Every Girl Does It (13 page)

We pull up to The Westin where we
’
re staying
,
and I gasp
,
letting my hand cover my mouth. It
’
s
gorgeous
.
I don’t think I
’
ve ever seen a resort thi
s pretty in my entire life. And to top it off
,
t
here
’
s a waterfall in the pool
.
My traitorous thoughts lead me to thinking about what Mr. December would look like swimming in the pool, and under the waterfall.
I begin to overheat
,
compliments of my sinful thoughts, when I hear Brad start talking to the front desk manager.

“Brad and Kristin Hollan
d checking in for four
,”
Brad say
s as he
and
Kristin
approach the giant desk in
the lobby. My mouth is still open
. Mrs. Butterworth is now back in her cage patiently waiting
for me to free her in the room.

Preston
comes up beside me and asks
,
“W
hat do you think? Beautiful
,
right?”

I smile and get ready to answer
,
but instead of words all I can do is nod. How can he already be t
hat tan? We
’
ve been here
five minutes and he already loo
ks more tan than me. G
uys should not be allowed to be prettier than girls
;
it just
isn’t
right
, or fair
.

My assumption about his good looks is confirmed as I watch several girls in swimsuits walk by and drop open their mouths. I even hear someone whisper “celebrities”. They c
an’t be talking about me, only
him. The dark-hair-blue-
eye
d
look I have is quite exotic
,
but that’s
all I have going for me considering I
’
m sh
orter than most kids in middle school
. He
,
however
,
has a whole lot of everything going on, from his tall build to his perfect hair and teeth. He needs to be humbled.
And
I now feel the need to be the person
through whom
that humbling
comes
.
Not
that I haven’t
tried
, mind you. I
t’s
just hard not to get sidetracked around him.

“So,” Kristin says with a strained voice as she approaches us. Uh
-
oh, something is
definitely
wrong. “They double booked everything, which is fine
.” She
puts u
p her hands so I don’t panic, “I
t
'
s fine
.
I
t’s
just that you guys
didn’t get the rooms you
wanted
.
A
ctually
,
none of us did.”

I look to Brad for some sort of hint as to what is going on
,
but he just shrugs and smiles
;
figures.

“Where are we staying then?” I ask.

Brad and Kristin laugh awkwardly before giving us our room keys. Kristin hands me mine then says
,
“You
’
re both staying in their resort huts outside
.
Well
,
have fun
.
Meet
us for dinner at five
.
Bye.”

And then
,
just like that
,
they
’
re gone
,
leaving me and Preston with Mrs. Butterworth.

“What
exactly,
” Preston
muses while
opening his pamphlet with the key card
,
“is a resort hut?”

“Well, I guess w
e’re about to find out.”
P
ointing
at the little sign
that
says
,
”Resort Huts this way”
, I motion to him
and grab my stuff. As long as there are no bugs
,
I
’
ll be fine.

U
pon arriving at our little hut, I realize I
’
m more than fine. It
’
s beautiful!
Except
…
“Preston?”
I ask
,
trying not to sound scared
.
“What number does your hut key have?”

“Five
.
W
hy?” He asks leading me down the pathway.

I’m going to kill them. I
’
ll absolutely kill them.

“Oh, no reason
…
well
,
except
mine says five
,
too.”

“We can’t stay in the same hut
,
Amanda
. It’ll
look bad
,” he
says shrugging, as if to say
,
“
F
ind somewhere else to stay
.
I
’
m taking the hut.”

“I
ag
ree
.
”
I catch
up to him
.
“But s
he said it
'
s overbooked.”

“Let’s at least go inside before we jump to conclusions
,”
Preston
answers
while
unlocking the door.

And I know it’s silly to hear music when you
see things as if you
’
re in a
good movie, but I
could swear
at th
is
moment
,
I hear music.

It i
sn’t just hut number five
. I
t
is
h
oneymoon
hut number five. Awesome. This could not get an
y worse. My only saving grace i
s t
he fact that there
a
re
two bedrooms in the hut
,
meaning I c
an
lock my door every night. The entire living room
i
s open to the outside, but there
a
re nets you could pull down at night. It also le
a
d
s
directly to the pool
,
giving us a fantastic view of the waterfalls.

“This—“I start to say.

“—is awesome
,”
Preston finishes. “We have to stay here,“
He adds as he throw
s his stuff into the main room.

“Um
,
excuse me
,”
I say
,
putting my hands on my hips.

“What?” He asks truly not getting my sarcasm.

“What makes you think you get the big room?”

He shrugs
.
“
Easy
,
because I’m bigger.”

He
has
a point
.
I
’m
not
going to back down without a fight. “Okay fine
,”
I say
,
throwing my stuff onto the couch. “
Let’s
paper rock scissor for it.”

“
You’re
on.” He
puts his hand into position then glares at me with those green eyes.

“Paper, Rock, Scissor,”
we
say
at the same time
.

“
Hah
! Scissor.”
I yell as I cut through his paper. We go two more rounds
,
and I win. Then he does the most uncharacteristic thing I
’
ve ever seen him do. He takes my hands in his and gives
me puppy dog eyes. He
makes himself cry one
single tear then leans in
close and says
,
“
Please,
Amanda, pretty please may I have the room.”

My heart has stopped. Somebody call a paramedic
;
blood is no longer pumping through my system. “You irritate me
,”
I say breathless
,
willing the blood t
o return to my face and legs. My legs go weak and I collapse. Unbelievable, I can’t believe I just did that.

His body is so warm so inviting and strong. I hate myself for wanting to be held by him. Instead he steadies me onto my feet and winks
.
“I was just kidding but maybe I should try that trick more often on you
. It
seemed to w
ork considering you were
putty
in my
oh so capable
hands.”

He should be slapped
.
I lift
my hand to slap him just as he grabs it in his own
. Then
before I know it
,
he’
s kissing me, and no
t a friendly kiss either. It’s a fireman kis
s
.
A
big girl kiss
,
if you will
.
The
kind
that leaves you breathless and aching for more.
His lips are hot and possessive as he cups the back of my head with his hands. I should be pulling
away
,
but I can’t seem to find the will power to do anything except
return his intoxicating kiss
. The pent up tension from the plane ride threatens to escape as he deepens the kiss. Alarms are going off in my head
,
yet I’m finding it difficult to remember my own name.
The thought hazily occurs to me that he’
s
kissing me to provoke me.

I
force my lips to pull from his
,
even though
my
entire
body screams in protest
,
and
successfully slap him across the face.

He
’
s breathing heav
il
y as he answers, “That didn’t hurt.” He turns to walk into the small bedroom then laughs to himself
.
“I told you so.”

“What do you mean
you
t
old me
so?
” I yell after him.

“I knew you wanted to kiss me.” With that
,
he closes the door leaving me still st
in
g
ing
from the touch of his lips on
mine. What
was that?

Growling
out of frustration
,
I
slam the doo
r to my bedroom. Once there I decide that n
ow is as good of time as any to put on my bathing suit and soak up some sun.
I p
ut
on my bra
nd new green swimsuit from
Guess
and wrap my towel around my waist
. Then
I grab my sunglasses and stroll from my room only to stop dead in my tracks. In the living room
is
a very bare-
chested man waiting for me.

“There you are
,”
Preston says
,
putting his Armani sunglasses on. What is it with this guy and name brand everything? I scowl as I notice that he
’
s dressed to go swimming as well. “I thought we should go swimming before dinner
.
G
et a little bit of that aggression out
,
if you know what I mean.”

I nod my head and follow before he turns around to face me
.
“
P
lus
,
I think
there’s
a lot of tension between us
.
I
t might be
good for us to swim for a while,
unless you had other activities in mind.” His smile
deepens
as my face
turns
crimson
.