“I mean that the people we’re about to go have brunch with know me better than anyone else on earth. They knew how I felt about you the second we walked into that hotel room yesterday. If we go down there and they can all sense that we finally got it on, they’re gonna be happy. Relieved. It’s gonna make them like you even more.”
She squinted at him as she stepped into her suit. “Why?”
“Because you make me so fucking happy. And they care about my happiness.”
Iris froze, she stood there in just her bathing suit bottoms, the top dangling from her fingers. “You make me so fucking happy too.”
He grinned and stepped toward her. She stepped toward him too, right into a shaft of sunlight. And it was Marcus’s turn to freeze.
“Your hair is turning gold again,” he said as he brushed his fingers through it. The sunlight was turning the ash brown strands blonde.
“Yeah. We’ll have to dye it again soon.”
The words had Marcus’s hand tightening on her scalp. She was still in danger. Perhaps even mortal danger. No matter what had happened between them last night, she was still Irie Carver. She was still in disguise, hiding from these scumbags. The thought had Marcus’s pulse racing. If he’d thought he was protective over her before, well, now he was a downright pit bull.
She noticed, because of course she did. He was beginning to learn that she noticed everything when it came to him.
“Let’s go see our friends get married,” she whispered, rising up on her toes and kissing him lightly.
Our. Her use of the word had his stomach flipping. Made him feel like a unit with her. Marcus reflected on that feeling as he tugged his clothes on. The only people he ever felt like a unit with were Eli and Jay. But now there was this woman. This perfect, little, good-smelling woman who was warm and sweet and brave. And he was linked to her. In a million ways. But mostly because he wanted to be. And she wanted that too.
Our.
Our friends. The words made him think, briefly, of the future. When all of this was over and the two of them could be together the way Jay and Mari were together. Or Eli and Tia. A thought struck Marcus though.
She lived in Pennsylvania, when she wasn’t touring with her brother or recording in New York or L.A. Would there ever be a world where she’d move to Ocean City? It was a cool place, he reasoned. There was plenty to do there. And his house sucked, but he could afford to buy a new one for her. He could find someplace cute. Maybe on the water. Or with a garden, the way she liked. He could make it good for her.
He frowned, though, when he thought about the reason why he’d never bothered to make his house special in the past. Because he was rarely ever there. His job had him skipping in and out of Ocean City like a rock over the water. Could she tolerate that? Having him disappear for weeks at a time? Could he?
These were the thoughts that plagued him as they left the hotel room. But she tugged his hand before they stepped into the hotel restaurant downstairs. They were a few minutes late, so she figured everybody was already waiting for them. And she couldn’t bear to go in there like this.
“Hey,” she whispered fiercely.
He frowned down at her, gently pulling her to one side as a hotel worker pushing a cart of luggage lumbered past. “What’s up?”
“Turn that frown upside down!” she demanded, stamping one foot on the ground for good measure. Her short, floral sundress floated around her knees.
“Excuse me?” He couldn’t help but crack a smile at her ridiculous words, her surprisingly militant tone.
“We’re about to go in there and you’re all in your head. They’re gonna think something awful happened last night! I’m not gonna tell you to fix your feelings, because you’re entitled to them, whatever they are, but just—”
He held up a hand and cupped her chin. “I get it, baby. I’m sorry.”
Marcus held her eyes, like he wanted to say more, but instead he just bent down and kissed her. Lightly, passionately. The kiss held a hundred promises. Iris wondered if he was intentionally imbuing the kiss with all that was unsaid, or if that was his only speed, if he just didn’t know any other way to be than wildly passionate.
“I take it you kids worked through some of your issues last night?” A deep, amused voice sounded out over Marcus’s shoulder. One of his hands left the small of her back and Iris was mildly certain that Marcus was flipping Eli off.
“Mind your business,” Marcus muttered, his mouth curving into a grin as he took one last kiss from Iris’s mouth.
“I’d like to,” Eli replied. “But it’s a little hard seeing how your business is currently blocking my business’s way into the restaurant.”
Marcus pulled away from Iris, fully grinning now. And it was that smile of his, even more than getting caught by Elijah Bird, that had Iris’s cheeks turning pink. Something about a happy, grinning Marcus just made her stomach flip.
Eli, Marcus, and Iris made their way through the restaurant to where the rest of the group already sat.
Iris smiled at everyone, trying her best to ignore the curious glances that were getting tossed her way.
“They were making out in the hallway,” Eli said as he poured Tia a cup of coffee, one arm around the back of her chair.
“Eli!” Tia squeaked, embarrassed and a little delighted by his impropriety.
“What?” he asked, palms up. “Everyone is obviously wondering what’s going on with them. I just thought I’d share what I know.”
Iris, equal parts mortified and charmed, slid her eyes over to Marcus who was scowling at Eli. She just wanted him to smile. Seems she always wanted him to smile.
“Full disclosure,” Iris told the group. “We were making out upstairs too.”
The table burst into grins and hoots and Jay leaned across the table to smack Marcus on the back. And there was that smile again. A little irritated with his family perhaps, but a smile nonetheless. Iris found she didn’t have any trouble at all snuggling into Marcus’s side over brunch, letting the ebb and flow of conversation crest around her.
Actually, she had the vague thought that she could do this for the rest of her life.
***
The kayak ride out to the island was long, but not particularly hard. The waters were calm and strikingly gorgeous. There were stretches of aqua shallows punctuated by navy blue pools of deep, teaming with fish of every color. At one point the group stopped, gasping and cheering at a pod of dolphins flipping and playing a few hundred feet away.
When they arrived at the island, the south shore, an awed silence fell over all of them. They stood on the white sand beaches and peered into the green, gloomy jungle. All of them tried, and failed, to properly imagine what it would have been like for Jay and Mari to have been stranded there. Nothing but one another and a hurricane bearing down on them.
“Everybody ready?” Jay called, linking hands with Mari and hitching his backpack up his back. They were hiking across the island to the northern shore. There they’d do the ceremony and then eat the picnic lunch they’d all brought along in their bags. That would give them plenty of time to kayak back before dark.
The eight of them became looser and more excited as they hiked, their reverence giving way to boisterousness as they made their way through the jungle. There were vines and huge, tropical flowers, birds flitting and frogs chirping their hearts out.
Iris had never been in such a gorgeous place and it made sense to her that it was Marcus who’d brought her there. His warm hand gripped hers anytime she had to step over a fallen log. And when they weren’t touching, she felt his eyes on her body.
It was a strange way to spend the day after. To hike through a jungle together on their way to a marriage ceremony.
But Iris forgot about anything else as they stepped into a clearing and a massive, crumbling building rose up before them. She could smell the mold from twenty paces back.
Jay and Mari clung to one another’s hands as they took a few steps toward the dilapida
ted former hotel. It had been abandoned when they’d taken refuge during the hurricane. But it was damn near ramshackle now. Jay had gotten seriously hurt inside before the hurricane damage had rotted it away, so none of them dared go inside now. But still, Jay and Mari stood, hand in hand, and stared for a long time.
So did Marcus and Eli for that matter. It was one thing to see your best friend laid up after almost losing his leg. It was another thing to stare down the building that had done it to him. It was a complicated place, where they all stood. A place of romance and discovery for Jay and Mari. But it was also the place where Jay nearly lost his life and the place where they really did lose one another. It was the last place they saw each other for the five years they’d been separated. And even though they were together now. Even though they were married and about to get even more married, the memories were still fresh. The pain of it still on the air, like a flavor that all of them could taste.
They left the hotel behind and filed through the jungle toward the beach of the northern shore.
And when they got there about fifteen minutes later, everyone forgot all the sad, complicated thoughts that they’d been having. It was simply stunning. Mind blowing. Iris wasn’t sure she’d ever seen colors that vibrant before in her life. What a place to get married.
Though the beach stretched on and on in either direction, there was one particular spot that Jay led the group to. The jungle leaned out over the white sand and created a shady little patio of sorts for the eight of them to stand. But what was most incredible were the waves breaking out a quarter of a mile from the shore.
“It’s why they came to this island in the first place,” Marcus told her, wrapping his arms around her waist and whispering in her ear. “The way the reef makes the waves break.”
“You said they both surf, right?” she found herself whispering back.
“Mm-hmm.” He nodded.
“Do you surf too?”
His cheeks went a little pink and Iris was instantly and completely charmed. “Yeah. Just not very well.”
“I actually can’t picture you doing something not well.”
He grinned and nipped at her neck. “Let’s keep it that way, then.”
The ceremony itself wasn’t much of a ceremony. But Iris was honored to be there to see it. Since they were already married and had already gotten their rings tattooed on their fingers, there were only words to exchange. But holy smokes, what a lot of words they were. Jay and Mari exchanged vows under the hot, tropical sun. Bits of shade danced over their faces as they stood in their bathing suits and the waves crashed behind them.
Marcus felt a tremor work through him as he tucked Iris between his arms. He held her to him hard and then too hard. He knew it. But he couldn’t let her go. He watched his best friend give his heart to the woman he loved and it tore something loose inside Marcus. He had the sneaking suspicion that if he hadn’t cracked and loved on Iris last night, watching this ceremony would have done the trick.
He smelled her hair, watched it glint, half gold, in the sunlight and knew the truth. He knew it through and through. He loved this woman. He wanted this woman. He’d do anything and everything for this woman.
It made Marcus stand up tall. Because watching Jay pledge his life to Mari wasn’t scary. It was exhilarating. Sure, the idea of putting his entire life in the hands of this woman in front of him was extremely intense, yet Marcus found he wanted to do it. And what was more, he already had done it. So all that was left was to acknowledge it.
Jay and Mari kissed in the blazing sun, turned and tossed themselves into the ocean in heartfelt glee. And Marcus knew, in his heart, that he had to tell Iris everything. Tell her the truth about how he felt. About what he wanted.
***
When they made it back to Grand Bahama, the sun was just beginning to set and the group was absolutely exhausted. All that Marcus wanted to do was go back to their cool, dark hotel room and love on Iris until he fell asleep. But her eyes lit up when Tia mentioned having dinner by the pool. And damn. Turned out Marcus was a sucker for Iris’s eyes lighting up.
So he found himself surrounded by the people he loved, his feet kicking circles in a pool, while Iris and Tia splashed around on floaties in the huge saltwater pool. They disappeared for just a moment, around the corner of the pool where a manmade waterfall separated two sections. There were craggy rocks and places to climb. Marcus stiffened for a second, not wanting Iris to be out of his line of sight, but almost immediately she was floating back into his line of sight, grinning over at him, like she knew that he wanted her to stay close.
“So,” Jay said, sitting down beside Marcus and handing him a beer. “Tell me.”
Marcus knew exactly what Jay was talking about and didn’t bother deflecting. “I don’t know, man. I just couldn’t not go after her. Trust me. I tried for weeks. And then I saw her sing and just kind of…”
“Snapped?”
“Yeah.” Marcus watched her slip off a floating donut and right into the water, her pink bathing suit winking at him underwater. “She just kind of does something to me.” Marcus lightly pounded a hand right over his heart.
“Trust me,” Jay said, leaning back on his hands and watching Mari execute a graceful, athletic dive into the deep end. “I know exactly what you mean.”
They both laughed as they watched Eli, swimming under water, come up under Tia’s floatie and upend her right into his arms. She shrieked with shocked laughter and splashed the hell out of him. They tussled for a moment before their lips locked in a kiss that ended underwater.
“I think Eli does too,” Jay murmured. “Know exactly what you mean.”
Marcus scraped a hand over the top of his head. He wasn’t sure exactly how to ask what he wanted to ask. “How did you know what came next? With Mari?”
Jay laughed. “I didn’t. She did. She was the one who proposed. And it just felt right. You know? I would have dated for a lot longer, eased her into it a little bit. But she was ready and I was ready and bam.” Jay slid his eyes over to Marcus. “Are you thinking you’re ready for that?”
Marcus laughed in surprise. “Hell no! We just hooked up for the first time last night. Shit. We kissed for the first time last night.” He paused and scraped a hand over his hair again. A motion that Jay recognized very well. It was Marcus’s thinking motion. His thoughts-all-jumbled-up motion. He’d been doing it since he was five years old. “And she and I, we have a lot ahead of us before we can really just do this thing head on, full stop, you know?”
Jay paused. “Work stuff?”
Marcus paused too. “Yeah.”
More pauses. Neither of them wanted to get into details. “She in trouble?” Jay asked.
Marcus sighed. “I don’t really know. But I think so. I’m on suspension.”
“You’re kidding. Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because I’m pissed. And because I didn’t fucking deserve it. And because me being on suspension means that she’s basically unprotected right now.”
Jay put a few of the puzzle pieces together. “Ah. So all this mess you have to sort out is technically not-work work stuff.”
Marcus huffed a mirthless chuckle. “Yeah. I’m not technically doing anything illegal. I’m just hanging out with a girl I’m really, really into. But if the bureau finds out, I’m probably fired.”
“Did you have any other options?”
“Only to leave her completely unprotected.”
“So, no.”
“So, no,” Marcus agreed. He was immensely relieved that Jay seemed to understand his quandary.
“Word of advice?” Jay offered.
“Sure.”
“Don’t leave her in the dark. I mean, I know you probably have to where some of the FBI crap is concerned. But about everything else, just make sure she knows.”
Marcus nodded, watching her float around in the pool, laughing with Mari. And looking so beautiful, it made his chest hurt.
***
&n
bsp; He was quiet as they made their way back to their room an hour or so later. If Iris had been tired when they’d come back from the island, she was beyond exhausted now. But still, her entire body perked up at the thought of being alone with him in their hotel room. He’d come swimming with her while they waited for their dinner to arrive and every underwater touch, every lingering brush had heated and thrilled her.
Each moment had layered over the next and now she found herself practically vibrating with his nearness. He swiped their hotel card and pushed open the door to the room in that masculine, dominant way of his and it practically broke Iris in two. She couldn’t stand it. And she couldn’t wait any longer.
“Iris,” Marcus started, closing the door behind them. “I wanted to talk to you about something.” But the rest of the breath whooshed out of his lungs when he turned to see her stripping out of her dress and undoing the ties of her bathing suit.
It hit him all over again that she was finally, finally his to touch. He’d spent so long denying himself that it was a rush of adrenaline and emotion that he couldn’t have prepared against to see her there, glinting in the moonlight, tanned from the sun, no makeup, and staring him right in the eye.
“I thought about you all day,” she whispered and her tone had him taking an involuntary step forward. “Your scent. The way you look. What you do to me.”
“What do I do to you?” he asked gruffly, taking another step forward that had her taking a step back. She was leading him toward the bed, he knew, and he loved it.
“You make me wild,” she whispered. “You make me want. And then you unravel me so hard I see stars.”
He was a breath away from her now. From her warm, naked body. Marcus was moderately certain that he’d left his mind somewhere back in the hallway. Because he couldn’t even form words in his brain right about now. All he could do was rip his shirt over his head, toe off his shoes and shove his swim trunks away.
“Please,” she whispered. They still hadn’t touched.
His nostrils flared like a bull’s as he looked down at her. His hands flexed at his sides. “You’re mine,” he said, his voice brooking no argument whatsoever. “Mine.”
Bachelors In Love Page 68
