Can't Run (Danger and Desire Book 1) (2 page)

“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”

― Walt Whitman

The girls had hardly arrived at their first hotel in Rio de Janeiro when Sara got a phone call from her father. She had just put her bag down when her phone began to ring angrily, she took a deep breath, and warned her friends “My dad is going to verbally slaughter me, this will take a minute,” before picking up the phone.

“What the fuck, Sara, you have a lot of explaining to do!” her father’s voice bellowed over the phone. Amanda and Carrie looked to Sara with matching frowns as Sara rolled her eyes at them as if to say, “
don’t worry, this is normal
.”

“Well, it’s not like you wouldn’t find out anyways, dad.” Sara responded nonchalantly, “Listen, you would have gotten your body guards to kidnap me to keep me from coming here. I’m 24, and old enough to make at least a few of my own decisions.”

“You want to be an adult, act like a fucking adult. Don’t sneak, going behind my back to Brazil… fucking Brazil Sara!  Do you know how dangerous it is there?” he barked.

Sara stepped into the hotel bathroom and shut the door, sitting on the side of the bathtub she steadied her voice, “First of all, don’t get all high and mighty with me, you’re the one who freaked out in London and wouldn’t tell me what was going on. Honesty goes both ways! And, Dad, it’s really not that dangerous. I’m going to be careful, I promise. I just need to do this, before I come home and step it up, you know? ”

The phone was silent, and Sara sighed.

“Dad, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you and mom that I was coming here. I will be back in three weeks and you can yell at me then, okay?”

The phone was still silent, but she could hear her dad’s soft breathing on the other end of the phone. He was thinking, still obviously pissed off, but not furious.

“Listen, I will call and check in every few days.”

Finally, he responded, “See that you do. Sara, we expect a lot from you.”

“Yes, Dad.”

“But Sara, you need to know how much we love you.”

“I love you guys too, Dad.”

“I’m going to put you on with your mother.”

“Okay, Dad.”

“And Sara, one more thing…”

Sara waited.

“We would have gotten the body guards to stop you.”

Sara smiled, she could hear the humor in his voice, and he could never stay mad at her. As much as her parents expected of her, they had great relationship.

Her mom was initially worried, but their phone conversation quickly changed to one of friendly gossip as they discussed Eric, the guy Sara had met the night before.

“You deserve a break, darling.” Her mother said lovingly, “Go, get yourself a tan and try to have some fun.”

Sara could picture her mother on the other end of the line, her fair skin and blonde curly hair cut into an asymmetrical bob sipping on a glass of pinot noir to ease her worry. She knew her mother’s features would have softened as the worry began to dissipate.  She knew her mother well, one of the most rational and fun loving people she knew. Her mother was well loved by all of her friends for good reason, and was the balancing element of her father.

After a few minutes of fun chatting with her mother, Sara said goodbye and left the bathroom. Amanda and Carrie were already changing into their bikinis and slapping on sunscreen.

“Do we need to find a voodoo priest to resurrect you?” Amanda asked uneasily, worried that Sara had actually been torn apart by her parents.

“Naw,” she smiled, “save it for next time we sneak away for a foreign adventure. I’m sure next time they might actually kill me.”

“Sara, have you seen the view?” Carrie chirped.

Sara walked to the window and peaked through the curtains. It was breathtaking, the white sand, blue water, and exotic palm trees beckoned. Sara couldn’t help but smile.

She rushed back to her bag and pulled out one of her bikinis, it was her aqua halter bikini with fringe, she had the matching low ride bottoms. Maybe not the most functional bathing suit for swimming, but she felt absolutely hot in it. 

Without caring that the other girls were there, she peeled her clothes off. She only then realized just how sweaty she was, it must have been the humidity. 

She was going to take her mother’s advice. She was going to give herself a much needed break. She was going to have fun. And she was definitely going to get herself a tan!

~

The sand was hot, painful even to walk on, but laying on the beach blanket beside the water was heavenly. Amanda was lathering up with her SPF 70 for the third time in the hour and Carrie couldn’t help but laugh.

“I’m fair,” Amanda complained, not liking Carrie’s attention, “I burn really easily.”

This didn’t help silence Carrie’s giggles.

Sara rolled onto her stomach and felt a bead of sweat drip from the middle of her back down to the small.

“You know,” Sara said, peaking over her sunglasses at the bottle in Amanda’s hand, “it’s been scientifically proven that anything over SPF 30 isn’t actually as effective as you think. It is better to diligently reapply the SPF 30…”

Sara stopped. Realizing that her friends were mocking her as she went onto one of her know-it-all lectures she bit down on her lip thoughtfully.

“Damn it’s hot,” Sara said, pushing herself up onto her knees, “I’m going to the bar to get a drink, anybody want something?”

Two hands quickly shot up, “Meeeeeeeeee.” Carrie and Amanda cried out simultaneously.

Sara jogged through the sand, trying to avoid getting her feet burned by the hot golden pellets, quickly to the little beach bar. As she ran, she kicked up the burning sand and it stung the back of her legs annoyingly.

“Oh geeze,” she breathed to herself.

One of the hotel security guards was at the bar, sipping what seemed to be alcohol. He had short curly hair, a rugged short beard, and one green eye.

Well, this certainly isn’t the USA
, Sara thought to herself. She smiled politely as the security guard made eye contact, then quickly turned to the bar tender.

The bartender smiled, “What can I get you?” he asked.

“Three margarita’s please!”

He was a handsome man, with beautiful dark skin, and incredible smile, and remarkably perfect teeth. He handed her the drinks.

“So your friend there,” he said, “she’s really stunning,” his Portuguese accent was really very sexy.

“Which one?” Sara asked looking back at her friends who were engaged in a lively discussion.

“Well, all of you are”, he said shyly, “but the tall one.”

Sara smiled, “Well, I’ll tell her that you said hello.” 

Sara glanced over at the security guard who was still staring at her, she gulped trying to maintain a friendly smile, but feeling extremely self-conscious. His stare was thoughtful, almost insidious, it somehow terrified her.

Sara picked up the drinks, holding the cups into a triangle so that she wouldn’t drop them and trotted back to her friends.

As Sara got comfortable again on the blanket she looked at Carrie, giving her the best “I know something you don’t know” face that she could.

“Your face is going to get stuck like that,” Carrie teased, sipping on her margarita.

“Fine.” Sara fake sulked, “I won’t tell you …”

“Tell what?” Amanda asked, untying her top. Her milky white breasts were covered in delicate little freckles, her tan line that had only been attained in the past few hours framed her breasts, drawing attention to her pink rosebud nipples.

“Well, fine, I’ll tell you guys if you first tell me what you’re doing!”  Sara demanded, staring at Amanda with a dumbfounded expression. Sara was not by any means a prude, she was, however, surprised by Amanda’s out of character boldness.

“Fighting tan lines, duh!” Amanda said, rolling her eyes.

“Did you just say ‘duh’?” Carrie laughed.

“Duuuuh!” Amanda responded.

“Anyways,” Sara laughed, bringing the attention back to her, “so, Carrie… you have another admirer.”

“The bartender?” Carrie asked excitedly, glancing back at him over her shoulder, “dang, he’s easy on the eyes.”

Sara nodded with a wink.

“Well in that case,” Carrie winked back, “I had better get us some refills.”

“We are still working on these,” Amanda said with her straw hanging out of the corner of her mouth.

“Well, if I were you I’d drink up fast so you don’t have to double fist when I get back.” Carrie laughed, then quickly changing her voice from a humorous to a more seductive tone she said “Don’t worry, I’ll take my time.”

Sara and Amanda watched as Carrie stood up and brushed the little patches of sand off of her body. She adjusted her bikini, and approached the bartender.

Although the Sara and Amanda couldn’t hear the transaction between Carrie and the bartender, they watched intently, sometimes cheering between straining to hear what was being said.

When Carrie was flirting she was almost like a feline, she knew how to move her body and instinctively knew what to do. Her body was held in a crouch over the side of the counter. She was definitely working it.

When Carrie returned with the refills she was smiling.

“Well?” Sara asked, raising her brow…

“Well,” Carrie responded, “I have dinner plans tonight with Gabriel, so you bitches better be cool without me.”

~

Dinner must have turned into dessert, because at eleven in the evening Carrie had still not returned.

“So, we each get our own bed then.” Amanda declared, “She will have to figure it out when she gets back.”

Sara was worried, she had tried to tell Carrie why it was a bad idea to go out with a stranger, especially as a foreigner. Carrie had only laughed, “Okay Mom, I’ll be careful, don’t you worry.” 

Sara crawled into the open bed, Amanda had no problem falling asleep and was lightly snoring. Sara looked at her phone and saw a text message from Eric.

“How’s the sun? Do I get a bikini pic?”
the text from Eric read.

Sara grinned and typed back, “
Sun. Is. Amazing. How’s the Minnesota cold? Its Brazil, we go topless here.“

He messaged back,
“Tease. Any adventures planned?”

“
Leaving Rio the day after tomorrow, going to Manaus and we will explore the rain forest from there.”

There was no response this time.

Sara then texted her parents,
“Miss you guys, love you
.”

She set her phone on the bedside table, it was after midnight. Slowly, still thinking about Carrie, she drifted off to sleep.

~

Sara woke to a muffled giggle, the room was so dark. She glanced up at the clock and it was two o’clock in the morning.

“Shhhhh”, Sara heard.

“Both beds are taken.” Whispered a man’s voice in a Portuguese accent.

“So?” giggled the woman, “Just be quiet…”

It was Carrie
, Sara thought, and
she brought a date back with her
. Sara didn’t know what to do, she was so embarrassed to be witnessing this. She closed her eyes and pretended to sleep. She could hear the sound of kissing, and slightly opened her eyes. Carrie and Gabriel were standing next to the bed, Carrie’s hand was down his jeans gently stroking his erection. His breathing was heavy, but muffled by their kiss. His hand was pushing down the top of Carrie’s dress so he could grope at her breast. She groaned from under his mouth as she knelt down to the floor.

Carefully Carrie unzipped Gabriel’s jeans, and his hard erection came out. Sara considered turning away, or at least really closing her eyes but found that she couldn’t stop watching. Carrie, still stroking Gabriel’s shaft licked the lip of his cock before wrapping her lips around and working it like it diligently were a tootsie pop. Gabriel let out a groan, and pulled Carrie to here feet before walking her back to the bed. The same bed Sara was pretending to sleep on.

Gabriel laid Carrie down beside Sara who was trying her best to do a believable impersonation of a sleeping personal. Gabriel pulled Carrie’s dress off and slowly kissed from her mouth down to her clit. Sara could hear Carrie’s breathing grow heavier, as she discretely glanced down and saw Gabriel’s mouth hovering over Carrie, his lips lightly pressed against her small swollen peak.