I can tell he’s attempting to think logically about the bigger picture, and I need to nudge him in the opposite direction of where I know his mind is going. Pushing up onto my hand, I lean toward him, brushing my bottom lip along the line of his jaw to whisper into his ear.
“You did love it. And we could make this work, amor.”
His body stiffens, and he slowly withdraws his hand. It’s disappointing on a number of levels, but I actually respect him for it, because it means he’s not stupid. He thinks I’m crazy for wanting tomake this work, and even though I like that he’s not stupid, it’s only going to make my job harder. So, I double-down.
After lingering next to his ear for a moment, I slip off my sunglasses and draw back my face. Meeting his gaze, I put on my Bambi eyes and tap into the crocodile tears that worked this morning.
“But you don’t want to,” I murmur with a subtle tremble on my bottom lip.
Joaquin slides off his shades, and his eyes are darting back and forth between mine. “Mira,Natalia,” he says discreetly. “I already said I’m going to—”
“It’s okay,cariño.” I make a big show of swallowing my tears and then clearing my throat as I turn from him and push up from reclining so I can stand. Lili notices this, tearing her gaze from Colin and Elle to look at me, and I force a smile at her. “Disculpe.”
Lili raises her eyebrows. “Are you okay, Natalia?”
I nod hastily, still forcing my tight-lipped, teary smile as I turn my back to the lounge chairs and slowly step toward the iron gate that separates the private cabana from the main pool area.
Behind me, I hear Lili scoff at Joaquin. “You’re already being mean to her? Nice going, douchebag.”
“I’mnotbeing mean to her,” he insists, attempting to keep his voice low, but I have my hearing homed in on him enough that I can still hear. “I just can’t let her think we can stay married.”
Lili snorts. “Well, maybe you should’ve thought of that beforemarryingher, genius. She seems great, and she’sstunning, and she obviously really likes you. And not to mention, Mamá has been on your ass about settling down for years. You might as well just roll with it.”
Joaquin says something else, but I’m too far away now to hear him. I keep the fake waterworks going as I push through the gate and step into the main pool area, skimming the tourists in search of just the right decoy to toy with decent-guy Joaquin’s decent-guymodus operandi.
A smarmy, forty-something man wearing a Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts over his dad bod is seated alone at the main cabana bar in the middle of the pool area. He’s got a receding hairline, a half-empty drink, and he’sperfect. Sullenly trudging to the bar, I take a stool one over from him, and bury my face in my hands to sob.
It only takes ten seconds for him to take the bait. “Hey, peaches,” he calls to me. “A girl as pretty as you should never look that sad.”
I blink up at him, bottom lip still trembling as tears stream down my cheeks. “¿Qué?”
His thin lips curl into a lecherous smile. “No-ah speak-ah anyingles?” he queries, mocking my native tongue, then chuckles.
I shrug listlessly. “No entiendo.”
He continues to chuckle as he shifts his fat ass to the empty stool next to me. “I don’t know what you’re saying, but I bet I can put a smile on that pretty face.”
Just as I anticipated, he clasps one hand around my upper arm and rubs the top of my thigh with the other. I tense up, forcing a panicked expression onto my face, and dart my eyes around the pool.
“Por favor deje de,” I hiccup through another sob. “Por favor no me toques.”
Please stop, please don’t touch me, etc. etc. etc. Be the damsel Joaquin cannot resist saving because he is one-hundred-percent looking for me right now, and he’s going to catch this guy trying to feel me up and get all protective.
Smarmy Guy keeps pulling my arm toward him, keeps mocking my language, and I keep hitching little sobs, and just as I expected, here comes my knight in shining armor.
“Hey,” Joaquin barks, gripping the guy’s fleshy shoulder and jerking him backward. “Is there a reason you’re manhandling mywife,cabron?”
Smarmy Guy instantly cowers at the sight of muscle-stacked, six-foot-two Joaquin and releases me. “Oh… wow, sorry. She just looked really upset.” He lifts his hands and shimmies his big butt off the stool, picking up his drink. “Sorry, no harm intended.”
He scampers off, and Joaquin turns to me, bracing his palms on my shoulders. “Are you okay?”
Tsk. He’s such adecent guy. Such a shame.
I drop my chin low and hiccup again. “I want to go home.”
Joaquin drops himself onto the stool next to me and sighs. “Natalia, I think we should go back to the room and talk about everything. We just need to—”
“I said I want to go home,” I say with another pitiful sob. “You don’t want to do this. You weren’t in your right mind when you signed up for this. You need to just take me home.”
