Tainted Desire (Desire Series, #1) (6 page)

     “Good, I don’t want you to. Let me show you the bedrooms and bathrooms,” she insists while pulling me down the hall.   

     The first room we come to is a guest bathroom, again beautifully decorated. The first bedroom on the left is the room that will be mine. Courtney and Cameron have out done themselves. The room is painted in a warm and inviting shade of taupe with terracotta colored accent border near the ceiling. There is a huge four-poster king size bed in a light oak finish and the most comfortable looking bedding. I’m almost ready for a nap just looking at it. There are night tables on both sides of the bed, his and hers apparently.
Not that I will need two
, I think to myself. A large dresser with a mirror on one wall, and on the other wall there is a desk area. The desk would be great for a laptop and work area if I do go back to school. The room has a large walk in closet with a built in shoe rack. My clothes and shoes are going to look pathetic in the massive closet; I will have fun trying to fill it though. 

     The bedroom has its own bathroom done in the reverse shades of the bedroom. The walls are painted terracotta with a stenciled boarder in taupe. It has a shower with an enormous showerhead and glass doors. The towels, pictures on the walls, and even the little decorative soaps all coordinate perfectly.

     “Oh Courtney, this is a wonderful room. I don’t even know what to say right now, I’m so blown away. I can’t believe I’m going to be living here, it’s perfect!” Tears start spontaneously rolling down my face and I get a little embarrassed. Courtney just pulls me to her and lets me cry without saying a word. Her embrace and years of friendship make me feel so safe and I know I have made the right choice by coming here. 

     “Okay, that was my one and only pity party.” I wipe my face and then say, “Can I see your room?” 

     “Sure, I made Cameron help me redo mine as well. I wanted something a little sassier than what I had.”

     Courtney’s room is the last room down the hall. As we enter her room, I’m stunned. The room is huge, done in a dusky gray. She has a similar four-poster bed in a black finish; in fact, all the furniture in the room is black. The bedding is the deepest, blood red satin I have ever seen
, accented with gray and black pillows. Her bathroom has a Jacuzzi tub and a separate shower like mine, but with showerheads on all three walls. 

     “Well?  What do you think?”

     “Courtney this room is hot! Feminine with the red bedding, but masculine enough that any man would be happy to spend long periods of time in here. This is definitely sophisticated and sassy at the same time,” I say, completely envious. 

     She shows me her closet, and again I’m struck with jealousy. She has a closet double the size of the one in my room and
it’s filled to the brim with clothes, shoes, and purses. “Wow, shop much?”

     “Anytime you want to borrow some clothes, help yourself. We’ve always worn the same size so until you can replace what you left behind, what’s mine is yours.”

     “I think I will take you up on that offer and come in later to pick something out to wear to dinner. What are you going to wear? Is the restaurant fancy?” I ask a little skeptical, knowing I didn’t bring anything nice enough for a formal night out.

     “Girl, this is Florida! Everything here is casual. When you go out here you can get dressed up if you want or just go in shorts,” Courtney explains.

     “Would you mind terribly if I lay down for a couple hours? I feel drained from an eventful morning and want to be ready for our night out,” I proclaim, suddenly exhausted.

     “No, go right ahead. We have all the time in the world to catch up. I will be in the living room, going through my work emails. If you need anything, just holler,” she says as she pulls my door shut.

     I am asleep before my head even hits the pillow at least that is how it seems. This bed is so comfortable you just sink right in. Waking up, I look over at the clock and it’s already three in the afternoon.  I had two and a half hours of sleep, and I feel refreshed and ready for our night out, ready to take a quick shower and raid Courtney’s closet. I go out in search of Courtney so we can pick out some clothes for me. I thought she had left for a moment but find her out on the balcony watching the beach goers.

     “Hey Courtney, whatcha staring at?” I ask.

     She smiles and points. “That fine piece of meat playing volleyball, the one with the blue and green swim trunks. Suddenly I feel like prancing on the beach in my hot pink bikini and seeing if I can get his attention.” 

     “Maybe he will be there tomorrow. I was going to ask if maybe we could do a little shopping in the morning and hit the beach in the afternoon. I have to get this pasty skin
tanned, so I fit in here. Everyone has great tans.”

     “Yeah, I have the weekend off and took the following week off too
, so we would have time to get you settled and I could show you around. I usually go down by the water with a towel but I think tomorrow we are going to use the lounge chairs by the volleyball nets,” she says, pointing to the chairs over in that direction. “Okay, let’s go find you some hot clothes for tonight, sundress or short shorts and tanks?” she questions me while walking to her room.

     “I would rather go casual in shorts and tanks. You are sure we won’t be under dressed?” I ask.

     “No, some people go there in their beach cover ups after a day in the water. Don’t worry, you will definitely not be under dressed. We may be over dressed compared to most of them,” she replies.

     She pulls out a black pair of shorts from her dresser and goes to the closet, contemplating, she picks out a gold sequined tank and a pair of gold sandals. “See, this is what I’m going to wear, sexy, yet casual and comfortable. Go ahead and pick whatever you want. Then we can shower and go window shopping on the boardwalk.” She grabs her things and heads to her bathroom.

     I can’t believe the amount of clothes this girl has. There is one whole row of dressy tank tops.  I find one I really like; it is white with a key hole cut out to show off some cleavage. I pair it with another pair of black shorts she has and I will wear my black flip-flops. With an outfit picked out, I head to the shower. The shower is spectacular, the showerhead has multiple settings, and I have to try every one of them. I quickly blow dry my long hair and leave it down. I reapply my foundation and the rest of my makeup. The bruises look better than they did this morning; I pray they are all gone by Monday. I run back to Courtney’s room and sniff her perfume bottles, find one I like and give myself a few squirts. Ready to go!

     Walking to the living room I say, “Courtney, I hope you don’t mind, but I borrowed some perfume too. They confiscated mine at the airport.”

     “That’s fine!” I hear her yell from the balcony.

     “Are you still raping that man with your eyes?” 

     “Yes!  He is good at volleyball. I wonder if he’s on a team. God, I hope he is there tomorrow; I want to get a closer look. Kind of hard to make out his face from way up here, but I sure would like to rub my hands all over that body of his,” she says turning to me.

      “I’m all set to go if you are,” I tell her.

     “Just a minute,” and she runs to her room. She comes back a few seconds later with a pair of black platform sandals. “I think you should wear these. You have great legs and these will show them off even better.”

     I take the shoes from her and put them on; they are a great pair of shoes. “I hope I can walk all night in these shoes. I’m not used to wearing heels
, let alone walking far distances in a pair,” I confess giving her a questioning look.

   “You will be fine! We will really only be walking one way in shoes and at the restaurant we will be sitting most of the time. When we walk back, we will walk barefoot on the water’s edge. Let’s get out of here and get the night started.” 

     We ride the elevator down and exit the building. The sun is still blazing and once again, I’m hit with the intensity of the heat here. I have to admit though, it feels good on my skin but hope I’m not a sweaty mess by the time we reach the restaurant. We go into several shops and I see a ton of clothes I could buy. I show a few things to Courtney and she suggests we come back tomorrow, so I won’t have to carry them all night. We come upon a small amusement park with a Ferris wheel, Tilt-A-Whirl and something called a Sling Shot. We watch it for a while and I think to myself there is no way in hell I would go on that thing. It has two super tall poles with bungee cords attached at the top and they connect to a ball shaped cage that two people sit in. The bungee tightens and the riders are launched into the sky. With my luck, the bungee would break and I would be flying through the air like a missile. 

     We continue our walk past the shops; up ahead
I can see the pier with the restaurant at the end. I hope I make it, I can already feel the beginnings of a cramp in the arches of my feet. Courtney is strutting her stuff in her heels like it is nothing, I’m so jealous. I will have to keep wearing them for short periods to condition my legs and feet. We take a set of stairs up and finally make the turn onto the pier. I start to feel relief knowing we will soon be sitting at a table.

     I wish I had my camera to take some pictures of the shoreline from out on the pier. My parents would love to see where I’m living and how beautiful the ocean looks. I’ll have to get a camera and take some photos to send to them. We walk up to the door of the restaurant and Courtney gives the girl at the door her cell phone number. I’m confused, “Why did you just give that girl your cell phone number? Do you know her?” 

     Laughing she explains, “No that’s how they will call us for our table. They will send a text message to my phone.” 

     “Damn, technology,” laughing, I follow her inside.

     We go up to the bar and Courtney orders us two strawberry margaritas. Taking our drinks, we go back outside to enjoy the weather while waiting on our table. The seagulls are flying all around the pier occasionally dipping down into the water to grab their dinner for the night. The beach is packed with people playing in the water and sun bathing. I’m really going to enjoy living here; it seems so peaceful.

     Courtney flashes her phone at me, “Time to go in, grab your drink.”

     The inside is a typical seafood theme with buoys and ship anchors hanging on the wall. We are seated at a quaint table for two. It has a bucket in the middle and a whole roll of paper towels on the table. “Is this going to be a messy meal? Maybe I shouldn’t have worn a white shirt,” I say looking over the menu. 

      “Your shirt will be fine; they will give you a bib to wear.”

     “A bib? Oh great I’m going to look like a fool,” I say laughing.

     “Look around, half the people here are wearing them. It beats getting bits of crab legs and melted butter on your clothes.”

     The server comes and takes our order. We order mozzarella sticks for an appetizer, Caesar salads and we both get a bucket of crab legs. We easily fall into conversation and watch the servers do a little dance for their customers. This place is really a happening spot. Having fun is exactly what I need to help me forget my life from before. We are just finishing our appetizer and salads when our buckets of crab legs arrive. “Holy crap, that’s a lot of food, I sure hope I like them,” I gasp a little leery.

     Courtney demonstrates how to snap them in half and use the little tool to open up the shell extracting the meat from inside. It doesn’t smell too fishy. The buckets come with corn on the cob and parsley buttered potatoes. I successfully get some of my crabmeat out, dip it in the butter, and pop it into my mouth without thinking about it too much. First, I taste the butter then I get a taste of the crabmeat and I’m pleasantly surprised. The meat is actually sweet and so delicious. “Courtney, this is really good,” I confess while cracking open another.

     “I knew you would like them. I never use to eat seafood either, as I get older my tastes are ever changing and now I love seafood. If you think this is sweet, wait until you try a good lobster tail. The only seafood I used to eat up north was fish like perch, blue gill and bass, now I will eat almost any seafood, except mussels,” she replies.

          We stay a while, and after three margaritas each, we decide we better get going before neither of us is able to walk back to the condo. With Cameron gone, we wouldn’t have anyone to come and get us. We once again walk the length of the pier and back down the stairs. About a hundred yards down the boardwalk we stop and remove our shoes. We take a small set of stairs that lead onto the beach. The sand is warm and so soft, not like the gravely sand, we have at Lake Michigan beaches. We make our way to the water’s edge and I let the
wave’s crash around my feet, the water is surprisingly warm. We walk back to the condo in silence, enjoying the atmosphere and night. I have a great time with Courtney, but I almost wish it was Cameron here tonight that I was walking along the beach with hand in hand, because the scenery is so romantic.

     When we get back to the condo, we decide to call it a night so we can get an early start with our shopping. I go into my room and wash the sand off my feet, change into a long comfortable t-shirt and collapse in bed, falling fast asleep again.

     The whole weekend flies by and before we realize it, it is Sunday night. We shopped like crazy, spent time on the beach, went to the movie theater, and saw Magic Mike. Tonight we are cooking steaks on Courtney’s patio and spending the night in with a bottle of sweet white wine. Dinner is wonderful. We watch a few comedies on TV, sit out on the balcony for a while, and decide to hit the sack for our day of pampering tomorrow.