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He and Damian were relaxing on the grass, talking. Ollie lay on his side with his head propped up with one arm, his cheek resting on his palm. Damian lay on his back, hands linked over his belly. Both men wore sunglasses. The sight of Ollie naked still made me tingle, which was highly inappropriate when other people were around. I couldn't stop it, though. He was hot.
And so was Damian. But his sexy bod didn't affect me the way Ollie's did.
I caught sight of Heidi on the other side of the lawn, hanging out with her girlfriends. She kept glancing at Ollie. Staring at him, actually. How much history did they have? She sure seemed hung up on him. Ever since Heidi had arrived here, I'd wondered if Ollie still had feelings for her. I'd also wondered if I still had feelings for Nico.
No, I didn't. But the thought made me a little queasy.
Did that mean I had no feelings for him? I supposed I would always care about him in some way, in spite of all his wheedling comments that had made me feel small and useless. But we'd had good times too, and I'd known Nico a lot longer than I'd known Ollie.
Why, then, did I feel closer to Ollie than to anyone else? Why did being with him give me a sense of relaxation and freedom I'd never experienced before? He came from a normal family and worked at a nudist resort. I came from an uptight family of rich snobs who were horrified I was staying at a nudist resort. That wasn't quite accurate. Dad didn't seem to care, and though he'd always gone along with whatever Mom wanted, he had never been uptight. He didn't tell me to act like a proper lady.
And yesterday, he'd told me he was proud of me.
No, I did not want Nico back.
But I wasn't sure I belonged with Ollie either. Could people from two different planets make it work? I wasn't even sure how this thing between us could work. He lived here. I lived in Philly. He had a job here, one that he loved. I owned an apartment building, which I'd built into a profitable business. Would I give that up to be with Ollie?
He might get sick of me. I mean, I was an uptight city girl.
But he made me feel free.
I sat down next to Ollie, still wondering about all of those things.
"Hey, Mara," he said, smiling at me. He patted the grass. "Come closer, baby."
Damian lifted his sunglasses to peek at us. "Isn't that against the rules? Getting friendly with your girl while you're naked?"
Ollie kneed Damian in the side. "We aren't going to make out. Mara can sit right next to me without it getting inappropriate."
Yes, we needed to be appropriate, didn't we? I understood the need for rules at a nudist resort, but I hated that word. Appropriate. And its synonym, proper. Both words made me cringe inside.
But I scooted closer to Ollie.
We spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging out, first on the lawn, and later in the entertainment room in the guest house. Damian and Ollie taught me how to play poker, but when Damian offered to show me how to cheat at it, Ollie intervened.
"Oh no," he said, laying a hand on Damian's chest to push him away from me. "You are not corrupting my girl. She's perfect the way she is."
I got a glowy feeling in my chest when he called me perfect. But a pit soon formed in my gut when I considered the ramifications of that statement. Did he expect me to be actually perfect all the time? No, of course not. I was being ridiculous.
My parents invited me and Ollie to go into town with them for dinner at a steak house they'd heard about from Val and Eve. My parents wanted to get to know Ollie better, and in an environment where my mom would feel more at ease. That meant a clothing-required outing. Ollie accepted their invitation with more enthusiasm than I would've expected. I mean, my mom hadn't exactly welcomed him with open arms. Ollie didn't hold a grudge, which made me like him even more.
And I'd already liked him a lot. Like, really a lot.
I put on my favorite dress, the only one I took with me everywhere I went because it suited any occasion and looked pretty damn good on me. The black halter dress hugged my curves, but flared out into a swishy skirt that stopped just above my knees. I wore my black heels too, though not the stilettos I'd had on when I first showed up at the resort.
Someone knocked on the door to my room right as I finished getting dressed. I already had my makeup on and my hair fixed. Ready to go.
I swung the door inward.
Ollie's eyes went wide, then slid half closed while he drank in the sight of me. "Damn, Mara, you look hot enough to melt steel."
"Thank you." I spun around so he could see my dress swishing around my legs. "You look sizzling hot too."
He wore a suit that showed off his sexy physique without seeming too tight. It fit him so well that I swore my mouth actually watered when I saw him. Oliver Jackson was one gorgeous man.
How could any woman have called him her gay best friend? How could Heidi Mackenzie have dumped him to go back to her ex?
All his exes had to be insane. No other explanation fit the facts.
