A Week at the Beach (24 page)

            When his mouth finally left mine and moved to my neck, I whispered breathlessly, “This is not a hook-up.  This is just a really short relationship that moved at a very fast pace.”

            Nick laughed gruffly against my skin and said, “I can work with that.”  His mouth returned to mine and he pushed me back into my room.  He slammed the door shut with one hand, while the other slid under my shirt. 

            It didn’t take long before we were both undressed.  I fell onto the bed and Nick followed.  His hands roamed over my body leading a trail for his mouth to follow.  In turn, my hands caressed his body, taking care to pay special attention to the small scars that marked his body.

            Afterwards, we lay together in my bed, my head resting on his chest and his arms wrapped around me.  My fingers gently traced the roughness of his scars and his fingers ran up and down my back.

            “For the record, that was nowhere near four hours,” I whispered teasingly.

            He laughed, causing me to rise and fall with his chest.  “In my defense, that’s been building for the last few days.”

            I chuckled, “So I get four days of foreplay and twenty minutes of actual sex?”

            “Come on, that was at least thirty minutes!” he tickled my side.

            I wiggled against him and laughed, “I’ll give you twenty-five.”

            He shifted and rolled on top of me.  I wiggled into a more comfortable position under him and wrapped my arms around him.  He rested his elbows on the pillow on either side of my head and gently brushed the hair out of my face. 

            “I wish you lived in LA,” he whispered softly to me.

            “I wish you lived in New York,” I whispered in response, looking into his eyes.

            He stared back at me.  “We could make it work, you know?  We could talk on the phone, e-mail, and video message each other during the week.  Then on the weekends, we could take turns flying to each other’s places.”

            I smiled weakly at him, “One round trip ticket to LA would probably deplete my account.  Besides, I don’t have a place you could come to, remember?”

            He sighed, “Fine, I could get a place in New York.  You could stay there all the time and then I could fly in on the weekends and stay with you.”

            I reached up and ran my fingers through his hair.  What he was proposing sounded a lot like a situation Chrissy would find herself in.  I liked Nick.  I liked him a lot.  However, I didn’t think I could handle being in that situation with him. 

            I sighed, “Let’s not talk about it.  Let’s just enjoy what we have right now.”

            He closed his eyes and nodded. 

            I could see the disappointment on his face, but couldn’t bring myself to face it.  I leaned forward and pressed my lips against his.  His body instantly responded to mine, and he kissed me back.

            “I have a confession to make,” he whispered against my ear when he’d finally broken the kiss.

            “What?” I asked breathlessly.  I was enjoying the way it felt to have his body pressed against mine again and wasn’t exactly looking to make conversation.

            “About that four hour thing,” he said between planting kisses on my neck.  He smiled against my skin and raised his eyes to look at me.

            “You were lying weren’t you?” I giggled as he gently nibbled the skin on my shoulder.

            “No, I wasn’t lying,” he said with a sly grin.  “It’s just that it wasn’t like one continuous session.  It was more like several smaller sessions completed over the course of four hours.”  He smiled wider, “That girl was insatiable, and she liked to do dirty things, very naughty, dirty things.”

            “I don’t want to hear this!” I said and pretended like I was pushing him off me.

            He laughed and pulled me back closer to him.  “You’re not going anywhere.”

            I wiggled under him and put my arms back around him.  He lowered his head to mine and kissed me softly. 

            “Nick,” I bit my lip and looked shyly at him.  “Do you think you could do that thing again?”

            He smiled, but asked innocently, “What thing?”

            I felt my cheeks redden and closed my eyes.  His hand brushed against my cheek and I opened my eyes.  He was watching me, with a big grin on his face.  I rolled my eyes at him and smiled.

            “That thing with your hips, can you do that again?” I asked quietly.

            He dipped his head down, pushing his body closer to mine.  With his mouth pressed against my neck, he sighed, “It would be my pleasure.”

13.

I woke the next morning with a smile on my face, and an aching feeling in every muscle of my body.  I stretched through the aching and rolled over, expecting to find Nick there next to me, but found that I was alone.  I sat up and looked around the room, hoping that maybe he was just pulling his clothes back on, or maybe just sitting in one of the chairs across the room.  But I was alone in the room.  I reached for my clothes and dressed quickly.  Never having participated in a tryst, I wasn’t sure what the protocol was for dressing and leaving, but I needed to find him and talk to him. 

            I sank back down on the bed and finished dressing.  I had just pulled my shirt on when the door flew open, scaring me half to death.

            “Guess what?” Chrissy shouted happily, as she burst into the room.

            “Chrissy!” I screamed and grabbed my chest.

            She looked around the room then turned a suspicious eye back to me.  “What the hell, Cami?  You look terrible.  Your hair is a mess, your lips are swollen, and those sheets look like they’ve been twisted to within an inch of their life.  I’d say you look like you’ve just woken up after a night of wild sex, but I know you too well to think that.”  She laughed then added, “That and there are no condom wrappers lying around the room.”

            Chrissy laughed hysterically, giving me the opportunity to pull myself together before she caught a glimpse of the embarrassment on my face.  Not only was I embarrassed by what I’d done and the fact that I’d been caught, but it had suddenly just occurred to me that Chrissy was right.  There were no condom wrappers lying on the floor.  Neither Nick nor I had stopped to think about protection.

            “So, guess what?” Chrissy said as she finished laughing.

            “What?” I asked, not caring what she had to say, but desperate to keep the topic off me.

            “Clark just called.  He’s leaving his wife!  He’s getting a place of his own and he wants me to move in with him!”  Chrissy screeched with joy and jumped up and down.

            “Wait! What?” I asked in disbelief.

            “He’s chosen me!  He wants me!” she said with a big grin.

            “Does he know about Todd and all the other guys you’ve made friends with this week?”

            She put her hand on her hips, “He can’t possibly be upset about what I may or may not have done while we weren’t together.”

            I raised an eyebrow at her.  She averted her eyes from my gaze.  She knew that I knew what she’d been up to, but if she was going to try to hide it from Mr. Money that was her prerogative.

            “Get packed.  Our flight leaves in two hours,” she said and left my room.

            I processed what she’d said then jumped off the bed and followed her out into the hall.  “Our flight?”

            “Yes, I called the airline and had our tickets switched to today.  I figured you wouldn’t mind.  I mean, it’s not like you were even doing anything down here.”  Chrissy smiled, twirled, and disappeared behind her bedroom door.

            I leaned against the railing and sighed.

            “You don’t have to go with her, you know?” Nick said softly.

            I opened my eyes and saw him sitting on the stairs, a coffee cup in each hand.  He smiled hopefully at me.

            “I thought you’d snuck off,” I said softly.

            He held up the coffee cups, “I went downstairs to make coffee for us.  When I heard Chrissy come in, I followed her up the stairs worried that she might find you still asleep in bed.”  He smiled apologetically, “You weren’t exactly decent when I left the room.”

            I blushed.

            “It’s true, though.  You don’t have to go with her.” He repeated his earlier statement.

            “The ticket is already paid for,” I said softly.

            He stood up and walked up the stairs to join me on the third floor.  “I can pay her back.  You can stay here with me for the next two days.  Darren and I can take you back to New York on the company jet when we go back to LA.”

            “She probably used Ned’s credit card to pay for the tickets.”

            He smiled and handed me a coffee cup, “Even better.  I can pay Ned back for the ticket.”

            I sighed and stared at the black liquid in the cup he’d handed me.  “It’s sort of just delaying the inevitable, though, isn’t it?”

            His brow furrowed, “So we’re not even going to discuss the idea of making this work?”

            “Nick,” I sighed.  “You live in LA.  I live in New York.”

            “I told you I would buy a place in New York.  You pick it out and I’ll pay for it.  You can stay there all the time and I’ll fly in on the weekends.”  He leaned against the railing and watched me intently.

            I shook my head slightly.

            “Tell me why not?” he pleaded with me.

            I stared at the coffee, “I just can’t do that.”

            “Why not?”

            “I don’t want to be someone’s weekend piece, Nick.” 

            He touched my arm, “That’s not what you’d be, Cami.”

            I rolled my eyes.  “I can’t be that for you.  I can’t be that for anyone, Nick.”

            He dropped his hand from my arm.  He took a step back and said coldly, “You’re better at this than you think.”

            I looked up at him.  “What?”

            “Hooking up,” he said.  “You’re better at it than some guys I know.  The hardest part is the exit.  You’ve got that down.”

            I flinched back from him, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

            He smiled coldly, “You were great.  You did really well.  You were cold, distant, and unfeeling.  Nice job with the walking away part of this.”  He toasted me with his coffee cup.

            “Nick,” I shook my head in shame.

            “No, take the compliment Cami.  You earned it.”  He tipped his head at me and walked past me.  He was down the stairs before I could think of what to say to stop him.  I stood there and listened to the sound of his feet as they sped down the stairs.  When the front door slammed shut, my whole body flinched at the noise. 

            Chrissy came out of her room, “Who were you talking to?”

            I looked over at her, but couldn’t find the strength to say his name.