Page 39 of Pleasure Island
I bet that bed is nice and soft,a sly voice whispered inside my head.
Yeah, I bet it was too. And Mila would be even softer, snuggled under the covers and breathing softly.
Stubbornly, I closed my eyes and willed myself to sleep.
* * *
“Come swim with us,”Mila said, dropping to her knees in the sand next to me.
I sat on a towel and tipped my glasses down to meet her eyes. She wore a bronze bikini that made her skin glow – and my fingers itched to roam all over those exposed curves.
Dragging my eyes away from her, I looked at the group of people congregating by the waterside. “I’ll stay here and keep an eye out,” I said, shaking my head.
“Oh, come on. You kicked off your shoes, put on some swim trunks…take it a step further,” she teased, reaching out to put a hand on my arm. “Relax a little, Liam. Live a little.”
She flung out her arms and tipped her head back. “Look around…there’s nothing here that’s going to hurt me.”
She’d delivered several variations of that argument throughout the day, insisting I didn’t have to accompany her everywhere.
I told her that my job insisted otherwise.
It was harder to tell hernothis time, for some reason.
As if sensing my weakening resolve, she leaned in a little closer. “Come on, Liam. Come swimming with us.”
Don’t even think about it,my common sense warned me.
Not that I was going to get up and walk into the water right now. Mila’s nearness and the way the lotion smelled on her skin had caused my body to react predictably.
I wasn’t about to stand up and walk down to the water while sporting wood.
“No, thank you.” I pushed my sunglasses back up and focused on the horizon instead of her.
After a few more seconds, she rose and huffed out a breath. “You don’t know what you’re missing,” she said lightly.
I was better offnotknowing too. I kept that in mind as the group waded out into the surf, then a little deeper.
I kept an eye on them, all the while scanning the beach.
She was probably right.
She was most likely safe here.
I hadn’t seen even one person – other than myself – who didn’t seem to fit in just fine.
Laughter and shouts drifted back on the air to me, and I turned my head, watching as they all fell into a pattern of swimming or just floating in the water.
The sun beat down on my head and sweat trickled down my brow. I swiped it away, eyes drawn once more to the impossibly blue water.
Mila was splashing one of the guys swimming with her in the face.
He responded in kind, and I watched, refusing to allow myself a reaction, as the man moved in closer to her.
But after a few seconds, Mila smiled, then turned away, swimming off and away from the group at a diagonal.
Some of the others had already headed in, and a quick glance at my watch told me that they’d been in the water almost an hour.
I squinted, searching for Mila in the next group of people to arrive on the beach.
