Dresen
Dress
She looked up when Cruz stepped onto the patio. “Go away.”
“Can’t. I made us dinner reservations.”
“I am not having dinner with you. I’ll order room service and sit here.”
“You will not. Come on. If I can hobble down to the restaurant down the street, you can get out of your funk and come with me.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Tough s**t. You’re coming with me.”
She felt her anger bubbling over, “I said no.”
“And I said you don’t get a choice, Ladybird. You created this monster of a s**t storm which made my company lose a hundred million dollars in a single week. I do not know if I’m going to bounce back from it. Have you even been on any social media since you’ve been here? Have you seen the news? Have you watched any of the programs from back home which depicts me as a pervert who makes medical equipment for children?”
She shot him an angry look and turned her head away, “being seen with me isn’t going to fix it.”
“Yes, it is, because we’re going to turn this into a narrative where I was helping you by being a loving and caring supportive fiancé when you weren’t happy with your original book cover. We’re going to play off we are in a consensual and lively intimate relationship which unfortunately was taken a bit too far. We’ve also booked this trip to reconnect before our wedding and the book tour you have coming up and my work takes over our lives. We need to be seen to make it real.”
“I hate this.”
“You should have thought of that before you gave me two cocks.”
“I didn’t give you two c***s. You weren’t even in my head when I wrote the book. I simply saw you in the restaurant and the way your vein in your neck was bulging and it popped into my head it reminded me of Narnurs when he was frustrated.”
“Maybe subconsciously you’re creating your heroes to be like me because you’ve been crushing on me for years.”
“The only crushing on you I’ve ever done is stomping on your balls in my dreams and popping them like zits.”
“You like me. Admit it.”
“No.”
“I have a file on you. Your last three guys you dated, all big strong men. You have a type, and it is men who are built like me. It’s from your childhood. You’ve crushed on me.”
She was getting more and more enraged by the second at his stupid line of reasoning. “Or” she pointed at him, “the only man I was ever really, well and truly in love with, was skinny, short, no muscles, a nerd and sensitive as a woman and he destroyed my heart and soul. I never wanted to be with another man who even remotely reminded me of him and so I went so far in the opposite direction, I wound up with men who are big,
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bulky, fit and make me feel dainty”
He stood over her staring at her as if contemplating her answer and then he gave a decisive shake of his head. “Nope. Not buying it. My theory is you dated him because you wanted to trick yourself into not having crush on me anymore. When he broke your heart, you realized men like me weren’t so bad and went back to what you knew and loved.”
“You are insane.”
“Admit it, Ladybird. You like me.”
“I’d like to push you off this balcony and watch your oversized arse create a crater in the sidewalk.” She huffed angrily. A knock on the door made her look back inside the room. “Now what?”
“A surprise for you.”
“I can’t manage any more Hawley–sized surprises. Tell them to take it away.”
He laughed and walked back inside and stood there speaking to the person on the other side of the door before coming back in.
Curiosity was getting the better of her and she pushed off her chair and walked into the room. He was holding a garment bag. “What is that?”
“Well, when I was hanging my clothes up earlier, I noticed you didn’t have any really fancy dresses.”
“I’m at beach resorts for four weeks. Why do I need fancy dresses? I’m here to relax, get some sun and do nothing.”
“You really don’t know how to take a vacation, do you?”
“I don’t take a lot of vacations. Usually, I go with the girls. They felt I needed to do one on my own.” She shot
him an annoyed look.
“Eat, Pray, Love?” he mocked.
She shrugged, “I guess.”
He put the garment bag in her hand. “I saw this when I was coming back from the medical center. It was in the window of one of the little shops here. I asked the concierge if they could run and grab it for me. They were happy to oblige. If it’s the wrong size, they will take it back and exchange it for us.”
She shot him a suspicious glance, “let me guess, it’s got the n*****s cut out or something.”
“No,” he chuckled at her words. “It’s an evening dress so we can go have a nice dinner in the nicest restaurant on the resort. The photographer who took the photo of us kissing today is going to see us at the restaurant, having an intimate, romantic dinner. He’ll get a photo of us dancing later.”
“I am not dancing with you.”
“This dress is made to be danced in,” he slowly unzipped it, his eyes teasing as he gently pulled the dress out. “Men don’t normally pick dresses out for women. It’s probably ugly,” her voice trailed off as he pulled out a vibrant silky material from the bag. It was pink with teals, oranges, yellows, and reds in pretty vibrant flowers with a flaming orange underlay. Like a very fancy napkin it folded at the ruched bust, trailing down the front of the dress. The front higher than the back, it would show off her calves. It was sleeveless, a thin strap to wrap around the neck reminded her of a thin necklace. “Oh.” Her fingers itched to reach out for it, but she
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kept them tucked firmly against her side, gripping her bathing suit cover up.
Come on beautiful, you know you want to try it on.”
Had Cruz Hawley just called her beautiful? Her eyes flicked to his suspiciously. “What’s the catch?
“No catch.”
“It’s made with spider webs or something. You got one of your minions to lace it with itching powder?” “No. I need this to work so having you blotchy and scratching isn’t going to be conducive to me having the paparazzi getting shots of us being sexy together.”
She swallowed and shook her head, “I don’t trust you.”
“Ditto.” He shrugged carelessly. “It’s why I’m providing the dress. With the way you plan, you’ll end up at dinner in the weird ugly bathing suit I saw when I was rifling through your stuff.”
“What weird ugly bathing suit?”
“The one which looks like it came from the nineteen fifties. Your t**s are banging, Ladybird. You don’t need to be wearing a bathing suit which covers your entire top half.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m aware my t**s are banging asshat, but I bought the swimsuit you’re talking about in case I decide to do any water activities, and I can’t get back to shore to add more sunscreen. I burn really easily. The bathing suit is meant to cover me from my wrists to my abdomen to keep me from getting burnt.”
“It’s ugly.”
“Whatever.” She folded her arms over her chest. “I’ll wear the dress but,” she held her finger up, “this counts as one of the dates I was supposed to do in Vancouver.”
“Deal.”
“What time is dinner?”
“Reservations are for seven. You have just over two hours.”
She gave an annoyed sigh. “Fine. You need to leave though.”
“Leave where?”
“I need a shower to get the salt water off me.”
“No can do.” He grinned wickedly. “I’ve seen you naked already. You can shower while I sit here.”
“Absolutely not.”
“I need to check some emails anyway,” He motioned to the laptop on the bed. “Go shower.”
“Put the door back.“,
“Can’t.”
“You do realize this works both ways. I can see everything you do.”
“Except, I don’t care if you see me in the bathroom.” He smirked.
“Unless you end up eating something gross and get the runs.”
“Nah,” he patted his stomach, “I’m good. I have no food allergies, I once ate bad sushi and survived and even
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If I did get some kind of GI issue, I’m not ashamed:
“I hate you.” She hissed angrily and flounced off to the bathroom, growing even angrier when she realized couldn’t slam the door behind her.
“No, you don’t,” he called after her as he moved to sit back on the bed. “I’m your childhood crush.
The urge to go back out to the other room and stomp on his face was immense and she forced herself to Ignore him. Childhood crush? f**k no. She’d loathed him almost as much as she did Odin.
She hated having to take her clothes off to get in the shower knowing he could simply lean sideways on the bed and see her in the bathroom, but she wasn’t giving him the satisfaction. She removed her clothes, got into the shower, and turned the spray on, holding her hand out to test the temperature.
As she got under the warm rainfall shower a smile pulled her lips as a wicked thought occurred to her. The tap for the hot and cold water were separate and wouldn’t it be wonderful if she was the only one able to take a hot shower? She noted the tiny screw on the side of the handle. All she needed to do was remove the screw and the entire handle would come off. She could use the little screwdriver from her eyeglass repair kit she always stowed in her make–up bag.
She tried valiantly not to giggle as she happily scrubbed her hair. She was humming under her breath as she cleaned up. She wasn’t going to be the only one taking uncomfortable showers.
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