Chapter 4
Harper
Aloud crack rips me out of a deep and sound sleep. This bed is like a cloud. Obviously, it’s not my bed. My bed is lumpy and has a spring on the right side that’s threatening to break through. As the room materializes around me, I bolt upright in bed when I remember where I am.
Costa Rica.
Secluded villa.
With Asher.
Ugh.
Another crack shakes the glass, followed by a bolt of lightning that feels like it’s right outside the window. A thunderstorm?
“No, no, no,” I gasp as I jump out of bed and rush into the living room. I stand in front of the windows that are currently being pummeled by sheets of rain and gusty winds. I shake my head, hands clasping my hair. “It can’t be raining.”
“Well, it is,” Asher says dryly as he listens to what sounds like local news on his phone while he sips a cup of coffee. “Half of this is in Spanish,” he mutters.
“Of course it’s in Spanish,” I say, marching barefoot over to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee myself. “We’re in Costa Rica.”
I listen as the reporter rattles off.
Tormenta severa.
Advertencia de inundación repentina.
No viajar.
“Severe storm, flash flood warning, do not travel…” I sigh.
“That’s not good,” Asher says, turning the volume down and setting his phone on the counter.
“No, it is not,” I mumble. My stomach sours. “What about our flight? Is it?”
“All flights are down, incoming and outgoing,” he answers.
I let out a frustrated sigh. “This is not happening,” I say, pressing the heels of my palms to my eyes and shaking my head.
“On the bright side, you dodged a bullet,” he says.
I pull my hands away. “How do you figure?”
“It would’ve been a shitty honeymoon,” he says with a tiny smirk.
I give him a look that could kill. “You’re not funny.”
“Am I at least cute?”
I give him another mean look. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
Nothing could be shittier than this. At least if I were on my honeymoon, I’d be with Daniel.
I’d be sharing the cloud-like California King with him and his photoshopped-looking torso, boyish smile, and Zac Efron hairline.
I wouldn’t have wasted $120 on lingerie that is now stuffed into my bag, probably getting wrinkly. I would be with my husband and not–
“Hungry?”
This guy.
“Is that your answer to everything? Food?” I ask.
“Not everything,” he says with a smile and a wink. I roll my eyes and walk around him.
I look at my phone and see there are still no new notifications from Daniel.
I’m starting to worry because I’ve sent him ten text messages and left two voicemails, but he hasn’t responded to me at all.
None of them show any sign of having been read or listened to either.
What if something really bad happened or…
He’s ignoring me.
I glance at Asher, but he looks away immediately. He knows. He knows Daniel isn’t answering me. He doesn’t say anything out loud, but it feels like he knows something that I don’t.
I go into the bedroom and close the door, flopping dramatically onto the bed. Why is this happening? It was supposed to be the best day of my life, but it’s been ruined all because my brother is too protective and his friend is a jerk.
I roll over onto my back and pick up my phone again, this time dialing my best friend Darlene’s number. She answers on the first ring.
“Aren’t you supposed to be having hours of beach sex right now?” she asks.
“Emphasis on supposed to,” I answer, and I know she can tell something is wrong just by the tone of my voice.
“Oh no, what happened?” She replies. “Was he bad in bed? If I’m being honest, I’ve always wondered if what they say about guys who drive big trucks and talk a big game is true,” she chuckles.
This is Darlene. All jokes and all sarcasm all the time.
Normally, I love her for it, but right now I want to cry.
“I wouldn’t know,” I tell her. “Because Asher Levine happened.”
“Ash? Came to your wedding?” Darlene sounds lost. She’s the only person who knows we eloped, or tried to. But Darlene was also there when Daniel asked me out, so she knows how I feel.
“Did not come to my wedding. He crashed my wedding.”
“I’m not following.”
I sigh. “Ash showed up and literally kidnapped me from the altar.”
“No fucking way!” she exclaims. “And then what?!”
“He then carried me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, put me in a rental car and drove away!”
“Like a valiant hero,” she sighs.
“No. Like a psycho. Ash is the villain in this story, Darlene. Not the hero.”
“Where are you now?” she asks.
“Get this. He brought me to a beachside villa. It is really nice! It has a pool, a huge bathtub, and the biggest bed you’ve ever seen…plus, a fully stocked fridge. I mean, thank God there’s alcohol because this whole situation is ridiculous. Oh! There is even a private beach!”
“I’m failing to see the downside here,” Darlene says, and I sit up in bed, whisper-yelling into the phone.
“I was supposed to be with Daniel, Darlene! Not Ash! I was supposed to be married to Daniel and on my honeymoon! Instead, I’m stuck at a secluded villa with Asher. Oh, and bonus, it’s pouring down rain, our flight is canceled, and I can’t get a hold of Daniel at all!” I say all in one breath.
Darlene is quiet for a moment before clicking her tongue, and I know what that sound means. That sound is the sound she makes before she carefully says something she knows I’m not going to like.
“You know, Harp, it sounds to me like the universe is throwing you some curveballs. And by curveballs, I mean roadblocks. Detours if you will.”
Darlene is all about the universe and its magical powers in our lives. She takes screenshots of my daily horoscope and sends them to me every day. I’m more of a realist though, even if they are creepily accurate.
“Are you saying the universe detoured me from marrying the man I am in love with so that I’d be in forced proximity with a man who has driven me crazy for the majority of my life?” I ask.
“Driven you crazy in what way?” she asks, and I can almost hear her eyebrows wiggling through the phone.
“Not like that,” I emphasize. “Apparently, he and my brother just can’t stand Daniel and have an immature little grudge, and decided that I can’t marry him. But fuck that. As soon as we get home, Daniel and I will just go to the courthouse and–”
“Okay, don’t hate me,” my friend says. “But do you ever wonder if maybe, just maybe, you and Daniel are rushing things?”
“How do you figure?” I ask with narrowed eyes.
“Well, I mean one day we are sitting at a bar and you are going on about your crush on your boss who barely notices you, and I’m talking about my recent break-up, which, in itself, should have scared you off from making a commitment to a love bomber, and the next thing you know there’s Daniel.
Like a bright penny in a street-side fountain, suddenly paying attention to you.
Buying you drinks, flirting, asking you out. ”
“He said himself that he had been interested in me since he hired me, but wasn’t sure if it was appropriate,” I argue.
Darlene snorts. “Sorry, but I don’t really think Daniel is the kind of guy who cares about what’s appropriate.”
“Wow, Dar. Thanks.”
“All I’m saying is it all happened very fast. The dating, the proposal, the elopement. And now, he’s ghosting you.”
I stand up abruptly. “He is not ghosting me!” I say a little too loudly. “He’s just…I mean, I’m sure he…it’s probably…” I stutter before shaking my head, veering myself back on track. “Look, I know you’ve never really been a fan of Daniel,”
“He’s sus,” she adds.
“But either way, this is an emergency. I am being held hostage by my brother’s best friend. There’s no way out except for the car, which he has the keys to, and he won’t let me leave!” I tell her.
“Of course not. You’re in the middle of a tropical storm. He’s looking out for you. The same way he was looking out for you when he slowed your vows down a little.”
“Remind me again why you’re my best friend,” I say.
“Because I always tell you the truth. And the truth is that you are in a beautiful villa in a beautiful country. And you should enjoy it, even if it is raining. There’s always a silver lining in the clouds, Harp.”
“Not these clouds,” I mutter as we end the call.
Well, I’ve thrown my last safety line and nothing. I take a deep breath and reroute my thoughts.
So maybe my wedding didn’t go as planned. Or…at all, for that matter. I’ve known since day one that my friend was skeptical about mine and Daniel’s relationship. She’s made that abundantly clear, as she makes all of her opinions abundantly clear.
But at the end of the day, it’s not up to her. It’s up to me.
And while I know most people in my life don’t believe Daniel is good for me, he’s the first man to really see me. To want me. To pursue me to the extent of sliding a rock of a diamond on my finger.
And that has to count for something, right?
With my head held high, I make my way back into the living area. The moment I open the door, I smell food.
“You ever tried Costa Rican tamales?” Asher asks. “They use banana leaves instead of corn husks. And the flavor is out of this world, especially with the fried plantains.”
“Do you always cook this much?” I ask, though I’d be lying if I said it didn’t look good. Really good.
“Only when I realize the only remedy for hunger is eating,” he answers, sliding me a colorful plate of local food. “Do you always bitch this much when a man cooks for you?”
“Only when I’m being held against my will and worried that I’m going to be poisoned,” I shoot back, knowing full well I’m being overly dramatic.
But hey, if he can dish it, he can eat it.
Literally.
“You’re alive now, aren’t you?” he asks.
“Only in body,” I say as I take a bite, and he laughs, and for some reason I feel like I won that one.
“So, how is it?” he asks after a moment.
“The food?” I ask. “You were right. The tamales are incredible.”
“Say that again,” he nods towards me.
I blink, chewing more slowly. “The tamales are…?”
“No, the other part,” he cuts me off, and I see where he’s going with this.
“You were right,” I smirk, and he winks. I shake my head.
“No, I meant what’s it like being a waitress at one of his restaurants?” he asks.
Here we go.
“It’s fine.”
“Just fine?” he presses.
“I love the restaurant industry,” I say.
“You love being a waitress?”
“I want to be a bartender eventually, but–”
“But what?” he chops my sentence in half, and I stop. “Why aren’t you behind the bar now?”
I continue chewing. “Because that’s not my job.”
“It should be,” he says, and he hasn’t stopped staring at me since the conversation started. “You’re good at it, Harper.”
“Yeah, well, that’s not always the way it works,” I say softly.
“It is at my restaurants,” he says, then his mouth screws into an inquisitive smile. “I find it kind of ironic that a good girl like you, who hardly drinks and never does anything rebellious, has an affinity for cocktail mixing.”
It makes me smile too, though I bite it back a little. I’m not going to give this man that much satisfaction. “There’s a lot about me that you don’t really know.”
Later that night I am standing by the window staring at the stormy sky. It’s crazy how places like this go from paradise to chaos all because of some rain clouds.
“It’s like boiling water,” Asher says from the couch. He’s watching a soccer game in Spanish, his feet kicked up and a beer in hand. “It’s not going to go faster if you stare at it.”
“Sorry for being bored. There’s not much to do in a beach house when you can’t go outside,” I say with a sigh.
“You could take a bath,” he suggests. “Women love baths. And from the looks of it, this one’s pretty nice.”
“Are you trying to get me to take my clothes off?” I ask half joking.
“I mean, you could bathe fully clothed if you want to. Doesn’t matter to me. It’s your honeymoon.”
I roll my eyes and look at my phone. No new messages aside from an eggplant and cocktail emoji from Darlene.
So I take Asher’s advice and take a bath.
He wasn’t wrong about it. It’s a freestanding tub, and it’s deep enough that the water comes nearly up to my collarbones.
I infuse it with oils I found on the counter: grapefruit and patchouli.
Then I grab my book and let out a tired sigh as I pick up where I left off.
Taming the Beast by Ella Charm
Chapter 12
…he picks me up and I wrap my legs around him.
I know where this is going. Somewhere it shouldn’t.
Somewhere I never dreamed it would. Because Darren is nearly twice my age.
It’s wrong. And yet, it’s real. He lays me on the bed and peels the shirt from his toned body, revealing his riveting abs.
It’s like he’s flexing, even when he’s not flexing.
“Aren’t you going to take your pants off?” I ask because, inside, that’s what I want. It’s what I need. Or so I think.
But Darren drops to his knees in front of me, yanking my aching pussy to his mouth.
His tongue buries itself within me, stroking the length of me, swirling around my clit until finally teasing it with the tip.
Flicking, kissing, sucking until I cry out.
But even then, he doesn’t stop. He never stops.
I moan and set the book aside as my fingers mimic the tongue. I can’t even begin to imagine what a tongue must feel like, smooth and hot and wet. Filling every crevice and blanketing every nerve.
God…
My hips begin to rise and fall in the water, grinding against my own touch as I imagine it being someone else’s. Beads of sweat drip down my temples from the heat of the water and the anticipation of the orgasm. As it nears, slowly but surely, I moan, forgetting I’m not alone.
Suddenly, my eyes open.
Because I am really, truly not alone.
“What the fuck are you doing in here?!” I demand, making sure the bubbles are covering me.
“I was just getting my watch,” Asher says. “I left it on the sink. Are you enjoying your bath?”
He smirks as he latches the watch onto his wrist.
“Get out!” I practically scream.
With that, he walks away, but at the last second, he looks back over his shoulder and says, “It’s okay. We all do it. Even us non-virgins.”