Provocative Paradise: A Secret Stranger Romance Read online

  I figured I was already down here, I should look inside. The front part of the cave was lit up by sunlight, and there were two paths I could take. One of them looked kind of like a hallway, so I went down that way, using my phone as a light.

  The cave looked different from the other caves we’d been in during the tour. Those caves were green and mossy. This one looked like it was made of sandstone or maybe some old, dead coral. From the look of it, the cave seemed to flood quite a bit, as there was a water line that was waist high.

  Good thing the skies are clear today.

  Continuing to walk deeper into the passageway, I saw a wheelbarrow. What was even weirder was that it was full of coconuts. “Who would bring a wheelbarrow full of coconuts all the way back here?” I said it out loud and my voice sounded weird and echoey bouncing off the walls.

  Just then, I heard a noise at the mouth of the cave. Shit! Backing up against the wall, I turned the light of my phone off, and stuck it in my bra so my hands would be free.

  My heart started to pound, and my mouth got dry. Whoever it was started to walk in my direction, and I could see a light shining on the ground. The person would walk a few steps, and then stop. Walk some more, shine the light around, and then stop.

  I was terrified and had to force myself not to panic and to keep breathing. Realizing that I might need to defend myself, I remembered that I was standing next to a bunch of coconuts. I’d been a pitcher on my high school softball team, and figured I could hurl them at the guy and then distract him enough to run past and get out of the cave.

  Step... step...step...stop.

  Step... step...step...stop.

  Okay Jenny. Here we go. On the count of three. One...two...three!!!

  Chapter Fourteen Liam: Put the Lime in the Coconut

  “Ouch!” What the hell?! I was being pelted in the head by large, hard objects. Swerving to avoid them, I shined my light down on the ground and saw that they were coconuts. Someone was throwing fucking coconuts at my head!

  Was it some kind of native? Who would be hiding in a cave with an armful of coconuts? Ducking to avoid them, whoever was throwing them was doing a good job of hitting me. “Ouch! Stop it!”

  The pelting stopped. “Liam?” That voice sounded familiar. “Is that you?”

  “Who’s there?” I only knew a couple of people on the island, and doubted it would be Kayla or her friend. “Jenny?” I shined my light in the direction of the coconut launcher. “Is that you?”

  “Oh my god, Liam. You scared me to death.”

  “What are you doing here?” I walked over to give her a hug, as she was clearly terrified.

  “I wanted to see why there were tire tracks that led from the ocean into the cave. And then I saw this wheelbarrow full of coconuts and thought it was weird, and then I heard footsteps, and so I started throwing them at you.” Then she took a breath. “Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”

  I did have a couple of sore spots where the coconuts had bounced off my head. “Naw, I’m too hard headed to be hurt by a little coconut. But, we better get out of here. When I was here earlier, someone else was here too.”

  “Why were you here?”

  “Same reason as you. It looked strange to see those tracks and no footsteps. But I dropped my keys so I had to come back for them.”

  “Did you find them?”

  “Unless they are inside one of those coconuts you hurled at me, no.”

  Jenny laughed. “This is going to make for a great story one day.”

  ***

  “So tell me again what happened to the keys?” It was the same manager who I’d yelled at on my first day there. “You left them in a cave?”

  Jenny drove me to the Main House in her cart as the keys to mine were inside the locked bungalow. We’d decided not to risk looking for the keys and just get out of the cave as fast as possible.

  “I didn’t leave them in a cave. I lost them in a cave.” I was doing my best to not sound irritated at the man, but I didn’t think I was doing a very good job.

  “Same thing.” The man looked me up and down like I was some kind of irresponsible child who’d lost his backpack. “We can get another key for you, but it will take a few hours. We’ll need to call Mr. Monsegue. He was the caretaker who lived there for years before he retired.”

  Jenny frowned and said, “You only had one copy of the key?”

  The man then sneered at Jenny. “We don’t expect our guests to go dropping them in caves.”

  Jenny and I looked at each other and both started snickering. “All right. Can you text me when the key is available?”

  “No problem, sir.”

  We walked away from the front desk, barely able to contain our laughter. Mocking his arrogant tone, she said, “It’s no problem to text, you, sir. As long as you don’t drop your phone in a cave.”

  I laughed at that, and realized that I felt really, really good when I was with Jenny.

  ***

  Since we had time to kill, we decided to go wait by the pool. Jenny talked as we walked. “My sister Julie is in one of the cabanas there. She tweaked her knee at work a few months ago, and I guess she did a little too much with the cave hiking.”

  As we walked toward the cabanas, we didn’t see Julie. “I guess she must have gone back up to the room.”

  On the beach, we could see a group of people taking a painting class. On the grassy knoll was another group taking a yoga class. And, in the pool there was a group playing water polo.

  “I can’t help but feel that I’m not making the most of this retreat,” Jenny said. Nodding her head at all the people engaged in activities, she asked, “What about you?” She sat down on one of the cabana chairs and started looking at the food and drink menu.

  I waved down the pool waitress and ordered a couple of mojitos. “I don’t know. I just played a rousing game of coconut dodgeball.” I grinned and looked for her reaction. Fortunately, she smiled back.

  “Very funny.” She stretched her legs out on the lounge chair. “I have a secret to tell you. If you promise not to laugh.”

  “Okay. What?”

  “I was in the cave today because I was looking for hidden treasure.” She then shook her head and said, “You must think I am so silly.”

  “Actually, I’ll let you in on my secret. That’s why I was there too.”

  Jenny broke out into a huge grin. “You were?”

  “Yeah. Ever since I was a kid I was obsessed about finding treasure. I’m an architect, and whenever we dig up a site for a build, part of me is hoping to find some kind of vault or safe or hidden passageway. It’s not even the money. It’s the excitement of finding it.”

  “Ah makes sense. I didn’t get very far back there. What did you find?”

  “A bunch of crates that were nailed shut.”

  “What’s with the coconuts, then?” Just as Jenny asked that the waitress came up and handed us our mojitos and we toasted each other with the tall mint and rum concoction.

  “I don’t know. Maybe it’s some big coconut oil manufacturing firm” I said jokingly.

  “Maybe.” Jenny took a big sip of her drink. “This is really good. The only time I’ve ever had one of these was at Disneyland and it was a virgin one.”

  I decided to let the “virgin” joke that came to mind slip by. “I’m not much of a sweet drink enthusiast myself, but after that rum punch the other night I figured, ‘hey, when in the Bahamas...’”

  There was a moment of semi-awkward silence as we both realized that it was that very sentiment that led to us being in bed together the other night.

  “About the other night,” I said at the same time as she said, “Look, I don’t want you to think...”

  We laughed and then each said, “You go first.” “No, you go first.”

  Jenny spoke first. “I don’t want you to think I’m going to get all romantic or anything about the other night. I’m not really a ‘hookup’ kind of girl, but I also don’t want you to think I expect
it means anything. It was just some vacation fun. A one time thing.”

  I looked at her and thought that was a pretty cool thing for her to say. I’d been feeling badly about running out on her so quickly. It wasn’t just a hookup for me either. In fact, it had been so much more. It was the act that finally let me cross the threshold back into life.

  “I appreciate that, and I hope you don’t think that I’m a ‘hookup’ kind of guy or anything, either. It’s just that...” Before I could get the words out, my throat started to close with emotion. I couldn’t bring myself to say it. I didn’t want her to know that she was the first person I’d been with since my wife died. It would put too much pressure on her and add more meaning to the whole thing. She had just said that it was a one time thing.

  Jenny was sitting there looking at me with such a warm, compassionate look on her face. I knew she would be understanding. What the hell’s your problem, man? Just say it. ‘I haven’t been with anyone since my wife Grace died.’ But I couldn’t even think it without getting choked up, let alone say it. It was too soon.

  Fortunately, the moment was broken with the sound of a text message coming in. My key was ready.

  ***

  “Here you are sir.” The man handed me the key to the bungalow and pursed his lips as if he’d been sucking on an unripe kiwi. “I’m afraid there will be a $100 charge to your bill for a lost key.”

  I couldn’t help but grin at the face the man was making. It was a simple accident and the guy was acting like I’d trashed the entire place. “That’s fine.”

  As we walked off, Jenny elbowed me playfully. Mocking the man’s expression, she said, “Now, don’t lose it again, sir, or we’ll have to charge you an extra $10,000.”

  I just shook my head and said, “Ridiculous.”

  “Do you want a ride back to your bungalow?”

  I’d completely forgotten that she had given me a ride here. “I wouldn’t want to get you in trouble with The Principal.”

  “Right? I might have to stay after school and clean the erasers. No, I have the cart until 9:00.”

  “Well, if it’s not too much trouble...” Frankly, I didn’t mind spending more time with Jenny. I really enjoyed her company.

  It was a short drive to the bungalow from the Main House, and the entire way my mind and body argued. She looked so cute with her hair blowing in the wind, driving the golf cart and talking away. I really wouldn’t mind another tryst with her, but she’d made it pretty clear that it was a one-time deal. So, when we got to the bungalow, I got out and came around to the driver’s side and said, “Well, thanks for an interesting afternoon.”

  “Interesting, eh? That’s one way of putting it.”

  When she smiled at me, her dimples came out and it made me want to kiss them. But, she was right that we really ought to not get too involved. I had a long way to go before I’d be ready for a real relationship again.

  “Yeah, thank you too...” The next thing I knew, I was kissing her.

  Her lips tasted like mint and rum and my body remembered the feel of her. I wanted to lay her down in the golf cart and take her right there. Just one kiss got me so hard that I knew I’d have trouble sitting down.

  Now it was her turn to pull away and say, “Uh... I gotta go.”

  As she sped off in the cart toward the Main House I stared after her. What the hell is happening to me?

  Chapter Fifteen Jenny: Your Call May Be Recorded For Quality Assurance

  What the hell is happening to me? I couldn’t stop berating myself as I walked back to my room after turning in the keys to the golf cart. Why can’t I stop kissing him? Thankfully, the person at the front desk was that nice woman from the first day. I just handed her the keys, and the woman smiled and said “Have a great evening, Ms. Wilson.”

  I headed up the stairs, muttering to myself.

  “Is everytin’ all right, Miss?” Kanye was walking toward me carrying a stack of pool towels.

  “What? Oh, yes. I’m sorry, Kanye. I was just talking to myself.”

  “Well, ya know what I always say. If ya can’t talk to your self, who ken ya talk to?”

  “You got that right.” I smiled at him, but was more than a little embarrassed at being overheard.

  As I opened the door to the suite, I was looking forward to talking to Julie. It felt like we’d spent the whole vacation apart.

  “Jules. I’m back.”

  No response. I took a peek in Julie’s room and saw it was empty. “Maybe she left a note?” I looked on the kitchen counter, in the living room, in my own room, and even in Julie’s closet. Not only was there no note, but the silver bag with the prescription medication in it was gone.

  That’s weird.

  I pulled out my phone and sent her a text.

  Back in the room. Where are you?

  I had just set the phone down and went to grab a water bottle when it rang. “Julie, is that you?”

  “Hello, is this Jenny Wilson?” It was a woman.

  “Yes?” I looked at the number on my phone and saw that it was a toll-free one I didn’t recognize.

  “Yes, this is Margaret Tilson from USBS Bank?”

  My heart froze. Why would my credit card company be calling me on vacation?

  “Yes? Can I help you?”

  “We are calling to notify you that your credit limit has been exceeded and in order to avoid collections activity you’ll need to make a payment within 48 hours. Would you like to make that payment today on the phone?”

  Wait, what? My mind was spinning. I’d used the majority of my savings on this trip. I didn’t think my credit card was at its limit, but to be honest, I hadn’t been paying attention while I was in the Bahamas.

  “You’ll send me to collections for one late payment?”

  “I’m afraid it’s more than one late payment, Ma’am. There hasn’t been a payment made on this account in 90 days.”

  90 days! How is that even possible? I had the payment automatically deducted from my checking account each month.

  “That makes no sense to me. I’ll need to review my account and get back to you.”

  I pressed End on the call and then pulled up my credit card and bank accounts on my mobile banking app. I’d set things up so that several of my payments, like my car payment, was automatically charged to my credit card. Then, there was supposed to be an automatic payment sent from my bank to pay the credit card each month. I’d done this to get reward points and keep my credit score high.

  But, something had evidently gone wrong, and the credit card payments weren’t being deducted from the checking account. I’d been so focused on the Ito account, I just assumed that my system was working fine.

  Shit. Now I don’t have enough to pay off the card. And, now with no job, I have no money coming in. This is not good.

  I decided that it was time for something stronger than water. I wasn’t in the mood to go socialize at the bar, so I opened the minibar to see what was in there. Pouring a glass of wine, I went to go sit in the living room and think.

  The ocean seemed endless as I stared at it from the comfortable couch. There was something about seeing the expanse of clear blue water stretching as far as my eye could see that reminded me of the rhythm of life. Sometimes you get to kiss the hot guy, and other times your finances are a mess. The one constant in life is change.

  ***

  Okay Julie. It’s been 45 minutes. Why aren’t you responding to my texts?

  Figuring that it wasn’t that big of a deal that Julie hadn’t texted back yet, and thinking maybe I was overreacting because of the drug thing, I figured I’d find some way to distract myself. Maybe I’ll get that spa treatment for my “birthday...”

  Picking up the phone on the desk, I pressed the number for the spa. “Good afternoon. Spa Paradise. How may I help you?”

  “Hi yes, this is Jenny Wilson. I know this is late notice but is there any way I can get a spa treatment today?”

  “What kind of treatment
were you looking for?”

  “I’m not sure. A massage maybe?” My muscles were a little sore from my unexpected tryst with Liam and then hiking in caves.

  “You’re in luck. We just had a cancellation. Can you be down here in 15 minutes?”

  “I can! I’ll be right down.”

  I went into the kitchen and scribbled a note for Julie in case she came back, and then headed down to Spa Paradise. I was really looking forward to a nice, relaxing massage.

  ***

  Twenty minutes later, I was wrapped in a huge, fluffy, white robe with the spa logo on it, and sipping cucumber water in the lounge area of the spa. Reclining on the soft leather chair, I found myself dozing off while I waited for my masseuse to come get me.

  “Ms. Wilson?”

  My eyes flew open. “Yes. That’s me.” I sat up and tucked my feet into the slippers I’d found in my locker.

  “My name is Shen, and it’s my pleasure to serve you today. Follow me this way.” The woman was so tiny that I had a tough time imagining her massaging clients all day long.

  Shen led me to a cozy room that was dimly lit and had soothing music playing. The room smelled like flowers.

  “Lay face down on the table, you can hang your robe here, and I’ll be back in a few moments.” Shen closed the door behind her.

  Slipping out of my robe, I lay down as instructed. Shen came back in and got to work, and before she knew it, I had drifted into a deep meditative state.

  ***

  As soon as I got back to the suite, I noticed that the note to Julie was still on the counter. This was not good. I grabbed a water bottle and checked my text messages. Nothing from Julie. Maybe I’d lay down and rest, and then try and look for Julie in an hour or so if I didn’t hear from her by then.

  The massage had been amazing, and I was so relaxed that I fell immediately into a deep sleep. I woke up dreaming of being on top of Liam, making love.

  Damn, that man has a hold on me. I’m even thinking of him when I sleep.

  Checking my texts, there was still no word from Julie. I was getting worried. I hadn’t seen her all day! Where was she? It was really not like her to go all day without answering my text messages or calls. Setting my water bottle in the kitchen, I decided to go and look around for her.