Taking Her For Granted (The Caribbean Rivalry Book 4)

by MK Moore

  “Why are you bothering with that?” I ask.

  “I’m hungry and I don’t want to eat naked.”

  I take that as my cue and get out of bed. I slide some basketball shorts on and follow her out into the living room.

  “Do you want to go out?”

  “God, no. I am exhausted. You finished cleaning in here? If you can do it once, you can do it all the damn time. Don’t think that when I am your wife that I’ll clean up after you.” She trails off. I can’t help the huge grin I have right now. I don’t think she has any idea what she said. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?” she says, putting her hands on her hips.

  “Think back. What did you just say?” I watch as she thinks. She is so expressive I know the moment she realizes what she said.

  “Oh God. I, of course didn’t mean that. That is crazy talk,” she stammers. I pull her towards me.

  “I don’t think so, baby. I think you meant it.” I pull her closer to me. My hands twisting in the fabric over her lower back. “We can table this discussion for now.” It has only been one day. “Let’s eat, then how about a night swim?”

  “I swear I didn’t mean that like it sounded. I’m not one of those crazy ass women who sleep with someone and then start planning a wedding, babies. Well, at least I think I’m not. Fuck, I don’t know.” I lean down to kiss her. She immediately melts into my touch.

  “Don’t freak out. I like knowing where your head's at. Tell me what you want to eat and throw something on Netflix.”

  “I want a steak, medium rare, with a Caesar salad and mashed potatoes.”

  “A woman after my own heart,” I say. She nods and walks away. I lift the receiver on the phone and order room service. I look over at the clock over my stove and see that it is just after midnight. One of the best things about resort living is that room service is open twenty-four seven. I drop down on the leather couch next to Zoey. She has chosen the movie Serenity. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen it. Gina hated all my “nerdy shit” as she called it. I can’t believe how much I changed for that vapid bitch. Zoey moves until her head is on my chest. I hold her hand across my heart.

  “This is nice,” she says.

  “It is, baby.” I have a life size picture of what our life could be like. I have seen her angry and sad in the course of a day and neither annoyed me. All I wanted to do is soothe her, in both situations. When there is a knock at the door, I get up and open the door. “Hey Tim. Thanks,” I say, giving him a tip.

  “No problem, Mr. Tolliver. Have a good evening.” Closing the door, I turn and roll the cart closer to the couch.

  “Dinner is served,” I say with an overly exaggerated British accent. She giggles, and that little sound makes me happy. We sit on the couch and continue watching the movie. Once that is done, we start Lord of the Rings, but I know we will never make it all the way through. We will just have to save that night swim for another night.

  Chapter Seven

  Zoey

  Two weeks of fun in the sun and I’ve seen Natasha exactly one time, for all of ten minutes. We have both been so busy with our guys that nothing else has mattered. I feel kind of bad about that, but if I’m honest, not too bad. I did find out her creepy ass cousin, Viktor, was behind our unexpected destination. I tried to find it in me to mad about that, but I couldn’t. It brought me to Grant. Speaking of, I have fallen more in love with him every single day. We have spent every day on the beach and every night wrapped up in each other. We have carved out a sweet spot in a little alcove. We drug some chairs over there and lay out until it gets too hot and we take a dip. We also spend a lot of time at the pool. It is usually less crowded. Grant and I race, but he always wins.

  Thank God he hasn’t mentioned my little slip-up from the first night. The first night. Who does that? I often wonder when he works. He has barely left my side, not that I am complaining. Like right now, for instance, I am taking a bath, shaving my legs, and he is sitting on the counter watching me. Once, I finish, I let the water out and head over to the shower. I need to wash the sand and sunscreen out of my hair.

  “You gonna sit there and stare at me? Or are you going to join me?” I ask, as I turn the water on. I love the way he looks at me like I am the only woman on the planet. It’s like he doesn't notice all the women who stare at him when we go out. I see the look of confusion on their faces when they look at him and then at me. Fuck those bitches though. I just lean over and kiss him. Then I watch in satisfaction as they get up and walk away in a huff.

  “I’ll join you,” he says standing and stripping. Damn. He is so hot. I am so in love with him. This shower is seriously awesome. It has eight body nozzles and four rain heads. I’ve never felt cleaner. I wet my hair and lather it up with shampoo. I start humming “Baby Got Back” under my breath, but before long, I am belting it out. I felt him get in the shower too, but this damn thing is so big, that we don’t touch. When “Baby Got Back” flows into “My Heart Will Go On,” I hear Grant chuckle, but then my jams are stopped by a soul-searing kiss.

  “God, I love you, Zoey.” That stops me dead in my tracks.

  “What?” I manage to get out.

  “I love you,” he says again.

  “You’ve never said that before.”

  “I know, but that doesn’t make it any less true.” I go back to washing my body, then I realize I haven’t said it back. I drop the poof.

  “I love you too. You know that right?”

  “I know, Zo. I think it’s time we discussed what you said two weeks ago.”

  “Yeah. Okay.” Geez, I sound so fucking lame.

  “I want to spend the rest of my life with you,” he says.

  “I want that too.” I, of course, have tears streaming down my face, but the water is covering that up, thankfully. I am not prepared for the ring that he slips on my finger. I take a glance at it and my jaw drops. It is gold with a solitaire diamond. It’s breathtaking.

  “Where did you get this? You haven’t been off island the entire time I was here.” There is also no jewelry store here to my knowledge.

  “I called my mother last week. She overnighted it to me. It was my Gran’s ring.”

  “It’s beautiful. I love it. Thank you.” I kiss him, but before we can take it any further, the hotel phone rings. He steps out and I finish up, getting out before he comes back in. Without the water turned on, I can hear him shouting into the phone. I dry off and dress quickly. As I walk into the bedroom, he slams the phone down.

  “What’s wrong, babe?”

  “There has been a theft. I need to handle it. Do you want to hang out with Natasha while I deal with it?” he says pulling on his work clothes.

  “Um, yeah. Walk me up there?” He looks too pissed to be let loose right now.

  “Of course.” He leads me out of the room and down the hall to elevators. It is then that I notice a housekeeper walking down the hallway. She has no cart, so that means she isn’t working on this floor. I have learned that all Navarro Hotel housekeepers where the same uniform, no matter which hotel. It is supposedly more cost effective and the uniform service takes care of the cleaning them. From faraway this one looks the same, but something is off about it. I wait until the woman passes and we get into the elevator before saying anything.

  “Take me to your office,” I say.

  “I don’t have time for that, baby.” he says with a grin.

  “I know. Just take me.”

  We take the elevator down to the lobby and walk back to his office.

  “Do you know what’s been taken?”

  “A watch from one guest and various amounts of money from others.”

  “Different floors?” I question.

  “Yes. How did you know?”

  “It’s housekeeping. I just saw a maid without a cart on our floor. You can’t work without a damn cart, not to mention we are the only ones on that floor right now. Her uniform was weird too. I can’t put my finger on it, but it’s weird.” I know
that I am talking a mile a minute and getting flustered, but I can’t help it. I hate it when people take advantage of others.

  “Calm down, Zoey,” he says, but I shake him off.

  “I need Julien,” I say, leaving his office in a rush.

  As I am walking away, I realize what I said, but it’s too late now and I didn’t mean anything by it.

  Chapter Eight

  Grant

  I know she didn’t mean anything by the way she worded that, but it still hurts more than I care to admit. I don’t want her to need anyone but me. I don't care how much of a dick that makes me. I watch her ass as she storms down the hall. She finds Julien and I watch them as she talks with her hands. When he touches her shoulder, I’ve had enough of this shit. I storm over to them and pull her from him.

  “She’s going to be taking over housekeeping. I’ll let Natasha know, she can send out a memo,” Julien says, clapping a hand on my back.

  “I figured it out,” she says smiling.

  “Figured what out?”

  “How they have been stealing. I gotta go deal with this,” she says taking off down the hallway.

  Around lunchtime, she storms in my office.

  “I need your help.”

  “What’s wrong?” I ask, looking up from my computer.

  “I need you to escort thirteen maids off the island.”

  “Thirteen?”

  “They are the ones who were behind the thefts and they don’t live here full time. I expect the others will go in time, since there is nowhere else to work. We aren’t pressing charges, but they aren’t welcome here anymore.”

  “How did you figure it out?”

  “They altered their uniforms by sewing pockets on the inside.”

  “And you noticed that?”

  “They were too bulky. I wear one every day, I know what they are supposed to look like,” she says, smiling.

  I do the escort and when I get back from Miami, she still isn’t done working.

  I don’t see her again until late that evening. She falls into bed and kissing me quickly. Before long, she is softly snoring. How much of an asshole would I be if I tell her I want her to quit her job? Granted, she would be working with me, but still I want her all to myself. Sleep eludes me for a few more hours, but I finally drift off.

  ◆◆◆

  The next morning, Zoey is out of bed and the room before I even wake up. After spending two weeks together, the separation is harder than I ever thought it would be. The same continues for the next few days, when I finally catch her in the shower.

  “Hey babe. How was your day?” She asks, as she washes her hair.

  “Boring. What about you?”

  “Tiring, but I think I got a new system in the place. The new maids start tomorrow, so the kitchen can have the staff back that I took.”

  “That’s good. You’ll be able to relax more. Your vacation ends in a few days and I want to spend as much time together before we have to go back to Miami.”

  “Why would we be going back to Miami?” She asks, stepping out. Fuck, I have missed her curvy body.

  “Classes start back don’t they?”

  “Oh, I am not going back.”

  “What?” I question.

  “Yeah, I am done with that. Trust me. Besides, you’re here, and that’s where I want to be.” She shrugs.

  “Don’t you think we should talk about a major decision like that, before you go off half-cocked?” As soon as I say it, I regret it. I watch the anger flash in her eyes before she storms out of the bathroom.

  “Grant, I don’t want to argue with you.” She begins, sliding my t-shirt over her head. “You know what, never mind, I do. You have had a stick up your ass all week. You won’t touch me anymore. You don’t want me here. I don’t know what I did wrong, but I am not going to beg you to let me live with you.”

  “You are not hearing me, Zo. You should finish school. I would wait forever for you, but I was going to do it with you in Miami. My house is there. As for not touching you anymore, when would you have liked me to do that? The only times I’ve seen you in the last few days, you’ve been asleep.” My voice has gone up a few octaves.

  “Oh.” she says, and immediately bursts into tears.

  “Jesus, Zo. What’s wrong? I am sorry I yelled.”

  “I’m pregnant,” she shouts. I’m stunned into silence, but not for long.

  “Fuck, Zoey,” I say softly, moving towards her, pulling her into my arms. I kiss her until neither one of us can breathe. “I am so fucking happy.” I say, dropping to my knees and kissing her belly.

  “Is it too soon? We haven’t really discussed children and while I am so happy, I thought it would be just us for a while,” she trails off.

  “It will still be us for a while and then it will be the three of us. I don’t think it’s too soon. It’s meant to be.”

  “I want to get married in Vegas. Soon. Is that okay?”

  “Fuck yes. We’ll do a little gambling and I am going to tie you to me for the rest of our lives.”

  “I love you, Grant.”

  “I love you more, Zoey.”

  I proceed to show her just how much, all night long.

  Epilogue One

  Six Months Later

  Grant

  I am loving my life. My gorgeous wife is very pregnant. I just finished putting the the crib together last night. We decided that we are going to continue to live in the hotel until we run out of room. Julien has made Zo the Director of Housekeeping for all of Navarro International. The way she jumped in there with the crisis really impressed him. She was a boss bitch when we needed it the most. I still haven’t been able to figure out how she knew those maids were stealing but thank God she noticed that their uniforms had been altered. I don’t know how long it was going on or what all they took, since no police reports were made.

  Because we didn’t know the extent of who was involved, Zoey fired thirteen initially, then Julien fired the rest of the housekeeping staff. Zoey then started over. She pulled fifteen staff members off of kitchen duty and started cleaning rooms with their help. Julien and I watched in amazement as sixteen people cleaned the entire hotel: all one hundred and fifty rooms, ten suites, four conference rooms, and one ballroom in less than five hours. Our normal housekeeping staff consists of thirty, with ten of those who just did laundry. They also took ten hours to get all the work done.

  Somehow, she managed to get all the laundry done in that five hours too. Julien knew then that something was very wrong in the housekeeping department. He cleaned house, pun intended, all the way to the top. No wonder Julien promoted her. Now she is managing the staff but does plan to help out when needed. She has been traveling for the last two weeks to to all the Navarro hotels for retraining purposes. That is all finally done, and I am looking forward to just holding her. I walk into the apartment and she her bent over, pulling a pan out of the oven. Her skirt is pulled tight over her ass.

  “That is a damn fine view,” I say, causing her to jump.

  “Very funny, Grant,” she says as I walk around the bar. She sets the pan down and tosses the oven mits. She jumps up into my arms and kisses me. I feel whole again.

  “Damn, baby. I missed you.”

  “I missed you too. So fucking much.”

  I reach over and turn the stove off. Whatever is simmering smells delicious, but I have a more immediate hunger to take care of.

  I carry her to our bed. I set her down and take off my shirt. I slide my pants down, I had taken my shoes and socks off at the door. Her new rule. My cock is so hard, I sit on the edge of the bed.

  “Strip,” I say, taking her hips and moving her in front of me. She slowly starts to unbutton her white blouse. I am greeted with the sight of her tits wrapped up in a peach lace bra. She tosses the shirt and reaches behind her and unzips her skirt. My mouth waters as her matching panties are revealed, followed by her thigh high tights. Her skirt hits the floor. She kicks it away. It’s then that I
notice she still has her heels on. “Tsk. Tsk. Wearing your shoes in the house? What ever will I do to you?”

  “Whatever you like,” she says breathlessly.

  “Damn, baby. You are so fucking sexy.” She pulls her bra off and then her panties. I start to stand, but she pushes me back down. She drops to her knees in front of me. She takes my cock into her mouth and sucks me hard. “Fuck, baby,” I say as my hands tangle in her hair. She does this for a while, but suddenly pulls off of me. She scrambles up on top of me, impaling herself on my cock.

  “Yes,” she hisses out. Her pussy is squeezing my cock as I fuck up into her. She screams my name when she comes, causing me to release two weeks’ worth of come into her little pussy. After we calm down, she climbs off of me. “Damn, I should leave more often,” she says, sitting on the edge of the bed to take her shoes and tights off.

  “No, you fucking shouldn’t,” I growl, leaning over and kissing her.

  “I was just joking, babe. I am so tired.”

  “Let’s get you to bed. She stands up and turns the bed down. She then reaches down and puts the dress shirt I had on all day on.

  “You look good in my shirt, baby,” I say, throwing my boxers back on and crawling into bed beside her.

  “I know.” I pull her to me and she snuggles up against me. We start out this way, but never wake up like this. She travels in her sleep. “Oh shit, I made you dinner, but I just can’t right now.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll grab a bite and put the rest away.”

  “Thanks,” she says, yawning.

  It doesn’t take her long to fall asleep. I worry that she is doing too much in her condition, but she assures me that being tired is normal. I really have to read that book her mother sent us. I slide out of bed and eat some dinner, which is baked ziti, my favorite. I then put the leftovers away. I watch SportsCenter in the living room, so I don’t wake her. When I get back in bed a few hours later, she has traveled back to her side. She is laying on her side, uncovered. She never buttoned the shirt, so I can see her beautiful tits. They have gotten so much bigger since she has been pregnant. I ignore my hard cock. I know she is exhausted.