12. Respectable Woman #2
“Thank God. Maybe it is early— Shit! ” Nadia bolted like her life depended on it, yet again seeing the backs of Leo’s and Amo’s heads on the other side of the sliding glass door.
She was sure she might’ve seen Dante’s face as he talked to them, but she didn’t care if he had seen her or not.
He had been a fucking accomplice. Of course, he knew she would have to take the walk of shame.
When she heard the sliding glass door open, she jumped down the last bit of steps to the lower floor that held the cabins.
There were no words for the relief she felt once she closed the door behind her and was safely in her cabin, like she had been there all night.
Nadia threw herself down on her made-up bed with a thud , and all the adrenaline that coursed through her veins to get her here unseen seemed to have evaporated.
Hangover signs seemed to rush her all at once—the pounding headache, grogginess—
Oh no.
She wasn’t sure how, but Nadia had to sprint to her own bathroom this time to relieve even more contents.
“Yep”—Nadia spat into the full toilet before flushing—“that should do it.”
Lying back on the floor, she let the cool tiles try to soothe her.
I don’t want to ever hear rum fucking anything ever again.
It was a long time before Nadia not only was able to physically pull herself together enough to leave her cabin but to also get the courage to look at Dante again with each unveiled memory that came back of last night.
“You might be big, but you aren’t that big.”
Yikes, that certainly was going to be awkward.
Remembering the feel of him inside of her, she was certain he actually had been big, but drunk Nadia wasn’t about to stroke Dante’s enormous ego. With her body practically melting at the memory, she got back to the point.
Usually, when you had a one-night stand with someone, you weren’t going to be fucking stranded with them in the middle of the ocean the next day.
She definitely didn’t regret the hot and steamy session she’d had with Dante last night; she just wished she had thought it through enough to wait until after they came back from their weekend trip.
That way, she could run back to her apartment and wait for him to text her, like every other respectable woman.
Then again, rum runners didn’t wait for you to return back to Kansas City to work their magic.
Messing up the bed for good measure, so it looked like she had slept in it last night, she pushed up the big-ass designer sunglasses she had found, hoping they would cover her sins from last night, and left her room.
She wondered what it was going to be like to face Dante. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t have to wonder for too much longer as she was now facing him.
“You’re alive,” Amo noted with a smirk.
“I’m surprised I’m alive, too,” she said, taking a seat at the table. She could see they must’ve just finished lunch. “Trust me.”
Oh God . Focusing on the smirks now on Amo and especially Leo’s, face, she knew that they knew.
Amo laughed, clearly taking in her appearance. “I’d stick to your little glass of wine at dinner from now on.”
Phew. She breathed. They only know about your massive hangover, so chill!
Calmed, she was able to chuckle a bit. “I learned a hard lesson … rum and I don’t mix.”
“Nadia! It’s good to see you today!” Lila came out to greet her. “They just finished lunch. Would you like me to bring yours out?”
“Oh no.” Nadia practically vomited at the thought. “I just need water, coffee, and some aspirin, please, if you have it.”
Lila smiled in understanding before leaving to go get it.
“So, what did they fix you to eat today?” she asked them curiously, wanting to pull the attention off her raging hangover.
“You missed a good breakfast,” Amo began. “Pancakes, sausage, toast …”
Nadia, however, got lost in thought over what the soldier was saying when Dante abruptly stood from the table to go lie down on a sun lounger without a single word.
“… So, lunch was good, too.” Amo’s voice had trailed back just in time for him to finish.
“Th-That’s good,” Nadia commented, trying to place her attention back on the boys, but it was hard because she couldn’t help but feel slightly hurt.
Is he ignoring me? Her mind couldn’t comprehend Dante would do that, considering they were forced together for another day or so.
There was no way he was going to get away with that, so she clearly must just be overreacting. Right?
Seeing that Leo had noticed something about her, she pulled herself together to put on a smile. “I’m glad you two are enjoying yourselves now.”
“Yeah,” Leo said, his voice laced with a tone she didn’t quite understand. He appeared kind of down, but before she could ask what was wrong, he got up like his father had.
Amo either didn’t catch what Nadia had or chalked it up to Leo’s normal behavior when he thanked her. “Yeah, thanks to you and those rum runn—”
“Oh God. Don’t remind me.” Nadia covered her mouth at the alcoholic beverage that must not be named, and it was like the bartender felt his senses tingling when Max showed up.
“Ms. Brooks, can I get you—”
“Nope!” Nadia violently shook her head. “You may not.” She, however, didn’t have the heart to tell him what she really wanted to …
Never fucking again.
As far as alcohol went, she was now celibate … and she was quickly about to find out that Dante was going to make her want to be forever celibate in another way, too.
The bastard didn’t so much as glance her way after she finished her coffee and took the sun lounger next to his. The boys had asked her to apply sunscreen on their backs again, and when she handed the bottle to Dante to use, he told her simply, “No, thanks.”
Frustratingly, Nadia had to even manage applying sunscreen to her own back.
He was perfectly fine with me touching him last night … and him touching me! Or had he really? All those memories of last night, and she couldn’t remember him kissing her once.
Last night had been all about sex , and that was it.
And while she didn’t complain in the moment, now that she was fully sober, she was able to notice what drunk Nadia hadn’t.
The small red flags that told her it would never, could ever happen again.
While that would be fine, if the sex had been bad, it stung Nadia, because that had been the best night of her life, even drunk on rum runners.
None of her sober sexcapades had come close to that one, and that was just sad …
She couldn’t believe the audacity of men.
Once they had gotten their dick jerked, they went on to catch the next sucker.
Heaven forbid they had to face the woman the day after and “acknowledge them,” but that would require facing the consequences of your own actions, and we all know men royally suck at that.
With each passing hour he ignored her, Nadia couldn’t even focus on the book she had yet to finish, reading the same cursed page over and over again.
She couldn’t believe women would even write this false crap.
All women knew men couldn’t be further from what was written in the pages of a romance book, yet they still succumbed to reading them, just to keep the hope alive that one day, they could find a man like Stud or whichever fictional character they were in love with.
Fuck hope. She slammed the book shut, having had enough. Maybe nonfiction was best. The real world might be cruel, but at least the stories weren’t based on lies.
Like clockwork, Dante had come back from his swim, dripping wet in all his glory—
Stop it! She cursed herself for not finding the man repulsive for his behavior, while he continued it by lying back down in his sun lounger without a glance or word to her yet again.
Am I hideous or something? she asked herself, looking down at what she was wearing.
Maybe he thought she was, and that was why he was acting that way.
A lot of people wake up the next day next to someone who wasn’t up to their standards if they had been sober.
For Christ’s sake, it was so common that they had a name for that— coyote ugly.
Shit, am I his coyote ugly?
Glancing over at where Dante lay still, she knew the asshole wasn’t asleep, even though he was already pretending he was. Leo and Amo, however, were actually asleep, that she was certain about.
She studied the man, wishing she could find something, anything, about him that made him physically unattractive, yet she couldn’t find a single fucking thing.
She wished Dante Caruso were her coyote ugly, but the man was anything but.
He was and probably would remain the most attractive person she had ever slept with, and that made her hate him just a little bit more.
I am the ugly one , Nadia thought, coming to the only conclusion left of why he must be treating her that way. He was embarrassed by the fact he had slept with her.
No! she stopped herself. Nadia herself knew she was not ugly and couldn’t believe she was letting a man make her feel that she was. If he did find her unattractive, then fuck him.
I’ll show you ugly.
Slowly, Nadia stood, removing the shirt Dante had given her and revealing the white triangle-top bikini underneath.
Then, only when she was certain he was looking at her, did she leisurely remove her blue jean shorts.
She adjusted the white string bottoms to sit higher up her waist, making sure Dante got an eyeful of her ass before she walked off.
She remembered last night well enough to know where his hands had stayed firmly planted.
“Where are you going?”
So, he can speak …
Looking back over her shoulder at the prick, she saw that he had pulled his sunglasses far down his nose to get an undistorted view … I guess he can see me, too.
“Going for a dip. I’m hot.” She decided to play it cool, like she didn’t want to murder the asshole.
His brows furrowed together. “You can’t swim.”
“Says who?” Nadia said, walking off again. She didn’t need his negative energy.
“You!” Nadia could not only hear the frustration in his voice, but she could see it in his face, too. “When you took a dive off the boat. Or have you already forgotten that I had to jump in to save your ass ?”
The emphasis on his last word proved her theory right.
“Well, don’t bother this time,” she grumbled, giving the man the sight he wanted.
Goddammit.
Dante weighed his options while he stared at Nadia’s backside walking away. He could either listen to his head and go make sure she stayed alive himself, or he could listen to his actual head and get Amo to watch her.
The sight of her glorious ass made him not want to do the latter, but he found himself picking up the bottle of SPF on the ground and throwing it at his soldier to wake him up.
“What the—”
Amo shot up, prepared to fight, but quickly saw the bottle on top of him. “The fuck was that for?”
“Go make sure Nadia doesn’t fucking drown herself,” he spat at him grumpily, already regretting his decision.
“Why can’t yo—”
Amo was already about to lie back in his lounger when he caught Nadia in her white bikini in the distance. “No problem.”
It was everything Dante could do not to strangle his soldier when he practically jumped up to go watch Nadia. The only thing that kept him plastered to his lounger and his jaw tightly shut was the fact that Leo had woken up … and was watching his every move.
Proud of herself, she smiled smugly as she walked to the swim platform at the back of the yacht. She sat down, dangling her feet into the warm salted water, feeling like she had beat him at his own game. Any moment, he would be comin—
“Didn’t expect you to want to go swimming anytime soon,” Amo joked, joining her.
Nadia looked back at Dante, who was already back to acting asleep on the lounger. Her eyes turned into beady little slits. That motherfucker . He had woken up his soldier to deal with her instead.
“I don’t,” Nadia huffed, dipping herself into the water just enough to wet her body. She pulled herself back out of the water just as quickly then walked off the way she had come, leaving Amo baffled.
Her excessively loud footsteps let her presence be known, and it took all her willpower not to flick him off when she sauntered by him in her wet white bikini. Knowing the sun was going to set soon, she didn’t let herself dry off, heading back to her room instead.
She could practically feel his heated gaze on her backside this time, and now that she knew how to get his attention …
He was going to pay.