Page 9 of Parentmoon

I’ve lost my ever-loving mind.

Dallas leans over the counter, his eyes focused on my lips again. I lick them from nerves and the lingering desire to act upon my imagination. Then he raps his knuckles on the hard surface, scattering my wayward thoughts.

“Dinner is at seven. Happy hour is any hour before that.” With that announcement, Dallas rounds the edge of the peninsula counter and heads to the bathroom behind the kitchen.

Heart still hammering, my brain struggles to regain some semblance of reality.

Kissing Dallas Cole is a fantasy I can’t afford any more than the dollars necessary for this resort. Dallas would just be too expensive for my heart.

So, after another deep exhale, I try to call Michael once more.

Chapter 3

There is only one bathroom, and once Dallas exits it, I decide to shower. I want to wash off the day of travel and cleanse my mind of all thoughts regarding Dallas’s sudden appearance.

The bathroom is long and narrow with a large linen closet lining one wall and a double sink counter and toilet on the opposite wall. A three-step dip leads to a square shower tiled on floor, ceiling, and walls. However, two walls made of glass block meet in a corner, allowing in light and color from the exterior. My initial impression included anxiety that someone could see through the muted glass, but the thickness only allows sunlight to filter into the space.

After removing my clothes, I step down into the shower area and reach for the handle.

Then I scream.

A lizard clings to the wall to the left of the hot water knob.

At the same time I’m releasing a blood-curdling vocal reaction, I twist the knob and pelt my face with water. Scrambling for the steps, my bare, wet feet slip over the slick surface. As I crest the top stair at floor-level, the bathroom door springs open, slamming against the wall behind it. Dallas’s rushed appearance sends an air-conditioned breeze toward my damp body.

His chest rises and lowers. My nipples peak to hard nubs. Our eyes lock for a second.

I’m stark naked.

“Get out,” I yell, while reaching for a towel hanging on a peg beside the entrance to the shower.

“What happened?”

Clutching the towel against my hypersensitive skin, Dallas saunters closer. Spreading the terry cloth behind my back and wrapping it around my front is an impossibility as he approaches, so I grip the material tighter, tugging a portion to my neck and trying to stretch one side of the towel to cover my left hip. My right breast is trapped under my forearm, but still exposed.

“There’s a lizard in the shower.”

Dallas brushes past me. With his back to me, I take a moment to adjust the bath towel, wrapping it around my body. I swipe at my hair which is plastered to my forehead from the shocking spray.

Dallas walks into the shower area fully clothed, cuts off the spray, and does a three-sixty turn.

“I don’t see him.” He glances high and low, hands on his hips as he inspects the oversized stall.

“He was next to the hot water handle.”

Dallas narrows in on the space. “Think you imagined him, darlin’.”

“I didn’t. He was long and thin.” I hold my hands apart before me, emphasizing the size of the creature.

“Compared to long and thick?” Dallas lowers his hands, spreading them apart in front of the tops of his legs. Then he pulls his hands just the slightest bit further away from each other.

“Don’t be a child.”

Dallas laughs until something sleek and seven inches shoots across the floor and scrambles up one stair. Quickly, Dallas reaches for another towel hanging on a peg, and slaps at the stairs. Like the lizard is going to bowl me over, I jump up on the closed toilet seat.

“Don’t hurt the poor thing,” I yell, grasping the towel above my breasts. My toes curl against the plastic lid. I do not like creepy, crawling, four-legged creatures with tails, but I don’t necessarily want it dead.

“He wouldn’t hurt you, darlin’.” Dallas chuckles. “He isn’t an iguana.”