Kissing Eden (11 page)

He pushed me harder against the wall.
I loved feeling so close to him that my breasts moved with each of his heavy breaths. Our bodies were in perfect unison.

“So, don’t do that, Eden. Don’t tell me you’re leaving.” He growled in my ear. “I’m not
ready for you to say good-bye.”

He dug his hands into the small of my back and this time I couldn’t suppress the screams
. He felt so damn amazing.
Yes, please, more of this all night long.
I rocked against him until I felt the sweet pressure building uncontrollably. My hands splayed against the wall, tilting my hips upward.

My body shuddered with total abandon as the release enveloped me.
Grey held me as we both collapsed to the floor. My legs straddled him and I rested my cheek against the cotton of his T-shirt.

I sat up to kiss him. “
Mmm, you taste like a margarita.” I giggled.

“Funny.” He laughed. “
This crazy girl threw a drink on me tonight.”

“Who would do such an insane thing?” I lick
ed his bottom lip.

“Seriously, Eden. I meant it. What I said just a minute ago.” He sat up so he was resting on his elbows.

My heart was pounding, and there was a chance it was loud enough for Grey to hear it.

“I’m not with anyone else.” He leaned down and kissed me on the forehead.

He didn’t owe me an explanation about Laura no matter how badly I wanted one. I was the one who had jumped into a spring break fling with no questions asked. I had willingly given myself to him, and clearly, I was going to do it as many times as I could. So why was I so relieved that, for this week, I knew he was mine? It shouldn’t matter, but what we did and what he could do to me did matter.

“Eden? Did I lose you?
”

I shook my head. “No, I’m good. Better than good.” I crawled forward and nipped at his neck.

He laughed and tried to pry me away from his throat. “What do you say to dinner now? I brought it back; it’s in the office.”

He stood and
I followed his figure as he reassembled his clothes. “Sounds good. Oh, and I can show you the spreadsheets I made today.”

“You made spreadsheets? That sounds hot.”
He winked.

I swatted him on the chest. “Hey, I worked all morning on those.”

“All right, college girl, show me your spreadsheets.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

W
e had two full days to get the Palm Palace into some recognizable form of motel residency. I was ready to take this Wednesday by storm.

“You’re really going to be cutting it close with all that you’ve spent on the renovations and with the utilities you have due at the end of the month.” I had gone over the numbers several times and I was confident I hadn’t missed anything.
“If the Palm Palace had just a few more rooms, you’d be able to offset your costs more easily.”

Grey was staring out of the office window toward the ocean.

“Have you thought about raising the rates? Ten dollars here and there could really help.”

“No, my grandfather was set on not increasing prices for the college students. He said that too many people tried to take advantage of them and he could give them a place to stay at a fair price.”

Grey had been in the office with me all morning, going over the numbers I had put together for him. After dinner last night, we never made it to my spreadsheet presentation. We had more than one round of incredible makeup sex to achieve. I blushed looking at the desk, and remembered how it felt on my skin in the dark office.

I cleared my throat and my mind.
“Well, your grandfather sounds like a sweet man, but he’s not here to face the reality of the bills. These are the same rates the motel had in the nineties. People wouldn’t even flinch.”

“No, Eden. I’m not raising the rates.
Would you really want to pay more to stay here? Look around.” He pointed to the rows of rooms outside the window.

“
It’s not that bad.” Ever since my nights were filled with Grey, I had come to love staying at the Palm Palace, but I remembered my first impression of the motel. “Well, we could at least free up one more room for you.”

He turned from the window. “What do you mean?”

“I’ll keep paying for my room, but I can stay with you and you can rent out room twenty-three.” I had formulated this plan yesterday, but with all of the fighting and then the makeup sex, I hadn’t gotten back to it.

Grey turned from the window. “Like
move in with me?”

“No, not move in with you. Just stay with you until, you know.” The end of the week was staring us both in the face and we hadn’t even broached the topic. “We’re already spending
our nights together and we know it’s one room that is already ready. It’s just two nights. But if it’s too much—I totally get it.”

Grey’s forehead was crinkled
, and he walked toward me, taking his time with each step. This wasn’t going to go well. I had overstepped my I’m-a-guest-who’s-sleeping-with-you boundaries.

“If I had known I could have had you in my room this whole time, I would have had you look at my books the first night you got here.” He leaned down and kissed me.

Ok, that was not at all what I was expecting, but my stomach filled with butterflies.

“So, you’re ok with it?” I stepped back to gauge his mood.
His smile was wide and his blue eyes toyed with me.

“Yeah, if you don’t mind. I think it’s a great idea.”

“Ok, since you like that one so much, I have another one for you.” I was worried my second pitch might not be so easy.

Grey was focused on the edge of my tank top. The more he stared, the heavier my breathing became. “Hey, I’m trying to help you here
. Can you stop undressing me every second with your eyes?”

“Would you rather I use my hands?” He tugged on the edge of my shirt
, and I felt the heat tingle under my skin.

“Grey, for real. This is serious.
” I pushed his hand down. “I have an idea that might get you over this financial crisis, temporarily at least.”

He backed away. “Ok, if you have something, I’m all ears
… and eyes.”

“One of the best views in this whole place is from the pool deck. From there you can see the ocean
. You’ve got the pool, and it’s right in the center of the Palm.” I nodded to the pool at the end of the motel’s property.

“Ok, go on.”
He leaned against the wall.

“
So, I think there is a way to capitalize on what you have. What if you have a luau and charge a small cover? We can get Marin and her friends and Pick and Connor to help us organize it and spread the word.” I smiled and waited for his reaction.

Grey crossed his arms. “You want me to host a keg party?”

“It’s not
just
a keg party. I know you’re not into the party scene and neither am I, but I’ve been to a few and they can make a ton of money. We can advertise online, and I bet Marin could sneak a few flyers through the Island Sun. Come on. It could work. We’re talking an easy few thousand dollars. It will be enough to give you some breathing room until the end of spring break.”

“I’m
goin’ to guess you already ran this by Marin.” Both of his eyebrows were raised, making his blue eyes bigger.

“I might have mentioned it to her.”
I bit down on my lip and walked from behind the desk.

“A few thousand dollars definitely wouldn’t hurt.” He rubbed his jaw.

“I’ll organize the whole thing. You just keep working on the rooms and I’ll take care of the luau.” I stopped in front of Grey. “Really, all you have to do is promise to be my date.”

He hooked my waist with his right hand and drew me against his chest. “Deal. But you have to promise it will stay under control.”

“Nothing crazy. Promise.”

“And you’ll wear one of those coconut bras.”
His finger traced the strap along my shoulder.

I laughed. “If I can find one.”

“A party planning business woman,” he teased as his head dipped toward the exposed skin on my chest. I leaned back to let him kiss me.

“Yes, and if I’m going to pull this off, I need to get started
, and you need to get to work on showerheads or doorknobs.” I inhaled as his lips grazed the top of my breast.

“Yes
, ma’am.”

Party planning was definitely less appealing than Grey taking me on the office desk
again, but this was business. We’d have all night to play.

“Go. Go fix something.” I shoved him out the door and turned to face the empty office.

I pulled out my phone. I needed to call Marin before I purchased the first tiki torch.

“Hey, you have a second? I could use your help.
Grey says the luau’s a go.”

***

Marin volunteered to pick me up in a few hours to start the luau shopping spree. She sounded excited on the phone. Until then, I had time to sort through the motel’s inventory. Grey didn’t have free minutes to tally stock or deliver tiny soaps when bigger problems like missing sheetrock were looming.

In the back of the office was a walk-in closet where all of the motel giveaway items were kept. I opened the door and gawked at the stacked boxes. Grey had placed orders, but never unboxed any of the items. The shelves were empty, which probably meant the rooms didn’t have any of these things stocked either. I pulled a pair of scissors from the desk and laughed. The last time I had a pair of these in my hand
, I administered a new hairstyle.

I dug the blade into the first box and sliced through the tape. I pulled back the cardboard and retrieved the mini bottles of shampoo and conditioner.
Each was labeled with a drawing of a palm tree silhouette. I smiled, thinking of Grey selecting these. I unloaded each of the boxes, making straight lines on the shelf for all of the bottles and tissue-wrapped soaps.

There was one box left, tucked in the corner of the closet. It didn’t have the same packaging, but I was on such a
roll with my extraordinary organizational skills that I tore into it, ready to clean out the rest of the supplies.

Instead of shower caps or matchbooks, there was a stack of pictures. I knew I shouldn’t look at them, and deep down I didn’t want to see what was in them, but some unknown force drove me to sort through the handful of four by sixes.

There he was, smiling on the beach with his hand on her knee. She had on big sunglasses so I couldn’t see her face, but I didn’t need to. I put the pictures on the floor, and brushed aside the cream-colored sweater that was layered under the photos. There was a pink bottle of perfume, a pillowcase, and a stack of index cards. I flipped through the cards. They looked like study aides, each labeled with a different medical term. The handwriting was swirly.

I shoved the contents back in the box and sunk to my heels.
I had found Laura’s box. Other than our brief introduction at Pete’s last night, I didn’t know her, but she had officially become my least favorite person on the planet.

***

Marin was a godsend. Her parents had a storage shed of party supplies. Her mother was a retired wedding planner on the island and had never emptied out her soiree stash.

“This is incredible. I’ve never seen so many swan cutouts in one place.” I pulled a pair of swans from the wall and dusted them off.

“Ugh! My mom had some of the tackiest brides this side of the Guadalupe.” She had discovered a box crammed full of nothing but pink tulle.

“Well, it’s perfect for the luau. We can take these arches and cover them in leaves and grass. And bingo! There are at least fifty
tiki torches here.” I pushed my way to the back of the storage building and started handing Marin the torches.

“
My mom will be glad someone is using this stuff. It’s been in here forever.” She started a pile next to her truck. “I guess things with Grey are getting pretty serious.”

“Why do you say that?” I was knee-deep in paper bells.

“Who would go to this kind of trouble for a guy they’re just sleeping with? You have it worse than I thought.”

“How do you know we’re sleeping together?”

Marin eyed me from across the scattered swans and plastic ferns.

I blushed. “Ok, yes we’re sleeping together. And can I tell you something?”

“Absolutely.”

I had been dying to tell someone
. I thought it would be Taylor, but our spring breaks were so off schedule we could never talk. “It’s the most amazing sex I’ve had in my life.” I think I actually squealed when I told her.

“I always thought he’d be good in bed. I mean, not that I tried, but you know—he’s too hot not to think about it.” Marin giggled. “He’s got that whole brooding thing going for him. It works.”

“Yeah, it definitely works.” I passed over the last torch. “He is—I don’t even know how to describe it, but it’s like I’ve never been with anyone else. Being around him makes everything feel like the first time. That sounds totally cheesy, doesn’t it?”

“No, I think it sounds romantic. Just enjoy it, girl.”

“That’s kind of the problem. I wasn’t expecting this. You know my ex dumped me right before the trip, and I came here to be by myself. It was supposed to be a total girl power trip. Then I met Grey and everything has changed. How am I supposed to go back to Carolina?”

“Uh-oh. Y’all haven’t talked about it?”

“Not exactly. It’s gone from spring break fling, to something I can’t even put into words.”

“
He’s not much of a talker. I don’t envy you. However, you have to talk to him. Long distance can work.” Marin tossed one of the tikis in the back of her truck.

“Long distance from Texas to North Carolina? That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.” Now that the words were out
there, I wanted to take them back.

“You never know.
Romance can trump anything.”

“
You know Marin, you sound crazy and ridiculous. I’m just not that type of girl. I don’t fall like that.”

“
I think you need to reexamine what type of girl you are, because if you have something with Grey, keep your options open. It can work out, Eden. I’m telling you.”

“You sound like a total romantic optimist
. I wish I was more like that.”

I wanted to turn my practical-thinking self into someone who believed and hoped
as Marin did, but no, I had to end up with Dad’s affinity for numbers instead of my mother’s yoga, freethinking approach to life.

“
It’s probably because I grew up around weddings. Seeing couple after couple live happily every after has that effect on a girl.” She looked wistfully at the crepe paper doves before closing the door. “Who knows? You might have already met your Prince Charming.”

I coughed loudly.

“Don’t panic on me. I’m just kidding with you. Let’s get these to the Palm.” Marin slammed the tailgate against the bed of the truck. “I bet there’s a boy there who’s counting the seconds until you get back.”

Had she seen me checking my phone the whole time? I didn’t want to be away from Grey one minute longer than I had to be.

“What else is on your list?” Marin asked as she climbed into the truck.

“Mac said we could pick up the kegs Saturday morning. Pete’s is taking care of all of the food
, and they even are letting us borrow their sound system. I can’t believe how awesome everyone has been.” I felt lucky to be able to pull the luau together so quickly, and it wouldn’t have been possible without all the help.