Chapter 13
LINDSAY
Jaxon led me back into the main part of the hotel, not even bothering to go to the room to get a shirt. Although there were a lot of shirtless people moving around between the various pools and the beach all the time, he still garnered stares on our way to the lobby.
Mostly from women, but some from men as well.
He didn’t even seem to notice it, but I sure as heck did. Jealousy reared up inside me when I caught other people looking at him like they wanted to climb on top of him.
He might not really be mine, but I straightened my spine and gave them all “back off” glares anyway, tightening my grip on his hand. I’d never thought of myself as a jealous person before, but Jaxon was bringing a lot of different things out in me.
Besides, he wasn’t really mine, but they didn’t know that. It was rude to look at another woman’s husband like he was a lollipop to be licked. Not that I would’ve minded licking him either, but that wasn’t really the point.
Lifting our joined hands, I slung his arm over my shoulder and cuddled deeper into his side when one woman actually swiped her tongue across her lips when we walked past. Jaxon didn’t even hesitate when I wound my arm around his waist.
As if it were a natural action he’d done a hundred times before, he adjusted his stride to mine now that we had to walk so close to one another, angled his body slightly toward mine, and held me to him.
An amused smirk appeared on his lips when he glanced into my eyes. “You’re getting mighty comfortable there, aren’t you?”
“Yep.” I wasn’t about to make any excuses about it either. “No one’s eye-screwing my husband on my watch.”
“No one except you, you mean.” He laughed but dipped his head so his cheek was resting on top of my hair. “Don’t worry, baby. There’s no one for me but you. I wouldn’t have bound myself to you for the rest of our lives if there was any doubt about it.”
I knew he was joking, but it didn’t change the fact that I got a tiny little thrill when he said it. A smile tugged at the corners of my lips until he grabbed a flyer for activities around the resort and held it up to me.
“Stick out your finger, close your eyes, and touch the flyer,” he said. “Whatever you touch on is what we’re doing next.”
“This is what you meant when you said you knew what we were going to do?” My heart fluttered in my chest as nerves took hold of my insides.
“There’s river rafting and scuba diving on there.
Why did you pick up the flyer for adventure activities?
Why can’t we choose from the cultural-experiences one? ”
“You enjoyed the parasailing, didn’t you?” His amber-gold eyes bore into mine, and I nodded. “Then you’ll enjoy these too. Just pick one.”
I captured his gaze, again only seeing patience and a strange calmness there. It was the same thing I’d seen earlier. He was so damn confident that he could keep me safe and he wasn’t in the least bit worried about it.
I had to admit though, parasailing was one of the best experiences I’d had in my life so far. It was better than any memory I would’ve been able to make at a fort or in a market, and one that would stay with me forever.
So I closed my eyes and jabbed at the pamphlet because I wanted more experiences like that. More of the thrilling activities that Houston Lindsay would never even have considered but Fijian Lindsay was loving.
Until I opened my eyes and saw what my finger had landed on. I felt the blood draining from my face but Jaxon still didn’t look worried. If anything, he looked more excited than I’d ever seen him.
“I’ve always wanted to swim with sharks,” he said, pulling the flyer away and turning it to inspect the address. “This is going to be awesome. Let’s go.”
“No.” My feet stayed planted exactly where they were. “There’s no way I’m swimming with sharks. Bring the activities back. I’ll pick again.”
“That’s not how this works, princess. You picked swimming with sharks, so that’s what we’re doing.”
“No fucking way am I swimming with sharks.” Parasailing was one thing and Fijian Lindsay might be a bit more of an adrenaline junkie than Houston Lindsay, but not by that much. “That’s a hard no. Fuck no.”
“I haven’t heard you cuss very often until right then.” He grinned, winding his arm around my shoulders again and tugging me toward the activity counter. “We’ve got to do it. It must be fate. Otherwise, you would’ve picked something different.”
I was still refusing when he started making the necessary arrangements with the woman behind the desk. “We could be there in twenty minutes.”
She relayed the message into the phone, so transfixed by my bastard of a fake husband that she didn’t even look at me before telling whoever was at the other end that the couple was on their way. She smiled when she put the phone down. “They will be ready when you get there. Have fun.”
“I highly doubt it.” I narrowed my eyes at her, wondering whether the concept of sisterly solidarity was completely lost in the face of a gorgeous man. She just kept smiling as if she didn’t have a care in the world.
Because she doesn’t have to go swimming with the fucking sharks. I huffed out a breath while Jaxon organized a ride to take us to the killer fish.
“I’m not doing it,” I repeated when we climbed into the air-conditioned cab of one of the hotel’s cars. “I’ve already been stood up at the altar. I really don’t think this month has to get any worse, and getting ripped to pieces by razor-sharp teeth feels like a surefire way for that to happen.”
“Relax, sugar plum. It’s one hundred percent safe. Nothing’s going to happen to you.”
I tucked my hands into my elbows and slammed my back into the seat. “If it’s so safe, why is the guy so available? Because people don’t actually want to do it.”
“Thousands of people go diving every day. All over the world. They’re all fine. Mostly.” He reached for my hand, but for the first time since I’d met him, I yanked mine away.
“I really don’t think this is a good idea.”
He shrugged. “Fate wants us to do it, so we’re doing it. It’s a great idea.”
“Only because you’ve always wanted to do it.” I gave him my most piercing stare. “What’s something you’re afraid of?”
“Me?” His brows lifted and he shook his head. “Nothing really. I don’t have a problem with heights, spiders, or sharks. I don’t even mind clowns.”
“There’s something wrong with you.” I turned away to watch the landscape going by as we were driven to our doom.
A gentle hand sneaked onto my leg, his long fingers curling around the bare flesh on my thigh and flexing. “I’ll take care of you, Lindsay. Same deal as before, okay? Please trust me.”
“Tell me something you’re afraid of then.” I refused to look at him. I really didn’t want to do this, and yet his smooth voice and tenderly murmured words were already softening me toward the idea.
If I looked into those eyes too, I would be getting in that fucking water without any more questions asked.
He kept silent for a long minute. “The only thing that I’m really terrified of is losing the people I love.”
And there I go melting into a puddle of goo. “How is it that you always know exactly what to say to me to get me to do what you want?”
“Just being honest,” he said as the car slowed. “So, are we doing this? Because I think we’ve arrived.”
“It hasn’t been twenty minutes yet.”
“Nope, but there’s no line, so it shouldn’t be a problem.” He sounded way too cheerful for my liking.
“There’s a reason why there’s no line.” I only just got the words out before his hand wrapped around mine and he dragged me out of the car with him.
The guy operating the diving charter welcomed Jaxon like a long-lost brother, thumping him on the back as they clasped hands and exchanged greetings. If he was this friendly to his customers, it was clear he didn’t have a lot of them.
To my surprise, it turned out that he was always fully booked in advance.
He told Jaxon about a group booking that had gotten canceled this morning because their flight had been delayed.
When the two men started untying the boat and talking about the different species of sharks we could expect to see, I realized there was no getting out of it.
I should have just stayed in the taxi.
With my heart thundering, I dropped my hands to the hem of my cover-up and yanked it over my head. Jaxon stopped talking in the middle of his sentence, his gaze drinking me in like I was a goddess he’d always believed in but had never seen in the flesh before.
I didn’t understand what the big deal was, considering that my cover-up was sheer anyway, but I liked having him looking at me like that too much to question it. When the guide glanced my way, a muscle ticked in Jaxon’s jaw and he stepped into his line of sight.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Swimming with sharks apparently. Where’s the cage? Let’s get this over with.”
“There’s no need for a cage in Fiji,” the guide said around Jaxon. “We go snorkeling on the reef with them.”
My pulse spiked and my mind went completely blank. “What?”
“That’s awesome.” Jaxon grinned at the guide but kept his body as a shield in front of me.
Now who’s jealous?
The smug thought snapped me out of my momentary shocked stupor. “I’m not doing that.”
“Yes, we are.” He moved to a seat at the front of the boat when the guide went to stand behind the steering column in the middle. Then he reached for my hand and pulled me into his lap. “You’re going to be fine, Lindsay. I won’t let anything happen to you, remember?”
“I remember,” I muttered, trying not to sink back into his warm, broad chest when he wrapped his arms around my waist again.
We kept touching each other in this intimate way, even when we weren’t anywhere near the hotel. Not that it was even strictly necessary there anymore. No one was paying us much attention at this stage, except for Big Mac who came over to talk to us every night.
In spite of all that, I stayed put right where I was. Later on when we got in the water, I clung to him like a toddler without her water wings and didn’t let him go for a single minute.
The sleek, powerful predators lazily swimming beneath us hardly even seemed to notice us, simply gliding past and going about their days. I was fucking terrified, but having Jaxon next to me definitely made it much easier. Enjoyable even.
And that was why I was still hanging onto him after the dive when we got back on the boat. At least, that was what I told myself.
He turned to look at me once we were out of the water, his eyes wide and bright on mine. “You just swam with fucking sharks.”
“I just swam with fucking sharks,” I repeated, feeling the same sense of freedom and exhilaration as I had after the parasailing.
It drew me to him, and for the second time in one morning, I pulled him into my arms and hugged him like I wouldn’t ever let him go.
“Thank you, Jaxon. You have no idea how much I needed to meet someone exactly like you.”