Key West (8 page)

“Well…” She found herself glancing down at her plate, stirring her eggs around with her fork. “I didn’t exactly plan it. The, uh, rum punch made me do it.”

Both laughed, and Amy said, “The rum punch would probably make
me
do it, too,” as she peered knowingly at her husband.

He reached out to cover Amy’s hand on the table. “Yeah, this one can’t hold her liquor.”

“Guess that makes two of us,” Carrie imparted with a sheepish smile.

“That’s a sunset cruise, right?” Cole asked.

Carrie nodded, and Cole looked to his wife. “Well, maybe we’ll hang by the pool today, then take the cruise this evening.” He raised his eyebrows at her, looking more than a little sexy. “We can have fun on the boat, and then we can head back and have fun in the room.”

Amy agreed, then turned to Carrie, looking surprisingly embarrassed. “Speaking of which, I’m afraid we got pretty loud last night. I hope we didn’t keep you up.”

Carrie didn’t know quite how to answer. “Uh…no…not at all.” She reached for a strip of bacon and bit into it, half regretting her answer. Was she blushing or was it just the morning sun making her face feel so warm?

Amy gave her head a suspicious tilt, her eyes twinkling with curiosity. “You didn’t happen to be on your balcony last night, around eleven, did you?”

Carrie took advantage of having her mouth full, chewing slowly, trying to decide how to answer. Would they truly find it exciting to know she’d watched them? Or was that just something Cole had said last night to relax Amy? “Well, I…”

Amy smiled at her. “You were, weren’t you?”

Carrie shifted her gaze to Cole, across the table from her. His warm eyes brimmed with anticipation. She took a deep breath, then spoke softly. “Okay. Yeah. I was on the balcony.”

She was half afraid to peek back at Amy, but when she did, her new friend’s expression burned with as much passion as Cole’s. Pushing a long blonde lock behind one ear, Amy bit her lip. “Were you there the whole time? Did you see
everything
?” Her voice sizzled with the thrill of excitement.

Carrie felt as drawn into the conversation now as she’d felt drawn into their sex last night, as she’d felt drawn into getting wild with Chris on the boat yesterday. “Yes.”

Cole grinned, glancing at Amy before looking back at Carrie. “We’re pretty adventurous.”

Carrie nodded, smiling. “I noticed.” And despite the fact that they were clearly happy to have been watched, she couldn’t help saying, “I’m sorry. I should have gone inside when you guys came out.”

Amy shook her head as Cole replied. “No, we’re glad. We’ve recently discovered we get off on being watched. My only regret is that we didn’t know you were there at the time.”

* * * * *

Carrie felt unsettled and aroused by the time breakfast had ended.
Fish—think about fish. Soon you’ll just be floating around the serene ocean watching the fish
.

Of course, it was hard to think about fish with her nipples jutting prominently through the leopard skin and her pussy tingling from the sexy conversation she’d had with Amy and Cole. Before parting ways, they’d let her know they’d be out on the balcony again tonight.

But think about fish!

Checking her ticket, she scanned the marina for a boat called the
Conch Fury
. Lowering her eyes from the majestic masts soaring skyward against a blue background, she spotted it—another catamaran, only smaller—blending in among the crisp white of most of the other boats. Compared to the
Party Barge
, which floated nearby, the
Conch Fury
looked totally calm and respectable, the perfect place to drift back into reality.

Following a family of four onto the catamaran, her eyes fell on a familiar-looking guy hoisting a mesh bag of snorkel fins onto his shoulder. Chris’s roommate and emcee on the
Party Barge
, Scott. Oh no—would he recognize her? Probably not if she hadn’t become a crazed sex maniac during the wet t-shirt competition, but she definitely had.

“I wasn’t sure you’d come today.”

Despite the rising tropical temperatures, the blood froze in her veins at the sound of the voice behind her. She turned to find none other than Chris. She’d forgotten exactly how hot he was—how the sun glinted off his tan skin, how his muscles made her instantly want to be wrapped in his arms or rubbing herself against his hard body. Which, of course, brought to mind one
particularly
hard part of his body that she’d spent a few thrilling minutes rubbing herself against just yesterday.

Think about fish, for God’s sake!

But who could think about fish with such a fine male specimen standing before her? “What are you doing here?”

The corners of his mouth quirked into a smile. “This is my boat.”

“Your boat,” she echoed dumbly.

“I own it. Or, well, I
almost
own it. A few more payments and she’s all mine.”

She glanced down, now fully remembering that the last time she’d seen him, she’d been straddling him in a wet-t-shirt, her pussy exposed. “I had no idea you’d be on this cruise, too.”

She remained unable to meet his eyes, but sensed his grin. “Lucky you.”

Her voice dripped sarcasm. “Yeah, lucky me.”

“Why’d you run away yesterday? I thought we were having a good time together.”

Too
good a time, given they were strangers. “Let’s just say…I was a little freaked out.”

“By?”

Wasn’t that obvious? “My own behavior. I’ve never even come close to doing anything like the things I did yesterday.”

“I figured that, after our talk about you being an angel and all. But I thought you did an admirable job of cutting loose.”

“That’s the problem. That wasn’t me. That was…rum punch.”

“Did you have a good time? I mean, right then, while you were on the boat—were you enjoying yourself?”

It would be stupid to lie. She’d clearly enjoyed everything she was doing. “Yes.”

He tilted his head. “Then it
was
you. Having a little fun. Nothing wrong with that.”

Carrie sighed. No way could she tell him her true regrets had to do with
him
—that she just didn’t think she could handle doing intimate things with someone she’d never see again, that it would hurt too bad when they said goodbye. “All the same, it’s like I said…I was weirded out.”

He placed his hand casually on her shoulder, yet his touch felt electric, humming down through her body to ripple madly between her thighs. “Listen, I have to go get this show on the road—or the water, I should say, but I’ll be back, okay?”

She didn’t know how to reply, hoping he didn’t feel obligated. “I’ll be fine on my own if you’re busy.”

He ignored her answer, grinning before he left. “And hey, this time I know you can’t run away from me.”

Still in shock as she watched his fine male form walk away, Carrie fell into the line of people selecting snorkel gear from piles. Scott stood nearby describing to everyone how the mask should seal to your face and that the fins should be comfortable but snug enough that they didn’t slip off. She’d found items that fit and was about to make a getaway to another part of the boat when Scott squinted at her, slowly tilting his head. “Hey, you were on the
Party Barge
last night,” he said with an admiring smile.

She gave a small nod. “Guilty as charged.”

He laughed and spoke easily. “It was a good time.” Then he turned to help a young teenage boy with his flippers.

Carrie strolled away, amazed at how truly easygoing the people here were, that what she’d done last night was perhaps not the unthinkable spectacle in Key West that it would have been at home.

Finding a seat between an older couple and a young family, she tried to make pleasant conversation with the woman next to her as the catamaran maneuvered slowly out into the open water. Even as they chatted about the island, though, Carrie’s heart reeled. Already, seeing Chris again had sparked so many emotions.

Emotions she should be having for Jon, she thought, if life made any sense. But the truth was, Jon had barely crossed her mind since the moment she’d
met
Chris. And if things continued on their current path, if Chris still wanted to get together with her for some sort of wild vacation affair—well, she wasn’t sure she’d have the strength to say no. Three orgasms yesterday were clearly not enough to get her lust for the guy out of her system, since already her pussy was aching with the very thought of him. She could still see herself, writhing on him last evening, being so very hot, so very dirty, so very
different
than she’d ever been before. And God help her, the moment the guy showed up in her life once more, she wanted to be hot and dirty with him again.

As Key West shrunk into the distance behind the boat, Chris stepped onto the deck, followed by the rest of the crew. “Hi, I’m Chris, the captain of the
Conch Fury
,” he said loudly enough for everyone to hear. “Beside me here is Scott, Shay, and Jake. We’re all here to help you enjoy your snorkeling trip, so if you need help with anything, grab one of us. In a few minutes, Shay and Jake will hand out refreshments, but first we’re gonna talk about exactly
how
to snorkel.”

From there, he described proper snorkeling procedure while the petite, pretty Shay demonstrated the proper way to put on the mask and how the flippers should fit. After that, he talked about the coral reef. “One touch of your hand or foot can stop hundreds of years of growth. And if that’s not enough incentive, some of it is way sharper than it looks and will cut you on contact. Any questions?”

As a few snorkelers-to-be spoke up, Carrie was captivated by how wonderful Chris was with people, how very in-his-element he seemed here on the water. Until a few minutes ago, she’d envisioned him as an hourly worker on the sightseeing cruises—it had never occurred to her that he might own his own boat. Not that it mattered, but in her mind, it took him from sexy beach
bum
to sexy beach
entrepreneur
, a designation which made him even more attractive. Having been daring and ambitious enough to start her own bookstore a couple of years ago, she knew it took guts and fortitude and a big belief in yourself to place your financial future in your own hands and no one else’s.

“Soda?”

She looked up to find the girl he’d introduced as Shay pulling a wheeled cooler behind her. Shay’s blonde hair was cut in stylish shoulder-length layers and she wore a simple yellow bikini that became her thin build. Her nipples protruded through the bikini top in hard, sexy points.

“Yes, thanks.”

“Just reach in and get whatever you like.”

As she bent over to look in the cooler, she noticed Shay’s tattoos—a butterfly at her hip and a vine that circled one ankle. Like Chris, she sported a dark island tan.

It was only after she’d taken her drink and watched Shay move on that she realized she’d become slightly aroused—by Shay’s mere presence. She’d been ultra-aware of the other girl’s body, her round, medium-sized breasts, her thin, shapely thighs, even her heart-shaped lips. Of course—thank God—it wasn’t only women turning her on. Every good-looking guy she’d come into contact with since yesterday had made her breasts tingle and her pussy ache. Of course, it was all Chris’s fault—she couldn’t deny the knowledge that, somehow, all of this hypersexual awareness she was experiencing led back to him.

Just then, the guy Chris had introduced as Jake stepped up to her with a bold smile. He wore his longish golden hair in a ponytail and was as tan as his co-workers. “Got your fins and mask?”

God, even this boy—who couldn’t have been a day over twenty-one—was affecting her the same way, making her want to look at him, touch his soft tan arms, stomach.

Snap out of it
. “Um, yes.”

He gave her a thumbs-up. “Great. Just checking to make sure everybody’s good to go.” Then he moved onto the woman next to her, asking the same question.

Carrie let out a sigh. What the hell was going on with her? Was it Key West—the freedom and lack of censure that seemed to exist here? Or was it somehow Chris? Had meeting him somehow triggered something inside her, pushed some secret unknown button that activated her sensuality in ways she’d never experienced?

The answers, though, didn’t really matter. All that mattered was the ache of temptation growing inside her, the sense that she was slowly beginning to do just what Chris had asked of her last night—misbehave, cut loose, play. She was beginning to let go of everything she’d ever known before, everything she’d been taught about right and wrong, good and bad, propriety, morals.

That still wouldn’t make anything she did here any more
real
, or
lasting
, as she longed for it to be, but even that was beginning not to matter.

It was scary as hell.

And more exciting than anything she’d ever experienced.

* * * * *

Chris stood at the helm, leisurely guiding the boat in the right direction, although it took little work, given the good winds today. He inhaled the scent of the sea and basked in the sun that warmed his face even as the breeze whipped through his hair and clothes. Damn, this was the life.

Of course, this was the life
every
day in Key West, but today, he was feeling particularly good. Because
she
was here. She’d come back, even if unwittingly, not knowing he’d be on board.