by Sara Daniel
“More surgery?” Holly repeated. He’d been hurt so badly that he’d needed surgery, and she hadn’t had a clue. How much more evidence did she need that she’d meant nothing to him?
Cemil, however, didn’t share her surprise. “No. It’ll heal, if you let it. Let go of your pain. Stop fighting the healing process. And—” he grinned “—go easy on the acrobatics for a while.”
“I’m going to fix you a shake to eat with your dinner that’ll take away a lot of your discomfort.” Sage smoothed her long flowing skirt and walked toward the kitchen.
Cemil stood and offered his hand to Justin. He accepted it, and Cemil pulled him to his feet. Justin limped badly, leaning his hand on the back of the chair nearest him as tried to walk back to his table.
Holly hurried to his side to put her arm around him and help him.
He stopped moving and turned toward her, scorching her with a glare so full of loathing that she automatically dropped her arm. With Cemil’s help, he hobbled back to the table that the staff had turned upright and set with bowls of soup. Justin sat down, picked up his spoon, and started taking in the broth.
Holly watched him, but he didn’t glance at her. She looked around the room, debating on whether to skip dinner or sit with the older couple who were smiling at the table next to her and offering her a seat.
“Sit with him,” Cemil encouraged, putting his hands on her shoulders and gently urging her toward Justin’s table.
“He hates me.” Tears filled her eyes as she said the words.
“He needs you,” Cemil whispered.
She clung to those words, hoping this seemingly sensitive guy knew what he was talking about. She was standing in front of Justin, but he didn’t ask her to sit with him or yell at her to leave.
She had thought she knew what to say when she saw him, but now she had no idea. She took the chair Cemil held out for her, and unfolded her napkin, taking her time placing it across her lap. Then she looked up at Justin again. He was still ignoring her, eating his soup by rote.
Taking comfort in Cemil’s words, she tried one more time. “How did you hurt your knee?”
“Occupational hazard,” he muttered.
That wasn’t very comforting, considering he was in the military and always going off on missions that he couldn’t give her any details about. “Did you fall and break it?”
“Bullet shattered it.” His words were clipped.
She flinched, wanting desperately to reach for him, hating to think of the pain he’d been in, the pain she’d known nothing about. “And how long before or after this happened did you send me an eight word break-up text?”
“About seventy-two hours after.”
She immediately knew she’d been right not to take his text at face value. The self-destruction of a client and the week of lost work were worth it. She’d needed this explanation. More than that, it proved there was still hope for them. “So you conceivably could have still been under the effects of anesthesia.”
“I wasn’t.”
“But you were on pain medication for sure.”
“Don’t make excuses for me. I was an ass. I broke up with you, and you deserve better.”
Holly bit her lip. This wasn’t the way she’d envisioned their talk would go. She’d thought she could handle his explanation even when the bottom line was that he didn’t want anything to do with her. But he was right. She was desperate to latch onto any excuse for his behavior and take him back.
Sage came over before she could sort through her thoughts enough to reply. “I made shakes for both of you. Don’t trade. They’re for each of you individually.”
“Thanks.” Holly forced a smile she didn’t feel.
Justin grunted and didn’t look up.
The staff came and took away his empty bowl and the bowl she hadn’t touched and gave them each heaping plates of delectable smelling food.
When they were alone again, she tried one more time. “What is it about me that you didn’t want me around when you should have needed me the most?”
This time he looked at her. “It wasn’t about you. You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s me. I suck at relationships. I don’t want to have one—with you or with anyone. That’s all. I’m sorry. I’m sorry you had to see me like this. I’m sorry you came out here to see me, if that’s why you’re here. But it’s over, Holly.”
It was over, not because of his high-handedness, but because Cemil was right. Her needs and wants deserved to take priority. “I deserve a say over my life. What I’m hearing is you had a bad day at work and decided you were no longer good enough for me. Did I ever say I wanted a perfect man? Did I ever say a guy with a sore knee isn’t good enough for me? Maybe you need to get over thinking the universe revolves around you and your beliefs.”
Holly’s eyes flashed as she shoved back her chair and picked up her plate. Her anger shouldn’t have been a turn on, but he hadn’t seen this side of her before. She’d always been sweet and accommodating. The flashing eyes, flipping hair, and thrusting hip were making him hard.
“I’m going to meet some new friends. Have a nice life,” she snapped.
Fear curled in his gut as he realized she was going to walk away and sit with someone she didn’t know, someone who might very well be part of the enemy behind the bullet that had penetrated his body. “Stay.”
Her green eyes narrowed further. She picked up her shake and walked to a table with an older couple.
He’d tried to be discreet in checking out the Paras staying here, but they’d had a turnover of guests just like the humans did this afternoon. The couple she’d sat with looked human and harmless, but he didn’t know enough about any of the new guests to feel certain that Holly was safe with them.
He rose to his feet, refusing to flinch, hoping she didn’t notice he kept most of his weight on his good leg. She didn’t notice at all. She was already introducing herself to the gray-haired woman and balding man who professed to be Bob and Esther Gladstone from Chicago.
Justin picked up his shake and corralled one of the staff into helping him move his plate, as he shuffled over and took the final empty seat at their table. The couple smiled and welcomed him. Holly ignored him and wondered aloud what Sage could possibly have put in their shakes.
The three of them were soon debating the types of herbs and their healing properties. By the end of the meal, Holly had learned the Gladstones’ entire life story of how they’d come here for healing after they’d lost their daughter to cancer and their home to foreclosure. She responded to them with genuine compassion and interest in what she could do to help. Meanwhile, they were just as interested in learning the details of the work crisis she’d left behind.
Her gaze didn’t stray to him once. The next step to engage her attention had to come from him. He knew she expected him to apologize and explain himself if there was ever going to be anything more between them. But she was safe, and she was with him. Not as close as he wanted, but closer than he’d ever expected her to be again. He did his best to savor her presence, because it couldn’t last.
Holly bade her new friends goodbye and went straight to the house computer after dinner. She messaged with her assistant to get her up-to-speed on the client crisis, the lack of connectivity on the island, and what they needed to do to respond proactively to the threats, all the while ignoring Justin hovering at the edge of her peripheral vision.
Finally, she logged off and went to the elevator to go back to her room. The door opened before she could push the button. One man pulled his hat low over his head and brushed by her quickly with his head down. The pale, striking man she’d been talking to before dinner started to step out of the elevator. Then he saw her and held the door open with a smile. “Going up?”
“Yes.”
“No.” Justin put his arm in front of her, blocking her path. “This elevator only goes to the second floor. Our rooms are on the third floor.”
“Really?” It didn’t make sense that each e
levator wouldn’t stop on every floor when a building only had three floors. This was truly the quirkiest place she’d ever stayed at.
“You can come to the second floor,” the pale man said. “I’ll share my room.”
Justin’s arm bunched, and his whole body tensed like he was going to take the man down. Funny that he only seemed to remember he didn’t want her when it was just the two of them one-on-one.
“Thank you, but no. I’ll find an elevator that goes to my floor,” she told the man as she backed away from the open door.
“Damn right you will.” Justin snarled, tugging her to the elevator with a number three above it. “Don’t ever go anywhere with that man. Do you hear me?”
She’d have thrilled in his protectiveness and strong arms if she didn’t know he’d push her away as soon as they were alone. “If and when I choose to jump in bed with a stranger, I don’t need your permission.”
“Promise me you won’t go anywhere with any stranger you meet here.” His voice was rough and demanding. The elevator door opened. Justin backed her inside. His hips bumped against her thighs until he’d trapped her against the back wall with his body. His hands skimmed down her arms and then back up to her shoulders. His pelvis pressed hard—fabulously hard—against her stomach.
“Promise me.” His breath tickled her ear.
“Yes.” Holly had no idea what she’d just promised. She hoped it was to let him take her against the wall of the elevator. She turned her head to capture Justin’s lips with hers. When they were this close she was reminded of exactly how right they were together, how much they were meant for each other, and why she hadn’t been able to let go when he told her it was over.
He stepped back before her lips could meet his. “Sleeping together won’t change that what we had before is over, permanently.” The elevator door opened, and he stormed out.
Holly sagged against the wall. She might have come here planning to get over him, but what she wanted was to have hard and fast sex with him every second that they were stranded together.
Despite that, she absolutely believed he meant what he said. When this week was over, he’d make sure she was never part of his life again.
After taking a long afternoon nap, then worrying about the business she’d left behind, not to mention how frustrated and horny Justin had left her in the elevator, Holly didn’t think she’d be able to sleep at night at all. But something about the simple room with the herbal scents had her sleeping better than she had in months, maybe years.
Still, when she woke in the morning and considered she needed to have a real talk with Justin and then spend the rest of the day working with her client and assistant through the public computer, she didn’t feel rested or relaxed at all. This week had been a rash, immature decision. She was not doing her career any favors by ignoring her biggest client crisis ever. Seeing Justin again hadn’t given her closure and allowed her to suddenly move on with her life.
She called the front desk to have breakfast brought to her room. When the room service knock came, she was surprised to find Sage standing on the other side of her door with the tray. “I know it’s not what you ordered, but this shake is exactly what you need this morning.” She walked into the room and set down the tray. She then proceeded to pull a long rolled stick from her satchel and light it. She waved the stick, surrounding them with an herbal incense smoke.
Holly took a small sip of the shake. It was good and immediately settled her stomach, so she decided not to complain about the mixed-up order.
“When you finish that, there is a deep breathing class on the lawn, facing the ocean. I think you’ll find it worth your while.” Sage made one more sweeping arc with her incense before snuffing it and putting it in her satchel.
Yesterday, Holly had written off the breathing classes as a waste of time, but the sun was shining brightly, and the thought of sitting in the sun, listening to the ocean waves, was alluring. Unfortunately, she was not here for a vacation. Work came first. “I can’t. I have to do some stuff on the computer.”
“There’s a line for the computer downstairs at least an hour long.” Sage rolled her eyes. “I don’t understand why you humans can’t unplug for a single week.”
“You’re not including yourself as a human?”
“Not if being human means I can’t live without electronics,” Sage said with a laugh.
“An hour before I can get on the computer?” Holly went to the window and looked at the sun glinting off the waves.
“Yes, go,” Sage urged. “It’s exactly what you need right now.”
Having no other reason not to, Holly left the room and wandered outside. As she approached the lawn, she could see the class was already underway.
A tall ethereal woman with long silver hair was walking among the participants who were lying on mats. She turned and smiled at Holly. “I’m Trixie. So glad you could join us.” She took Holly’s mat and spread it on the grass at the edge of the group. “Why don’t you lie here?”
Holly started to sit down and then realized Trixie had put her mat next to Justin’s. He opened his eyes and scowled at her.
“Deep breaths, Justin,” Trixie said. “Fill your lungs. Release your tension.”
“I was,” he muttered. He closed his eyes again and turned his head away.
Holly lay down on the mat, wishing she’d been placed somewhere else or she’d waited out the line at the computer. She couldn’t concentrate on anything Trixie was saying when Justin was so close that he was within touching distance.
“Your stomach must expand when you inhale,” Trixie said.
Holly took another breath and tried to focus on what the woman was telling her. Her belly sucked in as she breathed in and filled as she breathed out.
“That is shallow breathing. Sit up,” Trixie commanded. “And watch Justin. See how his stomach expands as he breathes in. You must give your lungs room to fill with air, to slow down your breathing, reduce your stress, and harmonize your nervous system.”
Holly tried again, but the bigger the breath she took the more her stomach sucked in. Looking at Justin wasn’t helping. In fact, leaning over his body and looking down at his broad shoulders and ripped chest barely disguised by his thin t-shirt, she was finding it harder to breathe.
“You two are close, yes?” Trixie said.
“We were once,” Holly said. Although that wasn’t really true. She’d shared her hopes and dreams with him. But she was no longer sure that he’d shared anything with her. Nothing that truly mattered, anyway.
“Good, good. Put your hand on his stomach. Now feel how he expands as he breathes in.”
“Put your hand lower if you really want to feel me expand,” Justin muttered.
She didn’t move her hand, but she couldn’t stop her gaze from going straight to the bulge in his athletic shorts. The muscles on his belly tightened. She slid her hand up his chiseled chest. She’d missed touching his hard body, missed the heat that radiated from him, scorching her with his fire.
“This is not helping either one of us breathe.” He sat up, bringing his lips within inches of hers and reminding her that not everything about him was hard.
“Got a better idea?” she challenged. Only the reminder of how he’d left her in the elevator kept her from molding her body to his and exploring his hardness and softness and everything in between.
“Yeah. Sit in front of me.” He spread his legs and patted the mat in front of him.
She looked down and then back up at his tantalizing lips. “Why?” She certainly wasn’t opposed to having her butt between his thighs, but she wanted to know exactly what she was accepting by doing so.
“Trust me. We’re going to breathe together.”
“Breathe together?” Whatever she’d expected, that wasn’t it. It was sweet, innocent, and oh-so-sexy all at the same time. She looked around. The rest of the class was lying on their mats, absorbed in their own breathing. Trixie was working with someone else. No one
was looking or cared what they were doing off to the side.
Careful not to bump his bad knee, she sat between his thighs with her back to him. Justin wrapped his arms around her. “Feel my chest against your back?” he whispered.
She nodded. That wasn’t all she felt. His erection was rock hard against her ass. She wanted to forget all this breathing nonsense and pull him inside her.
He slid his hands under her shirt and splayed the fingers of his right hand over her stomach and pressed his left hand against her chest above her breasts. “This is just to instruct you. I’m not feeling you up.”
“I was kind of hoping you were,” she tried to joke. She could hardly breathe with him touching her and surrounding her so intimately. All the business satisfaction in the world couldn’t come close to providing the complete bliss she felt wrapped in Justin’s embrace.
“Inhale,” he whispered against her ear. His stomach and chest pressed against her back.
She did, but her stomach still sucked in. “The more I try the worse I mess it up.”
“You’re thinking too hard. Reach your hands back and put them on my sides. Feel me. Become part of me.”
If only that was possible. The worst part was that what he was asking was exactly the opposite of the part he really wanted her to play in his life. She could make herself miserable dwelling on it, or she could revel in the fact that right now she was completely his. Everything about him, right down to each breath he took, was for her.
Chapter Four
HOLLY REACHED BACK AND pressed her hands against his sides. Her chest thrust out, as if she was begging for his touch. It took all her control not to. Her breasts ached for him to massage her nipples.
“That’s right. Feel it,” Justin whispered.
Without meaning to, her body automatically copied his rhythm, expanding as she filled her lungs with fresh air, contracting as she released it. Once she’d stopped thinking and let Justin take over, her body functioned the way it was meant to.
