Just a Fling (2 page)

Nicole had not wasted a minute in plugging
the hotel’s address into their GPS. Eva was pleased to see that
that their destination was not too far away. She was looking
forward to getting settled in and changing out of her tight jeans
and into something a little more free and airy.

* * *

“Is this the place?” Eva asked with
surprise.

“Yep. I was hoping your jaw would drop,”
Nicole said in satisfaction.

Eva could only stare at the gorgeous hotel.
She had left all the event planning to Nicole, and the feisty
dark-haired woman did not disappoint. The structure looked like a
fairytale castle. Eva was sure that it was designed that way to
tempt vulnerable patrons into spending more of their money. She
made a mental note that she would not allow Nicole to pressure her
into gambling. Massages and fine dining would be lovely, but she
had already spent enough on this vacation and could not afford to
lose any more at the blackjack tables. She had heavy student loans
that she would need to be repaying soon.

Still, the beautiful, palace-like building,
surrounded by the exotic tropical greenery, was almost too
enchanting to resist. Eva knew she had to be careful. A place like
this could lure her into doing all sorts of things she wouldn’t
normally do. Gambling might be the least of her worries.

Eva tried to stop gawking at the hotel long
enough to drive the into the valet parking area. She was still in a
daze when a kind-looking young man opened up her door.

“Welcome to the Regal Towers!” he exclaimed
enthusiastically. “My name’s Tim. If you could just hand me your
keys, we’ll get your bags moved up to your room. I hope you enjoy
your stay!” He spoke like someone that really loved his job, even
though it was such a humble one.

Eva found his enthusiasm infectious and
smiled brightly as she handed the keys over. “Why thank you,
Tim.”

Several people walked over to the Hummer and
opened up the trunk to retrieve the luggage and put it on a cart.
Although it was difficult, the girls had restricted themselves to
only one small carry-on of luggage each. They figured that they
could go shopping at local boutiques if they were missing anything
important.

Eva moved to Nicole’s side, trying not to
betray how excited she was growing.

“Come on,” Nicole whispered, linking arms
with her friend and tugging her through the glass doors that were
being held open by a bellhop. “This is going to be great. I can
feel it.”

“You might be right,” Eva said.

The two women walked to the front desk where
an elderly gentleman stood. His piercing eyes scanned the foyer as
if he was looking for mischief that needed to be corrected.

“Hey!” Nicole said brazenly. “How’s it
goin’, bud?”

“Good afternoon, ladies,” he said at once.
His accent was clearly British and it gave his voice a curt,
businesslike quality.

Eva offered him a smile and scanned his
blazer for a name tag. “Good afternoon, Giles,” she said
politely.

His features softened considerably at Eva’s
sweet greeting. “How may I help you today?” he asked.

Nicole grasped the edge of the front desk
and leaned forward, displaying her ample cleavage. “We have a
reservation, Giles. It’ll be under Murphy. Nicole Murphy.” She gave
him a wink. “And yes, there will be lots of dirty things going on
in that room, so I’ve got a credit card for the security
deposit.”

The older man’s thin lips turned up in a
smile. “Of course, ma’am,” he said briskly as he pulled the
information up on his monitor. He quickly punched in a few
keystrokes and looked back to her with a troubled face. “I
apologize, but it seems we have no rooms available for this type of
reservation.”

Nicole narrowed her eyes and looked at the
man for a long moment. The irritation grew in her face. “Excuse
me?”

Giles frowned deeply and he glanced between
the two women. “Unfortunately, ladies, we had a rather large party
of very rich… whales,” he said in contempt, “arrive early this
morning. They booked several floors to use, and we only have the
bridge and presidential suits lefts.”

Eva sighed. She didn’t even have to ask what
either of those two cost to know it was well out of their price
range. She looked at Nicole and the two shared a look of
frustration.

“Jesus! Do I have to sleep with someone to
get a room?” Nicole asked in exasperation, slamming her fist down
on the counter. “Because if I do, I’ll go find some hobo and get
crabs beforehand to make them pay.” Her green eyes stormed at the
old man in righteous vindication. As a spontaneous person, she did
not often make plans. It was the first time she had ever been able
to coax Eva into a vacation, and she’d had her heart set on this
hotel. Being told that some jerks with too much money were about to
ruin her vacation did
not
rub her the right way.

Giles was taken aback by the ferocity of
Nicole’s demeanor and greatly amused by the implications of her
words. He smiled wryly at her and shook his head. “You’re Miss
Murphy, I imagine?”

“Damn right, I am,” Nicole said, glaring and
crossing her arms.

Giles nodded. “Could I have that credit card
to preserve for the record?” he asked with a shrewd glint in his
eye.

Nicole raised a brow and hesitantly offered
the plastic card to him. He took it with a nod and swiped it across
the scanner. His eyes returned to his computer screen and his
expression was serious for a moment as he made several keystrokes.
Suddenly a wolfish grin appeared on his wrinkled face.

“It seems to me that one room just became
available, after all,” he said with mock innocence. “It’s one of
our most elite suites—normally four thousand dollars a night. But
due to the inconvenience, I can offer you it at a discounted rate:
the same price as your original reservation.”

“No way!” Nicole said in shock. “You know I
was joking about sleeping with you for the room, right?”

Giles laughed. He took two keycards from a
little pile in front of him and ran them through a machine before
handing them to the girls. “Here you are, Miss Nicole. Room 781.
Please enjoy your stay.”

“Sweet!” Nicole said, pumping her fist in
the air. She clapped Eva on the back. “See? This holiday is going
to be amazing. It’s like we were
destined
to be here.”

Eva smiled, ignoring her friend’s comment.
“Thank you, Giles. You’re wonderful!”

“I aim to please, ladies,” said the older
gentleman brightly.

“Our hero,” Nicole said with a dramatic
sigh, “and they say chivalry is dead.”

The old man bowed his head respectfully.
“Maybe it’s dead in America,” he said, “but not where I come from.
And not where we currently are.”

Bidding goodbye to Giles, the girls moved
toward the elevator. Eva tried to conceal a yawn.

“I can’t wait to shower, shave my legs, and
put on something super slutty,” Nicole declared as she eagerly
jabbed the elevator button. “Then it’s time to go man-hunting!”

Eva glanced outside at the dreary storm
clouds. . “I suppose I’ll just read a book or take a nap until we
finally get some sunshine.”

Eva looked up from her book at the sleeping
form of Nicole. The dark-haired woman was resting peacefully while
the storm outside continued to rage on. Pulling out her phone, Eva
figured she could call her mother while Nicole was distracted by
sleep. Quietly moving away from the main part of their hotel room,
Eva quickly slid her thumb across the touch screen of her phone to
dial her mother.

The ringing went on for several seconds,
each one sending a pang of anxiety through Eva. A hundred different
thoughts passed through her mind, each one filled with a scenario
more gut wrenching than the last.

“Hello, Eva?” Her mother’s voice echoed over
the line.

The familiar sound caused relief to wash
over Eva. She almost forgot to reply. “Yes, Mommy. Nicole and I are
at the hotel and I wanted to let you know everything was okay.”

“Oh, you didn’t have to call, sweetie,” her
mother said weakly. “I know you can take care of yourself.”

Eva could hear her mother’s smile through
her voice and was glad that she was agonizing for no reason. “Well,
I’m not really worried about myself as much as I am about you,” she
said with a furrowed brow.

Her mother coughed a few times and each one
made Eva’s heart ache. The coarse sound caused her stomach to flip
over in worry. She should be
there
, not a thousand miles
away.

“Are you okay, Mom?” Eva’s voice was
frantic.

“I’m fine, sweetie. Don’t worry about this
old woman. You spend so much time taking care of me, and not enough
time living your own life. I’m so proud of you for graduating, but
you need some balance. You need to start enjoying yourself, and
focus on worrying about your own future soon.” Her mother spoke
softly. There was something foreboding about her tone.

“Don’t talk like that, Mommy. You’re going
to outlive all of us,” she said in an attempt to console her the
older woman. Although, if she was completely honest—the words were
mostly for herself. She knew that her mother’s health had been
declining rapidly over the past year.

“We’ll see. Shouldn’t you be at the beach by
now?” her mother asked smoothly to change the subject.

“It’s storming pretty badly over here,” Eva
explained. She leaned against a wall and felt comforted by the
pressure against her back.

“I hope it clears up soon! I know how much
you love the ocean,” her mother said kindly. “You haven’t been on
vacation since you were... how old?”

“Ten, I think,” Eva said softly. A sad smile
touched her lips. It was one of the few truly happy memories she
had of her family being together and carefree. “Well, I’ll let you
go, Mom. You saw that I organized all your medicine for every day
I’m gone? And the list I made that has what you’re supposed to
eat?” Eva was afraid of something going wrong and had made sure
everything had been taken care of before she left.

Her mother laughed lightly over the phone.
“Of course, sweetie. I think you made it impossible to miss.”

Eva blushed slightly at the tone in her
mother’s voice. She knew how overprotective she could get, and
sometimes she might even go a little too far.
I did use an awful
lot of sticky notes,
she thought to herself. “Good. Just take
care of yourself, okay?”

“I always do,” her mother said sweetly.
“Give Nicole my best—and for heaven’s sake! Promise me you’ll try
to have a good time and not just stay inside and read the whole
time.”

“Yes, Mom,” Eva said with a small smile.

“Go have fun, dear. Please? Let loose a
little. Do it for me.”

“I will,” Eva said softly before hanging up
the phone. She turned around and walked back over to the beds. She
noticed that a bit of light had started peeking through the
curtain. Pulling the corner of the fabric aside to look out, she
was rewarded by the warmth of warm sunbeams streaming through the
dark clouds. She remained frozen for a moment, soaking them up
appreciatively. Finally, her lips began to curve in a bold smile.
“Nicole, wake up.”

The dark-haired woman, who had been sound
asleep this entire time, stirred from her rest. She groaned as she
was roused. “What?” her voice was hoarse and dry.

“The rain went away, so if you want to go
downstairs and seduce unsuspecting men, we can,” Eva said lightly.
She was much more interested in swimming in the ocean, but she
figured that this would get Nicole’s attention.

“I’m awake,” Nicole said, tossing the covers
off her legs. She sprang into action quickly, almost comically.

Eva shook her head as she watched Nicole
disappear into the bathroom to get ready. Using the privacy, she
rummaged through her suitcase until she found her red bikini. It
was one of her favorites. The hips were connected by gold chains
that drew attention to her natural curves. The top covered her
breasts modestly, though the two halves were also connected by
golden links, showing off just the right amount of cleavage.

She removed her jeans and t-shirt quickly
and stepped into her swimwear. There was a mirror against the wall
on the other side of the room and she used it to evaluate herself.
She ran her fingers down her smooth and shapely legs and was
satisfied there was no hair stubble. She lifted her hands to brush
her sandy blonde hair back from her face; it was a bit messy, but
she was too lazy to find a brush. She was sure that swimming would
undo any style she gave it, so she simply let it hang lose around
her face.

The door behind her to the bathroom opened
and Nicole stepped out wearing a blue bikini that left little to
the imagination. Her large bust was hardly covered by the small
triangles on strings, and the bottoms were a thong that rode up and
exposed all the flesh of her ass to the world. It was sexy, but
never something Eva saw herself wearing.