Chapter 16
Shelby
"Let's go watch the stars." I motion with my head toward the outdoor area. I stop when I see the white roses on the bed in a heart with our first letters in red in the middle of the bed. I look back at Ace, who stands by the door. "Because you definitely don't want to sleep on the bed." I point at the bed, and he glares at me as he walks beside me.
"Oh my God. Well, at least they didn't put a J," he says, shaking his head and walking out toward the daybed. "We don't need another room." He lies down on one side. "I can sleep out here."
My feet move faster than my brain does, and by the time I realize something is happening,I lie down on the other side looking up at the sky. "Is it me, or are there a lot more stars in the sky?" I ask him as I see the twinkling in the sky.
"You know what keeps going through my head," he says, and I look over at him, and for more than the second time today, I'm struck by how hot he his. I drank more than my share of booze while we were in the ocean today because there were times I wanted to lean over and lick his chest. "Are you listening, or did you fall asleep?" He laughs.
"I'm listening with bated breath," I say, knowing it’s wrong. "What is going through your head right now?"
He takes a deep breath. "What the fuck happened?"
"You are going to have to be more specific about that." I laugh at him as a soft breeze runs over us.
"When did it start?" I turn on my side to look at him. He looks up at the sky as I wait for him to give me more of his thoughts.
"I'm pretty sure it started when we got in the car," I say, giggling, and he laughs. "But I think it started to go downhill when we did the sex on the beach drinks, or it could have been the shots we did at dinner."
"Not that." He shakes his head, and his voice goes soft. "Sheila and like when she told me she was working late was that when she met him? When I went away for work, did he spend the night at her house? Did they sleep together before the wedding? Did we go out on a date, and then he went over when I dropped her off?" He turns, and I see the anguish in his eyes. "Did I do something wrong?"
"No," I whisper, my hand coming out and going on his chest, feeling his heart beating under my hand. "We did nothing wrong. I went through it in my head over and over again the whole time I was getting my makeup done. I would look over at Sheila and wonder did she fuck him right before she got here. Did he call her this morning? What did she give him that I didn't?" I take a deep breath. "To answer your question, this is more of a them problem than an us problem." He just smiles at me, and I close my eyes for a second, or at least that is how long it felt.
The next thing I know, I hear birds chirping. I hear myself groan, and I try to open my eyes, but they feel sealed shut. I focus on the task of opening my eyes. One of them flutters open for half a second before it shuts when the brightness of the sun hits me. I move my head to the side, trying to wet my lips, but my mouth is dry, and I feel like sand is on my tongue. I have to wonder if I slept with my mouth open and some sand flew into it. I take a deep inhale, and I feel this heaviness on my chest. I groan and open one eye, looking around. Memories of last night come back in blocks. Dinner and then looking at the stars and then talking. I look over, seeing Ace asleep beside me. I close my eyes and turn my head and try to move, but something is holding me down. When I open my eyes and look down at my chest, I see his hand is cupping my breast. Almost like a death grip. My eyes open wide as I look around, not moving a single muscle in my body. His hand is on my breast, my head screams. I repeat, his hand is on my breast. I ignore the little butterflies in my stomach or the fact that my heart speeds up.
"Morning," I hear him mumble from beside me, and my head turns to look at him. His eyes open and close for a second as he gets used to the sunlight.
"Morning," I reply as he finally opens his eyes. I look at him and then look down at my breast, hoping he follows my eyes, but he doesn't. I swallow down the cotton ball that is in the back of my mouth. "Do you mind?" I say, looking at him and motioning with my head to his hand, trying to make this as unawkward as I can.
He smirks at me, and then he says. "Do you mind?" His eyes go from mine down to his cock. And I shriek when I realize that my hand is right on his cock, and it's hard. "Oh my God." I whip my hand off and jump off the daybed, avoiding his eye contact. "I didn't know."
"It's fine," he mumbles and rolls off the daybed, his shirt all wrinkled and his eyes looking sleepy.
"I'm going to the bathroom," I declare, not waiting for him to say anything and running into the bathroom. I close the bathroom door behind me and hang my head, my eyes looking at my hand that was on his cock. "What the hell were you thinking?" I push away from the door and walk over to the bathroom sink, turning on just the cold water. I cup my hands under the stream of water and then throw it on my face. I repeat it three times before I grab a small plush white towel and dab my face while looking at myself in the mirror. "What the hell is going on with you?" I ask my reflection, wondering if someone else will answer. Instead, there is a knock on the door. I look over at the closed door. "Yeah."
"Are you going to be long in there?" Ace asks, and I put the towel down, walking over to the door and opening it. I avoid making eye contact with him as I walk past him, and all I can smell is his aftershave, which makes my body come alive. He walks into the bathroom and closes the door behind him, and all I can do is walk over to the bar area and grab a bottle of water. I open it and down half of it, sitting on the couch. When I hear the door open, I look up and see that he's washed his face also and has pushed his hair back with his hands.
He looks at me. "Maybe this is a bad idea." The words come out of my mouth before I even process what I was going to say. "This whole thing being here at a honeymoon resort it's …"
I look at him, hoping he’ll jump in and agree with me. And he looks like he's going to say something when there is a knock on the door. "For a honeymoon resort." He moves toward the door. My eyes go to his ass and then quickly look up when he looks over his shoulder. "They have the worst timing."
"Good morning, Mr. Ace," Roberto says, rolling in a cart full of food. "I hope I didn't wake you."
"Nope," I respond when he sees me. "We are awake."
"It's going to be a beautiful day." His voice is chipper, and I look over at Ace, who is just staring at me and making me even more nervous. "The car leaves in thirty minutes. I will set this up outside, yes?" he asks, and I just nod at him.
"Should we even go?" I look at Ace, trying not to overthink things, but my brain is going around and around in a circle. The sound of a champagne bottle makes us look out toward Roberto, who is filling the glasses for mimosas.
"Let's eat," Ace suggests, and when I walk to the table and sit down, I actually eat more food than I thought I would, but neither of us says anything to each other. "I'm going to go get changed," he says when he finishes his second dish. "And then you can go."
"Yeah," I say when he walks in, and I look at the glass of mimosa, thinking I shouldn't even permit myself to drink it. But my hand thinks before my head, and I down the drink. I put the glass down when he walks out of the bathroom, and he's wearing another pair of shorts. This pair is green with little pineapples on them. "Do you have a beach bag?" he asks like he didn't just walk out of the bathroom looking like one of those GQ guys on fitness magazines.
"When did you start working out?" If I wanted to crawl into a hole before those words came out of my mouth, these words make me want the floor to swallow me whole.
"Um, I started doing CrossFit." He smirks. "And then just biking and lifting weights."
All I can do is nod at him, getting up and walking over to the closet I see that it's half-empty, and then I open the first drawer. "Not my drawer," I say when I spot two boxes of condoms and then some lube and also some massage oils. "Did you bring this?" I look over at him, and he walks to me. He laughs out when he sees the drawer.
"Someone was expecting to have a party." He picks up the lube now. "What's in the second drawer?" he asks, and I shake my head.
"Probably whips and handcuffs," I mumble, walking over to the other closet and finding my things."I'm going to change," I say as he picks up the boxes of condoms.
"He's Ace," I mumble to myself as I slip on the pink bikini top. "It's Ace." I shake my head to make the fuzziness become clear, but all I can do is see him smirking at me. Slipping on the pink bikini bottoms with leaves I look at myself, seeing that my ass is again not covered but it's better than the string bikini that I have. The crochet cover-up shows what I'm wearing under it but at least some of me is covered.
"The car is here," Ace says, and I open the door walking to grab my beach bag. "He said that he has everything ready for us and to just bring ourselves." I don't say anything to him as I grab my glasses and walk out with him following me. I look over my shoulder and see his eyes on my ass. When he sees me looking, he puts his sunglasses over his eyes. "It's really bright outside," he claims.
I get in the golf cart, and he sits right beside me. "Are we ready?" Roberto says from the front with enthusiasm.
I want to tell him that no one is ready. That this is a bad idea and that we should pack our stuff and go home. But instead, I answer, "As ready as I'll ever be."