The Trouble With Paradise

“Oh, I have the radar.” Brandy fluffed her already perfectly fluffed hair. “He’s gorgeous, immaculate, fit… They don’t make ’em straight like that, which is a real shame, let me tell you. Maybe I can convince him.”

Dorie blinked, then turned to Cadence. “Swimming sounds good.”

“What about sharks?” Brandy peered out at the ocean, a frown puckering her brow. “I hear they can sense you from twenty-five miles away. Aren’t you worried?”

Well, she was now. Given the look on Cadence’s face, she wasn’t alone. “Okay, so no swimming. I probably couldn’t anyway. I twisted my ankle earlier.”

“Right. When you fell on the dock.” Brandy nodded. “The crew was talking about it.”

Great. She was already infamous.

Cadence pulled her napkin out from beneath her drink. “Anyone have a pen?”

“Me.” Dorie fished through her purse and found one of her charcoal sketching pencils. “Here. This’ll work.”

“I’ll make our lists,” Cadence said.

Brandy looked over Cadence’s shoulder at the napkin. “You mean for which guy we want?”

Cadence laughed. “Uh, no. For our activities. I was thinking we could wind-sail tomorrow, see the whales and feed the turtles the next day, possibly parasail… And the captain said he’d show us this amazing coral reef…”

Brandy looked at Dorie and raised a brow.

“Oh.” The pencil slowed as Cadence looked up. “I’m doing it already. Impulsive organizing. Sorry. It’s just that I’ve never been on a vacation like this, in the South Pacific of all places. It’s unimaginable to me. We have to take advantage of it.”

“I’ve never even been out of Vegas.” Brandy lifted a shoulder when they both stared at her. “Born and raised to be a dancer. That’s my whole world, never ever even thought about making it bigger, or that I could and why are you looking at me like that?”

“It’s just that you look so…” Cadence trailed off.

“Worldly,” Dorie finished diplomatically.

Brandy looked startled, then pleased. “Worldly? Really? That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

Dorie thought that if that was true, then maybe Dorie wasn’t the only one who had some living to do.

Brandy glanced at Denny, who stood at the control pad with a deep look of concentration on his face. “I do like the idea of him teaching us to sail. Actually, I could get behind him teaching us anything.”

“Yeah.” Cadence sighed dreamily, also looking at the captain.

Dorie nudged Brandy, who took in Cadence’s expression and shrugged.

“You take him, honey.”

“Oh,” Cadence said, looking shocked. “No, I couldn’t. I’m not here for that. No more men. I’m on a penis embargo.”

“One more won’t hurt you.”

Cadence bit her lip, then shook her head. “No. My grandma just died, and I’ve been feeling a little… lost, I guess. I wanted a vacation, to clear my head, to try to relax.”

“No better way to relax than some good sex.”

Cadence choked on her drink.

“If I hadn’t won this cruise in a contest, my vacation would have been babysitting my sister’s kids,” Dorie said, patting Cadence on the back. “This saved my life. So count me in on the relaxing. With or without good sex.”

“We need to toast to that.” Brandy lifted her drink. “To making the most of this trip.”

Cadence and Dorie lifted their drinks. Brandy tossed hers back, then set her glass down on the bar and grinned. “But we have to do more than toast. We have to actually do it. Make this trip amazing. Who’s first?”

Dorie and Cadence looked at each other, then shook their heads.

Brandy laughed. “All right, me then. Watch and learn, girls.” She tugged on the hem of her halter so that it revealed a bit more cleavage. Not enough, apparently, because she tugged again.

Once more, Dorie thought, and there won’t be anything left to conceal. “Um, you’re getting sort of close to a situation there.”

Brandy patted her breasts like beloved old friends. “Let me give you a little tip on making the most of something.” She leaned in and whispered, “Know your audience.”

“I thought you already had your audience,” Dorie said, and when Brandy looked confused, she clarified. “I saw you with Christian.”

“Oh, that.” Brandy smiled. “He gives good Band-Aids, but he’s not interested.” Standing, she tossed back her hair and sauntered toward Bobby and Andy, who were talking to the chef.

“Not shy, is she?” Cadence murmured.

Dorie was having a hard time getting past “he’s not interested.” “When you look like that, I guess there’s no need.”

They watched Brandy cozy up to Bobby. The poor guy looked as if he’d won the lottery.

“Well, she’s right about one thing,” Cadence noted. “There is some serious eye candy on this boat.” She was looking at the captain, who stood hands on hips, his long legs planted firmly apart, his loose clothing nicely show- casing a lean, hard body as the sun sank below the horizon behind him. His face was deeply tanned and rugged, his long hair still held back by a strap of leather. “I mean look at him. There’s just something about that billowy pirate shirt and that long hair…” She laughed at herself. “Oh well.”

“Not oh well,” Dorie said. “Go for it. We just toasted to going for it.”

“Oh, no. No, no, no. I wasn’t kidding when I said I always go for the wrong guy. I have absolutely no radar when it comes to the losers. No men for me this week, thank you very much. I was serious about the penis embargo.”

“I’m perpetually under a penis embargo,” Dorie said.

“Then you must break routine. Which one would you do?”

“Do?”

“Oh, sorry. Didn’t meant to sound like the stripper-er, excuse me, dancer.”

Dorie laughed. “She might really be a dancer, you know.”

“Uh-huh. And I’m the Tooth Fairy.” Cadence’s dark eyes were shiny with laughter. “Look at her. Lapping him up. And then there’s the Cowboy. He’s something, too, isn’t he?”

“Andy?” Dorie looked at him, so big and strong and beautiful. “Actually, I think he asked me out.”

Cadence’s eyes widened. “You think?”

“It doesn’t matter. He’s cute, and my tongue swells near cute guys.”

“Sounds problematic.”

“You could say so.”

“Go for it anyway,” Cadence suggested.

“I’ll suffocate.”

“I know CPR.”

She should go for it. She’d planned to.

Except her gaze strayed to Christian, who stood at the far end of the salon, in front of the bar, eyeing the drinks.

He didn’t take one.

“Talk about dark and smoldering,” Cadence said, seeing where Dorie’s gaze wandered. “Nice choice.”

“What? Oh, no. No, not him. No. He’s too…” Everything. “He’s not my type at all. No. Not him.”

Cadence was smiling. “Me thinks the lady doth protest too much.”

Dorie nibbled on her lower lip, and Cadence laughed. “See, you want to bite him. I think you should.”

“Cadence.”

“Sorry. It’s the free alcohol.” She downed the rest of her drink. “Goes straight to my head. He’s curious about you, if that helps.”

“Based on…?”

“Based on the fact that he keeps looking at you.”

Dorie peeked again. He stood there, enigmatic and brooding. And indeed looking at her.

He was out of her league. Waaaay out of her league. “Problem.”