I spend the next half-hour making a short “Island Makeup” tutorial. Then I spend another hour editing it down to a reasonable seven-minute video. I’ve learned that’s about the amount of time an average person is willing to spend on things like makeup prep. I’m in the middle of reviewing the video post-upload when a shadow passes behind me. I startle as warm fingertips caress my shoulder and yank the earbud free.
I press my hand to my heart and exhale a relieved breath when I realize it’s just Lex. “You scared the crap out of me!” My entire body warms at the sight of him. I don’t ever remember having this kind of reaction to Armstrong. Sure, he was Prince Charming handsome, but Lex is just . . . dark and sexy. Charisma wrapped in a perfect package.
He isn’t wearing a suit like he was this morning. Instead, he’s paired khakis and a white golf shirt with casual shoes, showing off the vibrant sleeve tattoo that’s usually hidden under button-downs and suit jackets. His hair is perfect, combed neatly to the side, the dark strands yielding to his whim. I’d like to yield in the same way, which is very unlike me.
His smile holds as much humor as his eyes hold heat. “I knocked first, but you clearly didn’t hear me. What’re you doing?”
I turn back to my iPad, the video still running. Embarrassed, I rush to turn it off, but Lex snatches it before I can.
“It’s nothing. I was just messing around.” I make a grab for it, but he holds it out of reach.
“It doesn’t look like nothing. What is this?” He unplugs the earphones and my voice becomes audible.
He holds it over his head, still trying to watch it. I grab onto his shoulder and attempt to propel myself high enough to take it back. “Give it!”
“I’m trying to listen. Is this a tutorial?”
“It’s not important.” I jump again.
Lex glances down at me. “You wanna take your bikini top off and do that again?”
I pinch his nipple through his shirt. In one swift move he spins me around, pulling me into him with my back to his chest, arms pinned to my sides. His lips are at my ear. “Settle down, Anarchy Amie, why don’t you want me to see this?” He lowers the iPad so I can see myself on the small screen.
“I don’t know. It’s stupid. It’s just a hobby.” I cringe and avert my gaze, not wanting to see my own face reflected back at me with someone else watching, too. It makes me feel oddly exposed.
“Why is it stupid?” The video ends and my most recent tutorials appear on the screen. “How many of these are there? Holy shit, this one has a million views.”
“Some of them are a few years old.”
He releases me and takes a step back, his expression curious. “Why are you embarrassed about this?”
I can feel how hot my face is. “I don’t know. I don’t want to seem vain.” In social circles like ours, people love to be critical, and some of the negative comments are rather scathing in the feed below the videos.
“How would this make you seem vain?” He scrolls through the videos, clicking on one I made when my mom was sick while I was in college. It had taken a bit of convincing for her to let me make that video, but it was one of several in that series that garnered a lot of views. Lex’s eyes go wide as he watches. “This is your mom?”
I nod.
His voice is soft when he asks, “What kind of cancer?”
I swallow thickly, thinking about how scared I was when she finally told me. It had been at the end of my third year of college. I hadn’t been home in months and she’d encouraged me to stay in New York during the fall semester, citing trips and spa vacations. But when I finally came home for a visit at Christmas I realized she’d been keeping me away on purpose. She was in the middle of a course of radiation treatment. “Breast. We were really lucky to have caught it early. Stage two.”
“That’s good.” His words are genuine, as is the understanding look in his eyes.
“It was. They were able to perform a lumpectomy and remove it. She’s been cancer free since. She had all these holiday events while she was undergoing treatment. She didn’t want everyone to know, so I did her makeup. No one would’ve guessed there was anything wrong, which is what she wanted. She just didn’t want the focus to be on her illness, you know?”
Lex nods somberly, continuing to scroll through the series of videos. “I do. My mom would’ve loved these when she went through treatment.”
“I didn’t know Mimi had cancer.” Ruby had never mentioned it.
“It wasn’t something she broadcasted. You know how it is. She just sort of disappeared for a while. People suspected, but we kept it pretty quiet. It’s the reason behind the Halloween fundraiser.”
“She’s okay now though?”
Lex smiles. “She is. She’s a real fighter. She wasn’t as lucky as your mom, she had to have a mastectomy, but she had reconstructive surgery at the same time. Anyway, this is really incredible.”
I blush and look away, unable to manage the compliment. “They’re not all like that. Some of them are just Halloween makeup and how to be a sexy zombie, but that series was special. It was hard for my mom to be around people when all they wanted to do was be sympathetic. This made her feel normal.”
“What’s this one?” He taps the screen.
“We went to the cancer ward over the Christmas holidays and I did makeup for the terminal teens. We had to get waivers signed by the parents to make the video, but we raised something like seventy thousand dollars, so as hard as it was to see, it was totally worth it.” I wave my hand around in the air because talking about it makes me teary.
Lex sets the iPad on the lounge chair and takes my face between his palms. His expression steals my breath, something like reverence passes behind his eyes as he searches my face. “You’re an incredible woman, I hope you realize that.” I attempt to shake my head, but Lex keeps me still between his palms, thumbs stroking my cheeks. “Don’t argue with me, just say I know.”
I smile and whisper the words.
“Good girl.”
I shiver when he brushes his lips over mine, the sadness washing away, everything ceasing to exist except for him. All it takes from this man is a touch to melt me from the inside.
“So incredible.” I tip my head back when he tugs the end of my hair so he can nip along my jaw. “You taste like coffee and oranges,” he murmurs.
“That’s because someone sent me to be pampered today.” I’m glad for the change of topic, I don’t want to think about sad things right now. I just want to enjoy this time with Lex while I have it.
He skims along my collarbone, and follows the contour of my breast. My nipples harden with the simple touch, then tighten further when he grazes one with his thumb. He moves in closer, until his chest comes flush with mine, and his roaming hands finds the center of my back, thumbs smoothing down my spine until he reached the waist of my bikini bottoms.
“You enjoyed yourself, then?”
“Immensely.” I run my palms over his chest, his gentleness sparking need. I don’t know if we have enough time before dinner to enjoy each other, and waiting until after dessert seems like unnecessary torture.
“Good. I’m glad.” He’s still looking at me intently, eyes traveling over my face. I wish he was kissing me again, with tongue this time. “What was your favorite part?”
“The flowers, the dress, and you here, right now.”