming over me. I snapped my hand out in a flash and grabbed him somewhere no man would want to be grabbed by an angry woman.
"Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay." He said quickly. I exposed my back to him.
"Good, get to the massage."
After several pleasurable minutes, and Aaron's constant complaining, I turned over. "Okay, I'm ready." I said, smiling slightly.
"Finally!" He proceeded to kiss me, but I pushed him onto his back and straddled him.
"No, cowboy, this is my rodeo."
Giddyup and get some!
Chapter 13: The Truth
Jasmine
I've never felt so nervous before in my life. I was sitting across from Jennifer, anxiously waiting for her to start up the conversation, but she seemed strangely quiet. On most of the days we met up, we never really talked about anything interesting, except for me praising Jennifer's family, and Jennifer cursing Aaron. Today, however, she seemed distracted. I've never actually seen her like this before, she always was the loud one. Unless, unless she found out about me and James. No, she had no idea that he and I…but why was she acting like this?
I was planning to confess to her that I had made love with her husband, since the guilt of having betrayed her ate away at me until I felt like I was going to die, but she just sat silent, her eyes seeing something else. My hands shook, so I placed them under the table and waited patiently, but I realized that I had to say something, if not were going to be here forever.
"Jennifer…er, is something on your mind?"
"Yes, actually, there is." She said, finally looking at me. I froze. Oh God…Jenn
ifer knew. She new what I did with her husband, she hated me. Not that I blamed her, it is her husband after all, what a horrible person I was, I knew it was wrong to begin with. I couldn't help myself though, but that doesn't justify the other times we've been together since that day in the cabin. She hated me, as much as I was already hating myself.
