But maybe she was in the bathroom or something.
“Holly? Fishie, honey, where are you?”
Yet only silence answered. And sure, maybe she just couldn’t hear him behind a closed door or something. But in his heart, he knew. Last night had been too good to be true.
Still lying in bed, he crushed his eyes shut against the searing sting in his chest. Yep, just too damn good to be true, and maybe he should have realized that.
The thought had him replaying the night in his head, trying to figure out what had gone wrong just when things had started to seem so right. And hell, he began to remember parts that…well, that hadn’t seemed as important last night as they were starting to now. Just little things she’d said after she’d finally started opening up to him, really talking. Little phrases. “After that summer…” “Once you were out of my life…” “After I realized we were over…”
And…damn. Suddenly it all seemed pretty clear. She wanted him, the same way he wanted her, but despite what she’d said, she was angry at him for hurting her all those years ago.
And she just wasn’t willing to stop punishing him for it.
Or maybe she just didn’t trust him not to do it again.
And hell, either way, could he really blame her? It had been a downright shitty thing to do.
Leaning his head back on the bed with a sigh, that was when he glanced over to see something sticking out from beneath her vacant pillow and realized she’d left her cell phone behind. Hell—that was how fast she’d gone running away from him.
Well, maybe this was actually good news. Maybe he could reach Lori through the phone, figure out how to stop Holly from leaving—if it wasn’t too late already.
Hurriedly, he picked it up, turned it on. And…shit. She’d been texting last night at some point, texting Lori, and the texting screen was still up. He read only the last message she’d sent: Getting in pretty deep here. But at least didn’t tell him Vegas was all because of him.
And his heart went hollow. Because he feared he was beginning to understand a lot more now than he had even just a moment ago.
Was she saying it was his fault the course of her life had changed so dramatically?
In a way—a terrible way—it almost made sense. After all, didn’t he remember her being innocent back then, impressionable, easily hurt?
Was it possible he’d hurt her so badly that…that he was what had changed her sexual attitudes, that he was why she’d moved across the country and changed her career plans?
It felt almost arrogant to think so…but damn, he couldn’t come up with any other way to interpret what he’d just read. He had to find her, that was all. He just had to find her.
Holly stood in the lobby, suitcase at her side, waiting for the cab she’d just requested. She and Lori weren’t scheduled to leave until tonight, but she’d called Lori’s cell a little while ago from the phone in their little-used hotel room and, getting voicemail, had just kept it simple. “I was right last night—I got in too deep—and I need to fly home this morning. Sorry—I’ll call you tomorrow.” Contacting Lori would have been simpler, of course, if she hadn’t lost her cell phone—most likely in the suite with Trey—but she certainly wasn’t going back for it. With any luck, he’d never notice it and a maid might turn it in to Lost and Found. She’d check into that later—but for now, she had bigger things on her mind.
And yeah, leaving was going to hurt, but…at least it meant that she still won. She would break his heart, the same as he’d once broken hers. And he’d never have the chance to break it again.
Of course, maybe that didn’t hold the same satisfaction it had a couple of days ago. But the important part was that once she got away from him and got back to her real life, everything would be okay.
As for last night—hell, this whole weekend with him—it was all just…a dream. A pretty incredible dream at times, but in the end, nothing that had happened here was real. It was no different than if she’d met a stranger and fucked him; Trey was a stranger to her after ten years apart, after all. That was all she could let him be.
And as for the tender emotions she’d experienced with him, well…those were just bits of old, leftover remnants from her youth, and she was better off without them. Someone could only hurt you if you let them hurt you, if you let yourself love them. And she just couldn’t risk that, not again. Not when she was finally on the verge of getting her life back on track and in order.
She looked toward the bustling lobby’s revolving door. Where was that taxi? She knew it was early, but Sunday was a busy day for hotel turnover, so the streets of South Beach should be teeming with cabs wanting to drive her to the airport. Come on, already. I need to get out of here.
Just then, like an answered prayer, the doorman lifted a finger in her direction, letting her know her taxi had arrived. Good. You can run away now. Just like you always do. Run, run, run from your problems to someplace where you can distract yourself with other things and don’t have to feel so much. Curling her hand around the extended handle of her roller bag, she took the first step toward the door, toward what felt like…safety. But a whole different kind of safety than she’d felt last night in Trey’s arms.
“Holly!”
Oh God. Oh no. Her chest deflated and her body went weak at the sound of Trey’s voice echoing through the acoustically perfect, arched ceiling of the Imperial Palms lobby.
And when she instinctively stopped and turned to look, she realized instantly that everyone else in the lobby had stopped to look, too.
Yet she only really saw him. He rushed toward her wearing the same clothes as last night, albeit rumpled now as he’d clearly come straight from the suite—and his eyes were alight with pain at the sight of her with her suitcase.
He stopped a few feet away from her, spoke quietly. “Found your phone.” He held it up.
“Oh.” She let out a heavy breath, somehow felt a little defeated.
“What are you doing?”
But stop it, you aren’t defeated. You won. “Leaving,” she said, proud when the word came out strong and confident, like she usually was.
“So…last night was…”
Come on, be tough, you can do this. Be…honest. Brutally honest. “A game. The whole weekend was a game. To show you how it feels to be hurt and abandoned.” That wasn’t strictly true—the part that had happened last night, in bed, hadn’t been a game at all, but this just kept things simpler, cleaner. He didn’t need to know she’d ever had any doubts or wavered at all.
He simply stood there looking at her, myriad emotions passing over his face. At first, he appeared dumbfounded, but then his expression eased into one of hurt and maybe even some humiliation. And God, that kind of stung. It shouldn’t—he’d hurt her far worse once upon a time—but it still did.
Yet even so, she managed to stand there and keep her game face on. Because if she could do that for only another minute or two, surely he would finally give up and leave, and then she would have what she’d wanted—victory. Hollow now, maybe. No, hollow for sure. But at least her heart wouldn’t be back at risk, not with him, not ever again. Keep being tough, keep being strong. You’re no one’s innocent little farm girl anymore.
“When I woke up and you were gone,” he began, “I figured out that maybe I’d hurt you so badly when we were young that it was how you got from where you were then to where you are now. That maybe that’s why you just wouldn’t talk about it. And I was sick to think I hurt you that way. I was sick and came running to find you to tell you that I love you and want to somehow make it all up to you. But I never dreamed you could be this cold, Holly.” And then, finally, as she’d been waiting for him to do, Trey simply set her phone on the nearest table and turned to walk away across the marble lobby floor.
And—oh God—her heart broke. Right there in the lobby of the Imperial Palms, her heart crumbled to dust in her chest. And a painful lump rose in her throat.
Because the biggest truth here, the biggest one of all,
suddenly slapping her in the face, was that maybe she was a fool. A fool to have walked away from the only man who had ever really cared for her. A fool to be letting him walk away from her now.
You can spend your whole life putting up walls, trying to keep your heart safe…but where has that really gotten you? What was so great about her life the way it was now anyway? After all, she’d been the one who’d decided she needed to make changes, that it wasn’t what she wanted for herself.
Or…you can actually, for once in your adult life, be brave, do something scary, do the scariest thing you’ve ever done.
She let out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. And—oh Lord, this was so hard, so frightening—but she let her heart begin to guide her. And that had been tricky enough in the dark of night, but it was much more terrifying now, in the bright light of day. And in that acoustically perfect lobby, her voice rang out, “Trey! Wait! Please!”
And when he just kept walking, nearly reaching the entry to a hallway that would lead him out of sight, she called again, more frantically this time, “Please!”
It was then that he drew to a halt, turned to face her again.
Their eyes met across the distance that separated them, and even as aware as she was of the audience still tuned in to their drama, she knew she had to take a chance on this. If she didn’t, she would never forgive herself. She couldn’t hold the past against him forever.
“I still love you, Trey. I still love you and I’m sorry I started to run away. You just…scare me to death.”
Across the lobby, he blinked, then took a few steps toward her. She did the same without even thinking, abandoning her suitcase.
“I scare you?” he asked. Then, to her surprise, he let out a short laugh. “I hate to break it to you, fishie, but you scare me, too. In so many ways. Only I don’t care. Because I still want you and I still love you and I think we could be really great together if we give each other an honest chance.”
Thoughts raced through Holly’s brain. She hadn’t planned on this, after all. She hadn’t planned on any of it. But Trey was telling her he loved her—he loved the old her and he loved the person she’d become. And it dawned on her for the first time that maybe everything she’d done in the ten years they’d been apart had been exactly right, for her, exactly right to lead her here to this precise moment in time. And she knew with her whole heart now that she had to just roll with this, go with it and see where it led.
“Then…maybe we can figure out how to stop scaring each other so much,” she said softly.
And he answered just as quietly, still moving toward her. “That sounds damn good to me, fishie.”
They met in the lobby’s center, next to the fountain, though both had forgotten there was anyone else around them. Trey lifted both hands to her face, and as he lowered his mouth to hers for what she thought was the most wonderful, life-affirming kiss she’d ever received, she pressed her palms to his chest, felt the strong beat of his heart, and knew—as she had briefly last night—that somehow she’d ended up exactly where she belonged.
“Um, miss, will you still be needing that cab?”
It took a minute for the doorman’s voice to cut in on her thoughts, and by the time she was ready to summon an answer, Trey did it for her, telling the man with a smile, “Nope—because my little fishie’s not going anywhere.”
About the Author
Lacey Alexander’s books have been called deliciously decadent, unbelievably erotic, exceptionally arousing, blazingly sexual, and downright sinful. In each book, Lacey strives to take her readers on the ultimate erotic adventure and hopes her books will encourage women to embrace their sexual fantasies.
Lacey resides in the Midwest with her husband, and when not penning romantic erotica, she enjoys history and traveling, often incorporating favorite travel destinations into her work.
Check out her website at www.laceyalexander.net for more information about Lacey and her books.
Look for these titles by Lacey Alexander
Now Available:
Hot in the City
French Quarter
Sin City
Key West
Coming Soon:
Hot for Santa
The key to sun, sand, and sin is total surrender…
Key West
© 2011 Lacey Alexander
Hot in the City, Book 3
Carrie Marsh is on her Key West honeymoon—alone. After discovering her fiancé fooling around with a bridesmaid on her wedding day, she figures the trip will help her clear her head and move on. But she doesn’t expect inspiration to appear in the form of a tan, sexy boat captain ready to introduce her to the island’s legendary, free-spirited debauchery.
Carrie isn’t the first beach bunny that hard-working, harder-playing Chris McCann has partied with, but peeling away her innocence to find her inner bad girl affects him like no one has before. Her sexual awakening burns hotter than the Key West sun, melting his resistance and incinerating any hope he has of keeping their relationship casual.
All too soon, Carrie’s return to reality is a plane ride away and neither of them is ready for the fantasy to end. But Carrie has a business to return to, and Chris’s livelihood is on the island. And besides, Carrie is just beginning to recover from the wedding that wasn’t, and Chris isn’t a settling-down kind of guy. So it only makes sense to leave the sun, sand, and sensuality of the island behind. But can she walk away from her hedonistic week with Chris without looking back?
Warning: Contains a ticket to a party cruise where anything goes—the rum punch is flowing, inhibitions (and clothes) disappear, and the captain (and his crew) are ready to cater to every erotic desire. Come as you are…
Enjoy the following excerpt for Key West:
Upon their arrival, Chris had pointed out to everyone the area in the turquoise blue waters that appeared slightly darker, more shadowy, indicating it was the reef. Carrie swam toward it, following the other snorkelers—but she hadn’t traveled twenty feet when a warm hand closed around her ankle. “Wait up, angel.”
Looking back, she blinked behind her mask, surprised Chris was already in the water. “How’d you get here so fast?”
“Secret maneuver.” He grinned. “I jumped off the side.”
She smiled in reply. “Well, where are those great fish spots you bragged about?”
“Follow me.”
He was a good, swift swimmer, and Carrie had trouble keeping up with him until she grabbed onto the bottom hem of his dark green trunks and let him pull her along. When they reached the reef, she followed his lead, putting her snorkeling tube in her mouth and immersing her face in the water. The simple act opened a whole new underwater world as her eyes fell on mounds of brown and golden coral growing up from the ocean floor. Fish of all sizes swam beneath them, some darting about haphazardly, others looking as if they were out for a leisurely journey, and with the help of Chris’s pointing finger, she saw countless tropical fish over the next hour. She spotted a number of beautiful fish in iridescent rainbow colors—schools of yellow and black fish swam just beneath them repeatedly, followed by a large green one that ducked in and out of coral arches in search of smaller fish to eat. Her favorite find was a lobster crawling across the ocean floor, which she’d never have noticed without Chris’s help.
Of course, just feeling his presence next to her in the water kept her sexual nerves on edge, and the instances when they bumped together in the waves were like wonderful little teases, tastes of what might be to come. Even as she enjoyed the snorkeling, she found herself thinking of later, wondering what would happen—if anything. But given all the attention he was paying her—not to mention his sensual application of sunscreen—she had a feeling something more would definitely occur, and this time she’d welcome it without worry.
Still peering down into the gnarled coral, she followed Chris’s pointing finger to something that looked like…a shark. She grabbed his muscled arm, hard, and he looked up.
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“Was that a shark?”
He nodded—and she panicked, her every nerve going spastic as she threw her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his torso, as if she could somehow climb up his body to safety.
His arms closed warm around her waist beneath the water, but he didn’t even look worried. “Just a nurse shark, angel. Nothing to be alarmed about.”
“What do you mean, nothing to be alarmed about?” she spat, still clinging to him.
“Look at me. Do I look worried? Do you see me screaming ‘Shark! Shark!’ to the other snorkelers? Everything’s fine. That little shark won’t hurt anybody—we see them all the time.”
Pulling her even closer now, though, he seemed to realize just how intimately embraced they’d become. “Not that I mind you climbing all over me. In fact, I like it.” He flashed the seductive grin she was getting used to and she realized his cock was growing hard against her pussy, which somehow felt supercharged as he rubbed against her beneath the water.
She forgot all about the shark when he began caressing her hips, his hands soon kneading her ass. Instinctively, she raked her breasts over his chest just beneath the ocean’s clear surface—then glanced down to see her nipples, hard and grazing his skin, the water seeming to cocoon them now. Everywhere the water touched her felt like a small, light caress—it felt more as if they were wrapped in velvet than H2O.
She wished like hell she wasn’t wearing her silly flippers or mask. Reaching up, she yanked the mask off her face, looping it around her wrist, then did the same for him. Ah yes, so much nicer to look into those blue eyes without anything in the way.
Disentangling her fins from his, she drew her legs back. “Fins are in the way,” she murmured. His mouth was so close, she wanted to kiss him.
“Mmm,” he said. “That’s all right.” He slid his thigh between hers, beginning to rub her cunt through her bathing suit, sending waves of pleasure echoing out through her body like sonar. Her leg naturally ended up between his as well, and she relished the feel of his hard shaft against her thigh.
South Beach: Hot in the City Page 6
