The other couples followed Armando back to the shoreline, the women more eager than the men, and Dan shook his head. What the females saw in cocky pricks like that, he would never understand.
He turned back to his wife and waggled his eyebrows. “Let’s order dinner in tonight. When we’re done, we can get straight to dessert.”
Maddie wrinkled up her nose. “I want to go dancing tonight.”
Was she really turning down more honeymoon sex? “Okay. How about a quickie before we eat?”
Another screwed up face. “How about a nap?”
For real? Maddie, his insatiable wife, was rejecting him in favor of a nap?
Fucking Armando.
“Sure. A nap sounds great.” Though his nerves twitched, thanks to the instructor’s undisguised challenge, he would not make a big deal out of this. He and Maddie had gotten off to a rough enough start this morning. Annoyed as he was, he didn’t dare risk ending their day the same way.
“Thanks, babe.” At least she tucked herself beneath his arm as they made their way to the rental shop to turn in their gear.
Halfway back to the resort, Maddie poked him in the ribs and pointed to a pretty blonde stretched out across a lounge chair. She was wearing what she probably considered a white bikini—in his eyes, it was clothesline rope. And everything was hanging in the wind.
“She’s gorgeous,” Maddie whispered. “Don’t you think?”
“Is that a trick question?”
“No.” She laughed softly. “I’m not stupid—I know you check out other women. Now that we’re married, we might as well be honest about it.”
“Is this your way of telling me you were into Armando?”
She lifted a newly sun-kissed shoulder and for a moment he was distracted by the rise and fall of her breasts, so perky and ripe in her black bikini top. “He was all right.”
“Just all right?” He slowed them to a stop and turned her to face him so he could read the truth in her eyes.
“Is that a trick question?” She kept her expression soft, clearly aware of what he expected to see. And determined not to give it to him.
“You know I’m a confident man.” He traced a finger along her collarbone, then over both swells of her cleavage. “If it gives you a little thrill to flirt with guys like that from time to time, I’m perfectly content to stand back and let you have your fun.”
Just like that, all the color and humor faded from her face. “Great. I’m glad we cleared that up.”
Wait...what? “Why do I feel we’re having two different conversations?”
She smoothed a hand over her damp hair and averted her eyes to some unknown point behind him. “Maybe we are.”
“Well, let’s get on the same page then, huh?” He ran the back of his knuckles along her high cheekbone, ignoring the tension that roiled in his gut. He’d already decided there’d be no more arguing today and that wasn’t going to change.
She made it easy for him when she didn’t reply at all, just gave her head a bewildered shake and took off down the beach, leaving him standing in the sand and wondering, not for the first time today, what in the hell was going on.
Maddie was already in the shower when Dan finally caught up and made it back to their suite. When he opened the bathroom door, she held her breath behind the curtain, hoping...
“Just checking to see you made it back okay.” He paused a moment, sighed, and closed the door, leaving her alone.
Alone in the shower on their freaking honeymoon.
Her forehead lolled against the travertine tile and she exhaled a shuddering breath. All he had to do was throw back the curtain and climb in, and she would’ve been putty in his hands. It wouldn’t have taken long for her to scream his name either, because her appetite for him never went away. She was always ready to love on her husband.
He just never took her. Not in the unapologetic way she craved he would.
She closed her eyes as the water beat down on her back and steam began to rise. Her fingers curled against the cool wall and she imagined Dan standing behind her, his hands sliding over her hips and her ribcage, up to her breasts, teasing and tweaking her nipples until she writhed against him.
Her own fingertips swept over the hardened tips, and her entire body trembled with newly awakened arousal. The firm pressure of one peak pinched between her thumb and middle finger had her squirming as zings of pleasure shot straight down to her dampened sex. She let go of the wall, so both hands could cover her breasts and she could drive herself to breathlessness.