Fakecation

Chapter Twelve

Daniel

The kids were not gone. In fact, it was worse than the day before. The pool was completely taken over by Marco Polo.

“There are a few spots left in the hot tub,” Amelia said. “We could go there.”

Even though the hot tub was more crowded than he wanted, Daniel would rather face that any day.

The warm water encased him as he got in. Amelia followed suit, her thigh brushing his as she sat.

“S-sorry,” she said, her cheeks pink. “I can get out if I’m too close.”

“It’s fine,” he replied. “I’m not bothered.”

And he wasn’t. He craved having her closer, but he was afraid of what might happen if she saw how much it affected him.

Mercifully, the water covered both of them. As long as he didn’t think about her for too long, he would manage not to embarrass himself.

But she was nearly knocked into him as someone else forced their way into the hot tub. She pressed against him tighter, but he could see she didn’t like having a stranger in her personal space. Daniel felt her hips turn away, so she was sitting at an angle, but it still wasn’t enough room.

He had an idea. A very bad one.

“Amelia,” he said. He had to lean in to say the words right into her ear because of the noise of the hot tub. It made saying her name feel more intimate than it was. “You could . . . sit on my lap.”

“What?” she asked.

“It would give you more space.”

She looked at the stranger, who was loudly talking to the person they were with. “Are you sure?”

No.“Yes.”

Amelia bit her lip before slowly moving over, lifting her hips and planting them on his legs. He wrapped an arm around her to keep her from floating away.

But then, as she settled, he realized just how bad of an idea it was.

“Well,” she said, leaning back so he could hear her. “I definitely have more room. Your lap is comfortable.”

He pressed his lips together. He could feel the curve of her ass against his cock, which knew exactly what was going on. Her words did nothing but send blood downward.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “I’m not too heavy for you, am I?”

“No, not at all,” he said. “It’s nothing.”

Maybe she wouldn’t move her hips back and feel it. Only then could he get out of this with his dignity intact.

But then someone else wanted to get out of the hot tub. Amelia jerked back to give them room, and her butt rocked against his hardness.

He felt her freeze.

“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t expect this to happen here.”

She was silent for a long time, and he wondered if she was planning her escape route. He wouldn’t blame her.

“I-It’s fine,” she said, her voice higher than usual. “This is just a thing that happens with friction, right?”

It’s you, he wanted to say. One look at you and I get like this.

But he gritted his teeth and nodded. For a second, they simply sat. Daniel knew he was too scared to move, despite his mind begging him to rock up and get more delicious friction.

“I can’t look at strangers when we’re like this,” she said. “I’m going to turn around.”

Before he could say no, she got up and whirled around where she was facing him. Her legs pinned him in. Instead of his hardness being against her backside, however, it was now pressed against her inner thighs.

“I think this is worse,” he said, unable to look at her.

“I’d rather look at you than the other couple rubbing up against each other,” she muttered.

The water rippled as someone else got into the hot tub, and it made her move just enough to make his head spin.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I could get out.”

“No.”

“Well, this isn’t comfortable for either of us.”

“It’s not that its uncomfortable, Amelia,” he said lowly. “It’s that . . . never mind.” The last bit of his control kept him from speaking.

“No, what?”

That control flew out the window. “The only thing that’s uncomfortable is that we’re surrounded by strangers.”

“And if we were alone?”

“We wouldn’t be here.”

“But if we were?”

Did she want him to admit it? They weren’t supposed to be like this.

But he also wouldn’t lie to her.

“There wouldn’t be swimsuits.” He muttered the words, hoping that she somehow wouldn’t hear them. But her breath hitched and her eyes went wide.

“Really?”

“With a woman like you?Can you blame me?”

She should blame him. She should tell him no and send him tumbling down to Earth. Being in the clouds was dangerous.

Amelia stared at him, face unreadable.

She’s your coworker, his last bit of sense said. Stop this.

“We should go to the beach,” he said. “I bet it isn’t as busy there.”

“M-maybe that’s a good idea. I’ll go first so you can . . . Yeah.”

She got out, and Daniel stared at a palm tree rather than her beautiful body. It took him twenty minutes of thinking of anyone but her for his cock to get the message.

Amelia was probably uncomfortable with what had happened. He deserved a lecture from her, or worse, anger. He wouldn’t fight it because he should have controlled his body’s reaction to her proximity.

After he’d calmed down, he slowly made the walk of shame. She was sitting on the beach, teeth biting at her lip.

“Hi,” he said.

“Oh, hey,” she replied. “Everything back to normal now?”

“Yes. I’m sorry about that.”

“No, don’t be. I should have thought about it more before sitting on your lap. But I’ve always had poor impulse control.”

“You’re not mad?”

“Mad? Why would I be mad? If anything, I’m flattered. At least some parts of you think I’m attractive.”

“All parts of me think you’re attractive,” he corrected.

But her expression made him want to say it again. Her cheeks turned an exquisite shade of pink, and one corner of her lip turned upward.

“That’s sweet.” She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “You’re really good at this fake-boyfriend thing.”

He pressed his lips together at the reminder. “It’s what I’m here for.”

“I’ll be sure to return the favor once we’re back at the office,” she said. “But for now, maybe we could hunt for seashells?”

There was a part of him that wanted to beg her to go back in that hot tub and never leave. He knew he’d never be able to get the feeling of her sitting on his lap out of his mind. But she’d been gracious enough about it already, and she was making it clear that they weren’t going to go any further.

“Sure,” he said, smiling. “I’ll let you know if I see any good ones.”

They separated, eyes on the sand. He tried to look for shells, but his mind was distracted.

“Got one!” Amelia called minutes later. She picked it up and showed it to him. “Amazing. All these waves and it still made it here safely. It was resilient.”

“Some things truly are,” he said.

Her lips pressed together, and he couldn’t help but wonder what she was thinking as she stared at the shell in her hands. She took a shaky breath and looked up at him.

“Ready to go swimming?” she asked.

“Don’t you want to keep the shell?”

“Nah.” She bent and set it on the ground. “I’ll leave it for someone else. I just like to look for the fun of it.”

It took him a moment to follow her to the water. He tried to figure out what had been going through her head as she’d gazed at the shell, but nothing came to him. Eventually, he followed, wondering what could possibly haunt her as it had.

***

Their swimming was cut short by a pop-up storm. They’d gotten out of the water once the waves became too choppy to be enjoyable, and soon after, rain poured from the sky.

The walk to the condo was cold, and Daniel was grateful to peel off his wet layers. Amelia took solace in the bathroom, and he made quick work of changing before she came back out. He’d had enough embarrassing moments in one day. They didn’t need any more.

She came out just as the front door opened. “I brought food!” Randy called as he took off a rain jacket.

That got everyone into the kitchen, even Mandy, who had still been in her room when Daniel and Amelia got back. Daniel didn’t miss the way Amelia’s eyes lingered on her mother, and he wondered, not for the first time, if everything was as okay as she’d said it was.

“What did you get?” John asked.

“Mostly pizza,” Randy replied. “But I got a burger for you, dear.” He gave Mandy a kiss on the cheek, which earned him a lukewarm smile.

Those were the things he missed doing for someone. The little things. Lucinda had grown bored of those quickly.

“How about we have dinner and ride out this storm with a movie night?” Randy offered. The condo didn’t have room for a table, so they all sat on the sectional couch and ate. They put on an easy-to-watch Disney movie in the background.

“I remember when this came out,” Randy said as it played. “This was the only movie Amelia and John could watch together. Everything else, you two fought over.”

“I can’t help it that he has no idea what’s good,” Amelia said, shrugging.

“Says the woman who had a Barney phase.”

“When I was a toddler,”she muttered, her cheeks turning pink.

“It lasted until you were eight,” Mandy added. It was the first Daniel had heard her speak in a while.

“Mom! Whose side are you on?”

Mandy laughed. “The truth’s. You really loved that purple dinosaur.”

Amelia shook her head. “I can’t believe this. In front of Daniel and everything.” She turned to him. “Please say you had an embarrassing show too. We need to make it even.”

“I grew up with a lot of VeggieTales,” he said. “It backfired. I didn’t eat vegetables for years because I thought it would hurt them.”

“Aw, that’s adorable.” Amelia bumped her shoulder with his.

“I would have loved it if you guys had a Disney phase,” Mandy mused. “The songs are so cute. It’s a shame you only liked the one movie from them.”

“We can’t help it that we have taste,” John said. “Well, at least I do. Amelia, I’m not so sure about you.”

“Very funny. I don’t even watch a lot of TV. I don’t have time for it with work.”

“They do keep us busy,” Daniel added.

“Mostly complaining about the same five things,” she muttered.

“That’s right, you met at work,” Mandy said. “Have they been okay with the transition?”

Amelia glanced over at him, and he could see the silent question in her gaze.

“It’s new,” he said. “But neither of us manages the other, so we haven’t run into any issues.”

“And there isn”t a rule against it,” Amelia added. ”Unless I missed it in the employee handbook.”

“Don’t worry too much about work,” Randy said. “This is a vacation. A relaxing one, hopefully.”

Amelia smiled. “It’s been nice for us. What about you, Mom?”

“I’ve just been tired, but I’m still enjoying it.” She returned a small smile to Amelia.

“Hang on,” John said, interrupting them. “We can’t talk over this song. It’s the only Disney one that I like.”

They all went back to watching the movie, but Daniel could see that something was bothering Amelia. It could have been anything from their encounter in the hot tub to the relationship disclosure form waiting for them when they returned to Atlanta.

But judging by the way Amelia looked at her mother, he had one strong guess as to what it was.