Sunscreen & Coconuts Read online

I heard her sharp intake of air, and the low growl as she said my name: “Mercy.”

  Her tone wasn’t censuring or asking me to stop. It was a warning.

  I ignored my sensible inner voice and slipped my arm around her tapered waist. My forearm rested on her side and my hand made its way to the front of her shorts. My fingertips brushed lazily against the elastic band of her boxer shorts.

  “We don’t have to do anything,” she said. “We can just sleep.”

  I immediately stilled my movements. Had I misinterpreted everything?

  “Is that what you want?” I asked.

  Her response came without hesitation: “No. But I don’t want you thinking I’m expecting anything for letting you stay here.”

  Satisfied with her answer, I pressed my lips again against her bronzed shoulder, tasting sunscreen and sunshine, which I found far from unpleasant. Kate arched her back and pressed her backside more solidly into my midsection as silent encouragement.

  My fingers slipped beneath the waistband of her cotton shorts to find her without underwear. A simultaneous groan erupted from us both when my fingertips tentatively brushed against her shaved outer lips. I heard her shuddered breath and felt her shift on the mattress, spreading her thighs farther apart to provide me better access.

  I slid my middle finger down her center and gently pressed against her clit before curling my finger to dip into the fresh wetness accumulating lower still.

  With my free hand, I grabbed a handful of her boxers and tugged down. She lifted her hips and helped me maneuver the shorts past her hipbones and down her legs until she was naked from the waist down.

  She let loose a quiet whine when I removed my fingers. I pressed gently against her shoulder, and I coaxed her from her side to her back. She knew what I wanted without me having to ask, and she helped even more by sitting up to remove her tank top and sports bra, which quickly joined her boxers at the bottom of the bed.

  Those terrible, shapeless Hawaiian shirts had almost made me forget the tight body hidden underneath. I took it all in: the sunken clavicle, the small, pert breasts capped with prominent nipples, the jutting hipbones that formed two corners of the triangle that pointed lower. Long, lean legs. Muscled thighs and calves.

  There was a chicken somewhere in the room, but the gorgeous, naked woman before me pushed that unsettling thought to the back of my thoughts.

  “You have no tan lines.” I blurted out the realization.

  Kate smiled up at me. “Surprise?”

  The thought of Kate sunbathing nude somewhere on the island was an unexpected turn-on.

  I spent a moment on her breasts, licking and sucking on her tightened nipples before abandoning them for what I really craved. I worked down Kate’s abdomen, which I’d secretly admired the first time I’d seen her. I sucked her skin into my mouth, leaving her skin red and agitated, but not enough to leave a mark. I dipped my tongue into her bellybutton and left a wet trail down the center of her pelvis.

  “Fuck that’s good,” she rasped.

  I thought about Racy and her lesbian bicycle analogy. Maybe it really was that easy.

  Kate quietly hissed the moment my tongue hit her clit. I curled my arms under her thighs, opening her wider for me and pulling her closer. I swirled my tongue around her clit in wide circles, causing her hips to jerk and buck. I pressed the tip of my tongue against her opening, causing her to sigh.

  Her noises were contained, which I found mildly surprising compared to the unrestrained woman I’d thought her to be. Instead of taking advantage of our relatively remote location, she seemed to swallow back her noises as though she had a roommate or disapproving parents in the next room. I thought about the girls I’d brought home from college under the guise of being a roommate or best friend and how quiet we’d had to be. It made me wonder about Kate’s relationship with her own family, but now was definitely not the time to bring up those kinds of questions.

  I looked up when I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I locked eyes with Kate.

  “I’m good,” she husked.

  I licked my lips, tasting her on me. “Did you … did I miss it?”

  I was surprised. We’d barely even started.

  “Nah. It’s not happening.”

  “What?”

  “I’m like impossible to get off,” she shrugged, “especially the first time with someone.”

  “Are you sure?” I pressed. “I don’t mind.”

  Truth be told, she tasted delicious, and I hated backing down from a challenge now that she’d unintentionally presented it.

  “Yeah, I’m good.”

  It didn’t take long for her to retrieve her clothes from the bottom of the bed. She pulled her tank top over her braless chest and tugged her boxers back over boyish hips.

  “We cool?” she asked.

  I was too disoriented by how quickly the scenario had changed. Just moments before I’d been exploring between her thighs with my tongue and lips only for her to be fluffing her pillow and pulling the thin sheet up to her chin.

  “Sorry,” she grunted.

  “Don’t apologize,” I said tightly. “It’s not your fault.”

  “I just don’t want you wasting your time on me. I’m a lost cause.”

  I chewed on the inside of my cheek to keep from screaming in frustration. It was like a switch had been flipped. How could she have seemed so into what I was doing, but now it was like nothing had ever happened? Had she been pretending? Had she not wanted to in the first place and didn’t turn me down at first for fear of hurting my feelings?

  “We should go to sleep,” I choked out.

  “Yeah. Okay,” Kate agreed.

  I crawled back to my side of the bed and fell face forward into my pillow.

  “Wait. Did you want me to—you know—do you?” she asked.

  I took a calming breath. “As romantic as your preposition is,” I said flatly, “I’ll decline.”

  “K. Night.” Kate rolled over in the narrow bed. Her backbone collided with my hip.

  I shut my eyes tight. This was turning out to be the worst vacation ever.

  CHAPTER NINE

  I woke up for the second time of my vacation in a near-stranger’s bed. Kate was no longer beside me, however. She stood in the kitchen area, leaning against the open refrigerator door, letting all the cool air out. I didn’t know how long she’d been standing there, but the shape of her hardened nipples were visible beneath the tank top she wore.

  I heard the distinctive sound of an aluminum can being opened. When she straightened, she brought the silver beer can to her lips and took a long drink. I couldn’t see a clock, but the bright white sun streaming through her home’s windows indicated the morning hour.

  “Isn’t it a little early for that?” I posed.

  She turned and looked in my direction. “Nope.” She didn’t bother to look embarrassed. “So, are we good?”

  I pulled the bed sheet higher up my body. “Of course.” My throat felt tight as I forced out the lie. “Why wouldn’t we be?” I proposed, feigning ignorance.

  Her fingers went through her hair, causing it to stand on end. “I dunno.” She shrugged expressively. “Last night when I didn’t …” She trailed off. “I thought it might have hurt your feelings.”

  “Only my ego,” I said with fake brightness. “I’ll recover eventually.”

  She nodded slowly. “Okay. Cool.” She took another long slug from the aluminum can. “You want breakfast? I’ve gotta go shopping one of these days, but I could probably MacGyver us up something.”

  She reached inside the refrigerator and I heard the sound of glass bottles clinking together.

  “I don’t want to put you out. I’ve got unlimited food at the resort,” I reminded her.

  “Okay.”

  She closed the refrigerator door and crossed the room. She flopped down on the mattress beside me, miraculously not spilling any of her beer. “I’m sorry if things got a little weird last night. I should have warned y
ou before we started anything.”

  “It wouldn’t be my life if it wasn’t a little weird,” I admitted. “What are you up to today?” I asked in an attempt to change the subject.

  There was little reason for us to dwell on what almost, but didn’t happen. My vacation ended in a few days, and I would probably never see her again.

  “It looks like a decent beach day,” she considered. “I’ll probably set up shop and try to sell some coconuts to the tourists.”

  “Best of luck with that,” I said in earnest.

  Kate rolled onto her back and balanced the beer can on her stomach. She pushed her stomach out to form a tiny hill on which the half-empty can teetered before flattening it out again. She did it again and again. Each time I was sure she was going to knock the can over and soak the mattress in beer. It reminded me of students who tipped back in their desk chairs until they inevitably fell backwards.

  Her attention left her beer can aerobics. “Will I see you later?”

  Her question surprised me.

  “Uh, maybe. I’ll be wandering around the resort, I’m sure.”

  She resumed pushing the beer can up and down with her stomach muscles. “Cool.”

  + + +

  The sock was thankfully no longer hanging on the door handle outside of my hotel room. When I inserted my keycard into the door, the red light flashed to green and I heard the door unlock. I slowly opened the door. “Hello?” I called out. “Everybody decent?”

  Even though it appeared that the coast was clear, I still used caution when entering the room. Racy’s bed was empty, but unmade. I looked around the room, but saw no sign of her or Mark, neither in the room nor on the balcony.

  I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that my bed was still made; the pillows were fluffed and propped against the headboard and the sheets were pulled tight. Racy might have taken over the room, but at least she had the propriety not to have sex on my bed.

  My heart leapt in my chest when I heard the toilet flush in the bathroom. I wasn’t alone.

  I briefly considered running out of the room in case Racy was still entertaining her guest, but I didn’t make up my mind in time. The bathroom door swung open and Racy stepped out.

  The song she’d been humming got caught in her throat. “Jesus,” she exclaimed. “You scared me.”

  “Didn’t expect to see me in my own room? It must look strange to you.”

  Racy frowned. “I never meant for that to happen again. We went ATV-ing and I invited him back to the room so he could clean up, and then one thing led to another.”

  My bed suddenly looked very attractive. I dropped on top of the blankets and let my head fall heavily onto the pillows. I didn’t bother changing out of the clothes if been wearing since the previous day. “Can we review your awfulness a little later? I can hardly keep my eyes open.”

  “How are you so tired?” she asked. “Are the beds in the Presidential Suite so terrible?”

  I could have told her I’d stayed with Kate to save her money, but that would have prompted more questions than I had answers for.

  “The worst,” I mumbled. “I might as well have slept on a mattress on the floor.”

  “Do you want me to wake you up at a certain time?” she asked.

  “No.” I spoke to her with my eyes still closed. “Just make sure I don’t miss the plane home.”

  + + +

  It was raining when I woke up from my nap. Rain poured over the resort complex’s Mediterranean-style roof like a cascading waterfall. Beyond our covered balcony, I could see the impact of the unrelenting rain on the sand and churning ocean. Violent black waves assaulted the beach. The sky was an ominous color, and even the beach warned visitors to keep their distance as the green, yellow, or red flags had been converted to black.

  The weather report indicated it was more than a passing shower, so Racy and I remained in our room, watching TV or the storm outside, for the better portion of the day. The cloud cover remained thick and the sun refused to make an appearance.

  As the hours slipped by and afternoon turned to evening, I started to feel like a prisoner in our room. Reality TV droned on the television and the storm continued to increase in intensity outside.

  I bounced anxiously on the balls of my feet. “It’s just water,” I reasoned. “It’s not like either of us is going to melt from a little rain.”

  Racy yawned and stretched on her bed. “But it’s so cozy in here. Why would you want to go outside?”

  I chewed on my lower lip. Frustration over the wasted day had been mounting since that morning. I hadn’t exactly calculated what each day of vacation was costing me, but I could practically see the dollar signs blowing in the swirling winds.

  “Aren’t you bored?” I lamented.

  “Sure, but it’s not like I’m going to go scuba diving in this storm or lay by the pool.”

  “We could go to the lobby area,” I suggested.

  “And do what?” she posed.

  “I don’t know. Get something to eat … drink … play cards?”

  “We can do all of those things here,” she pointed out. “I’ll call up room service.”

  “What about the Thirsty Coconut?” I noted.

  “What about it?”

  My frustration threatened to spill out in truth. Racy and I had frequented the tiki bar every night of our vacation. What would Kate think if I wasn’t there the night after we’d kind of, sort of, tried to, but failed to hook up?

  “Don’t you want to go?” I asked.

  “It doesn’t have any walls,” she reminded me. “It’s probably not even open. Who would be out there in a storm like this?”

  I remained by the sliding door that led out to our balcony. My agitation over being stuck in the hotel room was palpable, but Racy would have had no idea about the real source of my disgruntledness.

  I watched the rain continue to come down. It reminded me of a Hollywood movie set with someone’s hands on the controls, making it rain progressively harder. A strong breeze blew through the palm fronds of the trees that dotted the shoreline, and I watched an unattached umbrella roll down the beach like a wagon wheel.

  “You can go if you want,” Racy allowed with a wave of her hand. “I’m fine hanging out here for the rest of the day and ordering room service.”

  No one was on the beach; no one was shaking their fist at the sky and having fun outside regardless of the weather. So why did I feel like a trapped bird in a cage? Why did I feel guilty about not going to the Thirsty Coconut? The weather was terrible. Kate wouldn’t even be there, I tried to convince myself. But if that were true, why was I so anxious about not showing up?

  “No,” I rejected with a sigh of finality. “You’re right. It’ll still be there tomorrow.”

  + + +

  “Merry Christmas!” My mattress dipped as Racy flung herself onto my bed.

  I woke up, groggy and unsure of the time. Racy had never woken up before me the entire trip. The rain and cloudy skies from the previous day had moved on, leaving only a blue sky outside our hotel windows.

  “It’s Christmas?” With no real obligations, it had been easy to lose track of the days.

  “Yes! And I got you something.” She produced a medium-sized box about the size of a soccer ball. The outside of the cardboard had no writing to indicate what might have been inside.

  I sat up in bed and re-arranged my ponytail that had become loose in the night. “But I didn’t get you anything,” I complained with a yawn. “You should have told me you wanted to exchange gifts.”

  “It was a last minute thing,” she dismissed. “I wasn’t planning on getting you anything, but then I felt really bad about ditching you,” she explained. “This vacation should have been all about us, but I made it all about me. I don’t even know if you’ve had any fun this week.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I’m managing to find fun.”

  I still hadn’t told Racy that I’d spend a second night at Kate’s. She believ
ed that I’d used her credit card to rent a different room. I doubted she looked too closely at her credit card statements, but if she ever did and noticed the missing charge, I could come clean to her then.

  “Open your present already!” she demanded as she bounced on my bed. “Stop having so much willpower!”

  “Okay! Okay!” I laughed at her impatience.

  With no wrapping paper or tape to get in the way, I was able to lift the top of the box easily. Whatever was inside had been carefully packaged in tissue paper. I continued to peel away layers of protective paper until I finally unveiled Racy’s present.

  “It’s a coconut!” she excitedly exclaimed.

  I still said nothing as I pulled the sphere out of its box. I turned the painted coconut around in my hands. The outer shell had been painted in different gradients of blue so it looked like a chaotic ocean, swirling and churning across the coconut’s surface.

  “You bought me one of Kate’s coconuts?”

  Racy snapped her fingers. “Kate. Right. That’s her name.”

  I turned my attention to my friend’s face for any sign that she knew more than what I’d told her about my time with Kate. If she suspected anything had happened between us, she had a magnificent Poker Face.

  The present compelled me to consider a series of questions: When had she gone back to buy it? Had Kate remembered her? Had Kate said anything about me? Did Kate pick out the coconut special knowing it was for me? I shelved my many questions rather than making Racy suspicious about my overly active curiosity.

  “It’s great. Thank you,” I said, finally remembering my manners.

  “What do you want to do today?” she asked. “How do you want to celebrate the holiday?”

  I set the coconut back in its box. “I don’t know. Do you have to call home or something?”

  I wasn’t planning on calling mine.

  Racy shook her head. “My parents know we’re here. They’re cheap like you so they’ll understand me not wanting to spend money on an international call.”

  “Cheap like me?” I snorted.