Then I got up, got ready to hit the pool, wrote him a note and then for some other bizarre reason, I folded and tucked his one word note into a pocket in my wallet.

Then I went to the pool and ordered a latte from a passing waiter hoping Ty would show eventually so we could have breakfast together. And I didn't allow myself to think about this hope or the fact that my eyes moved to the doors to the pool on far more than a rare occasion hoping I'd spy him striding out of them. In fact, not lying in bed with him after he won half a million dollars and told me I was a goof and beautiful, I was able to disallow myself from doing a lot of things.

Though one of those things wasn't stopping my eyes from wandering hopefully to the door time and again.

Shit.

It hit me I was hot, as in very hot and that was something I didn't expect I'd be after I woke up with a frozen nose in the deep freeze that was our room. It also hit me that the morning was wearing on, Ty was not showing and I was hungry.

It was time to find my husband.

But I'd do that after a cool down.

I set my eReader aside, took off my shades and tossed them aside too, got up and moved to the edge of the pool. I waited for my opening in the busy pool, bent my legs and dove in.

The cool waters hit me like a slap and felt great. I loved the water, loved swimming. Ronnie had promised me a beach house but obviously never delivered on that promise. In fact, until I took a significant detour the day before showing up to pick up Ty, I'd never been to a beach. But I built the time in to hit La Jolla. I didn't have a lot of time but I built it in, parked the car and took an hour long walk on the beach before climbing into my car, driving to the town outside the prison and checking into a motel to spend the night before I had to pick up Ty. And even though that beach was packed, it was the most peaceful hour I'd had in my entire life. It wasn't bliss, it wasn't even happiness. It was quiet contentment, warm sun, soft sand, the sound of the waves and the beauty of a horizon filled with blue.

Now that I had my life back, I was going to carve in a vacation at the beach. Maybe, after Ty's business was done and I was free, I'd go to the beach.

Maybe I'd try to talk him into going with me.

Shit.

Pushing this thought aside, my stomach told me it needed food and I struck out to the ladder at the side of the pool. I pulled myself out and the sun glinted, sending a bright flicker that caught my attention and I looked to my left hand and saw my wedding rings.

Then I felt my mouth curve into a smile.

When I realized my mouth had curved into a smile at the mere sight of my wedding rings, it turned down into a frown.

Shit.

I pushed that thought aside too when my feet hit deck, my eyes went to my lounge chair and it took a lot for me to keep moving to it when I saw the man stretched out in the one next to mine.

Navarro. Navarro wearing nice slacks, one of those shiny, expensive polo necked shirts and shades that cost more than Ty's. Shades, incidentally, that were pointed at me and they were pointed at me in a way that I knew they'd been set in my direction for awhile.

I was dripping wet and not feeling good about him being there as I moved to the opposite side of my lounge from him, quickly grabbed my towel and held it full-length to the front of me, eyes on him, hands in the towel pressing it against the lower half of my face.

His shades were still on me.

I dropped my hands to my neck and pressed my bent arms against the towel into my body.

"Hey," I said.

He unfolded from the chair and stood opposite me.

"Hello, Lexie."

I pressed my lips together then asked, "Something I can do for you?"

"Actually, yes."

I waited even though I didn't want to. I also wondered where the fuck my husband was. How long was he going to work out? He had a great body but hell, I'd been out here at least an hour and he was gone before I woke up.

"And that would be?" I prompted when he said nothing more.

"Would you mind, perhaps, coming with me so we can find someplace to talk in private or, maybe, meeting me somewhere later?"

I felt my back go straight because I didn't expect this and also because I didn't like it.

"Yes, I would mind," I answered then I asked, "Does this have to do with Ty?"

He shook his head. "No."

"Then why are you here?"

"I have an offer to make to you."

I didn't like this either and felt my eyes narrow. "And this doesn't have to do with Ty?"

"No. It has to do with you."

Me? How could it have to do with me?

"Um... dude, I don't know you," I pointed out.

"I'd like to change that."

Oh. That was how it had to do with me.

Shit!

"Uh... not sure you know this but I'm married and the guy I'm married to is Ty."

"I do know this."

What the fuck?

I didn't ask that. Instead, I nodded my head. "So, you know that, now I'll tell you that Ty and I are here for fun and we're going home tomorrow. This isn't our circle so our paths aren't going to cross."

"This..." he paused, "circle isn't often mine either," he replied. "My circles are varied and I'd like to speak to you about the possibility of introducing them to you."

Shit, shit, fucking shit.

"I think I already answered that," I reminded him.

"Lexie, I'm asking you for the opportunity to speak with you privately so I can fully explain what I'm offering."

I stared at him.

Then I said, "No."

"I'm not sure you "

I shook my head and stated, "I said no. I'm married to a good man who makes me happy and I see you're handsome and dress nice but when a woman marries a good man who makes her happy, she doesn't fuck with that no matter what she might be offered."

He studied me through his shades and he did this for awhile, so long, it made me uncomfortable and it made me wanted to grab my shit and go, leaving him there but, more importantly, finding Ty.

Before I could do this, he informed me, "I suspected this would be your answer."

I blinked at him then asked, "If you did, why'd you ask?"

"Because when a man sees another man who has a good woman who will stick with him no matter what she's offered, he wants that for himself. There are not many women who look like you who would make that choice." He grinned. "So it was worth a try. Everything worth something is worth a try."

"Well, you tried and I've decided I'll take your effort as a compliment rather than finding it annoying but now I need to find my husband because I'm hungry and I want breakfast."

He nodded. Then he lifted a hand in a vague gesture of a farewell wave.

Then he said, "I appreciate your time."

"Whatever," I mumbled and he again grinned.

Then he turned and sauntered away.

I watched him go thinking he gave the impression my response was all the same to him and then I clocked Bag of Bones watching Navarro move toward the doors to the hotel.

Shit again!

I toweled off, squeezed the water out of my hair, pulled my shirt and shorts over my wet suit, gathered my stuff and hightailed my ass to our room thinking the whole way there that I'd been right to give up on men while the giving up was good. Imagine walking up to a woman you didn't know but did know was married and propositioning her.

Insane.

I slid in the keycard at our door, waited for the green light, slid it out and walked in. The minute I did I heard the shower going as well as the television blaring. Automatically, my eyes moved to the bathroom door and then I stopped dead.

The bathroom door was open, I had a view to the mirror and reflected in the mirror was Ty in the shower.

That was enough. All the beauty that was Ty, naked in the shower was enough to make me stand there statue-still and stare in lost but avid fascination but that wasn't all there was.

Because Ty wasn't just taking a shower.

He had one powerful arm lifted, hand pressed to the tiled wall, his neck was bent, the water beating against his head, neck and back, his skin was glistening, his eyes were closed, his other fist was wrapped around his cock and stroking.

And I had it then... indisputable proof that every inch of him was beautiful.

Every inch.

And there were a lot of them.

A lot.

I knew I should back out, go get myself a latte, leave him to his business and come back but I couldn't move. I couldn't move because what met my eyes was beautiful and it was so unbelievably sexy, I was instantly turned on more than I'd ever been in my life.

In... my... life.

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. I could only see and feel what was happening to my body watching him doing what he was doing. Then I had to fight the overwhelming desire to drop my stuff, pull off my clothes, join him in the shower, wrap my arms around him and press my body to his back while he finished.

Or talk him into finishing a different way.

I got hold of myself, backed up and, as silent as I could, I opened the door and scuttled through.

Then, wet hair, tacky body, wet seeping through my clothes, armful of stuff, I found the nearest coffee cart, bought two lattes and juggled them and my things as I went back to the room.

Then I stood outside and pounded on the door with my foot, shouting, "Hands full, hubby! Help me out!"

I waited approximately three point five seconds before the door opened and Ty stood there in faded jeans and nothing else.

My mouth went dry.

It was then I realized I should probably have gone back and jumped in the pool and, maybe, stayed there for a decade.

Visions dancing in my head, by a sheer miracle I pulled it together enough to push through the door and walk by him all the while babbling.

"I got you a coffee. I need breakfast but before, I need to tell you what went down by the pool and then I need a shower so maybe we should do room service because my hunger is eating through my stomach lining and I could use taking off a couple of pounds but I don't want my system filled with stomach acid in order to do that."

I stopped, turned, dumped everything in my arms on the floor by holding my elbows out to the sides then I shoved a hand his way, offering him a takeaway latte.

His eyes were on the stuff now scattered on the floor then they moved to the latte.

"It isn't fancy," I declared and his eyes moved from the takeaway cup to mine. "Full fat. Considering the amount of muscle you lug around, your metabolism has to be akin to Superman's so you can hack full fat. And no syrup because I've noticed you have a sweet tooth but I haven't noticed if you lean toward anything specific, you seem to like it all and you're a huge badass, I didn't want to get it wrong and incur disfavor so the basic will just have to do."

When I finally quit babbling and he could get a word in edgewise, he asked, "Are you all right?"

No. No. It was safe to say I was not all right. I'd seen my husband masturbating in the shower, I'd never seen anything more beautiful in my life and I was standing in a hotel room probably looking like garbage when he was three feet away from me looking like the definition of male beauty and I had a near overpowering urge to jump him and fuck his brains out.

So no, I was not all right.

I didn't share any of this but I still answered, "No."

His hand came up and he took the latte from me ordering, "Talk to me."

"I was at the pool," I told him and then sucked back some of my own latte wondering if Ty would find it amiss if I hit the mini-bar and poured a few of mini-bottles of rum into my coffee. Say, seven of them.

"Yeah, I know. You left me a note," Ty prompted when I said no more.

"A pool, incidentally, that you didn't join me at."

"Lexie, told you, got no need to hang out in the sun."

"I know you told me that but there's a meal to be consumed, it's called breakfast and it's the most important meal of the day."