CHAPTER94
“Some little seafood place Marissa knows.”
“I want to get my hair cut while we’re here. Do you think there are any hairdressers on the mainland?” I regret asking as he turns toward the three women sunning themselves on deck, two of them topless and watching him studiously.
“Leila will know; she comes here a lot.” He nods toward the only one wearing a bikini. I resist the urge to ask him if he’s slept with any of the three women, but I know it’s probably likely. I know how these rich men pass around their beauties between them, like some sort of guy’s club, the women only too eager to please.
I notice Marissa watching him coolly, a strange expression on her face. He catches her eye, flexes his jaw and turns away quickly; a sudden sharp pain in my chest pushes me. Before thinking through my impulsive observation, I ask, “You know Marissa well?” I blink toward him, and he pauses for a second. So does my heart rate.
“Once.” There’s a coolness to his voice, and he stares off toward the distant horizon; it sends trepidations through me. This is a side to him that mystifies me, when he clams up and doesn’t speak. It doesn’t happen often, but it makes me anxious, as he’s usually always so forthcoming. Jake never acts weird around women he used to date either; normally they always know they will be temporary, and most stay friendly after. I glance at her again, watching her biting on her lip and staring at his powerful body lustfully.
I hate her already.
“Want to come for a swim with me?” His voice slices through my wandering thoughts: visions of the two of them passionately entangled as I stab her in the head.
Stop it, Emma! What the hell?
“Now?” I blink, shaking the horrifying images out of my brain.
“Why not?” he smiles at me, watching me closely; I’m pretty sure he’s waiting on the magical moment he’s expecting to see on this trip where I unwind and chill out. And I really am trying to relax. It’s hard to do though when two of your vacation buddies keep mentally undressing your date so openly; well, companion, not date, because we are not dating, not that we ever would, of course. I’m regretting not coming alone with him after all.
Maybe it would have been easier without the playboy bunnies over there trying to eye-screw him.
“Sure.” It beats watching them writhing on deck suggestively, as their men toss back martinis while listening to bass-pounding dance music and snorting lines of cocaine. I’m glad that’s not something Jake has done around me, or has ever admitted to anyway. He’s never mentioned Daniel’s frequent use of drugs or that he’s ever joined in with him. I think I would cry if Jake was doing it now.
We wander to the platform at the stern, and I strip off my sarong, admiring Jake as he expertly dives in, and I follow him."
