Chapter 11
Viv tried not to get hung up on the fact that they were about to go back to Duke’s place. Alone.
She couldn’t be sure which feelings were which. A swarm of emotion had flown in as Duke talked of his desire to shed his image. His desperation to find a different type of woman. One serious about marriage and all it entailed.
After tucking her phone into her pocket, Viv closed the folds of her notebook and lifted her shoulder bag off the ground. “Well, at least we got the wildlife shoot done. I have a feeling that will be a crowd favorite.”
“Do you think it’ll be your favorite?” he asked.
“Possibly,” she said. “I liked watching you with that sloth. He seemed so cuddly.”
Duke grinned. “He was a cuddly little guy. Most of them are. I like to call it affection when they rest their head on you. Really, I think they’re just tired.”
Vivi tucked the notepad into her bag. “Sounds like you’ve held sloths before.”
“I have. Quite a few times.” He stood as the attendant rushed in to clear their table.
“Thanks, man,” Duke said to him before continuing. “If you’d like to hold one for yourself,” Duke said, “I can arrange it.”
Viv would be lying if she said she wasn’t aching to hold one of the long-armed creatures. “Okay, Sloth Whisperer, I’d like that.”
A smile spread over Duke’s face. One that took Viv right back to an unforgettable moment in their past—the night she’d known she was falling in love with him.
In that instant, an image was seared into her mind—Duke, mid-smile as he held her gaze. They’d just discovered yet another thing they had in common—this time, a fascination for an album from the eighties.
Her heart seemed to catch glimpses. Flickers of familiar heat escaping the stashed away box as he held her gaze.
“El albergue,” came a voice from the nearby food stand.
Viv glanced over to see a two-man crew scrambling to close up the open portion of the stand. “Una tormenta,” one hollered as the wind picked up once more.
Suddenly, Duke was on his feet and rushing toward the food stand. Only then did Viv realize the storm threatened to tear the upper half off it’s hinges. He rushed alongside the men and gripped the edge with strong hands.
Duke steadied the thing while the two worked to collapse the hinges at either side. Voices barely carried over the space, Duke’s among them. He was speaking Spanish as well.
Another flash of heat sparked in her chest.
Suddenly, the umbrella at the table lifted off the ground, hovered a bit, and then bumped back into place. Viv reached for the post as it lifted once more, securing it with both hands. She cranked the knob attached to the pole, causing the colorful sunshade to fold little by little.
Once it had collapsed completely, she spotted a strap to tie it up. Quickly, Viv searched the folds of canvas for its match. She’d barely checked the second fold when Duke hurried over, reached toward the back of the umbrella and produced the other strap.
He stepped just behind her as Viv handed him the other. She hunched forward a bit, Duke’s muscular chest at her back while his gorgeous smell competed with the rain-infused breeze.
She glanced up at his hands as he fastened the tie. He always did have nice hands.
“That should do it,” he rasped, his lip barely grazing her ear. “The water taxi will have to wait until this passes. We might have a little adventure ahead of us.”
Viv thought she detected an Australian accent, but she wasn’t sure until he spoke up once more. This time more animated, like he was the adventuresome host of some nature show.
“Now, Ms. Vivi, follow me, Duke of the Jungle, and I’ll see to it that you don’t get lured away by any snakes.” He snatched the straps of her bag from her fingers and hiked them around one muscled shoulder.
Viv, still affected by the tease of his breath, felt another rush of tingles as Duke curled his fingers around her wrist. At once, he led her through a break in the trees behind the food stand.
“If we can get past the massive-toothed crocodile—wait, wrong climate.”
Viv chuckled.
“I think there’s a conservatory up ahead,” he said, using the same adventure hosting voice. “If we can somehow push past the long-armed sloths, we can take cover there.”
Large, lush leaves whipped and thrashed above them as Viv followed Duke, her gaze shifting to the ground as they stepped over a small trail carved into the forest.
It wasn’t as if they were running for their lives, but her adrenaline had kicked in all the same, an active buzzing inside her chest.
She glanced up as they hit a clearing of sorts and was surprised to see a massive array of colorful flowers, stone fountains, and rippling ponds. An arched bridge led from one side of an approaching pond to another.
“I think we can get inside the conservatory,” he hollered over his shoulder. Wind whipped the ends of his hair over his forehead as he spoke. Viv had her own hair tucked in one fist as she moved.
She tipped her head to see beyond him and noticed a small building. Its pyramid-shaped roof —fashioned with thick wood shingles—hung over the edge of the building.
A quick jog up a shallow set of stone steps took them right up to a tinted glass door.
Duke jostled the handle and shook his head. “It’s locked. Here…” He backed up against the building and encouraged Viv to do the same.
She did, nudging Duke’s arm with hers, and looked over the swaying branches, whipping vines, and tall, exotic flowers as they did an erratic dance of their own.
It wasn’t until she pressed her head back against the building that Viv noticed the tremendous difference.
A stillness that defied the storm swirling around them.
“Wow,” Viv said with the shake of her head.
Duke chuckled under his breath. “Right? That was crazy.”
Viv nodded, her adrenaline letting up now, and turned her gaze on him. Duke did the same, the action putting them face-to-face in an instant.
With his feet kicked out as they were, he wasn’t at his natural six-foot height, a fact that put him even closer.
“It’s a good thing I have such a skillful tour guide,” she said.
A half grin pulled at his lips. “Is that all I am?”
Viv didn’t reply, only held his gaze as a slight furrow creased his brow. Those deep blue eyes searched hers. Duke being Duke, he couldn’t hide the look of longing as he held her gaze. A longing that swelled also from the box in her heart.
The whirls of wind around them were caught between cool and warm, but the rising tide within her was fire hot.
Duke inched closer.
Viv did too, drawn in by the allure of the man before her. He was fascinating, charismatic, and best of all, sorry for what he’d done to her. That thought alone was enough to rip the hinges right off the old box and let them have full rein.
Duke brought a hand to the side of her neck. Slowly then, eyes still fixed on her, he traced a sizzling trail around the hollow of her throat with his thumb.
Desire struck her like the furious storm. Heart thumping wildly out of beat, breath hitching to make up the difference. She knew what Duke had in mind, and heaven help her, Viv wanted the very same thing.
He leaned in then, slow and steady, like a capturer moving in on his prey. His gaze dropped to her lips as Viv lifted her chin, eyes settling on his mouth as well. She’d always loved the prominent shape of his full lips. How they looked, how they felt, how they tasted…
Viv’s eyes drifted shut as Duke’s heated breath teased the corner of her mouth. The enticing sensation only added to the thrill as he glided his bottom lip, ever so softly, over the length of hers.
More heart skips. More goosebumps.
At last he came in, pressed a kiss to her lips that pulled a small whimper from the back of her throat.
So good.
Viv reached to touch the side of his face, head tilting to take in another kiss, when a man’s voice sounded from behind.
“Entra, entra.” He repeated the word a third time before Duke put distance between them. He pulled back slowly, regretfully.
Viv glanced over her shoulder to see an older man waving for them to follow him. A jagged breath escaped her lips as she nodded in understanding.
Duke took hold of her hand with a nod of his own. “Let’s go on in.”
Thunder cracked, small and distant at first, but as she and Duke followed the man to the other side of the building, the sound grew into a resounding boom that rattled the windows once they hurried into the building.
Bronze plaques marked an array of plants scattered throughout the open room. Their unexpected host ushered them past a tall front desk and toward a bench at the center of the room.
Duke gave him a nod. “Gracias, amigo.”
The man returned the nod before stepping through an open doorway, then closing the door behind him.
Almost numbly then, Viv followed Duke to the bench, took a seat beside him, and watched the storm escalate through a large, adjacent window.
In her mind, Viv was reliving the all-too-short feel of his lips on hers. The tender way he traced the hollow of her throat. And the smoldering look in his eye as he lowered his head.
She reveled in the tingles that rushed through her. Viv had almost forgotten how good a simple kiss could feel, almost forgotten what she’d been missing all these years.
“The storms this time of year are usually short and quick,” Duke said. “Once this passes, we can head back.”
Viv nodded wordlessly.
“You’re welcome to do anything you’d like, of course, but I’d like it if you’d join me for dinner.”
She took her eyes off the pelting rain and distant lightning long enough to look into the blue depths of his eyes.
“Off the clock,” he added.
Even as warm tingles pooled around her heart, Viv scrambled for an objection. Was she breaking one of her rules? She didn’t think so. She’d gone into this with both eyes open, after all. And it would be off the clock. And that kiss…
“Okay.”
Duke lifted a brow. “Okay?”
Viv nodded, willing the heat to leave her face. She dropped her gaze. “This feels…”
“Familiar?” he filled in for her.
She shrugged. “A little.”
“But that’s not what you were going to say,” he added. “It feels what?”
The word awkward came to mind as she stared at her hands, sounds of rain beating the rooftops.
She glanced out the window once more, set her eyes on a fragile looking flower just outside—a hibiscus.
The type women wore behind one ear. It was delicate, thin, and the softest shade of pink.
Could it really withstand the thrashing wind and pelting rain?
She looked back up at Duke, ready to say something like “never mind” or “forget about it,” but a new word came to her instead. “Scary. Kind of.”
A furrow dashed Duke’s grin in a blink. “Yes,” he said with a nod. “I guess it would be.”
She could see his wheels turning, orchestrating words that might put her at ease, and for whatever reason, Viv wanted to do the same for him.
“I’ve just never had dinner with a tour guide before,” she added.
Duke gave her a half-smile that didn’t come close to crinkling those eyes. “Nice try,” he said. “You don’t have to be scared, Vivi.”
Viv wasn’t sure which part of her liked hearing him use that nickname most—her ears, her mind, or her heart. The mere sound of it sent a thrill through her entire body. She set her gaze back on the window and bit her lip.
“I’d never do anything to hurt you,” he continued. “I hope you know that.”
The pink flower caught her eye once more.
Only now, she noticed a slight tear along the length on one side.
Viv gave him the slightest nod, still working to dissect what he’d said.
She believed that he wouldn’t hurt her intentionally.
He was too kind for that. But in relationships, people got hurt all the time without ill intent by the other party.
Duke might be excited for a second chance with the one who got away, but they were hardly in a real-life scenario. She wasn’t busy playing her role as single mom, and he wasn’t trying to juggle a hundred business deals at once. They were on a private island, for crying out loud.
The realization was the beginning of a new barrier threatening to build.
She and Duke might be able to hit it off during their excursion in Costa Rica, but when they got back to LA, would the relationship last, or would it be like the island’s seasonal storm—wild and exciting, but destined to fizzle out?
After all, she mused, eyes set on the hibiscus in her view, even short-lived storms could do a whole lot of damage.