Chapter 14
Shelby
"Remember when I said you should come with me?" I try to push away from him, but his arm doesn't let me go. "I lied. You can go home." I was annoyed with him but also annoyed that when I got out of the bathroom, and I looked over at him, I got this squishy feeling inside me. It was all that fucking whiskey, I thought.
"Go home?" I watch the lone white balloon escape the back of the car as the driver holds the door open. I hear Ace chuckling next to me, and I want to groan. "And miss all the fun?" He shakes his head. "Nope." He ducks and gets into the car. "Holy shit." He looks at me, and I can just tell that he wants to laugh. "Dear." He holds out his hand for me but I ignore it and get into the car. If he wasn't right, I would laugh out loud.
There are white balloons all over the L-shaped seats with Mr. & Mrs. hanging on each side of the car. "This is spectacular." He sits back and looks around. "Don't you think?"
"I should have called the resort," I admit. "Fuck," I say as the door closes, and then so does the trunk. "I need a drink." I lean over and grab one of the champagne flutes that is filled. "Are you still on your water kick?"
"Nope," he replies, and I hand him a glass. I'm about to say something to him when the car starts and the music coming out of the speakers is a wedding march. "Is that . . .?" He puts his head forward to hear better. "Is that the ‘wedding march’?"
"To divorce." I hold up my glass and don’t even clink it with his before I finish the whole thing in one go. I grab the bottle and just take a sip from the top. "I'm assuming you don't want any."
"You would assume correctly." He takes a sip of his drink. "That's not that bad." He looks at the glass as I look out the window, seeing crystal blue water on either side of us.
Neither of us says anything as the car stops, and I put the half-empty bottle back in the holder. "You’re not taking that to go?" he asks, and I just glare at him as I get out of the car first. I take a step and then stop when I see a woman holding up the same sign that we saw at the airport. A man stands beside her with a silver tray and two glasses of champagne.
Ace’s hand rests on my hip as he tries not to push me down. "Why did you stop?" he gruffs out and then looks up. "Oh my God." I look up from in front of him as he puts his sunglasses on his head. "I didn't think it could get worse," he mumbles. "Fuck me."
"Mr. and Mrs. Romano," the man says, coming to us. "I'm your concierge, Roberto."
"Nope," Ace says from behind me, and my heart speeds up, thinking about how I'm going to have to tell this stranger that I didn't get married. "I actually took her name, Mr. Baker,” he says and the man's face drops. "We're a modern couple like that. Just call us Ace and Shelby."
"No problem, sir," he responds, holding the tray in front of us. There are also two white towels rolled beside the glasses with little heart-shaped confetti. Ace keeps one hand on my hip while he grabs a glass and hands it to me.
"What the hell are you doing?" I hiss at him as my hand comes up to take the glass.
"If you will come this way." His hand points at the golf cart that is decorated with the same Mr. & Mrs. that is in the car.
"After you." Ace moves his hand from my hip to the lower part of my back. "Missus."
I flip him the bird, downing my glass of champagne and then handing it to the lady before I climb up into the golf cart. I grab Ace's glass and drink it, then hand him back the empty glass. "That's my bride." I glare at him, and he laughs as my head jerks back when the golf cart starts to move.
"If you look on either side," Roberto starts talking as we make our way down the pathway that is a wooden bridge. "You will see six private villas." I look over and see three on each side. "Each villa has its own pool and ocean entrance."
"This place is gorgeous," Ace says from beside me, and I just nod. The minute I saw it while scrolling on Instagram, I was a sucker for it.
"Each villa has its own concierge for all your needs. We are on call twenty-four hours a day." Roberto looks in the back, smiling. "Whatever you need." He stops when we get to the last villa at the very end. "This is the best villa," he announces, getting out.
"How many times do you think he says that a day?" Ace asks when he gets out on his side, and I follow him getting out on my own side.
"Right this way.” He walks toward the door that says Six on it. He opens the door, and you can see all the way through to the back.
I walk in first and stop again in my tracks, making Ace smash into me. His hand grips my hip once again, and my stomach flutters. There are red rose petals in a path from the front door to the glass doors that lead to the bedroom. White candles in glass vases light up the already bright room. A beige couch against the wall has a brown coffee table in front of it. A silver bucket sits in the middle with a bottle of champagne chilling. Two crystal glasses are next to it with a whole plate of fresh fruit. Roberto is going on and on about the room, and I slowly move away from Ace and his grip on me to go straight to the bedroom. The whole back wall of the room is glass windows that slide open. A soft breeze makes the white veil that is hanging around the four-poster bed sway. "If you come this way," Roberto invites, stepping out in front of the bed to the patio that looks like it goes all the way around. "This is your private pool." He points at the pool off to the side next to the four-poster daybed that has the same white linen on it. “And those stairs lead down to the ocean." He gestures to the stairs.
"There is only one bed." I look back at Roberto, who just smirks. My heart suddenly kicks up when I feel Ace beside me.
"Only one bed." He nods at me.
"So how about another villa?" Ace asks him. "Like that one." He points at the villa next door.
"You don't like this one?" Roberto asks, crushed.
"Oh, we love this one," Ace starts to say. "But is there one with two beds?" Roberto looks at Ace and then me and then back at Ace again. "She snores." And my mouth goes wide in shock.
"He squeals like a pig when we have sex, so I don't want to bother the neighbors."
He claps his hands. "This is a honeymoon resort. But it's very discreet, and you can't hear the sex."
"What about a room over there?" He points at what looks like little villas.
"That's the family part of the resort, and it's all booked. There is a big hockey family down for a family vacation. Booked the whole thing," Roberto says. "You relax, and I get your luggage, yeah?"
"That sounds great," I say, suddenly nervous that I'll be stuck here in a one-bedroom room with Ace.
He nods and walks out of the room, and I look over at Ace. His arm comes up to run his fingers through his hair, and I see the muscles of his arm bulge. His button-down shirt also lifts a bit at the hem, and I have to look away before he catches me. "It's going to be fine," he says, and I look over at him, finally seeing him holding his neck, which makes his chest puff out. I've always found him attractive. If you asked me what my husband would look like, I always said brown hair and blue eyes. "We can make this work. I can sleep on the couch." He turns to walk back into the room and stops, and I stop next to him.
There is a rose-petal-shaped heart in the middle of the bed. "Jesus." He scratches his head and heads back into the living room. The rose petals under his feet go everywhere. He grabs the bottle of champagne and pops it. It's exploding all over him, spraying his shirt and then onto his shorts. He tries to jump out of the way, but it slowly stops. "That did not work out the way I thought it would." He laughs at himself, putting the bottle down on the table and then unbuttoning his shirt. My eyes watch his hands as if it's in slow motion. He gets to the last button and then just lets his shirt hang on the sides. He bends to grab the champagne bottle and fills both glasses, and then he shakes off the excess champagne on his hands. "Here you go." He picks up the glasses and holds one out for me with a smile. Everything inside me suddenly stops. My heart speeds up, and my stomach feels like there is a tornado going on inside me. "To the missus." He smirks and holds up his hand. My eyes go to his chest, and I swallow down, lifting my hand and clicking my glass to his before turning around as if my eyes would burn out of my skull if I kept staring at him.
There is a knock on the door, and I'm suddenly happy to get my heart rate down as I see Roberto come in with our luggage. "Here you are. If you like, we will bring you some lunch."
I just nod at him while Ace puts his glass down and goes to grab his bag. "I made a mess," he says, pointing at the floor, and Roberto just looks at him.
"We will come back and clean it right away." He takes out his walkie-talkie from behind him and calls someone, walking out of the room. I turn back, looking at the water, and then my eyes go to the single king-sized bed.
"Maybe this wasn't such a great idea after all." I turn back around to talk to Ace and see him turning to walk to the side where the bathroom is.
"I don't know about you," he says over his shoulder, "but that water is calling my name." He walks into the bathroom and closes the door behind him, and I let out the huge breath I was keeping in.
My hand comes up to touch my face, and I wonder if maybe I'm getting a fever. "That was so weird," I voice out loud to the empty room. Walking back over to the table, I pick up the champagne and pour myself another glass when the bathroom door opens. I make the mistake of looking up, forgetting I'm pouring champagne until I hear it spilling onto the table. "Shit," I say, avoiding looking back at Ace. He steps out of the bathroom with only his bathing suit hanging low on his hips. A lot has changed since I've seen him in a bathing suit last year. One, he's a lot leaner, but his muscles are more defined. His chest is perfect, and then my eyes roam down to his abs, which are so on point it's like a washboard, and then the side has that muscle that you see in guys on the cover of those romance books. I wonder what it would feel like to bite it, my head thinks right before the right side of the brain tells me to get under control.
"Are you okay?" He laughs nervously, and all I can do is nod my head, leaning over and sipping the top to make sure I don't spill any more. "Are you coming?" He points at the water.
"Yeah," I say to his retreating back. Putting the glass down, I run to my phone.
My hands shake as I start the text to my sisters.
Me: Maybe coming here was a mistake.
Clarabella: Negative.
Me: I think I have jungle fever or something.
Presley: You can't get jungle fever from being there for two hours.
Me: I'm suffering from something. My head is all out of whack.
Clarabella: You just found out the man you were going to marry is fucking one of your friends. If your head isn't out of whack from that, I don't know what will make it be ot of whack. Drink a cocktail.
With a frustrated groan, I go to my luggage, unzipping it and opening it up. I squat down in front of it and groan when I see my clothes. "It's all fuck-me clothes." I close my eyes. When I was packing for this vacation, I decided that the skimpier the outfit, the better. I worked out like a madwoman for the past six months, and I was going to flaunt the benefits from it. I rummage through the string thongs and lingerie until I spot the most conservative bathing suit.
"It's going to be fine," I tell myself while I walk to the bathroom and undress. "It's going to be fine. It's Ace." I try to convince my brain of that as I slip my feet into the bathing suit. The bottom of the suit is white while the top is black. It's a one-piece, but the middle is a round circle, leaving my stomach and under my boobs bare. The sash that ties in the middle is held on by gold chain links. I take one look at myself and then turn to see that it's barely covering my ass. "Here goes nothing," I say, pulling open the bathroom door and walking through the villa toward the back.
I take a step out, and the hot sun hits me right away. I put my hand on my forehead, blocking the sun and looking for him. He is squatting down in the water, looking up at the sun. His hair is wet and slicked back. "Hey," I say once I get down to the last step before getting into the water. His eyes open, and he looks over at me. His mouth hangs open when he sees me. "How's the water?" I ask right before a wave comes and knocks him down.