Roatan Plunge | Love Travels #2

Nine - Lorena

I cannot believe I agreed to Óscar's deal. I've been laying here for hours going over how I could have gotten out of it and I still can't come up with anything.

Which is extremely irritating. He is extremely irritating.

The irritation could be related to the fact that I'm still thinking about how good he smelled. Or the fact that I have no phone and no way to get one. It's definitely the phone part that's stressing me out more.

Definitely.

Okay, fine. But either way I don't think I slept more than four hours last night, and I'm still in my tank top and pyjama pants staring at my ceiling through a curtain of knotted hair when a knock sounds through my room.

"It's not even eight in the morning," I groan, rolling off the bed and hitting the floor with a slight thud I'm sure my uninvited guest could hear. As she should for such a rudely early awakening. I'm not about to tell her I was awake when she arrived.

Finally I make it to the door and throw it open. "I know it's your wedding weekend, but a girl doesn't wake up looking beautiful, B—"

"I don't know. Look pretty beautiful to me," Óscar says, holding out a travel cup that wafts the temptation of coffee up to my nose. It smells so good, but I can't give him the satisfaction of knowing that.

"It's hot," I say, plopping the coffee down on the nearest flat surface. "What do you want?"

His eyes snap up to meet my eyes and his adam's apple bobs with a heavy swallow of his own coffee. I know it must burn his tongue, but he doesn't even flinch.

"I'm here to get started on our day. I have a disadvantage having no time to prepare, but I think I can make it work."

"And what 'it' are we making work here? I do not want you here. I never asked you to be here and I—"

"Don't want to go whining to Bianca and ruin her wedding day so we agreed to a truce. Whoever wins today takes the pot."

"Fine," I concede. "I agreed to your terms and I stand by that as long as you promise we never let Bianca or Enrique know of this little arrangement."

"Agreed."

That was way too easy. "I wasn't finished. You also have to take the morning shift. I like my afternoon plan better."

"This morning? In two hours?" Watching his eyes pop out of his head and his calm, cool demeanour shift into something clammy and nervous might be the highlight of my day.

"Is that going to be a problem? I could always take over for you and plan the whole day."

"Oh, no. That's not how we're going to play this. I could take the afternoon if I wanted." He steps in closer, towering over me and so very close to touching every part of me, stopping just short. I can't breathe.

His breath heats my forehead as I stare directly at his chest. Everything is jittery and my lack of sleep must have turned my legs into jelly because I cannot keep a hold of my breathing.

Finally, he speaks. "Just to show you how amazing I am, I will take the morning. I guarantee I'll still win."

"You're really not one to back away from a challenge, are you?" I will not look up at his slightly stubbled jaw. Nope. I do not like this man. He is rich and rude and entitled and...

"How do you think I got where I am, Lorena? Not wanting to win?"

I should have seen this one coming, but I didn't. Awake Lorena would have had an amazing comeback, but sleep-deprived Lorena just said, "Fine. You take the morning and I'll take the afternoon. At the end of the day everyone in the wedding party gets a vote. Winner gets to plan tomorrow's events. Even though I have no idea why you want to."