Chapter 13
Trey
"Reason number twelve on why you should love me—I make a mean red velvet cake for your birthday every year. Delicious, moist, red velvet cake. It’s your favorite. You can’t deny it.”
As with most of the other entries, reasons number one through eleven on why Catalina should love him, she answered with a shrug. “Just because other red velvets aren’t as good as yours doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be completely fine eating a red velvet cake made from a box mix. I think it’s survivable.”
He feigned a gasp, acting offended. “Box cake? What kind of a life are you setting up for yourself if you’re okay settling for subpar box cake? I didn’t invest all that time watching baking shows for my wife to eat box cake.”
While his wife was an excellent cook, which served her well for her work, she had never been much of a baker despite having a sweet tooth.
This was the main reason he had taken it up as a hobby.
Also, bringing home-baked goods to work made him an instant favorite among other teachers and school staff.
But he’d only learned and perfected cake making in the first place in order to please his wife, and this was all that mattered.
“Let’s take a break.” Catalina dropped to the ground, her purse thunking beside her.
Because the strap had broken, the bag was more of a burden to lug around.
Trey had offered to carry it for her. (Reason number three on why she should love him.
He was the type of guy who didn’t mind carrying her purse if needed.) She had merely waved him off, saying she was capable of carrying her own bag.
At first, she held it in her arms like a baby before giving up and using the strap to trail it behind her like a reluctant pet.
The sun was blazing, the day humid, and Trey wasn’t the only one overheated and sweaty. She swiped the back of a hand across her forehead before opening her bag and sifting through the contents.
He sat on the ground, facing her, his own energy having drained away a half hour ago. “It’s hot. You’d think it would at least be a little cooler since we’re further away from the sun.”
“What do you mean we’re further away from the sun?”
“I’m no longer six feet tall. Therefore, I’m not as close to the sun as I used to be.”
“I don’t think, in the larger scale of the universe, it’s as significant of a difference as you think. Here,” she said, handing him an unopened bottle of water while biting back a smile.
Trey wanted her smiles more than he wanted water, and he was parched. He was tempted to guzzle the whole bottle or at least take a greedy gulp from it. Trey fought against those instincts, taking a measured sip, enough to satisfy the dryness of his throat. “How many do we have?”
“Three bottles, including that one. Plus an apple, three bruised bananas, and two airplane-size bags of pretzels.”
His grumbling stomach was beginning to feel resentment toward the chimp for taking one of their precious apples. He handed his wife back the bottled water, and she took a delicate sip as well. “Now I understand why Buddy was so grumpy. I think we should hold off on our supplies as much as we can.”
“Yeah, I agree.” She removed a bottle of sunblock next, squirting some in her hands and slathering it over her face and neck.
She had a way of tipping her head back, stretching her neck long as she stroked her palms down to her clavicles, an action that was making his throat dry again.
How was he supposed to abstain from temptation, both in regard to water and his wife, when his eyes had to feast on this?
His voice came out rough when he spoke again. “Reason number thirteen on why you should love me. I’m really good at putting on sunblock in those hard-to-reach places. Do you want any help?” He begged the universe she’d cut him a break and say yes for once.
She squinted at him as though she didn’t trust his offer to be innocent. Catalina was right to be suspicious because sunblocking was a gateway to putting his hands everywhere. He couldn’t even pretend to be implying anything else.
“I didn’t realize putting on sunblock took a particular set of skills,” she replied coolly. “I thought you just needed to have the ability to spread.”
It may have sounded as if she was dismissing his opinion, but the way her gaze lingered across his body didn’t escape his notice.
Perhaps she was thirsty as well, her tongue jetting out to wet her lips before her teeth pressed into her lower lip, as though this could prevent the conversation from going any further.
Trey couldn’t focus on anything else as he scooted closer, not touching but definitely encroaching into her space.
“I think you and I both know it’s more than just spreading.
Taking time to make sure every spot on your body gets attention, leaving nothing ignored, then making sure to properly rub it in.
As much as I like spreading, and don’t get me wrong, I do like that part, I also really like doing the other things for you too.
” He tipped his face nearer, his breath ghosting across her skin, and he could take in the sweet, tropical scent of the sunblock on her sweat-glistened skin.
“Are you telling me you didn’t like the way I used to apply sunblock to your body? ”
“I’ve never said I didn’t. And it wasn’t like I didn’t also make an effort to return the favor. Sunblock application was never our problem. And yet, we still got burned.” Catalina’s expression was one of bittersweet sadness.
After having a discussion about their whole disagreement, he wasn’t entirely sure what she was referring to.
He didn’t know what specific problems they had in their marriage besides her pulling away or the random, occasional arguments they’d have.
Weren't small spats normal in all relationships? He found these issues entirely fixable. He could have asked for specifics so they could keep moving forward. But, with his luck, it would move the relationship further away from what he wanted and possibly turn things into another argument, which he was tired of. He didn’t want to do this, especially after she’d angled herself toward him, seeming to be interested in their close proximity.
He wasn’t about to ignore his oppportunity.
“I haven’t given up.” He brushed his lips across her jawline, leading Catalina to suck in a quick breath.
“SPF thirty dirty things I’d like to do to you right now.
” Feeling encouraged, he dragged his mouth and teeth delicately across the plane of her neck, hoping she wouldn’t flutter away from him like a nervous butterfly.
His reward was her stiff posture soon relaxing into him.
He couldn’t help but take riskier actions, his mouth laying more aggressive kisses across her collarbone, reaching to her breast to rub a rough thumb across the fabric of her cover-up in order to find the nipple hidden there.
He was so close to touching the white bikini top and the soft, warm skin beneath, Trey could hardly stand it.
He no longer considered the heat, his hunger, or the general disaster of their situation to be his biggest problem.
How could he think of satisfying any of those needs when he’d been on a diet from her affection for way too long?
His name falling from her lips in a moan was the reward he needed.
The sound of it would echo in his head for days.
Trey was making a breakthrough in his attempt to push his way inside her heart again.
He lifted his head, noticing her completely glazed expression and feeling somewhat heady and lightheaded himself.
As soon as he kissed that lush mouth of hers, he’d know for sure.
In this, she couldn’t pretend with him—she never could.
“Trey,” she breathed again. The word was more of a request than a statement, as though she wanted to bend to him without having to verbally surrender or to admit those feelings she had for him were not a pile of cooled coals but ones that could ignite again if stoked.
Something he fully intended to do. He’d let his fingers explore as much as she’d allow him to.
From the look in her dark eyes, there weren’t going to be any boundaries.
Trey would devour her from head to toe in an inferno of their own making.
It was then he was hit under the chin with cool lotion, shocking both of them.
“Oh my God. I’m so sorry,” she said, a giggle exploding out of her, bringing a lightness from her that he’d been missing for so long.
“I must have accidentally squeezed the sunblock bottle without realizing it. Here, let me help you.” She laughed fully, spreading the lotion across his jawline and doing a final sweep down the bridge of his nose before closing the bottle and returning it to her purse.
It was funny and silly and hot—the way things used to be between them.
His heart was brighter than it had been in a long time in spite of their situation.
He grinned. “I’m so glad it was you that did it this time, instead of me.” Trey wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at her. “You want me to list for you the thirty things I want to do to you, or would you rather I show you?”
“You can try but this isn’t going to make a difference, you know. I’m still mad at you.” She may say that, but her words lacked their normal conviction since her own smile was tinged with mischief, as though daring him.
“We’ll see. I want to hear what it sounds like when I put my mouth on your hot, little—”
“Trey!” Her eyes were suddenly large and terrified, as if there was imminent danger over his shoulder.
His mind instantly went to spiders even though he told himself beach spiders weren’t a real thing.
Whipping his head around, he only had a moment to perceive a dark shadow approaching quickly, caused by giant feet and legs.
The direction they traveled was directly towards Trey and Catalina, and there was no protection.
With no time to think, only to react, he grabbed Catalina’s shoulders, hugging her to his chest, the bag pressing between them, and then he used all the force he had to roll them in a direction that would hopefully put them enough distance away to keep them from getting squashed.
He closed his eyes, hating the breath being squeezed from his wife’s body every time he pressed down on her.
He rolled them into a dip in the sand, causing them to fall out of control into a dune.
When they stopped tumbling, he stayed on top of her, as though somehow his body could act as a shield and prevent his wife from being crushed should they be stepped on.
Cracking an eye open, he was relieved to see the body had passed by.
Large cratered indentations were in the sand, missing them by mere yards.
As they got closer to the resort, staying away from being literally underfoot was going to be more of a challenge.
Thankfully, this time, it had been a single person and not a whole crowd.
He released a breath of relief, dropping his head onto his wife’s shoulder as he fought to get his heart rate back to normal.
This was not the type of heart palpitations he had been going for earlier or ever.
Not when he still had so much to give to his wife.