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Presley tore her hand out of his and smacked him. “What is wrong with you? I lost weight because I was
stressed. Why is it me that has to be the one under stress?”
“I was coming up with a reason for you not having a ring.”
“How about you never gave me one?” she growled at him.
“Well, that’s going to ruin our story. Do you want me to get you a ring, Ladybird?”
“f**k off,” she grunted and waved around frustratedly. “This entire vacation is going to the shitter and I’m over it. Can we go back to our room now?”
“Why are you so mad?”
“I don’t even know!” she grumbled.
“You should be glad I’m here. Imagine if I wasn’t and you were here at this resort all alone fighting off the Algernons and the Parises of the world? It would be awful.”
“I’m not glad you’re here though. I’m supposed to be relaxed and having a good time and right now I feel wound tighter than a coiled spring and I’m stressed and so over it all.”
“Come on, Ladybird.” He took her by the hand. “Let’s go have a romantic walk on the beach.”
“No. I can’t do any more photo op s**t. I’m tired of pretending. I’m tired of faking s**t. I just want to go back to the room, go to bed, alone,” she clarified, “and sleep.”
“Presley,” he stared at her in confusion. “What did I do wrong?”
“Why are you here?”
He froze, “what?”
“Why are you here, Cruz?”
“Originally, I came here because I wanted to fix things, including my reputation back home so my company and my business doesn’t tank. I am trying to stop my father from suing you for affecting his business. It’s morphing though.”
“But” she looked up at him, “you’re still here to torture me. It’s still about pranks and playing with me.”
“No.”
“Yes. You just created yet another narrative of how I’m in need of saving by you, and how you whisked me away because I was so stressed my fat ass lost weight. It’s a game to you.”
“Presley,” he watched as she collected her bag.
“I want to go back to my room.”
“We were having fun.”
“I forgot.” She admitted.
“You forgot what?”
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“For a minute, for a moment, I forgot. I was having fun with you and then she came over and reminded me. None of this is real. It’s all another horrible way you are getting your own way and I’m the one suffering for it I agreed this would count as our first date from back home. The date is over. I’m going back to my room
He tucked his tongue into his molar, his mouth open as he exhaled his confusion. “Fine, I’ll walk you back to make sure you get to the room safely.”
“It’s not necessary.”
“It is necessary. I don’t know what kind of resort your agent put you on, but this one is full of people who are trying to get into your pants. If it happens, I want it to be consensual for you, not coerced.”
She was wordless as she walked back to the hotel room with him quietly at her side. When they reached the room, she swiped her keycard and started to step into the room, but he pulled her back.
“Hey, I don’t know what happened down there. I don’t know what suddenly flipped in your brain when we were at the bar but, I want you to know, this isn’t a game to me. None of this is a game. I admit, I came here because I want us, you, and me, to fix the reputation and the PR crisis I’m having back home. However, since this afternoon, on the swing, everything changed. Everything. There isn’t an ounce of me pretending anymore that what I want is anything but you. I want you. I want to be with you. I want to explore this with you. I think we could be real, sexy, fun, and adventurous and I want it all with you. We work well together Presley. I wish you could see inside my head to know I’m not f*****g with you here. I want this. Its not a game.” He pressed a tender kiss to her forehead. “Go get some rest. We can talk more tomorrow.”
He turned her and pushed her gently into the room and pulled the door shut behind him.
She walked to the room, the bright colors of her dress catching her eye in the mirror on the wardrobe door and she paused. She looked at herself and shook her head. He’d bought her this dress and she’d felt
beautiful and vibrant in it. Now she felt like the biggest fraud.
“You’re an i***t, Presley Brookmore.”
She quickly got changed for bed, unsure of when Cruz was coming back to the room and not wanting to get caught naked and for them to wind up in bed again. She couldn’t deny the s*x was off the charts. He had a way of touching her which made her want to climb him like one of those Northern BC lumberjacks scaled the trees in the documentaries her father watched.
She climbed into the bed, scrolled through her social media pages, and noted all the exciting feedback on her latest story. It was really exciting to already be doing so well commercially.”
She huffed and rolled onto her side and read some of the text messages she’d been getting from the girls
, since before dinner. One from Halima caused her to sit up in bed and immediately call her.
“Hey.” Halima’s voice was as tired as Presley felt.
“Anderson hit on you?”
Halima gave a loud grunt, “yup. He hit on me and then told me to mark his words, but we’d be having a brown baby within a year.”
“Jesus Christ did you throat punch him?”
“I did better. I called my brother and told him.”
“Your brother who is the surgeon your parents love and adore or the brother who they hate because he’s part
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of a motorcycle club and has been arrested more than once.”
Fol
“The second one.” Halima giggled. “I called him and boohooed about how Sloane’s brother was sexually inappropriate to me. My brother does not like anyone being rude to me. Remember the guy he beat up from
the bar?”
“I do. Does Anderson know his face is going to look like a Picasso?”
“I think Sloane was going to give him a heads up. I mean who did he think he was saying I was going to look beautiful birthing his son and how he could already envision our life together? What an ass.” Halima sighed, ” enough about me. How goes the battle for the bathroom door?”
“I’m losing but,” she grimaced, “I may or may not have slept with Cruz earlier today.” Presley pulled the phone away from her ear as Halima squealed like a teenager at a Harry Styles concert. Presley knew what they sounded like because she, Sloane and Halima attended more than one of his concerts. Halima was obsessed
with the singer.
“Was it as big as the picture Sloane showed me?”
“How many people has Sloane showed?”
“Just me and her mom, I think. Anyway, is it? Was it worth it?”
“The s*x is mind blowing.”
“How? When? What happened?”
“What happened? We were posing for a photo, and I needed to straddle him in this big swing. I was wearing a thin cover up over my bikini and next thing I know he was poking me. We ended up in a cabana.”
“Holy s**t. I’m impressed, also slightly jealous after seeing the photo. Good for you, Presley getting yours. After all the hell he’s put you through in your life, the least he can do is give you a handful of orgasms. Tell me he knows how to work his wondrous willy.”
“He definitely does. Then when we came back to the room, he bought me a dress.”
“A dress?”
“A gorgeous dress. I felt like a goddess in it. In fact, I looked so good, a swinger couple propositioned me.”
“No way!” Halima laughed loudly.
“Yup. The woman, her name is Paris, tried valiantly to convince me to ditch Cruz for her and her husband. Cruz is running with some story of us being engaged and how we’re having a prewedding vacation to reconnect. He’s telling everyone we’re engaged. Oh, by the way, his father called earlier and called me Gavin’s greatest mistake.”
“No way.”
“Yup. I can’t wait to tell Mom this. She’s going to lose her shit.”
“My parents never liked Cruz’s dad. They always said he used his son as a photo op. When my oldest brother graduated college with them all/his father was there with a full press team.”
“I didn’t go to Odin’s graduation, so I didn’t know but Cruz pretty much said the same thing tonight. He was telling me how his father actually went to the Olympics for the press.”
“Are you guys doing more talking than fighting? I thought it would be throwing down, raw dogging it and then
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bashing each other over the head War Of The Roses style.”
“We were kind of getting along but then he pissed me off at the bar. The swinger lady, Paris, was coming on strong and questioned Cruz on where my engagement ring was. He told her I was so stressed planning our wedding I lost a bunch of weight, and I was scared I’d lose it in the sand so I’m not wearing it while we’re at
the beach.”
She waited for Halima’s gales of laughter to subside as she stared at the ceiling. “It’s not funny.”
“It’s f*****g hilarious. He thinks on the fly like you do, and his imagination is comparable.” “Halima, they got into an argument over it. She was going off how he wasn’t a good partner because he should have been more attentive to my stress before I lost the weight, and he was going off about why he brought me away. It was like a game, like debate club in high school with a phony subject to hash out.” “Why are you really angry, Pres?” Halima asked quietly. When Presley didn’t answer, she questioned, “maybe because you don’t want it to be fake and you want it to be real, including the hot s*x?”
“He gave me some crap today about how I’m attracted to big buff men because he was my childhood crush.” “He was.” Halima called her out. “Girl, it was why you went so far in the other direction in college.”
“But he doesn’t know that, and I never wanted him to know that. Not ever! There is a very thin line between love and hate Halima and I’ve been dancing on the hate line side ever since he burst into my college dorm room with Odin and saw me naked and screamed how his retinas were burning. I was never so humiliated. I’ve hated him since then but now, he’s in my face again and bigger than life and funnier than he’s ever been and it’s all a game,” she whispered softly. “It’s just a stupid game.”
“What are you going to Pres?”
“I’m going to win the game.”
