Kiss and Burn (8 page)

Shortly after
Addison and Carmen’s high school graduation, their mothers’ establishment went
in the black and to celebrate, they’d decided to do something worthwhile and
took the trip. It was, and would always be, one of the most humbling
experiences of Carmen’s life. To see her
Mamá
evolve from a
struggling teen to a college graduate to a business owner had been incredible
to say the least.

The
second time Carmen and Addison returned to Mexico was after
their
college graduation and the third
was once Addison was hired in pediatrics and Carmen’s restaurant was featured
in a half an hour segment on a Latin food network. Neither could’ve predicted
that their next trip would be for marriage.

Carmen
was beyond excited for her friend. Growing up without a bevy of male influences
in their lives had left them on unsteady ground when it came to knowing what to
expect from men. Dating had been a bit of a struggle when they’d first started,
unsure and a little naive. There were only so many lessons their mothers could
teach and only so many Google searches they could do on the opposite sex.
Eventually, both had to throw themselves from the nest and take a nosedive into
a place that was insanely frightening and unpredictable. Each landed hard and
found themselves falling over and over again but, they never lingered, always
pulling the other back up. The day Addison told Carmen about Maikao was the day
Carmen knew her friend had fallen and wouldn’t be getting back up again
ever.

She’d
watched the two, noticing the subtle changes in body language whenever they
found themselves in one another’s presence. She’d caught the way one would look
at the other when they thought no one was paying attention and she
knew.
Why it had taken so long for the
pair to admit what they felt, Carmen didn’t know but she was grateful for it.
Their happiness gave her the tiniest bit of hope that at some point, she’d find
what they had for herself.

“Your
luggage,
Amante
Sanchez,” Eli said,
coming up beside her with her suitcase.

She
shot him a look. “You’ve got a Spanish dictionary in your pocket don’t you?”

He
waggled his brows. “Would you like to stick your hand in and see?”

Her
lips twitched. “
Me gustaría, pero me temo
que me hubiera decepcionado con mi descubrimiento. Luego, su nombre sería Sir
Lápiz para el resto del viaje.”

Addison
burst into laughter.

“I’ve
told you, woman!
English! Use English!”

Ignoring
his bellowing, Carmen pulled her suitcase along, following the airport’s signs
towards the cab and shuttle area. If nothing else, the next few days would be
entertaining.

Eli
felt incredibly anxious and he had one individual in particular to blame for
said anxiety. For days on end he’d found himself drifting in and out of his
last encounter with Carmen, considering all of the different ways it could’ve
gone. His original intent was to leave her with the same lead weight of hunger
he’d had sinking in his gut since their first meeting and instead, he found
himself left with stained jeans and a dark,
dark
mood.

He’d
had forced himself to stay away from her. There had been no calls, no going by
the restaurant and he’d avoided all conversation concerning her with Maikao.
He’d spent several days feeling like a tire that had been pumped with entirely
too much air. He was a man on the edge and it was all of
her
fault! What the fuck had he been thinking touching her and then
strolling off as though he could go back to daily life without a second glance?
Clearly, he’d lost his shit.

Ten
minutes between her thighs and she had him sniffing after her like a fucking
teenager who’d had his first wet dream about a crush. How was that okay?! It
wasn’t and it never would be again! Why? Because he was headed down a slippery
slope. For the first time in years Eli actually wanted to get to know the mind
attached
to the vagina. It was strange
and frightening and made his palms sweaty.

“I
am fucking
losing
it,” he murmured,
following the movement of Carmen’s hips as they reached the hotel concierge
desk. The thirty minute ride from the airport had left him jittery. He kept
looking at her, wondering what she was thinking, wondering if she’d thought
about him as much as he’d thought about her this week; wondering if she’d truly
give into spending the rest of the trip with him. She was so goddamned hard to
read that he found himself waiting for a sign—
any
sign—that she was just as ready to explode from the tension as
him. Eli was fucked and not in the way he so desperately wanted to be.

This,
this
thing,
was different. There
would be no cat and mouse games, no coy touches, no sly flirting or gentle
brushes when the mood suited them. No, this was raw and unfiltered, heavily
peppered with honesty and topped with enough fire to incinerate the skeleton of
an elephant. One thing, if nothing else, was very obvious to Eli, Carmen
wouldn’t be easy. Not in words and not in bed. Whatever she was looking for,
she didn’t see it in him and that bothered him on some level. Inexplicably, it
made him want to try harder to
get
her
to see it. Eli didn’t know when they’d shifted from crooked grins and fast
sentences spilled in a heated moment but the change was unsettling.

Pursuing
Carmen wasn’t the difficult part. It was fun, intoxicating. What made him
pause, left him disquieted, was questioning what would happen when he actually
got
her. Because he wasn’t delusional
enough to think one quickie foreplay session on her office couch had been what
he needed to surpass all her pawns and take the queen. This was much more
complicated than that. This morning she had told him that he needed to show her
what he’d shown her days ago. The question was—what
was
that?

“Mr.
Aaronson?”

Eli
blinked, his focus returning to the hotel receptionist gazing at him. “I’m
sorry, what was that?”

She
gave him a patient smile. “I said there’s been a bit of a mix-up. It appears
that the room you booked was marked for a week from now rather than today.”

Addison
came to stand beside him. “Are you saying he doesn’t have a room?”

The
receptionist winced. “Unfortunately you’re arriving right around the time that
co-eds and spring break vacationers do and with the mistaken reservation…”

“I’m
fully ass out. Pale cheeks to the wind,” he completed for her.

Her
face and neck reddened. “Since it was an error on our part we’d be more than
glad to send you to a neighboring resort, all expenses paid.”

“Oh
no, no, no,” Addison chimed in. “I’m getting married on next Friday and he has
to be staying
here.”

Maikao
put a hand on her shoulder. “Sweetheart—”

She
turned, her brows arching in clear warning and her fiancé—a man twice her
size—ducked behind Carmen, pushing her in front of him. “Rational!” he yelled.
“Let’s be rational!” Peeking around the woman in front of him, he looked at the
receptionist. “How far is the neighboring hotel?”

She
glanced down at the computer screen before her. “For one that’s up to the same
standards that we have here, it would be about two hours away.”

Eli
hiked his pack up. “I’ll just have to get here a bit earlier for the
rehearsal—”

“He
can share a room with me.”

He
didn’t move, not even an inch. His question was slow and quiet, “What was
that?”

Carmen
sighed, stepped up beside him and told the receptionist, “He can share a room
with
me
.”

Looking
over his shoulder, he found Maikao and Addison wearing the very expression he
was sure he had at the moment—complete and utter astonishment.

“Let’s
not make a huge deal out of this,” she continued. “Because huge deals make me
twitchy and when I get twitchy people end up sobbing… sooo...” She cast her
gaze back to the young woman across the counter. “I’m going to need another
key.”

Well…
shit.

Apologizing
again for the mix-up, the concierge handed off the keys, Carmen held one out to
Eli, swiftly turned on her heel and walked towards the bank of elevators not
too far away. Glancing at the soon to be wedded couple, he shrugged and started
to follow.

“Wait,”
Maikao said stepping away from Addison.

Eli
stopped and his friend came close enough to put both hands on either side of
Eli’s face, leaning forward until their foreheads touched in a position that
could’ve been misconstrued
greatly.

“If
I haven’t told you lately,” the other man whispered. “I love you.”

“This
is strange. I don’t like strange. Stop being strange.”

“My
friend, you are venturing into dangerous and unknown territories. Greater men
have been
leveled
by the threat you
are about to face. You need to understand the gravity of what you’re up
against. Carmen Sanchez
.”
Maikao
squeezed either side of Eli’s face. “
Carmen.
Sanchez.”

“Addison?”
Eli called.

“Yeah?”

“Are
you sure this is the person you want to spend the rest of your existence with?”

“Meh,”
she shrugged. “I’m kind of stuck now. No choice really.”

“Right,”
Eli replied slowly, still locked between Maikao’s hands. “I understand there’s
a boat dock not too far from here if you want to rethink that.”

“I
would but he’s really great in bed,” Addison answered exhaling. “And I have
needs.”

“I
feel as though no one is taking me seriously,” Makiao announced. “I need to be
taken seriously!”

Eli
batted his hands away. “The only thing that is being taken seriously here is
your palpable insanity! You think I should be afraid to share a room with
Carmen? My friend, this is my moment, my calling,
my
time.” He pointed to the glass ceilings. “The planets are
aligning as we speak to possess this groin,” he gestured to his pelvis, “with
the power to drill through cement
.
If
anyone should be wary here, it should be
her.”
Reaching out, Eli patted Maikao’s face. “Fear not, for I am walking through
the gates of my destiny and I shall do so with a mighty sword as my weapon.”

Maikao
nodded. “I’m honored to know such a fierce soul.”

“As
you should be.”

“My
God,” Addison murmured a few feet away. “
This
is what I’m committing myself to? Maybe I
should
find the boat docks because clearly
…”

Glaring,
Maikao swung towards her. “Quiet, female! Your lord is speaking!”

“My
lord?
My lord?!”

Eli
quickly gathered his things and ducked away before the carnage could begin.

***

She’d
lost her goddamn mind. That was the
only
explanation
for inviting the devil incarnate to share her room. Wasn’t this entire thing
about keeping her head on straight, keeping things with Eli in perspective so
she wouldn’t lose sight of what this was? And yet she already had, hadn’t she?

Carmen
sucked in a deep breath and stepped onto the elevator as the doors parted,
trying to figure out exactly where all her reason and capability to use logic
had gone. Right as she leaned against the back wall, the doors began to close
again but wound up stopping as one large hand shot out, halting them.

They
reopened, revealing the person on the other side. Who could it have possibly
been aside from Eli? Jesus? Machiavelli? A cast member from Downtown Abbey? No.
Just him. In those shorts. With those curls.

He
stepped on and took up a position on the wall to the left of her. Carmen could
feel his eyes sweeping over every inch on her skin. She swallowed, focused on
the loose string hanging from her suitcase. “What?”

“Oh
are we pretending that your letting me stay in your room isn’t
completely
out of the ordinary?”

She
chewed her lip. “Honesty train coming.”

Eli
swept a hand out. “Ready.”

“I
had a conversation with you that lasted almost four hours today and somewhere
along the way it shifted from leering and sexual innuendos to interests that
don’t include the size of my nipples or my ass to waist ratio.” Carmen looked
up. “The minute you started talking about all the Mario memorabilia you’d
collected over the years because of one game you received on your seventh
birthday from your Papa, I saw the slightest glimpse of all that sweet boyish
innocence you try so hard to hide. And then, you said something that would’ve
seemed strange to anyone else but to me, it was probably the most adorable
thing that could’ve ever left your mouth.”

He
quirked a brow.

Carmen
smiled and repeated his words
. “I was
supposed to be Super Mario this year for Comic Con but Dwayne Johnson’s
illegitimate son needed my help.”

“Me
calling my friend a milk man’s baby is… adorable?” he questioned slowly.

She
shook her head. “No, it was the brief moment of disappointment on your face.
You really looked like you regretted not being able to go. And it made me
realize two things.” Holding up her fingers, she ticked them off, “One—you’re
not some thoughtless whore who lacks substance. Two—I
really
want to have sex with you now that I know under the scruffy
appearance and the obscenely large arms lies a dork; an honest to God, banana
sandwich eating, windowsill figurine owning, underoo wearing
dork.”

“Am
I being
insulted?”
he asked. “Because
I have to tell you, I kind of like it.”

Laughing,
she leaned backwards. “Sometimes I want to smack your face and sometimes I want
to lick it. You confuse me but not so much that I can’t enjoy however long we
decide to ride this out. I’m beginning to like you and it’s a strange and
foreign feeling… like the first time I got a Brazilian wax.”

Eli’s
eyes widened a bit, suddenly free of all levity. “How Brazilian are we
talking?”

Her
lips curved. “Brazilian enough that had I decided to sit on a bed of plantains,
when I left, they would’ve been sliced and fried.”

He
groped for the wall. “I think…I think I may be having palpitations.” Looking
upwards, while clutching his chest, he called out. “Elizabeth? I–is that you?”

“There
is something
wrong
with you.”

“Yeah,”
Eli breathed. “There is.” He eyed her for a moment.

“What?”

The
doors slid open as they reached their floor and he nodded towards the hallway.
“You first.”

Carmen
shot him a wary glance but walked ahead of him nonetheless. They reached the
room within a minute and she slid the keycard through the door. The moment they
stepped onto the plush sand colored carpet they felt the sea’s breeze blowing
in from the open balcony doors. The suite itself was immaculately beautiful
with walls the shade of cerulean, windows that went from the floor to the
ceiling and of course the small terrace that gave way to the beautiful ocean
view below. The bed was piled with pillows and a complimentary activity sheet
along with a menu. The bathroom held a large sunken tub and grotto shower. The
television rested a few feet away from a small sitting area. It was all so
incredibly relaxing and after Carmen’s last few work weeks, it was exactly what
she needed.

“This
is—hey!” she yelped, suddenly finding herself flat on her back in the midst of
all those pillows. Adjusting to the new position, she glared over at the reason
she was currently like this. “If you’re going to manhandle me, I would at least
appreciate a few Neanderthal grunts beforehand so I know what’s coming.”