Modern Arrangements: Complete Trilogy (Modern Arrangements #1-3) (26 page)

The boat shifted again and I focused out
in front of us, we were pulling up to a dock. I could just make out the house
set back off the beach.

"Huh." I breathed out.

"Not what you thought it would be,
huh?" His warm breath on my ear caused me to shiver.

"Um…no. It’s not –"

"Over-the-top?" He finished
for me. With a nod, I smiled.

The boat came to a complete stop and we
grabbed our things. Aidan led the way to the house.

As we approached I got a better view of
the house. It was more like a beach bungalow, though it clearly cost a great
deal of money. It was one story and most of the walls of the house were made up
of windows.

We entered through large glass doors
into an open living room, dining area and kitchen. Everything was cream, tan
and white. The doors we entered were large glass panels that folded into each
other, opening the living room up completely to the outside and the patio. You
could literally open up the whole side of the house this way. It was amazing,
simple, yet completely beautiful. Aidan showed me down a hallway with four
doors. He pointed out rooms as we went.

"This is the storage and
maintenance room. The laundry machines are in there as well." He pointed
to a second door across from it. "This is the bathroom." Pushing the
door open, I peeked around his body. It was a simple powder room, no bath or
shower, just a sink and toilette.

Reaching a third door, he opened it as
well.

"This is the study or office."

Looking in, it was in the same color
scheme and large wall of window doors. The only difference was the shelves lining
the walls with books, a desk and a couple of chairs.

"This," he moved across the
hall, his hesitation sinking in, "is the bedroom." One bedroom.

He walked in and threw his bag at the
end of the bed. I could almost physically see my body do a happy dance, while
my head was screaming ‘holy shit’.

"Through there is the master
bathroom." His arm was outstretched and motioning toward a large white
door. I walked over and opened the door, looking inside. It was all white and
simple again, but it was lovely.

"It’s really nice." I choked
out, trying not to sound nervous.

"Lilli," Aidan raised an
eyebrow at me.

"Hmm." Keeping my eyes off of
him, I walked over to the large window doors and looked out.

"I tried to tell you there was only
one bedroom when we were on the boat." He paused.

"It’s fine, Aidan. I mean, we have
to sleep in the same bed eventually anyway, I guess." I shrugged still not
looking at him, afraid he would realize I wasn’t as disappointed as he thought.

The weight of his eyes were becoming too
much. I was never happier to hear a knock on a door. Aidan walked toward the
living room. I followed.

"You can take those to the bedroom,
please." He ordered two tall, tanned and very well built men.

Stepping back, I let them go around me.
Once they had followed Aidan’s instructions, they appeared in the living room
again.

"Anything else?" The man had a
heavy Portuguese accent.

"No. Thank you Devan,
Bradley." He smiled at them. "Oh, wait. Lilli."

Aidan walked towards me and took my hand,
introducing me to the two men.

"Devan, Bradley, this is my wife
Lilli. Lilli, this is Devan and Bradley. They handle most of the maintenance on
the island." He turned to me. I’m not sure what he saw on my face, but I
doubt he realized that I was feeling quite thrown by the fact that I was now
someone’s wife. I told you about them, they’ll arrive about twice a week."

"Yes. It’s nice to meet you
both." The words finally came out after I got past my mini freak out.

"Our sister, Carmen, will be in
once a week to clean, unless needed more frequently." The one, I think was,
named Devan smiled at me.

"I think once a week is fine. I can
clean up after myself." I gave Aidan a questioning look.

"I clean up after myself." He
laughed out at my insinuation.

"Okay guys, thank you for all your
help. We’ll see you tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah, see you Aidan. Oh, and
congratulations." Devan stated. "Yes, congratulations to you and your
wife," Bradley added. Aidan and I both smiled and said goodbye.

He turned back to me. "So, what
would you like to do?"

"I’m definitely going down to the
beach," Smiling large, I practically ran to the bedroom for my bathing
suit.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Aidan

The thought of us having to sleep in the
same bed was enticing as well as nerve racking. I obviously wanted to, but at
the same time I had to also keep myself in line. Knowing she was pretty adamant
on not having sex made it difficult to have her so close in bed, even a king
sized bed.

Introducing her as my wife had rolled
off my tongue like it had always been. It was way too easy to label her my wife
and feel good about it.

Following her to the bedroom, I walked
in on her digging through a large trunk.

"I’m going to kill her!"

"Kill who?"

She jumped and spun quickly with wide
eyes. Strips of material dangled from her hands. Then it dawned on me, those
tiny scraps were bathing suits.

"Umm, Phoebe," She grumbled.
"She completely repacked my luggage. The little evil –"

"What did she pack?" Stepping
closer, I leaned over the trunk and caught a glimpse of blue lace before she
shut it.

"Nothing." She groaned. I
grinned at her discomfort.

"Aww…come on." Reaching down,
I lifted the trunk.

"No," she giggled and pushed
the trunk down. Luckily I was stronger. "Don’t," she covered her face
as I looked inside the trunk.

"Remind me to thank Phoebe." I
chuckled and received a slap on my arm.

"I’m not wearing those!"

She pointed to the offending lacy items
I’d lifted out of the trunk. Taking the scraps of material in her hand, she walked
to the bathroom, shutting the door once inside.

Getting into my own luggage, I found my
swim trunks, got into them quickly and tossed on a t-shirt. I swore I heard
Lilli groan from behind the bathroom door.

"You okay in there?" I shouted,
stifling my laughter.

"No," she groaned and came out
of the bathroom. It took everything in me to keep my eyes from bulging out of
my head and my tongue from the floor.

"This! This is what Phoebe
considers a damn one piece bathing suit!"

She crossed her arms, attempting to hide
herself, but it just pushed her breasts together and up, causing my swim trunks
to feel suddenly tight.

Thank you, Phoebe!

Lilli’s ‘one piece’ was navy blue. The
top wrapped around her neck and then two strips came down over her breasts in a
deep V almost to her belly button. Her abdomen was fully covered, though her
sides and back were completely bare. The material continued in a bikini type
fashion between her legs and up around her ass, tying very low on her hips. She
looked delicious and her anger flushed face made her even more tempting.

"I’m going to kill her when we get
back!" She shouted, walked over and pulled out a thin strapless dress. You
could still see the outline of her bathing suit and it was difficult not to
feel my balls tighten.

Noticing my long silence, she turned
around and looked at me. I cleared my throat, knowing I had to recover quickly.

"You finally ready?" Sarcasm
would work as a cover up. I hope.

"Oh, shut up! You don’t have to
wear dental floss to swim." She groaned and headed out the door.

"I could, if that’s what you would
prefer to see me in." I grinned and wiggled my eyebrows as she looked over
her shoulder at me.

"Loser," she said quickly, trying
not to smile.

We got to the beach and I watched her
bury her little feet in the sand and look out at the water.

"It’s so clear but so blue at the
same time." She was completely in awe of the color of the water. Watching
closely, she pulled her hair up on top of her head in a makeshift bun and
secured it with a band.

"Well, what are we waiting
for?" I kicked off my sandals and yanked my t-shirt over my head. When I
looked over at her she was staring at me. I grinned smugly. She was checking me
out.

"Shut up." She growled like an
angry kitten. She kicked off her flip flops and slid the dress off of her body,
finally allowing me to ogle her body properly.

She walked to the water and hesitated at
the edge. Running up behind her, I lifted her up bridal style.

"Damn it, Aidan! Stop," She
shrieked. The plan was to throw her into the water but my hands were touching
so much bare skin, my body lit on fire and no longer wanted to let her go.

"Don’t you dare." She warned,
clinging to my shoulders and burying her face in my neck. The warmth of her
breath on my neck nearly set me back a few thousand years to caveman. I wanted
to rip the barely there bathing suit off of her body and claim the hidden skin.

"Don’t what?" Standing
mid-thigh in the water, I teasingly rocked her in my arms like I would throw
her.

"Is the water –"

"It’s like damn bath water. Here
find out for yourself!" Motioning to throw her, she clung to me tighter.
Okay, I was a sick bastard. I was only doing it so she would press herself
against me.

"Stop!" she yelled in between
laughs.

Once I stood still again she moved away
from my body. Her leg muscle flexed as she put her foot down to the water.

"Wow, it is really –"

I took her under the water with me
before she could finish. Since the thought of throwing her away from me was
unappealing, I compromised to take her under with me.

Laughing as we resurfaced, she splashed
me.

"You jerk!" she laughed. I
splashed back.

"You loved it!" I argued with
a large smile on my face.

We battled and wrestled in the water for
a little while longer before calming down. Lilli seemed to get lost inside her
head as she floated on the water and swam around. I decided to swim out
further.

Returning to the shallow waters close to
the beach, I looked around for Lilli and got nervous until I spotted her lying
on the sand. The small waves were breaking against her body. She was leaning
back on her elbows, legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles with her head
tossed back.

Standing waist deep for a few moments, I
just took in the sight of her. This was not helping my physical desire for her.
As I walked closer I knew I would never be able to remove this image from my
mind. Sitting down next to her, she shifted her weight to one elbow and put her
hand over her eyes, blocking the sun to look at me.

"You done practicing for the
Olympics?"

I flexed.

 "Who needs practice?" God I
sounded like Dixon.

"You sound like Dixon." I
laughed a little too loudly and she raised an eyebrow at me. She resumed her
previous position and I couldn’t help but lick my lips, looking over her body.

"You hungry?"

My eyes snapped up to her face, to see
if she caught me eye-fucking her.  Phew…eyes still closed.

"Yeah, now that you mention it, I
am. Did you want to go to the main land –?"

"I’m starving." She stood up.
"I can cook. You had groceries brought here, right?" She stopped and
looked down at me.

Just when I thought looking down over
her body was hot, staring up at her with the sun behind her body made my mouth
dry. All of her curves taunting me from above. Shaking it off quickly, I stood
up next to her.

"Yep, there should be food."
We grabbed our clothes and shoes.

Lilli padded directly toward the
kitchen. I went to the fridge and grabbed a beer. Leaning back against the
kitchen island, I watched Lilli go through cabinets. She was up on her tiptoes
trying to look onto a shelf when I sat my bottle down and walked over behind
her. Leaning into her back, I practically pressed by body against hers.

"Need some help?" She froze.

"Umm…" She shifted nervously. 
"Is there olive oil up there?"

I reached over her shoulder to grab the
bottle from the back of the shelf, she shivered.

"You cold?" I teased.

"No," she said quickly.
"I should probably go change before I start cooking though." She slid
out from in front of me. "Can you put that on the counter?" she
motioned to the bottle of olive oil in my hand.

I placed it down quickly and grabbed her
arm.

"Here?" I grabbed my t-shirt
off my shoulder and tossed it to her. She caught it and looked at me in
confusion. "Just throw it on while you cook." She started to argue
but I cut her off. "I want you to stay in your bathing suit." She
raised her brow at me questioningly. I smiled.