Chapter 78
Unfortunately, I quickly came to realize this phone's owner was one of those people. You know the type the super organized type, where every entry in the contact list has a first and last name, nothing personal at all. Basically the complete opposite of my phone.
Thankfully, as I scrolled through, I found a listing for "office". Surely someone there would know how to contact the phone's owner.
Tapping the b.u.t.ton, I listened to the ring tone, hoping the call to America wouldn't be that expensive.
"Mr. Kagan's office," I heard a curt female voice on the other line announce.
"Hi, um, I found a phone that belongs to someone, they had this number listed as "office" under their contacts."
"You found Mr. Kagan's phone? Excellent, thank you for calling. I already ordered him a replacement when he contacted me about it yesterday, but there were files on that phone that I know he was wont to part with."
Wont to part with? Who even speaks like that? I asked myself as the woman kept talking.
"He is staying at the Grand Isis, in villa number 207 if you would be so kind as to drop the phone off at the front desk."
"Ok, I will," I replied.
"Thank you very much. If you'd leave your name and number I can make sure we contact you about repayment for your time."
"Oh, don't worry about it. It's fine, I'm staying at the resort too so it's really no bother at all."
After a curt goodbye, I found myself staring at the phone. Villa 207. I was pretty sure that one was back towards the reception office, I thought I pa.s.sed by it the other day on my way to book my snorkelling cruise.
My thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door, and twenty minutes later I'd eaten breakfast. I had a quick shower to freshen up, then took the phone and made my way towards reception. Sure enough, halfway there I saw the sign for villa 207, on my left.
I hesitated for a minute, then decided hey, why the h.e.l.l not? Might as well save everyone a bit of time, and made my way towards the door.
Knocking solidly, I waited to see if someone was home. If they weren't, oh well, I'd just drop the phone off at reception. No one came for a good thirty seconds, and I was just about to leave when I heard footsteps coming towards the door.
As the large door opened, my breath caught in my throat. Standing in front of me was hands down the most gorgeous man I had ever seen in my life.
Definitely over six feet tall, with wavy black hair that even though it was damp I already wanted to run my hands through, brown eyes so dark that looking into them was like looking into the abyss, and a hard mouth that still looked like it could smile easily, this man could have been a model.
My eyes drifted down to his body, sculpted like a statue, and holy s.h.i.+t, he had abs! I had literally never seen a six pack in real life until that moment. A white towel was wrapped around his waist, covering the bits that I suddenly realized I wanted to see more than anything at that moment.
"Yes?" the man asked politely, and I realized I was staring. Ogling, even.
I felt my face turn crimson as I forced my eyes back to his face. Oh my G.o.d, you're such an embarra.s.sment I thought to myself as I started to stammer out a reply.
"Um, hi, sorry, I found this phone, and um, I called the number listed office, and the lady said you were staying here, is this yours?" I asked, feeling incredibly stupid and self-aware as I held the phone out to him. Was it bad that I was hoping it was his just so I could feel his skin brush against mine for half a second?
"Is that my phone? Wow, you're a lifesaver, thank you," the man replied, flas.h.i.+ng me a smile that literally made my legs start to shake. How was it possible for one human to be so s.e.xy?
I handed over the phone, and as soon as his hand grazed mine I felt my stomach start to tighten, and an involuntary moan slipped from my lips.
"What was that?" he asked. s.h.i.+t. He heard that. Get it together, woman.
"Oh, nothing, sorry," I replied, trying to cover it up. "I'm just glad you were here so I could give you back the phone."
"Of course. You have no idea how important the doc.u.ments on this phone are to me, I don't trust cloud services, but of course that has its downsides. What can I offer you as thanks for bringing this back to me?"
"Nothing, it's just something any normal human would do," I replied, trying with all my might not to look down at his beautifully sculpted body.
"Well, at least let me take you out to dinner tonight, as thanks," he answered.
Oh my G.o.d, is this really happening? Is the Greek G.o.d standing in front of me really asking me out to lunch? Even if it is just a thank you date?
"Thanks, I'd love to," I replied, almost instinctively. How long had it been since I'd gone on a date? Way too long. I wasn't looking for a relations.h.i.+p, but this wasn't a real date. It was just a hot guy saying thanks for finding his phone.
"Perfect. How does Caribbean Fusion sound?"
"Amazing!"
"Then why don't we meet at Cay West restaurant at 7?"
"Sounds good!" I replied, and two minutes later I was running back towards my villa, wondering what on earth had just happened. Had I seriously met the hottest guy on the planet? You don't even know his name, I scolded myself. How could I be so stupid as to forget to ask his name? Well, at least we had something to talk about at dinner tonight.
I spent the next hour or so replaying every single second of our interaction in my head. I wondered if I came off as too ditzy, if I should have played it cool, if I looked like an idiot. I felt like I was thirteen again, with my first crush.
Stop it, I scolded myself, he's not interested in you, he's just buying you dinner to thank you for finding his phone.
Eventually I broke from my reverie and looked at the clock, and gasped. I was already fifteen minutes late for my snorkelling trip. Leilani had made sure I knew that I had to be on time. I slipped on my bathing suit as fast as I could, and made my way towards the marina, but unfortunately when I got there no boats were visible. I asked one of the workers who was hanging around.
"Excuse me sir, could you please tell me if the 12:15 snorkelling boat has left?"
"Ah, yes, unfortunately you've missed it, miss," the man replied.
"Ok, thanks."
"Don't worry though, there's another one later this afternoon, and one tomorrow. You can always go to the front desk and sign up."
"Thank you, I'll go do that now," I replied with a wave to the man as I turned and left.
I made my way back to the lobby, and on my way to Leilani's desk I pa.s.sed by a table with a display about Cay West, the Caribbean fusion restaurant I was going to that night. I instinctively paused, and had a look at the display. After all, maybe I should know what I was getting into.
When I saw the pictures of the interior, and the way people were dressed, I suddenly went pale. This was one of those super fancy restaurants, the type that I definitely didn't bring anything appropriate to wear for.
"Uh oh," I muttered to myself. "I can't go on a date with the hottest guy ever looking like a hobo compared to everyone else."
Quickly rebooking my snorkelling trip with Leilani, I asked for her to send a car over to drive me into Georgetown.
This is the perfect holiday for a little bit of a splurge, I convinced myself. After all, I needed a nice new dress for the holidays this year, why not just buy it a little bit early?
As I sat silently in the back seat of the car, being driven to the biggest city on Grand Cayman, where I asked to be taken to the shopping strip, I realized that missing the snorkelling trip was a blessing in disguise; if I hadn't missed the trip, I wouldn't have seen the display about Cay West, and I would have shown up to the restaurant dressed in a maxi dress or something equally inappropriate. I already didn't fit in with the super-rich and famous at the resort (I had never seen so many Louis Vuitton bags in my life, and I was sure they weren't fake), the least I could do was
For two hours I tried on everything I could find that looked good and seemed reasonably within my price range. I ended up finding a gorgeous c.o.c.ktail dress and some gold sandals that were cheap, but looked expensive. Plus in the beach setting, sandals were perfectly acceptable, even at a high cla.s.s place like Cay West.
I spent so long getting ready it was almost like it was a real date. I hadn't felt like this in so long, and I kept having to remind myself that it wasn't in fact a real date, no matter how much a part of me wanted it to be.
Turning over in my head whether I should show up exactly on time, or if I should be a couple minutes late to avoid seeming too eager, I walked through the door of Cay West at exactly 7:02pm. Looking through the restaurant, tables lined the walls and the floor, leading to the back of the room, which was completely open, like a balcony leading over to the ocean, lit up by torches along the beach. A soft, cool breeze whispered through the room, adding to the ambiance, and the smell of fresh fish wafted over from the kitchen.
"Excuse me, madame, do you have a reservation?" the manager at the front of the restaurant asked me.
"Oh, yes, I'm with... ummm..." I suddenly realized how embarra.s.sing it was going to be to have to convince this man I had a reservation with a man whose name I didn't even know. "Oh, that's him over there," I suddenly exclaimed, hoping against all hope that he was already here. Making my way across the restaurant, past the manager, I glanced at every face at every table, hoping to spot a familiar one. And sure enough, at the far end, against the railing with a perfect view of the night ocean, I saw the man from Villa 207.
"Welcome, I'm glad you made it," he told me as he stood up, holding my chair out for me. No one had ever held a chair out for me at a restaurant! I'm sure if I'd been wearing a coat he would have helped me out of it. This was already the best dinner of my life.
"Thanks, I almost didn't, seeing as I didn't have a name to give the man at the front," I replied with a laugh.
"I know! I was trying to keep an eye out for you, I didn't realize until after you'd left that I hadn't even caught your name."
"Julia. I'm Julia Marley," I told him, holding out a hand, and instead of shaking it, the man took it to his lips and kissed it softly, looking straight into my soul with those deep brown eyes of his. I could feel my body's desire at the touch of his lips against my skin, but forced those thoughts away.
"Blake Andrews," he replied. "It's nice to meet you officially, Julia."
"You too," I answered. The nerves from this morning were starting to come back, but as we continued to talk, I realized Blake was so easy to have a conversation with, it quickly seemed as though he was an old friend.
"So, what brings you to the island, Julia?" Blake asked as the waiter came by to take our drinks order. I figured in a cla.s.sy place like this I'd order some wine, so I simply ordered a gla.s.s of a random white on the menu, a.s.suming it would be good, and really hoping I didn't make it obvious that I had never heard of any of them. To me, exotic and cla.s.sy is a gla.s.s of Yellow Tail from Australia, and they definitely did not offer that.
"Well, if I'm going to be totally honest, I won this trip in one of those charities that help children's hospitals. My sister, who's a nurse, convinced me to buy the ticket, and while I didn't in the grand prize house, this is even better."
"Really? That's amazing. So is your sister here with you, or a boyfriend, or..."
Was it wrong that I was really, really hoping that was Blake trying to figure out if I was single or not? I laughed a little.
"No, I was going to bring Anna, my sister, but in the end she had to stay behind when her best friend went into early labour. So instead, I'm here by myself. No boyfriend. Definitely no boyfriend." Had I overemphasized that part too much? G.o.d, why was social interaction with the opposite s.e.x so hard? "How about you, are you on holidays? Or here with a girlfriend?" I continued.
Blake laughed, easily.
"I wish. Though I am getting a little bit of time to do what I want. I was actually here to woo some important clients for my company. There are worse places to have to go on a business trip, though," he added, motioning out the balcony to the black ocean outside. "No girlfriend for me, unfortunately I haven't found the one yet."
Just then the waiter brought over our drinks, and I realized neither one of us had even opened the menu yet. We asked for a couple of minutes, and the waiter politely obliged. As he left, we both started to read over the choices, and my face blanched when I looked at the prices. Would it be rude to comment, when I was invited here as thanks for bringing him his phone? Probably. Blake had to be pretty important at his company to be able to afford this sort of thing.
"So what is it that you do back home, Julia?" Blake asked as he glanced over the menu, casually. His eyes met mine, and it was like a spark of electricity surged between us, I felt like I'd been struck by a lightning bolt. n.o.body had ever made me feel like that before, especially not with just a look. Suddenly I felt incredibly self-conscious. I wasn't super important, I didn't make a ton of money, I didn't really belong here at this resort, I was just a student. There was no real way to make that sound fancier than it was.
"I'm studying to be a nurse."
"Really? Wow, that must be interesting."
"Well, there's a lot of variety, that's for sure. Especially when I'm doing the rotation at the hospital. The actual courses are more or less like any other college course: study everything, memorize everything, write tests. But when we go on rotation and spend time in an actual hospital, working with real nurses, then yeah, I never really know what to expect coming through the door."
"Why did you get into nursing?"
I explained to him about how my sister did it, how I wanted to get out of retail, and how nursing appealed to me because I liked helping people.
"I've always thought doctors and nurses were unappreciated. Especially nurses. I mean sure, doctors make a good living and all, but when you compare it to the living people like sports stars make, shouldn't the people that are out there saving lives every day be the most well paid people in our society?"
"You should run for office!" I joked. "Make that change for us."
Blake laughed. "I don't think I'm cut out for politics, unfortunately." I loved the sound of his laughter, I wanted to hear more of it. His voice was like music in my ears, and when at one point he reached across the table and brushed my hand with his fingers, they felt like velvet against my skin. I felt a tug in my tummy, and I knew I wanted Blake. I couldn't have him, and I knew I'd sworn off men, but I still wanted him. What was wrong with me? This wasn't like me at all. I was a good girl; I didn't do one night stands, We continued our chat; I told him about a few of the funnier things that had happened to me while working in the hospital, he told me about life in New York City. I had never been, but always wanted to go and see the bright lights. I mean, Columbus is a city and all, but it's nothing compared to the Big Apple.
Eventually the dinner began to come to a close, and we stopped being able to make any more excuses as to why we should stay. We had desert, coffee, then another coffee, and the staff were starting to close up shop.
"I guess it's time for us to go," I finally said. "Thank you so much for dinner Blake, it was absolutely amazing."
"I'm glad you enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun as well." His hand brushed my shoulder as Blake helped me out of my chair and my legs immediately turned to jelly. How was it possible for a man to have that much of an effect on me?
"Would you like to go walk along the beach for a while?" Blake asked me, motioning out to the dark ocean. Was it too much to hope for that he didn't want this date to end either?
"I'd like that, but please, let me hold on to your phone this time," I replied, and the laughter that came from Blake that time made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. G.o.d, I loved that sound.
We made our way slowly along the path leading towards the beach. For a while, the only sound was our footsteps against the soft sand, and the waves brus.h.i.+ng the sh.o.r.e, their rhythm constant and soothing. Strolling along in comfortable silence, I could feel the current of electricity running between us. Words were left unsaid, but I had a feeling I wasn't the only one of us who felt like this. Was I dreaming? What would I do? Should I hit on him? No, of course not, I had long since forgotten how to hit on anyone, and besides, what if he rejected me?
Of course, in the back of my mind, was Tom. Tom had seemed too good to be true at first, and he turned out to be a monster. I knew all men weren't like him, I knew he was in the minority, but a part of me still worried that if I got involved with another man, something like that might happen again.
But what of it? Blake lived in New York, I was from Columbus. He was a high powered business man of some kind, I was a nurse student. We weren't going to be a long time thing. At the very most this would last the five days I still had on the island. Five days of carefree fun. Five days of letting loose, of letting myself have something with no strings attached. Wouldn't that be nice?
I hadn't realized we'd stopped, but we had. Blake faced me, and as I looked up into his eyes, a s.h.i.+mmering light from one of the lit torches along the beach s.h.i.+ning into them, I melted completely. He took a finger and carefully moved a stray hair back behind my ear, and I breathed in audibly at the light touch of his finger against my skin. Ripples of pleasure ran through me. I wanted more.
I closed my eyes and parted my lips slightly, hoping against all hope that Blake would get the hint.
He did.
His soft lips pressed against mine, and I leaned into him as he kissed me. I kissed him back, gently, carefully, a little bit tentative. I hadn't done this in so long, I was a little bit nervous. Taking my hips in his hands, Blake pulled me towards him and kissed me harder, his tongue slipping into my mouth, exploring me, discovering me.
Was this really happening? Was I really doing this? I wasn't a one-night-stand sort of girl. Not that I was a prude, I was just careful. And had a lot going on in my life, not a lot of time for men. But here I was, making out with the hottest guy ever on a beach in the Cayman Islands. Did life get better than this?
I could feel my panties getting moist, my body heating up in a way it hadn't done in a long time. Maybe even ever? I had never gotten this aroused from just making out with someone.
"Oh G.o.d, Julia, we can't do this here," Blake suddenly muttered in my ear. "Come with me," he replied, taking me gently by the wrist. Together we ran, giggling, like a couple of h.o.r.n.y teenagers towards the path. Before I knew it, Blake was fumbling with the key to his villa, and he pulled me inside.
The minute we were in, we were all over each other once more. I kicked off my sandals into a corner, and Blake turned and pressed me against the wall of his villa, grabbing my wrists, one in each hand, and pinning them gently above my head.
With anyone else, I would have freaked out. But somehow, it felt right with Blake. It didn't feel threatening, it didn't feel angry, it just felt... nice. I had no control now, but I also didn't want any. He kissed me again, his mouth pressing against mine, his body against mine as well. I began to feel his hardness pressing against my hip, and I moaned with pleasure as his tongue explored me. G.o.d, I felt like I needed to come, and we hadn't even pa.s.sed first base yet.
Suddenly, Blake released my arms. His hands found the zipper at the side of my dress, and he slowly, ever so slowly began to slide it down the side of my body towards my hips. Even such an act, something I had done myself a million times without the slightest hint of eroticism, sent my body into overdrive. Tingles raced through my body, the excitement drove me crazy as Blake let my new dress fall to the floor, revealing my b.r.e.a.s.t.s to him. Now all I wore was my panties.
"I'm going to make you come like you've never come before," Blake whispered softly into my ear as his hands ran up my now almost-naked body, and I trembled with antic.i.p.ation.
"Oh G.o.d," was all I managed to reply, a breathless answer as my body was desperate for more.
Blake moved back to admire my b.r.e.a.s.t.s for a minute. Suddenly, he picked me up as easily as if I were a bag of groceries, hoisted me over his shoulder, and moved towards the bedroom. I squealed with surprised as he grabbed me, but it was more exciting than anything. Lowering me gently onto the bed, Blake grabbed one of his ties from the bedside table. Gently wrapping one end around my wrists, he tied the other end to the headboard.
I moved around slightly, but it was obvious: I was tied up here, for Blake to do what he wanted with me. And I loved it.
His gazed roamed around my body, I could feel his eyes on my naked b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and my desire only grew. I could feel my panties getting more and more moist, and I wished he'd take them off completely. Sitting on the bed next to me, Blake took a finger and began to trace large circles around my b.r.e.a.s.t.s, bringing them in slowly, ever so slowly towards my nipples.