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Yeah, don’t think too hard about that.
Her deep brown eyes went down to a half-lidded state as she watched him sit down on the chair next to hers and reach over to her back. Soft. Warm. Pliable. Rick tried to concentrate on smoothing the sunscreen in evenly rather than on how silky and inviting her skin was.
“Mmmmmm...”
Giving her a quick glance, he saw her eyes had closed and she had a little smile on her face, looking very much like the cat who got the cream. Satisfied. Sexy.
“My name’s Maria.”
“Rick.”
Maria peeked at the Greek god. Good grief he was glorious up close. Chiseled jaw with just a hint of stubble, which hadn’t been visible from further away because he was so fair-haired, stunning blue eyes, and a truly friendly smile. And the way he was looking at her back as he rubbed the sunscreen across it said maybe he wasn’t like a lot of the other super fit guys she’d met, maybe he didn’t judge women based on their size just because he was so... fit.
“I think I’m one of your upstairs neighbors,” she said, to make conversation. “You moved into 304 right? I live right next to Mrs. Pierce.”
He laughed, and it was probably the nicest sound she’d ever heard. Rich, sincere, and deeply sexy. Yum. “Mrs. Pierce with the granddaughter named Catherine who is halfway through college and spends her weekends volunteering at her local animal shelter? I believe I might be familiar with her.”
“Yep, that’s her,” Maria replied, giggling. She had a small pang of disappointment as she felt his fingers sweep across her back in a movement that indicated a ‘finishing touch.’ “She’s really sweet as long as you don’t mind hearing some of the same stories over and over. Most of them are pretty interesting though.”
“Thanks for the warning,” he said with a smile, getting to his feet. “It was nice to meet you Maria, I’m sure I’ll see you around.”
“Bye,” she called after him as he turned and walked away.
The retreating view was nearly as appealing as the front. Especially with his bathing suit clinging to his legs and butt.
Not that she should be looking. He was obviously a nice enough guy and not a jerk, but he hadn’t tried to stay and talk to her or anything. But he hadn’t shut her down either. Maybe he had stuff to do today. Maria wondered what he would do if she tried to actually flirt with him.
She liked the idea of flirting with someone who was as hot and seemingly nice as him. Her mind started spinning a little fantasy where they became friends and she could take him to Lara’s wedding, just to thumb her nose at Jerkface Jeremy. That made her giggle again; picturing the look on Jeremy’s stupid face. Heck, perhaps they could become more than friends... she doubted a guy that good looking was anything but a player, but hey, she could live with that as long as he was good in bed.
And going by the careful way he’d massaged her back as he’d been rubbing the sunscreen in, the gentle but firm press of his fingers, she was willing to bet he was good. Most guys didn’t have that kind of attention to detail if they were bad in bed.
“Mmmmmm....” she said again, thinking about the possibilities.
The sun soaked into her back until she couldn’t bear it anymore and she turned over, reapplying sunscreen to her front. That got the attention of the two college guys she’d been talking to yesterday. They were across the pool in about the same place they’d been before, setting down their stuff. Both of them waved at her and she waved back, winking and jiggling a little bit.
A little shiver went up the back of her spine as goosebumps popped out all over her skin. She had the strangest feeling someone was just behind her, watching... but when she looked, no one was there.
Weird.
She was in the office when Humberto, one of the servers, came back to let her know she had family in the house. Lara and Victor to be exact. She still hadn’t actually called any of her family back, although she’d texted all of them just saying she’d been tired and had gone home but hadn’t wanted to interrupt the celebration. She should probably just be grateful they hadn’t descended on the restaurant en masse. Besides, this was Lara’s favorite restaurant, so it was very possible they were here just for that and not to ask her about her sudden disappearance from the party.
Hopefully Jeremy hadn’t said anything to Victor about their little confrontation. Not that Maria had done anything wrong, but who knew how the little douche canoe would have spun things. How someone as awesome as Victor could have such a butt monkey for a friend...
“Hey guys!” she said, pasting a smile on her face as she walked up to their table. Lara looked as effortlessly gorgeous as ever in a light blue t-shirt and shorts, and Victor was her perfect match in his khakis and green polo shirt. They’d been seated at one of the corner booths and were snuggling in the corner of it. If she wasn’t so happy for Lara the sight might have been a little gag-worthy. “Is everyone taking care of you so far? No one’s spit in your food?”
“Mariiiiiia!” Lara said laughing, dragging out Maria’s name the way she’d done her entire life. “You’re so bad, as if anyone here would ever do that.”
“That’s because you don’t know how many of our servers are in love with your fiancé,” Maria teased back, winking at Victor who grinned his appreciation. “And now that he is your fiancé, they might not be above taking a little bit of revenge.”
Her younger sister rolled her eyes. “It’s a good thing Ryan’s our server then.”
“You know Ryan is one of the servers in love with your fiancé, right?”
“Yeah, but I asked him to help me plan the wedding. He’ll protect me,” Lara said smugly.
Maria had to laugh. It was true, Ryan loved weddings. In fact, he wanted to be a wedding planner, but he needed to build up a portfolio to help him attract customers. If Lara wanted his help then she’d get a wedding planner for cheap and be able to help him out by providing pictures and a reference. A win-win for everybody.
“Is that the only reason you came in today?” she asked in mock anger. “Stealing my employees away from me?”
