“You’re not going to tell me you just had the most incredibly mind-blowing experience of your life, are you?”
“Are you the kind of guy who needs to hear that?”
Her words were tough, but her expression was guarded. He realized that even if they had both felt it, he needed to let the subject drop. Sex alone was complication enough. Sex that might mean something in these circumstances couldn’t even be contemplated.
“It must have been the adrenaline,” he agreed.
Then they stared at each other for a moment of pure, unadulterated understanding. Adrenaline had had nothing to do with it.
Chapter Ten
Brittany stared in shock at the dozens, no, hundreds, of children and families shrieking, eating or simply running their way around the Wild Wadi Water Park.
“I don’t understand,” she said to Alex, clutching his arm for support as two ten-year-old boys whipped past her, dripping wet.
“We’re hiding in the crowd.”
“Why
“I thought you were a preschool teacher?”
“It’s a private preschool. I have eight students, and they wear uniforms.”
Alex grinned. “You don’t take them to the park or the zoo?”
“There’s a garden in the courtyard of the school.”
“Let me guess, where they all play dignified little games in their dignified little uniforms.”
Brittany compressed her lips. There was no point in engaging in that particular argument. If Alex thought children could only have fun by racing around like hooligans, that was his problem.
“Do you actually believe the police are following us?” she asked.
“I’m hoping they’re following Harrison’s money trail.” He extracted a credit card from his pocket and waved it in front of her face.
A family came by, two parents, three young children and a baby in arms, screaming its head off.
“Is there any particular reason we can’t spend his money somewhere else?”
Alex tugged her in the direction of a shop. “We’re here already. Let’s pick up some suits and try to have a good time.”
“I can assure you, that is not going to happen.”
“Not if you don’t yank that big ol’ stick out of your butt.”
Brittany refrained from stating the obvious.
“It’s a metaphor,” Alex offered helpfully.
“I
“Don’t get all prissy on me.”
“I am not-” She stopped herself. Arguing with Alex was an exercise in futility. She’d already learned that, and she didn’t know why she let herself get drawn in time after time.
“Bathing suits,” said Alex, pointing to the display window. “I’ll buy you anything you want.”
“You mean Harrison will buy me anything I want.”
Alex shrugged as he held open the door. “I’m not a very literal guy. So shoot me.”
Brittany twitched a grin as she passed him.
“Made-you-laugh time.”
“I wasn’t laughing at your joke. I was wishing I could take shooting you literally.”
He followed her into the brightly lit store. “You were not.”
“You don’t know what I’m thinking,” she said.
He nabbed a bathing suit from the first rack they came to, turning to hold up a bright-green bikini with a halter tie and flirty, little, white bows at the hips. “Want me to tell you what you’re thinking?”
She stared at his mocking expression, then she took in the little bikini. It was about her size. Did she dare? It would serve him bloody well right.
He opened his mouth, but she scooped it from his hands. “Perfect. I’ll take it.”
She was rewarded with a drop of his jaw.
But he recovered quickly. “You’re bluffing.”
She spotted a matching cover-up and headed for the dressing room. Knew what she was thinking? Ha.
Well, in fact, he’d probably made a pretty decent guess at what she was thinking, which was “not with a gun to my head.” But sometimes a girl had to do the unexpected.
She stripped out of the simple, linen dress she’d purchased at the hotel this morning, removed her underwear, and slipped into the bright-green number. The hours spent at the spa’s tanning salon had turned her skin a light butternut. And the green and white went well with her blond hair, if she did say so herself.
A little shiver went through her when she thought about Alex’s reaction. It was satisfaction, she told herself, not sexual awareness. She shrugged into the sheer cover-up and decided her low-heeled white sandals would work.
Gathering up her clothes and her purse, she exited the dressing room. Alex wasn’t around, so she browsed through a rack of tote bags until she found one that coordinated with the outfit, then she packed her clothes into it.
“I’d have bet money against you wearing it,” came Alex’s deep voice.
Dressed in a pair of tan trunks and a short-sleeved, khaki cotton shirt, he walked around her.
She refused to flinch, even when he paused at the open cover-up, taking in her smooth, bare stomach. The suit bottom rode low, but not indecently so. And the top showed off her cleavage-after all, it was a bikini. And she knew when she took off the cover-up, he was going to see more of her hips than she normally flashed, but there was absolutely no way she was backing down now.
“Nice,” he said.
“You better be talking about the bathing suit.”
“Why?”
“I’m practically engaged.”
“He hasn’t asked you yet, sweetheart.”
Brittany wanted to disagree, but she realized Alex was technically right, and arguing the point would be wholly undignified.
He relieved her of the tote bag and headed for the cash register. “You bite your tongue a lot, don’t you?”
“Only around you.”
He tossed a grin over his shoulder. “Really?”
Brittany nodded, realizing how very true the statement was. She rarely argued with people. Well, more to the point, people rarely argued with her.
Which got her to thinking, as she handed the salesclerk the tags from the bikini, was Alex an anomaly, or had the men in her life treated her with kid gloves? Perhaps they hadn’t all agreed with her. Perhaps they had contrary opinions that they’d been too polite to share.
Now, there was a humbling thought.
Not Harrison, of course. She and Harrison saw eye to eye on most of the fundamental issues in life. They shared interests in music and art. They attended the same church, were in a similar spot on the political spectrum, had friends in common and enjoyed the same sports.
At least with Harrison, she knew he wasn’t putting up a front.
Alex finished the transaction.
Then they stowed their gear in a locker. Alex was all for trying the master blaster, but Brittany held out for one of the gentler slides.
On the climb up the stairs, Alex fell behind.
