Aruba (Bad Boys on the Beach Book 3) Read online

Julia frowns as we pass the security guards at the gate, mumbling something about Home Improvement.

  I pull onto the road, and she starts playing with her watch. “All right. You get one hour.”

  “One hour?!?” I ask, looking at her in disbelief. “I saved your life and all I get is one hour?”

  “One hour,” she repeats. “If you do a good job, we may be able to extend it to two.”

  “Wow, thanks,” I say with a laugh. “Does the driving part count?”

  “What do you think?” she asks me with a smirk on her lips.

  “I think you’re going to be begging me to keep the date going once you find out what I have planned.”

  She chuckles. “We’ll see.”

  I take a deep breath, enjoying the delicious vanilla scent of her perfume as I drive. She’s silent for a while as she looks out the window at the lush scenery. The resort that we’re staying at is in a very secluded area of the island. There’s not much around here but rainforest and more rainforest.

  “And you didn’t save my life by the way,” she says, turning to me after a minute of silence. “I was totally capable of swimming back to the rocks.”

  “Oh, really?” I say with a laugh. “Is that what you think?”

  She nods. “That’s what I think.”

  “Well, I think you’d be having a date with a lobster on the bottom of the ocean right now if I hadn’t rescued you.”

  “Too bad nobody cares what you think,” she answers with a laugh. “I was just about to get my second wind and swim to the boat.”

  “Right,” I say, smiling as I turn off the main road.

  “Okay,” she says, looking out the window at the even thicker vegetation around us. “Where are we going? Is one of your real estate investments a tiny shack in the rainforest where you murder women?”

  “Yes, but unfortunately that one is in the Bahamas.”

  “That’s a relief,” she says. She leans her head back against the seat and starts to relax. After about forty minutes of driving through secluded back roads, she looks at me with a raised eyebrow. “Your hour is almost up. So far, I’m not wooed. Where are we going for real?”

  I’m about to tell her when the steering wheel starts shaking under my hands and the engine starts making a loud clunking sound. “What the hell is that?” I mutter as the gas pedal stops working.

  “No way we’re getting stuck out here,” Julia says, looking around in panic. There’s nothing along this road but huge green plants with leaves the size of coffee tables and trees that stretch up to the clouds. We haven’t seen another car since we turned off the main road about thirty-five minutes ago.

  “It’s not dead yet,” I say, cursing this stupid car under my breath as it shakes and groans like a goat in labor. “We might make—” Before I can finish the thought, the car dies.

  It dies a horrible, noisy, smoky death.

  “So far, this date gets negative five stars,” Julia says, watching with horror as white smoke pours out of the hood of the car.

  I turn to her with a grin. “So, I guess this is a bad time to try and kiss you.”

  “You can try,” she says with a straight face. “But I might bite your tongue off.”

  “Ouch.”

  “On the bright side, it might win you back a star if you’re tongueless and can’t talk for the rest of the night.”

  We sit there looking around, not knowing what to do next. “How long do you think it’s going to take for a taxi to come pick us up?” she asks.

  I shrug. “Let’s find out. Can I borrow your phone to call?”

  She looks at me with wide eyes. “It’s back at the room. Tell me you have a cell phone on you.”

  I gulp.

  “Are you kidding me?!?” she snaps, throwing her hands in the air. “We’re stuck here?”

  “If it makes this situation any better, I had planned to have lobster for dinner.”

  “We’re stuck in the freaking rainforest!” she screams, looking around in panic. “Do you know what comes out of the rainforest at night?”

  “No,” I say, shaking my head.

  “Me neither!” she shouts, erupting like a furious volcano. “But we’re fucking going to find out! It’s going to be a thousand degrees in this car!”

  “We’ll open the windows,” I say as my mind races for available options. Available options that aren’t coming to me at all right now.

  “Great!” she says, crossing her arms as she stares straight ahead. “We’ll get eaten alive by rainforest mosquitoes. I’ll look like I have chicken pox for Cynthia’s wedding.”

  “Okay, calm down,” I say, trying to bring her down a couple of notches. “It’s not that bad.”

  “I’m stuck in the middle of nowhere with the one guy on the planet I least want to be stuck with.”

  Her words are like a punch in the heart. I didn’t think she hated me that much.

  “Fine,” I say, letting my emotions get the best of me. I charge out of the car and slam the door. “Then you can stay by yourself if that will make your night better.”

  My blood pressure shoots up to dangerous levels as I charge down the road with my hands clenched into fists. I wanted this night to go perfectly, and I’m so frustrated that it got all fucked up before it even got started. All my planning and attention to detail is just… gone.

  Maybe Julia and I weren’t meant to be together. Maybe we’re just too different. Like a yin and yang, but instead of completing each other, we’re just meant to be kept apart for all eternity.

  I glance back at the smoking car and shake my head. This is probably the universe’s way of telling me that it’s never going to happen, and I should stop trying.

  You win universe. I’m done.

  “Wait,” she says, calling out to me as she steps out of the car.

  I take a deep frustrated breath as I stop and wait for her to catch up.

  “I can’t stay there by myself,” she says when she arrives.

  “Are you going to be able to stand being around me?” I ask with a roll of my eyes.

  “Probably not,” she says with a grin, “but it’s better than staying back there and being forced to go to the bathroom in the woods.”

  “All right,” I say with a huff of breath. “Let’s just start walking.”

  10

  Julia

  Day Three

  “My feet are killing me,” I whine as we walk for what feels like two hours, but is more like twenty minutes. I wish I would have worn my running shoes instead of my Gucci sandals. For sandals that cost four hundred and fifty dollars, you’d think they’d be a little more comfortable.

  “I’m starving! Where the hell does this road go to anyway?” I ask as I crush a mosquito on my arm. “I’m beginning to think it just goes around in a big circle.”

  “It goes to a road called Helio,” Tucker says, looking frustrated. He’s been walking so fast that I’m having a hard time keeping up with him.

  “What’s on Helio?”

  “Helio street leads to Anders street, which leads to a dock.”

  “We were going to have dinner on a dock?”

  “No,” he says, looking straight ahead as he charges up the road. “We were going to have dinner on a—you know what? It doesn’t matter.”

  “It sounds nice.” Anything other than this sounds nice. Sitting in a prison cell sounds nice compared to walking down this road in the sticky heat.

  “It would have been nice,” he answers. “But it doesn’t matter anymore.”

  “Why doesn’t it matter? It sounds like you put a lot of effort into it.”

  He looks so agitated as he runs his hand through his hair, and squeezes it into a fist. “It’s just… nevermind.”

  “Can you slow down?” I snap. It’s like he’s trying to get rid of me.

  He keeps walking at the same speed, maybe even a little faster.

  “Hey!” I shout as I abruptly stop, planting my feet on the dirt road. “Why do you always
have to be such a dick?”

  He stops at once and drops his head, breathing heavily as he gives me his back. The anger seems to have left his body, but it’s in mine now.

  “You’re the one that was a total asshole to me all through my childhood and teenage years. You’re the one who insisted on this date. You’re the one who rented a shitty car that blew up. And you’re mad at me?!? What the hell is wrong with you? I don’t even know why I’m trying to have a relationship with you, Tucker. You’re as shitty as I always thought.” I turn and start walking back to the car. I’d rather have mosquitoes sucking out my blood than an asshole sucking out my soul. “Just go back to staying out of my life.”

  My body is tense and my heart is pounding as I storm away from him, regretting ever having agreed to this date in the first place. Why did I ever think that it would end with anything but heartache, disappointment, and anger? With Tucker, those are the only three possible outcomes.

  “Julia,” he calls out after a few seconds. I don’t turn. I don’t acknowledge him. I don’t care.

  I can’t get away fast enough. This is officially the worst date I’ve ever had, and that’s saying a lot. Mitch Follett set a high bar when he got drunk and lit my limited-edition Carolina Herrera dress on fire, but that’s a story for another time.

  “Julia,” he calls out, running to catch up. “Please, just stop.”

  I don’t stop.

  He circles around in front of me and faces me, walking backward so he can look at my furious face.

  “I was hoping you were going to be different this time,” I say as anger surges through my veins. “I was hoping you would be nice and cool and fun like you are with everyone else, but you’re just the same old Mother Tucker. You told me on the hike that you were in love with me.”

  “I am,” he says, and then shakes his head when he realized what he said. “I was.”

  “You’re not,” I say, stopping. He stops as I cross my arms over my pounding heart and glare at him. “This between us is not love. This is attraction gone horribly wrong. This is something that has to stop.” I sigh as I stare at him. He looks so sad and disappointed. It breaks my heart, but I have to remember that all of this is his fault. We didn’t have to be like this. This was all his doing.

  “I think we have to face the fact that we’re toxic together, Tucker. This is never going to work. We can try and be civil for Cynthia’s sake, but beyond that, I don’t think there’s a relationship to be had.”

  He looks at me for a full minute before responding. “I think you’re wrong.”

  He’s so wrong that it makes me laugh. “Trust me, I’m right.”

  “I can make it all up to you,” he says.

  I throw my hands up in the air and look around with a laugh. “How are you possibly going to make it all up to me? Are you going to build me a treehouse to live in or hunt me a wild boar to eat?”

  “No,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck, “but I can get you to a street cart that sells soggy tacos.”

  I grab his shirt and yank him toward me. I’m so hungry that I’m about to start turning over rocks and eating disgusting grubs, Timon and Pumbaa style. “If you get me soggy tacos in the next ten minutes, I’ll marry you and have your babies.”

  He grins as he drops to a knee. “I’m going to hold you to that. Hop on.”

  “Are you serious?” I ask.

  He smiles as he looks over his shoulder, and I hate myself for smiling back. As much as I want to hate him, and as much as I want to push him out of my life for good, every time he smiles, my priorities change. Every time he smiles, I want to make him mine.

  “I have ten minutes,” he says with a grin. “Start your watch and hop on.”

  I’ll try anything for food at this point. “All right Mother Tucker,” I say as I set my watch and climb onto his hard, muscular back. Heat starts swirling through me as I grab his round shoulders, and he grabs a hold of my thighs with a strong grip. His palms gripping my bare skin is making me breathless.

  “You have ten minutes. Starting now.”

  He smiles at me one last time and then starts running.

  This is simultaneously the best and worst taco I’ve ever had. Tucker smiles as I lick my greasy fingers, looking like I’m making love to it. If there was a minister here, I’d marry it.

  “Are you a minister?” I ask the kid behind the food cart.

  “Huh?” he responds, looking at me with confusion in his brown eyes.

  “Nevermind,” I mutter before taking another glorious bite.

  The tortilla is stale, the sauce is watery, and the chicken has probably been sitting in the hot Caribbean sun all day, but I can’t stop eating it. I’m so hungry. I was nervous for our date and barely had anything to eat for lunch.

  Tucker laughs as he hands me another napkin. “Don’t accidentally eat your hand,” he says as sauce runs through my fingers. “We need that finger to hold your wedding ring.”

  “My wedding ring?” I say with a raised eyebrow.

  “You promised, remember?” he says, looking at his watch. “You said ten minutes, and I got you here in eight.”

  “I lied,” I say, tossing the foil paper into the garbage. “I don’t marry assholes.”

  “I’m not an asshole,” he says with a grin. “I’m just a bit of a prick.”

  “I don’t marry those either.”

  I take a deep breath and look around now that I have some food in me. We’re in the middle of a quiet street with nothing but thick rainforest vegetation around us. It’s a dirt road with hardly any traffic on it. We haven’t seen one car pass since we arrived. I know this because I would have tried to hitchhike out of here if I saw one.

  “Wouldn’t you sell more tacos if you set up on a busy road?” I ask Johm, the twenty-something-year-old kid behind the cart. He has a nice smile, and he shows it to me as he wipes up the chopped onions on his cart.

  “There’s no busy roads on this side of the island,” he says, with a shrug. “I get some workers from the aloe factory on their lunch break and on their way home, but not many people at this hour. I was about to close up when you two came running.”

  “Thanks for staying open,” I say, wiping my sticky hands with another napkin. “It was delicious.”

  He looks proud that I enjoyed it.

  “Do you live around here?” I ask him.

  He nods. “At my uncle’s house. We live behind his inn.” His face perks up when a thought strikes him. “Do you need a place to stay for the night?”

  “Does he have a car?” I ask.

  “Or a bar?” Tucker says.

  “Come,” he says, stuffing the last of the food into his refrigerated cart. “It’s just up the road. I’ll show you.”

  “What do you think?” Tucker asks me as Johm starts pushing the street cart down the dirt road.

  “I think you better start helping him push, because I don’t want to sleep out here.”

  He flashes me those sexy teeth, rolls up his sleeves, and helps Johm push the cart. I smile as I watch him push, wishing that I was on his back again feeling those hard muscles against my clenched thighs.

  A few minutes later, we arrive at the cutest little waterfront inn that I’ve ever seen. It would fit about two dozen guests comfortably, but it seems to be empty at the moment. The lights in the rooms are off and the beautiful tables set up outside are deserted.

  “Wow,” I gasp as I walk around back and look out at the ocean. There’s no beach, just a large area of flat rocks that eventually sink into the calm turquoise water. Tucker helps Johm push the cart into the shed as I take off my uncomfortable sandals and explore the area. The rocks are warm and smooth under my feet, and I can’t help but smile as I walk around, staring out at the gorgeous ocean. The sun is starting to set, turning the sky a subtle pink. Sailboats are drifting by in the distance, probably on their way back to the ports after a fun day at sea.

  I’m so taken with the gorgeous view that I don’t even hear Tuck
er walking up next to me.

  “This place is spectacular,” I whisper, enjoying it even better now that I have someone to share it with.

  “I wonder why it’s empty,” he says, turning around.

  I glance back over my shoulder at the cute little inn. Each room has a private balcony overlooking the water, with beautiful tropical flowers growing in pots. A place like this should be packed year round. It’s the perfect little romantic getaway for an overworked, undersexed couple.

  “Welcome, welcome,” a large man calls out to us as he walks over with a huge smile on his face. He has a big bushy mustache and a big round belly. There’s an equally round woman beside him with an even bigger smile.

  “Welcome,” he says again in a deep booming voice as he arrives, “to the Sunnyside Resort.”

  “It’s beautiful,” I say, smiling at the older couple. The air is so crisp and clean, smelling like the ocean.

  “We’re the owners here,” the man says, waving his arm at the adorable inn. “My name is Irving and this is my wife, Yanina.”

  “Hello,” she says with a smile that’s missing a tooth. She looks up at Tucker’s face and her smile gets even bigger.

  “We have rooms and food available,” Irving says. “We can provide you with anything you like.”

  “What we really need is a ride,” Tucker says. He glances down at his watch and cringes. “We were supposed to be at the dock about an hour ago.”

  Both of their faces drop in disappointment. It seems that they haven’t had any clients in a while.

  “We can stay here for a bit,” I say with a shrug.

  Tucker turns to me with a skeptical look.

  “It’s so pretty,” I say, turning back to the ocean. The sky is turning pinker by the second, only now there are streaks of purple and orange as well. It’s the perfect place for a first date.

  I gave Irving an opening and he lunges onto it like a hungry dog in the back of a meat truck. “We have fresh lobster,” he says with a grin. “I just pulled them out of the water an hour ago.”

  “We already ate,” Tucker says.

  “Lobster sounds wonderful,” I say, smiling up at my date.