by India Lee
Relaxing on the terrace were Harper and Tyler. Harper lay in the crocheted hammock in a skimpy string bikini, a near empty margarita glass dangling from her fingers. Tyler sat on the floor in swim trunks and a T-shirt, facing the water. When he heard Gemma and Zoe’s footsteps, he glanced over his shoulder. His wide-eyed response to Gemma, for some reason, was to quickly stand on his feet.
“Wow. Hi,” he said.
Zoe guffawed at his awed expression. “I love you two,” she cackled before kicking off her sandals. “Come on, lovies, let’s hit that beach!” She rolled Harper out of the hammock and started towards the white sand with her, leaving Gemma behind with Tyler as usual. They exchanged silly grins. His eyes then began wandering about her swimsuit, finally landing at the cutouts under her bust.
“I’m up here,” Gemma smirked.
“What? I was just going to say that you’re gonna get some interesting tan lines in that,” he said, playing innocent.
“And what about you, Farmer’s Tan?” Gemma eyed his tee shirt. Tyler looked down at it and immediately gripped the back of the V-neck, whipping the shirt off of his body. Holy shit, Gemma blinked. Her heart raced as he watched her watch him.
“Happy now?” he asked with feigned attitude.
“Mm-hm,” Gemma nodded weakly, prying her eyes off of his muscular torso. It was difficult to, especially since Gemma had never seen his body unclothed before. Beads of sweat had actually formed at her hairline, either from blushing so furiously or trying desperately to control her inappropriate thoughts. God, this is not a vacation at all, she realized.
“Come on.” Tyler nodded towards the beach. “Let’s go have fun.” He held his hand out to Gemma. Yes, please, she thought. She took his hand, but not before snatching Harper’s margarita glass off the wooden table and downing the remainder of its contents.
~
The combination of sun and tequila made Gemma sleepy. Harper was already out cold, snoring lightly as she lay stretched out on her back. A few feet over, Tyler had begun to doze off too, one arm behind his head and the other resting on his stomach. Gemma indulged herself in the view of his lean muscle until a giggle interrupted her. She turned to see Zoe flashing a knowing grin. Gemma decidedly ignored her, quickly turning back to the sun and pretending to fall asleep. Despite that, Zoe crawled over to her blanket and flopped down next to her.
“Go away,” Gemma whined, batting at her playfully.
Zoe clasped her own hands around Gemma’s, holding them still. “Why won’t you just do it already?”
“What?”
“Why won’t you just hook up with Tyler and get it over with?” she asked quietly, lowering her voice even more when Gemma put a finger to her lips. “You obviously like him. And want him.”
“Zoe, I don’t know, it’s complicated,” Gemma whispered hastily, her eyes darting frantically between Tyler and Harper.
“They’re completely passed out, they can’t hear us,” Zoe said, resting her chin in her hands. “Talk to me, girl,” she said gently. When Gemma stayed silent, she sighed. “Well let’s see. You said your management won’t let you date anyone and that even if they did, it would be bad for Tyler’s career because of the fans. Right?”
“Yes.”
“But you’re like, a million miles away from the people who don’t want you to be with him. So why can’t you just get it out of your system here and never let them know?”
Gemma clenched her jaw and stared at the sky. “Because I can’t.”
“Why? You’re not going to piss anyone off if they don’t know. You’re on vacation. He’s single, and he wants you. What’s the problem?” Zoe persisted, brows knit. She stared at Gemma for a few hard seconds before covering her mouth with her hand.
Gemma looked at her, cocking an eyebrow as if inviting her to speak.
“You have a boyfriend,” Zoe said. Off Gemma’s sigh, she gasped. “You have a boyfriend! Omigod, you’re bad!”
“Why? What’d I do?” Gemma asked, panicked.
“I saw how you and Tyler danced at The Green Room,” she giggled. “Me and Harper called it ‘Grind n’ Grope.’ And I don’t know what happened at my apartment but I’m guessing something similar.”
Gemma buried her face in her hands. None of the things she had done seemed that wrong until she heard Zoe describing them. “Something’s wrong with me,” she groaned.
Zoe peeled her hands off of her face. “It’s okay, it’s not like you guys had sex,” she said. She paused, cocking her head. “So what’s the boyfriend’s name?”
Gemma sighed. “Lucas,” she murmured. Saying his name around Zoe felt liberating somehow. She smiled. “He’s really sweet.”
“Aw, you’re blushing,” Zoe nudged her.
Gemma closed her eyes as she pictured Lucas, though the thought of him quickly stressed her out. It felt wrong to think of him as she lay on the same beach as Tyler. To her, they were two people who simply didn’t exist in the same world. “It just feels like… I should have both of them. Lucas in that life and Tyler in this life.” Gemma let out a long breath. “I’m horrible,” she muttered, mostly to herself.
“You’re not,” Zoe shook her head. “I can’t even pretend to know what it feels like to be you. Just thinking about the fact that you have another life is like, so crazy to me because you live big with us. I can’t believe you have room for another world of people.” She tipped her head sadly towards Gemma. “I thought I’d have easy advice for you, but I don’t think I do, babe. It feels like you should either stop messing with Tyler or break up with Lucas. Because Tyler isn’t going to reject other girls for you forever. He’ll get over it after awhile, and you’ll be kicking yourself in the ass for missing out on someone like him.”
Gemma swallowed hard. “I know,” she said, though it had never even dawned on her to think about Tyler’s other prospects. He was practically famous for his female following. “It’s just that Lucas… he knows everything about me. Both lives. I can be every part of me around him.”
Zoe raised her eyebrows. “Wow, lucky guy. So is your thing with Tyler just… about being horny, or…?”
Gemma laughed. “No. There’s more. But that’s been an issue lately.”
Zoe nodded understandingly. “‘Cause you haven’t been with Lucas in so long.”
“Um,” Gemma stared at her hands. She had never been with Lucas in that way ever, but she felt no need to clarify that. “Yeah.”
“I know how you feel, girl,” Zoe flipped onto her back and heaved a sigh. “I haven’t had sex in… damn. Three weeks?”
“Oh, wow,” Gemma said, though three weeks sounded like absolutely nothing to her.
“I know. Your boy Andro is starting to look pretty good to me.”
“Zoe!” Gemma shrieked. Harper and Tyler both blinked themselves awake at the sound of her laughter.
“What? Those Croatian men have a thing or two going on,” Zoe giggled. She eyed Harper and Tyler, whose groggy eyes were beginning to fully open. “I don’t know,” she said in a low voice. “It just really sucked when Marco cheated on me. I mean, I’ll never judge you for anything you do, but if you want to be with Tyler – which I think you totally should, because you two like, get each other’s worlds – then you should probably end things with the boy at home.”
Gemma sucked in a deep breath and let it out in a groan. She nodded. “You’re right.”
~
For lunch the next day, a colorful array of salads, sliced fruit and sushi had been laid out in the dining room of the main villa. Along with a crystal pitcher of white peach sangria, the kitchen staff prepared martinis for Gemma and Zoe and a margarita for Harper.
Tyler glanced down the table at Andro and Mike as he cracked open his Turks head beer. “Are your necks sore?” he asked with a grin. Andro laughed with Zoe and shook his head while Mike nodded fervently, shooting Harper an accusing stare. She threw her head back and laughed, blowing him an apologetic kiss.
“How about yours?
” Andro asked.
Tyler nodded. Gemma waited for him to look at her and share a laugh, but he didn’t. Her shoulders slumped. He’s finally over it, she thought with dismay.
Before the meal, they had all engaged in a round of chicken fighting in the ocean. To no one’s surprise, Zoe had come up with the idea. “I want an excuse to wrap my legs around Andro’s neck,” she whispered to Gemma, who guffawed. “And I’m giving you the chance to wrap those babies around Tyler.”
The match didn’t last long. Zoe fell off of Andro’s shoulders immediately, leaving Gemma to fend off a fiercely competitive but utterly drunk Harper. Gemma eventually won, but not before exhausting her muscles.
“Pretty good balance for a drunk!” Zoe shouted consolation to Harper.
“Oh thanks, bitch,” Harper said, grimacing as she waded in the water. “Damn. Are your legs as shot as mine, Bee?”
“Completely,” Gemma answered, trying not to sink as her tired legs refused to kick. Reading her mind, Tyler lifted Gemma and wrapped an arm around her waist, swimming her to shore. They laughed the entire way as she floated on her back with her arms behind her head, not-so-subtly watching the lines of his muscles as he treaded through the water.
“Take a cue, Mikey! Harper’s totally drowning,” Zoe shouted from the beach, sitting atop Andro’s shoulders. Gemma could hear splashing and laughing as Mike helped Harper swim. She was glad that no one paid attention to her while she lay in Tyler’s arms, her own arms wrapped loosely around his neck as they approached the terrace. Something about the moment was so sweet that Gemma felt compelled to give Tyler a kiss on the cheek. A little thank you, she reasoned, tipping his face towards hers.
Only upon pulling away did Gemma realize that she had kissed his lips. She stared wide-eyed at Tyler, praying that he would assume it was an accident though she wasn’t sure herself it was. God, why did I do that? Her heart raced. When she noticed him leaning close again, she immediately drew back.
“Chicken fight champions,” she grinned, trying to ease the tension that she had created. Her only hope was that Tyler would somehow interpret the kiss as friendly rather than romantic. “High five, dude,” she added boyishly.
He left her hanging, which wasn’t much of a surprise. Gemma knew well that he had been patiently waiting to kiss her. She truly hadn’t meant to surprise him with the moment he had waited for, only to take it back right away.
Tyler simply shook his head as he let her down onto her feet. He mumbled something about going back outside before leaving Gemma alone on the terrace.
The scene played over and over in her head as she sat at the dinner table, diagonally across from Tyler. He hadn’t spoken or even looked at her since their kiss about an hour ago. She tried to remedy that by wearing a low-cut coral maxi dress, but he didn’t so much as glance in her direction. As she stabbed a piece of grapefruit with her fork, she considered it again. He’s over it, she lamented. I missed my chance.
Gemma realized that she was mourning the loss of a relationship that had never officially existed, but she was bitter nonetheless. The talk with Zoe had only caused her to doubt her relationship with Lucas. He would never understand her fast-paced life as Queen Bee let alone want to live it. Just weeks ago, Gemma had loved that grounded quality about him. But now, in the company of Tyler and Zoe, that quality was beginning to look much more like a flaw.
After dinner, Tyler spent the rest of his night playing tennis against Mike. Zoe and Harper dismissed it as “boy time,” but Gemma knew better than that. He was avoiding her. She had never anticipated that it would hurt her so much.
The following day was no different story. Tyler’s evading of Gemma was apparent enough for Zoe to notice. While Gemma explained the story to her, she decided not to discuss it further. She was determined not to spend her last day of vacation in a foul mood. Her way about that began with a pitcher of red sangria on the beach. She and Zoe flicked fruit at one another and lifted the hems of their bikinis to compare tan lines. By the afternoon, they had joined Harper in polishing off multiple rounds of grapefruit habanero margaritas.
“Oh my God, my face is on fire!” Zoe panted with her tongue out.
“Z, I told you you couldn’t take the habaneros. You can’t even take hot sauce,” Harper scolded. She hooted. “Your face is the same color as Bee’s hair right now!”
Zoe huffed and puffed in an attempt to cool herself down. “I need water,” she rasped as Gemma and Harper tried to control their laughter. They watched as Zoe sprang up from her chair, sprinting down the beach and towards the ocean. As she jumped in, she whipped off her bikini top and swimsuit bottom. Before Gemma could even react, a suddenly nude Harper had joined Zoe in the water.
“Get in!” they both shouted at her. Gemma blinked, considering it. Thus far, the vacation had been one of many firsts for Queen Bee. She hadn’t been in contact with Mira or any members of her team for a full twenty-four hours. She had been walking around all day without the slightest bit of makeup, wearing a simple black bikini. She was essentially naked, so why not go all the way?
Zoe and Harper screamed and cheered as Gemma shrugged and stood up, wriggling out of her bikini pieces before running naked into the ocean. Once she felt the cool water on her bare skin, she closed her eyes and threw her hands towards the sky.
“I’m free!” she shouted exuberantly. She burst into laughter, opening her eyes to see nothing but blue sky and water surrounding her. Her laughter continued when she felt Zoe wrap her arms around her neck, planting a kiss on her cheek.
“Doesn’t it feel nice to be free?” she asked, cocking her head at Gemma. “Are those tears, silly?”
Gemma turned to Zoe, still smiling broadly. “I don’t know,” she said. There was water in her eyes, but she figured it was the ocean. “I’m just really happy right now.”
~
Following their skinny dip in the ocean, the girls used their rejuvenated energy to windsurf. They followed that with racing on jet skis and by midnight, they were completely exhausted and ready for bed. The constant buzz Gemma had maintained all day helped her fall asleep immediately.
However at three in the morning, Gemma found herself sitting up in bed sleeplessly. She wasn’t even sure how long she had been awake for. She threw her legs over the side of her bed and stood up, feeling just a slight dizziness as she got onto her feet.
Through her open terrace doors, she could hear the squeaking of furniture coming from the next room. Gemma poked her head out and looked to her left, where she saw Tyler on his own terrace, swinging in the hammock. She didn’t make any noise, but he managed to notice her in the dark anyway.
“Did I wake you up?” He sat up.
She shook her head. “No. I was up.”
To her surprise, he smiled. “That’s weird, considering how hard you were out before.”
“How did you know?”
“I closed the door for you,” he laughed. “All you cared about was getting into bed, I guess.”
Gemma frowned, realizing that she didn’t even remember falling asleep. She looked down to see that she was still wearing her black bikini underneath her crocheted tunic. “You didn’t put me in pajamas though,” Gemma said. She looked up to see the smile fade from Tyler’s face.
“No, I didn’t,” he said simply before getting up from the hammock and starting back towards his bedroom. Gemma blinked, staring at his empty terrace in the dark of the night and hoping that he would perhaps come knocking on her bedroom door. He didn’t. Gemma retreated to her bedroom and sat quietly on her bed. Before she knew it, however, her feet were walking her to the door and out into the hallway. With a few more paces, she stood outside Tyler’s room, her hand on the doorknob. Without thinking, she opened it.
The lights were on in the bedroom. Tyler didn’t seem too shocked when he glanced over his shoulder to see Gemma standing in his doorframe. His posture was something of exasperation as he sat at the end of the bed. He gazed at Gemma for a few moments before sp
eaking. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she murmured, entering the room and closing the door behind her. Only then did Tyler stand up.
“You should try to go back to sleep,” he said. When Gemma shook her head, he let out a breath of frustration. “Please,” he said sternly.
“No.” Gemma was defiant. She stared at him. He was shirtless and his hair was messy in a way that made her want to smile. She had never seen him without any styling. She considered for the first time that the vacation was his escape from management as well.
Tyler heaved a sigh as he stood before her. “What do you want me to do?” he asked, his voice rising. “You say I can’t kiss you, so fine, I can’t kiss you. But then you kiss me, and when you do, you pretend it didn’t happen. Now I’m trying to leave you alone, but you come running into my bedroom.”
“I’m sorry! I can barely explain any of it to myself,” Gemma said with shame. Tyler’s anger was unrelenting despite it.
“I’ve never wanted anything more than I want you. All I ever want to do is be with you, but you use that against me. You use me.” His shoulders sunk with exhaustion as he lowered his voice to a murmur again. “There’s a wall you put up. It’s like a game to you.”
Gemma stood still, surprised by his anger. She watched him as he breathed deeply to calm himself, gazing out at the ocean through the terrace.
“I promise you, it’s not a game to me,” Gemma said, her voice cracking. “I’ve had to think about a lot the past few days. But I think I’ve made a decision.”
Tyler ignored her, though he eventually broke his own silence. “You looked adorable today,” he said quietly, almost to himself. He let himself smile. “I saw you in the water. With Zoe and Harper.”
Gemma’s eyes widened. “You what?” She blushed furiously. Tyler Chase had seen her naked, and she hadn’t even known.
“I was far away, at the top of the island,” he said. “I was hiking. But even from there, I could see how happy you were.” His smile returned, and Gemma watched in awe as his hand touched her cheek. She closed her eyes, suddenly swept with relief as she put her hand on top of his. “You were adorable. And beautiful,” he said. “And no matter what I do, I can’t resist you.”
