What Happens in Paradise (The Love Hotel #2)

Chapter 25

25

ALEJANDRO

Perhaps the ‘Jamaican Viagra’ cocktail really did have some kind of powers, because for the past few hours, I had been fighting to stop my dick getting hard.

My desire for Jasmine was at critical levels before. But when I saw how brave she was, conquering another fear and jumping from the cliff not once, but three times, my attraction to her intensified.

And when she pushed her butt against me, I knew I was fighting a losing battle.

The logical part of my mind knew it was not a good idea. That I needed to think about my job, my promotion, and helping my sister pay for her education, but logic was powerless against lust.

Every flick of Jasmine’s hips, every bottom thrust knocked reason straight out of my brain.

Which was why I broke my promise to keep things professional and told her that I wanted her.

Fighting my feelings had become exhausting. I was tired of battling against what I was certain was the inevitable. Our connection was inescapable. The only option now was to put ourselves out of our misery and surrender.

‘Oh my God, look!’ Jasmine said, snapping me out of my thoughts. ‘The sunset is gorgeous!’

She took my hand, instantly causing my body to light up, then led me to the cliffside to get a better look.

The sky was a fiery, golden colour. Yellow and orange shades blended together as the sun began to dip below the surface. I was not surprised everyone was taking photos. Jasmine was right. It was beautiful.

‘Now I can understand why so many people come here to watch the sunset.’

‘Me too.’ She rested her head on my arm. It was only then that I realised we were still holding hands. It had felt so natural that I had not given it a second thought. ‘It’s so romantic.’

‘It is.’ I turned to face her and she looked up at me. Our eyes locked and our faces inched together.

I dipped my head and kissed her softly on the lips, just to see how she responded. When Jasmine kissed me back, I knew we were both finally on the same page, so I deepened the kiss, devouring her like I was a man who was about to eat his last meal.

As our tongues flicked against each other’s, our hands started to wander. She wrapped her leg around me, pushing me into her and my erection strained against my shorts.

Fuck .

I was not sure how much longer I would be able to resist her.

Jasmine pulled away slowly and when I opened my eyes, I saw hers were still closed but her facial expression was one of pure joy and pleasure.

‘Wow,’ was all she said and I knew exactly what she meant. There was enough electricity in that kiss to light up the whole of the Caribbean. ‘I should… I was supposed to…’ She winced as if she’d lost the ability to talk or think clearly. I knew the feeling.

Just as she was about to open her mouth to speak, her stomach rumbled loudly. We both burst out laughing.

‘Should we get some food?’ I said. I could not believe we had been here for hours and not eaten.

‘That would be a very good idea.’ She nodded.

We sat down and ordered a selection of dishes including beer-battered shrimp, rum BBQ spare ribs and a dish called ‘Ital’ which was roasted vegetables with herbs and spices in an olive-oil sauce. Jasmine said she remembered her grandmother making it and wanted to try it so we did.

After we had eaten our mains, we tried the sweet potato pudding and traditional rum cake.

I was glad that I had come here. Not just because I had the chance to spend more time with Jasmine (and kiss her multiple times), but also because the menu and the dishes we had tried had given me a lot of inspiration.

Another cocktail later and Jasmine and I were back on the dance floor, our bodies rubbing against each other.

This time, neither of us even attempted to fight our feelings. I was so hard that if we kept dancing for much longer like this, I was in danger of burning a hole in my shorts.

Just when I was about to ask if I could kiss her again, the DJ announced that the café would be closing soon.

‘I didn’t realise the time!’ Jasmine looked at her watch. ‘I should call Bob to meet us.’

‘ Vale .’ I nodded, disappointed that our evening was about to end. I had no idea how I was going to survive the three-hour car journey back to our hotel without wanting to kiss or touch Jasmine on the backseat.

When we left the café and saw Bob standing outside, we both froze. He was always happy, but this time, his grin was huge and his eyes looked glazed. I could not see his car, which was strange.

‘Miss Jasmine!’ he shouted. ‘ Alejandro! Wah gwaan, bredrin?’

I frowned, not understanding what he had said.

‘ Wah gwaan means what’s up and bredrin is like saying friend,’ Jasmine explained.

‘Oh.’ I nodded.

‘But I think it’s us who should be asking him wah gwaan because he doesn’t seem like himself…’ she said quietly. ‘Bob, we’re ready to go now. Are you okay?’

‘Yuh wan fi go back tonight?’ He swayed as he attempted to step forward.

‘Yes.’ Jasmine’s face crumpled. ‘That’s what we agreed, remember?’

As he got closer, the stench of alcohol hit me.

‘Mi sorry, but mi cyaan drive tonite.’

I was glad he had been honest and told us he could not drive instead of pretending he was okay and putting everyone’s safety at risk.

‘Shit,’ Jasmine said, then led me away from Bob. ‘He’s clearly off his face. We’ll need to find someone else to drive us back.’

‘We are three hours away from our hotel. That is a long way.’ I rubbed the back of my neck, considering whether or not to say what I was thinking. ‘We could stay over,’ I suggested. ‘Then Bob can drive us back in the morning.’

‘Stay over?’ Jasmine gasped like I had just suggested we jump off the cliff naked. ‘That’s not a good idea.’

‘It is late. Do you really want to spend time trying to find a licensed taxi driver? And they may want cash. Do you have enough to pay for a three-hour taxi journey, because I do not. Staying at a hotel is a valid company expense. It is the most sensible option.’

Jasmine chewed her lip in silence, probably trying to decide what to do next.

For me, it was clear. A hotel was the best option.

Was a little part of me hoping that our rooms would be close together and that Jasmine may decide to visit me in the middle of the night to continue our kiss? I would be lying to say that had not crossed my mind. But I still thought staying over made sense.

‘Okay.’ Jasmine blew out a breath as her fingers flew across her phone screen. ‘Looks like there are some hotels nearby, so we can go and check their availability.’ She walked over to Bob. ‘We’re going to get a hotel room. I mean, two hotel rooms,’ she corrected. ‘Are you coming?’

‘Nuh,’ Bob shook his head. ‘Mi gwaan sleep inna di cyar.’

‘You sure sleeping in the car will be comfortable?’ Jasmine frowned. I liked that she cared about whether he’d be okay. Most bosses would not be concerned about a taxi driver.

‘Ya, mon! Everyting criss!’

‘ Vale .’ I nodded. ‘So you will sleep in your car until the morning and then when it is safe, you will drive us back?’

Bob nodded. Once we had walked him back to where he’d parked, made sure he was locked in his car and resting on the backseat, we headed for the closest hotel.

‘I am sorry, sir,’ the receptionist said. ‘We are fully booked.’

‘You don’t have anything at all?’ Jasmine pleaded.

‘Nothing at all,’ she shook her head. ‘There is a big wedding happening tomorrow, so we’ve been booked for months.’

‘Okay, thank you.’ Jasmine sighed as we left. ‘It’s fine. There’s another hotel not too far away.’

But when we arrived there, that was fully booked too.

‘I feel like Mary and Joseph asking if there’s any room at the inn! At this rate, we’re going to need to sleep in the car with Bob.’

‘There is another hotel here.’ I pointed to the map on my phone screen. ‘We can try there.’

When we arrived and asked for two rooms, it looked like the receptionist was about to laugh in our faces at the idea that we thought we could come to a hotel in a popular area and expect them to have availability.

‘I’m very sorry but we’re fully booked. Wait…’ The receptionist paused. ‘Actually, my mistake.’ She tapped away on her keyboard, frowning at the screen. ‘We do have one room available. It’s smaller than most of our standard rooms. Looks like we had a last-minute cancellation.’

‘We will take it!’ I said quickly.

‘Sorry, but we need two rooms. Do you have another one available, please?’ Jasmine asked.

‘No, sorry, ma’am. It’s just the one room. You’re welcome to try the other hotels in the area; there’s two nearby.’

‘We tried those.’ Jasmine blew out a frustrated breath. ‘They were full. Do you have a licensed taxi driver who could take us to Ocho Rios?’

‘I’m sorry, but the drivers we use don’t go that far at this time of night. So?’ the receptionist asked. ‘Do you want to take the room?’

I thought we definitely should.

Now I had to see whether Jasmine agreed…