being afraid? She didn’t know, but she had to figure it out and soon.
She got to her room and checked the schedule that Safire had given her. She wasn’t booked into a tour of St. Thomas, and they would be there two days. She checked the cruise guide and found a couple of things she would like to do, but they could wait for the second day.
She pulled out his card—Jeremy Bell.
“Hi, it’s me.”
“I’m glad. I was about to come looking for you.” He chuckled.
“I had to look through the brochure to see if there was anything else I wanted to do in St. Thomas. I’m not booked for a tour, but I wanted to go to Coral World and ride the submarine and see some of the castles and...”
He was laughing before she finished.
“What?”
“You don’t get out much, do you?”
“Maybe I don’t. And who knows when I’ll get back to St. Thomas?”
“I’ll bring you there on our honeymoon. How’s that?”
She could play, too.
“Maybe I want to see Hawaii on our honeymoon. Betcha didn’t think about that.”
They were both laughing.
“Okay,” he said. “Anything you want to do in St. Thomas is fine with me. Just save us a couple of hours on one day to do some shopping. Deal?”
“Deal. What time should we meet?”
“Well, since you want to see the whole island, we should get an early start. How about we meet at eight-thirty for breakfast and disembark at nine?”
“I’ll figure out an itinerary for us and let you know in the morning.”
“Let’s meet in the State Room for breakfast,” he suggested.
“I’ll see you then.”
Angelina hung up feeling elated. It was so easy to be playful with him on the phone. It was up close and personal that it got a bit iffy. She turned on her phone to check in at home. Safire was there again, as promised, and things were going well. She could relax a bit.
If only she could relax. Her body still buzzed from Jeremy’s touch and, without her consent, it still wanted more. There was nothing to do but play it by ear. She knew she was being a bit conservative, but she needed to know something about the man before she bedded down with him. And who knew how long that would take?
She giggled to herself as she changed into one of Safire’s risqué nighties. Maybe tomorrow she would know enough. It wasn’t likely, but she could dream.
Chapter 4
Jeremy had gotten up at seven. It was too early to be getting up, but it gave him an hour in the gym. And that early, he almost had the place to himself, except for Alistair, who was a workout fanatic.
The two had laughed when he had come in to find Alistair on the elliptical machine. But it gave him the chance to update his friend on his new romance and let Alistair know that he’d be gone for the day.
“No, we haven’t done anything yet.”
“Uh-oh. Are you losing your touch? It never takes you this long. Hey, Myron said you got tongue action on the first night. What’s happened?”
“Myron has a big mouth. And nothing’s happened. Maybe I just want to take it a little slower this time.”
“Uh, no,” Alistair said and laughed. “Maybe she does.”
“Okay, so she does. But I’m liking it this way, too.”
“That means you’ve been bitten by the love bug.”
Jeremy put down the forty-pound weight he was lifting and looked at his friend. “Maybe. Too soon to tell.”
Alistair raised his eyebrows. Maybe said a lot, at least for Jeremy.
Actually, Safire wasn’t turning out to be anything like her description—except that she was hot as hell. She’d probably been lying on her application like all the singles—height, age, weight. He chuckled to himself.
Only Safire didn’t have to lie. He was even more attracted to who she really was than to the racy profile she’d submitted. He was more intrigued by Safire herself. He could also tell that underneath her controlled demeanor there really was a fiery, sensual woman. He wanted her to come out and play.
He had to admit this much: had they simply gone to bed together the first night, he probably wouldn’t be spending all this time getting to know her. And he was enamored with what he had gotten to know. He could see her passion, but he had also gotten a taste of her wit and her smarts. He wanted more of her—not only under the sheets but also outside the sheets, and that was a rather new prospect for him.
Jeremy put on a short-sleeved white shirt and a pair of khaki slacks. Some socks and his boat moccasins and he was ready to go. He slipped his wallet into his back pocket, clipped his phone onto his belt, dropped his camera into his breast pocket and headed to the State Room to find Safire.
She was already at a table but hadn’t gone to the buffet as yet. She was pouring over a sheet of paper in front of her, and as he sat down she started chattering.
“Good morning. I’ve got it down to Coral World and Bluebeard’s Castle, but I think we can have lunch there, so we can save that for later.”
He could see her sheer pleasure over the prospects of the day.
“Should I have brought my swimsuit?” he asked.
“Oh. I didn’t bring mine, either. I thought we were shopping. Although you can swim at Coral World,” she said. “But then we’d have sand in our britches all day.”
Jeremy laughed out loud.
“Promise me,” he said, “that tomorrow, whatever else we do, we go to either Magen’s Bay or Frenchman’s Reef.”
“You know the island well, don’t you?”
“I have college friends from St. Thomas,” he said. “I’ve visited before. But I haven’t been to Coral World.”
“Perfect. We start at Coral World. We walk the aquarium, pet the fishes in the petting zoo and have our pictures taken with an iguana.”
Jeremy laughed.
“It goes with the picture of me kissing of the dolphin. Stop laughing.” She swatted at him playfully. “Anyway, then we go to Bluebeard’s Castle, and then we can shop till you drop. Sound good?”
“Sounds wonderful. But let’s get some breakfast so we don’t miss the safari.”
“I’m too excited. You go ahead.”
He took her arm and tugged her to the buffet. “Eat something. For me.”
They both had a light breakfast and caught a nine o’clock safari that would drop them off at Coral World and pick them up in two hours. He wrapped his arm around her for the safari ride and linked their fingers once they got to the aquarium.
He got shots of her petting the starfish and stingray and other sea creatures in the petting zoo. All he could think was that he wanted that hand on him. Then she took the camera from him.
“I’m not petting a stingray,” he said. “Do you know why they call it a stingray?”
She laughed. “I did it. Come on.”
“You did, but apparently you don’t know why they call them stingrays.” He laughed. Nevertheless, he put his hand in the water and petted the animal so that she could capture the image.
“Now I just have to get you kissing a dolphin, and we’ll have matching images. Hey, how