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Another light went off in the villa. The only one that remained was the one in the kitchen, where Tayler sat on the island countertop with Gage in front of her, Gage’s palms planted on either side of Tayler’s body. They laughed about something while Gage intermittently kissed Tayler’s chin and forehead.
A breeze delicately brushed Ayesha’s cheek and lips. “I love you, Curtis,” she said. “Sleep well, okay? We’ll talk again soon.”
She stood, dusted sand from her dress, and headed to the house. As she passed the kitchen, she tossed a quick “Good night” in Tayler and Gage’s direction, which they returned without breaking eye contact.
She went to her room to change.
In the middle of undressing, she heard Tayler laugh and shriek. A pair of footsteps followed, one moving more quickly than the other. Finally, a door opened and shut.
She popped out her contacts and slipped on her glasses. Then, carefully, like there was a sleeping baby nearby, she slithered through the bedroom door and navigated the dark hallways until she came to Joel’s room.
As she went to knock, he opened the door.
“Heard you coming.” He stood in the doorway, wearing only a pair of cotton shorts. “Come on in. The coast is clear.”
She snatched her gaze from his bare chest and walked past him. Like hers, his room welcomed the beachfront through a wall of glass doors—glass doors she suddenly wanted to feel against her nipples while Joel held her hips and grunted behind her.
“Um,” she swallowed, “did you have company? Why wouldn’t the coast be clear?”
He shut the bedroom door. “A couple of times, I forgot to close the sliders and walked in to find an unexpected guest on my bed.”
“You better say it was a woman.”
“An iguana.”
She stopped in the middle of climbing onto the mattress. “Awho?Joel, you know how I feel about lizards. If there’s an iguana in here, I’m going back to my room.”
“No, don’t leave.” He dropped into a push-up to check underneath the bed, then rose with the same minimal effort to check the closet and bathroom. “I don’t see him.”
“How do you know it’s a him?”
“The first time we made eye contact, I sensed the territorial challenge inside him.”
She snorted a laugh.
“But it’s fine.” He took a seat on the bed. “He’s not here.”
“Did you name him too?”
“Yep. Carlton. Because he—”
“Looks like a Carlton,” she finished. “I know you pretty well myself, Mr. Lattimore.”
All he had to do was hit her with that smile of his, and she slowly grew more at ease. After challenging days at work in Maui, she’d walk through the door and right into his smile, arms, and consistently delicious dinners, and the stress would slough off like dead skin.
He tapped the space next to him. “Come sit next to me.”
“If I sit there, my feet dangle off the bed.”
“Okay, then.” He lay on his back, one arm outstretched. “Now, come to me, my goddess.”
Laughing, she crawled over and wedged herself against his side. He removed her glasses and set them on the nightstand before drawing her close using one arm. She did her best to relax, but out of the corner of her eye, she kept seeing imaginary fragments of a spiked lizard.
He sighed. “I should have never told you about Carlton.”
“You damn right, you shouldn’t have,” she said.
He rolled onto his side.
