After they’d taken my virginity.
“Hmm?” Monroe answered, dragging me back to the conversation. What had Alec asked?
“Shall we eat?” Alec repeated.
“Yes.”
Monroe’s voice was all deep and gravelly when he spoke, and I swallowed down my whimper.
Alec pulled away first, touching his hand to my elbow. Monroe let go of me as Alec guided me to the table. But Monroe didn’t wait around. He pulled out my chair, grasped my hand, and brought it to his lips. I watched as he kissed my knuckles, the heat in his eyes lighting me up like a fireworks display on New Year’s Eve. I rubbed my thighs together, desperate to relieve the throbbing need in my kitty and wetting my thighs.
Then he presented me with a plate filled with delicious smelling food.
“Thank you,” I said, grateful that they’d thought of me. My stomach rumbled on cue, and I flushed hot as Alec passed me the orange juice off the tray, having clearly heard the noise.
“How was your flight?” Monroe asked Alec.
He shrugged, pressing his lips together. “Let’s just say that no one interrupted me, so I got some sleep.”
Monroe furrowed his brow. “Okay?”
“Doesn’t matter.” Alec smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. It was his professional smile, one that I’d seen him flash before when he was doing interviews. “Where do you two live? Are you from near here?”
We told him about how the Gold Coast was only an hour’s drive away and what it was like there. Monroe pulled out his phone and showed Alec photos of the Broadwater taken from Zali’s house, the mob of kangaroos that regularly fed near her private beach, and the view of the Surfers Paradise skyline that he and Ryder had seen when they’d gone fishing two weekends earlier. The way Monroe and Alec were sitting with their heads together and Alec’s wonderous smile at the kangaroos was adorable.
“What do you do, Cara? I know you work for the sponsor. What kind of warehouse is it?”
“Yeah, it’s my dad’s company. We’re a sporting goods store—everything from equipment to clothing. I’ve worked at the register before, but I’m a junior admin team member there now.” I hesitated, then added, “But I can’t see myself there for much longer.” I didn’t want to be cryptic, but I was unsure whether to say more. Alec’s curiosity, the way he sat with his eyes glued to me, his entire concentration focussed on me, spurred me on, and I explained, “It’s very dry. I don’t want to work there forever.”
“Do you know what you want to do?” Monroe asked curiously. “I had no idea when I started out. I fell into working at the marina by accident.”
I was used to the eye rolls and the comments about “real fiction,” but I didn’t want to hear it from Monroe and Alec. Other people peeved me off, but it would hurt coming from them. Romance readers were my people—we had a common bond—and I knew they’d understand, but most others didn’t. Whether it was monster smut, contemporary romance, or witches unlocking their powers from great sex with their harem, we were all in it for three things—the happy ending, the other kind of happy ending, and the swoony escape from reality. I wanted in that community with a fierceness that made my blood pump harder and the words pour from me.
I sucked in a breath and figured I’d go for broke. If they were going to criticize, it was better that I knew now. “I want to be an author. A romance author. Spicy romance specifically,” I clarified. I waited for the laughter, for them to tell me I was being ridiculous, but it didn’t come.
“I can picture you doing that,” Monroe replied with a warm smile that made crinkles appear at his eyes. He set down his knife and squeezed my hand.
“Is that what you were doing here?” Alec asked, gesturing to my laptop on the other side of the small table. “And on the bus?”
“I was,” I said. “I started off doing work, but when I’d finished, I swapped over to my manuscript. I’m still figuring out a few plot points, you know. I’ve written the meet cute and the first kiss, but I’m still working on the bones of the conflict.” I didn’t want to go into any more detail—they’d realize exactly who my characters were inspired by. Even answering one or two of their questions would make it obvious that Monroe and Alec were my muses. But I wasn’t ready to admit out loud that I was lusting over them.
We kept eating, but I only managed to clear about half my plate. I set down my cutlery and watched as Alec eyed my leftovers. Without a word, I slid the plate to him.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Absolutely. You missed out on a second serving.” I smiled, my belly flip-flopping at the way he dug straight into the steak and moaned like it was the best thing he’d tasted.
Monroe refilled my glass with the cold water from the refrigerator, and I slowly relaxed, my state of near undress not bothering me as much when Monroe and Alec had both made the effort to make me feel comfortable.
Our conversation kept flowing easily as Monroe asked Alec about his career. I’d followed him long enough to be able to answer most of the questions myself—his rise through the juniors was lightning fast, he’d been picked on the starting line for his college team during his freshman year and was drafted to the NHL in his final.
But it wasn’t all about Alec. He asked just as many questions of Monroe, who then filled us in on his role as the senior crane operator at the marina. He oversaw the smaller boats being lifted out of the marina for placement on the dry docks and into storage. But the much bigger yachts—the forty, fifty, and even one-hundred-foot behemoths—were his domain. He was the only one who operated the three-hundred-tonne lift to hoist the largest vessels out of the water.
It was fascinating listening to them talk and watch the way their hands moved and their smiles grew wide. They were completely different, but they both lit up as they spoke about their passions, and that grumpy arrogance that I’d seen in Alec at the airport and on the bus was nowhere to be found. He wasn’t a bear. He was a teddy bear.
When the plates were empty, they both stood up and worked seamlessly together, cleaning the leftovers onto one plate andstacking them neatly on the tray. I watched as Alec picked it up and Monroe held the door open for him. When they returned, Alec asked, “What? You look surprised.”
“Pleasantly.” My cheeks flamed, and I looked down. “I like it when people help others. Like that—” I gestured to the door. “You didn’t have to stack it so neatly, but you did. It was… nice.”
