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He couldn’t say for certain that the middle of the Jamaican jungle counted as his happy place, but he knew that here in Courtney’s presence, with her attention on him, he felt happier than he had in months—maybe ever.
“Let’s just say I’d have no regrets.”
As her eyes narrowed, he imagined she weighed his words. Maybe for sincerity, maybe to see if she felt the same. Finally, she nodded.
“I picked here because I thought it would be beautiful.”
She’d been right about that. As they stood under a canopy of lush green foliage, he couldn’t think of anything more beautiful. Except maybe the woman standing in front of him with her dark hair braided under her helmet and indecision etched on her face.
“It is beautiful,” he agreed. “And safe. Really Courtney, hundreds of people a day probably do this and leave with an amazing experience and no injuries.”
Another nod, followed by a deep breath that pressed her breasts against the scoop of her tank top. “Okay,” she conceded. “Let’s do it.”
“You sure?” The last thing he wanted to do was pressure her into this. What if something horrible did happen? Would she blame him?
“Nowyou question me? Yes, let’s go before I change my mind.” She started for the platform they would launch from.
Seth smiled to himself as he watched her stride away from him with her chin up and her shoulders back. He wasn’t sure if he was more impressed by her spirit, or her backside framed in a repelling harness.
* * *
“The water feels good.”
Courtney studied Seth as he laid out on the grass beside her. When he stretched, the tiny water droplets covering his muscles glistened in the sunlight. Her suddenly dry throat urged her to lick the drops from his skin.
She shook her head. All day thoughts of touching Seth had crashed, unbidden into her mind. They were friends. Or not even friends really. But for the purposes of this cruise, he was her buddy. If he’d wanted to be more, surely he wouldn’t have agreed to only hanging out and keeping each other company. Not that she would’ve agreed to anything more. Until two days ago, she hadn’t had a single sexual thought in years. Okay, maybe she’d had thoughts. A girl could only watch so many movies starring Jason Momoa or Chris Evans before her mind started cooking up its own spicy scenes. Still, she hadn’t felt anything during those scenarios. For years, her body had lain dormant, and now . . . Well, next to Seth, parts of her she’d assumed she’d never use again were waking up, and the more awake they got, the more attention they wanted.
“You planning to go in?” Seth nodded to the pool of water beneath the small waterfall the group had stopped at for lunch and swimming.
She eyed the falls. They looked cold. Probably not the case here in Jamaica, but she was used to waterfalls back home, flowing down from mountain tops and chilling the lakes below. “That looks frigid.” Just looking at it made her shiver.
“It’s really not. I promise.” He took her hand and placed it on the flat wall of his stomach. Nope, no frigidity there, nothing but warm, wet male muscle.
When her hand flinched against his abdomen, he stuttered, “S…sorry.”
Shaking her head, she forced herself not to move her hand. “No problem. I was just expecting your skin to be cold. The last time I swam in a waterfall the water was like ice.”
His blue eyes narrowed as he propped himself on an elbow. “Why would you swim in a waterfall that felt like ice?”
She smiled at the memory. “It was more bathing than swimming. I’d been hiking and camping for days. Going for a swim and getting wet helps, but I couldn’t resist an actual waterfall and all that water rushing over my head.” Although the temperatures had been low, she’d loved every second of it.
He sat up, studying her more closely. “You hike much?”
Glancing down at her hands, she shook her head. “I used to. Before I got married, I traveled all the time. I loved hiking.”
“And now?”
Well, she didn’t know how she felt now. She’d stopped traveling after she and Kyle got married. He worked all the time and enjoyed staying home when he had time off. She’d sold her campervan and moved in with him. This cruise was the first trip she’d taken since his death.
“Sorry, if you don’t want to answer—”
“No, I was just realizing that other than my honeymoon, this is the first trip I’ve taken since I met Kyle.”
“You two didn’t travel together?”
She shook her head. “He worked a lot.”
Seth eyed her with something akin to pity. She was used to that look when she talked about Kyle’s death, but she hadn’t expected it during this conversation.
