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He was surprised when the space he'd reserved for Sarah was eventually claimed by a young and exotic local whom Nick assumed was somehow affiliated with the resort. She slipped gracefully into the seat opposite Nick and flashed a wide smile.

"You should not be alone," she announced and then introduced herself.

Ana was disarmingly pretty. Even if he had been awaiting a companion, Nick would have been hard-pressed to ask Ana to leave.

She placed a hand on his. "My company is okay?"

Nick nodded.

Perhaps she'd recognized that Nick had been stood up. Perhaps she recognized an easy mark. Whatever. He was under no illusion that what Ana offered was a potential transaction, but the hand that had moved to his knee soon banished thoughts of moral relativism.

"Your English is very good," he said.

Ana smiled. "I spend a lot of time here. I've learned many languages."

"Do you work here?"

Ana smiled again. "I am one of the lucky ones to be able to come here," she said, not answering the question directly. "It helps my family in the village."

"I understand," said Nick, recognizing the opening. On past trips, he'd brought an extra bag or two of cast-offs for the locals, all of whom, it seemed, had less fortunate relations in some village or another. Usually he passed them on to the gardeners and such, staff members who were not normally on the receiving end of the generosity or guilt of the tourists. He didn't blame the staff for expecting such gifts. If the roles were reversed, he'd expect no less from the wealthy interlopers. Life wasn't easy on the island and resort workers were among the more fortunate, having access to visitors who were only too happy to get drunk and spread their wealth around.

"It just so happens that I've brought some stuff with me. Not to mention some things for women." Nick felt dirty just saying the words, implying that charity had a price.

Ana gazed at him hopefully.

"Perhaps if you want to have a look?"

"I would like that."

They walked to Nick's room. Nick couldn't help feeling that their passage was being observed and recognized for what it was -- a tourist taking advantage of his relative good fortune to claim the services of a less fortunate local. Ana held his hand and leaned into him. Her hand felt impossibly small in his and his misgivings grew.

Nick unlocked the door and invited Ana inside. Adam was at some bar with his newfound friends and Nick knew that he would have privacy for the next several hours.

"Look, Ana, I'll gladly give you this stuff. I don't need it. You don't owe me anything."

Ana gazed at him earnestly, the expression in her large, dark eyes soft and impossibly complex. "Thank you for that, Nick." She ran her hand down his arm to his hand, which she squeezed. "You like the comfort of..." she searched for the words "...of being with another?"

"Yes," said Nick, his mouth suddenly dry. "I like the comfort."

"I do too."

His guilt assuaged somewhat, he kissed her tentatively. Try as he might, he could not believe that this pretty young thing would voluntarily offer herself to him, particularly when she didn't need to. Such thing happened only in fiction and dreams. Perhaps she was proud. Perhaps this was the only quid pro quo she was capable of. Her hand descended to the buckle of his belt. Perhaps he could take her words at face value.

"Last chance," he said as he responded to her touch.

She shook her head and smiled.

* * *

Ana bent over the bag on the dresser. She removed one article after another, murmuring her approval.

Nick leaned on his arm in bed and watched her. Her slender waist sloped becomingly into full hips and then into long, graceful legs. She had, Nick saw, a great ass. Faint moonlight seeped through a gap in the drapes, highlighting the beguiling contours of her coffee skin. She moved to a rhythm only she could hear, shifting her weight from one leg to the other, her hips moving in a slow, hypnotic sway. These people certainly knew how to move.

"Take what you want, Ana. Take the whole bag."

Ana shook her head and returned to the bed. She played her slender fingers through the hair on his chest. "I'm not greedy. There are others... if you want them."

Nick shook his head. "Another like you would give me a heart attack."

Ana looked confused. "You didn't enjoy?"

"You were great. The best. No one else could compare."

Ana smiled. "I work tomorrow too. Then I'm off back home. You want me to come back tomorrow?"

"I'd like that, but I think it better if...." Nick struggled for the proper words.

"I understand." Her large dark eyes evaluated him, recognizing their differences and accepting them. She stroked him gently. He felt himself responding. "But I don't have to leave right now."

"No," said Nick. "You don't."

"I'm happy."

By morning, Ana was gone. He hoped that she had left before Adam had returned. Nick didn't feel up to the explanation that Adam would demand. True to her word, she'd taken only some of the things that Nick had offered.

After a quick shower, he crammed the stuff Ana had left behind into a plastic bag. On his way to breakfast, he handed the bag to a gardener. He glanced back to see the gardener looking curiously at a camisole that Ana hadn't claimed. Nick smiled.

* * *

"Good morning, Nick." Sarah had stepped in behind him at the breakfast buffet.

"Morning." Even to his own ears, his voice had a guilty undertone, as though he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"I'm sorry we missed each other last night."

"Me too."

"Really?" Her eyebrows rose in evident disbelief.

She knew, thought Nick. She knew about Ana. He gave himself a mental kick. He had nothing to feel guilty about. "Yeah. Really."

"I wish you'd waited for me."

"I wish you'd been on time." Nick hadn't pegged Sarah as particularly needy or demanding but was forced to admit that perhaps he'd been wrong. It wouldn't have been the first time. "I waited long enough."

"I was delayed."

Nick shrugged. "I made other arrangements."

"Arrangements. That's cute. I hope she was worth it," said Sarah as she turned and left the buffet.

* * *

Sarah watched Nick join his brother on the other side of the pool. She'd allowed herself to harbor some hopes for him. He had revealed himself to be a perfect gentleman over drinks the other night. Kind, considerate, funny. There had been an attraction and it had been mutual. For the usual reasons, she'd resisted the impulse to throw herself at him. It wasn't really in her nature to be wanton or easy and she felt that Nick would have thought less of her had she done so.

When she saw him with that other woman, she realized how right she'd been to hold off. Too bad, she said to herself, it would have been nice.

"What?" asked Amanda.

Sarah started. "Was that out loud?"

Amanda nodded."What would have been nice? What's up?"

Sarah debated whether she should tell the story.

"Come on, out with it," Amanda prodded.

"You'll think I'm stupid," she said, and then launched into meeting Nick, her nascent feelings about him, the failed date and the reasons for it, and finally seeing him with another woman. "It's just so typical," she concluded.

"You're right. I think you're stupid."

"What?"

"What makes you think that a man -- that anyone for that matter -- wouldn't take pleasure when it's offered? Particularly when he's just been stood up."

Sarah maintained her silence.

"Is he a monk? Vows of chastity and all that?"

"No."

"Did you give him anything to go on?"

"I kissed him."

"On the cheek? Jesus, Sarah, sisters kiss their brothers on the cheek. It doesn't mean anything." Amanda threw he hands up in frustration. "If I didn't know differently, I'd swear that you were an adolescent."

Amanda's words stung, all the more so because they were right.

"I guess I blew it."

* * *

Sarah found Nick on the beach, watching Adam play frisbee with a pair of bikini-clad girls. "Have a second?"

"Sure."

"I apologize for being late and for being so difficult this morning."

"Really," said Nick. "It's okay."

"Let me finish. I really did want to have dinner with you. I was trying to get into my room to change but I'd given my key to Amanda. I couldn't very well go to dinner in a bikini."

"I wouldn't have minded..."

Sarah ignored the statement and continued. "So I waited outside of the room and then bloody Julio showed up, thinking that I'd been locked out or something. So he called security. They eventually arrived and opened the door only to see Amanda and some Teutonic wunderkind traipsing out of the shower all wet and starkers, which is why they hadn't heard me knocking. Of course Julio wanted to join them right then and there until the German made it abundantly clear that any ménage that he wanted to be involved with didn't include another guy. So then there's apologies all around." Sarah took a deep breath. "By the time I got everyone out of there and changed, you found what's-her-name. And that's the story."

"Wow."

"So you see that I didn't stand you up on purpose."

"Alright. So where does that leave us?"

The question appeared to surprise her. "Us?"

"You wouldn't have come here unless...."

"Unless?"

Enough of this, thought Nick. He stepped close to her and ran his hand up the skin of her back to the nape of her neck. She didn't flinch. She didn't resist. If anything, her look was expectant. So far, so good. He pulled her to him and crushed his lips against hers. He felt a moment of surprise, after which she responded by insinuating her tongue between his lips. Her hands slid under the waistband of his shorts and pulled. Did she just grind into him?

They broke their embrace and Sarah took a step back. "I think I understand now. Thanks," she said a little breathlessly. "Will you take me out to dinner now?"

"It's not exactly what I had in mind," said Nick, painfully aware of his shorts had become somewhat fuller in front.

Sarah noticed it too and blushed. "Me neither." She closed the space between them and placed a hand on the front of his shorts and squeezed. "But I think it would be better that way."

Nick grinned ruefully. "If you say so."

"Pick me up in half an hour."

* * *

Sarah returned to her room and dropped her clothing on the way to the shower. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest and her mind whirled.

Every time she had succumbed to Amanda's screw-first-and-ask-questions-later mantra, it had ended in disaster. For Sarah, relationships either followed a set of preordained steps or they didn't happen at all. Libertines like Amanda might have more fun, but Sarah preferred the predictability and pace of a traditional courtship. Usually. Yet here she was perfectly willing to cross that line with Nick. She found that she didn't much care.

Perhaps it was because she didn't have the luxury of time. Three days at the resort had already passed, leaving only four. At her usual pace, they might get to holding hands by the time the week was up. In the back of her mind she must have realized that something had to give. And it had. Nick's kiss had been the first move in a game she hadn't consciously wanted to play. Her own counter-move had come without much thought and she winced as she recalled the feel of his erection beneath her fingertips. It seemed as though she'd been channeling Amanda.

As she dug through her bags for the appropriately seductive getup, she vowed to throw caution to the wind and let things go where they might.

Nick knocked gently on the door, right on time. When she answered it, he stood there, dumbstruck. A tingle of excitement coursed through her; it was exactly the response she'd hoped for. She'd opted for a semi-sheer, strapless voile dress that hugged her curves like a second skin. She'd tied the straps at the bust loosely, leaving a bit more of an opening that she would normally have been comfortable with.

She shut the door and grabbed his hand. "Shall we?"

He still hadn't found his tongue.

Once seated, she couldn't help but to notice how his gaze lingered on her. It felt as intimate as a caress and she warmed under it.

They'd already finished most of a bottle of wine by the time they were ready to order.

Emboldened by the wine, Sarah nudged Nick's foot with hers. He moved it slightly, still studying the menu.

"The tortellini looks good," he said.

"Uh huh." Sarah moved her foot again, this time to the outside of Nick's leg and rubbed it up the side.

Nick looked up, now convinced that the first contact had been no accident.

"They say that the shape of tortellini was inspired by Lucrezia's navel," said Sarah.

"Huh. The things you actuaries know."

Sarah kicked off her sandal and stroked the inside of his leg this time. He didn't move.

"The only navel I've studied recently is yours. Lucrezia has nothing on you."

Sarah smiled.

The dinner passed quickly and Sarah was somewhat surprised that they were among the few diners left. When had that happened? she wondered. Despite her efforts to tease Nick with footsies under the table, he was more than able to maintain an easy conversation with her. She took it as a personal challenge to throw him off of his game.

He reached for his wine glass and Sarah moved it closer to the middle of the table.

He looked at her questioningly.

Sarah smiled mischievously. "I think you may have to move closer."

Nick hesitated. "Okay." He slid his chair forward a few inches. It was enough; Sarah's foot now rested upon Nick's chair, nestled between his legs. He reached for the wine glass with studied calm while Sarah's toes wiggled against his groin. "They're going to think you're an amputee."

"The table cloth is long enough."

He raised the glass to his lips while she traced the length of his growing erection with her toes.

"Good wine," he said tightly.

"Feels good on the tongue."

Nick nearly choked. "Please stop."

"Why?" asked Sarah with wide-eyed innocence.

"Because I'll need to stand up at some point and you're making it...."

"Hard?" Sarah pouted.

Nick nodded.

She toed him one last time, feeling empowered by his arousal. "A hard man is good to find."

Nick laughed. "Just give me a minute, okay?"

"Sure." She slid her foot back into the sandal. "So what do you have planned for us tonight?"

"Getting even with you comes to mind."

"What did I do?"

"Besides making me unable to stand when I really need to go to the washroom, you've afflicted me with unwholesome thoughts."

"I've done all that? Gee. You will share, won't you?"

"Count on it."

* * *

When Nick could stand without causing himself embarrassment, be excused himself and went to the washroom. It had been hard to think straight. The fact that Sarah was perhaps the most bewitching woman he'd ever met and the fact that she was somehow unaccountably attracted to him left him bewildered and distracted. It had been a challenge to string more than a couple of words together when all he wanted was to look at her. And then the stuff she'd been doing under the table. As hard as it was to stay above it and in control, he could feel the dogs of lust nipping at his heels.

He took a deep breath and returned to the table.

They left the restaurant hand in hand and turned down a path that lead to the buildings that housed their respective rooms.

After the time he had spent with her at dinner, even this short walk felt far too long for Nick. When he noticed a garden arbor in the shadows, he went to it and pulled Sarah after him.

In the darkness he could see little more than the whites of her eyes.

The self-assured coquettishness was gone now, replaced by nervous anticipation. She licked her lips. Nick was glad for the darkness. It hid the fact that there was no love in his eyes, only lust. The love might come later, but at present he was in a thrall that was more primal than romantic.

He ran a finger under her jawline and tilted her head to his. They came together in an instant, and though he felt that nothing could surpass the hunger he felt for her, she matched it.

His hand descended and kneaded her breast more roughly than he'd intended and she responded by gasping, digging her fingernails into the nape of his neck and pulling him to her.

He slid his hand down her torso and drew her leg up his side. He stroked its silken smoothness before cradling it there and reaching under her dress. Her breath caught in her throat but she didn't stop him. He cupped her ass and then moved his hand slightly, sliding his fingers beneath the thin fabric of her thong.

His fingers brushed against her damp warmth and felt a small patch of downy hair.

She whimpered and he kissed her, smothering the sound. He hungered, and her response to served only to further inflame him. She pressed herself onto his questing fingers and swayed her hips. Her breath came in agitated gasps.

He allowed her leg to drop. He lifted her skirt and slid his hand down, up and over her pubic mound until he cupped her pussy. She removed one of her hands from around his neck and held his in place while he insinuated first one finger and then another into her.

She squirmed.

"Right there," she panted.

She trembled against him and breathed a low, quavering moan against his neck.

He could feel her closing around his fingers in a shuddering embrace, angling her hips to give him better access.

"Oh," she moaned.

Nick wanted nothing more than to take her then and there.

At length the trembling stopped and she let out a long sigh. She grasped his glistening hand and brought it to her lips and kissed his fingers before slipping one into her mouth, watching him as she did so.

It was the most erotic thing Nick had ever witnessed.

"I guess I needed that."

"I want you," he whispered.

"Not here," she gasped, straightening her skirt.

* * *

"My place or yours?"

So distracted had Nick become that he'd given little thought to the logistics. "If Adam's not there now, he will be soon. How about yours?"

"Same." Sarah laughed. "All heated up and nowhere to go."

"We're two intelligent adults. We can come up with something."

"I don't suppose you have a station wagon handy, do you?"

"Station wagon? Really?"

Sarah shrugged. "Horniness is the mother of invention."

"We don't have bleachers either?"

Sarah cocked an eyebrow. "You'll have to tell me about that some time."

"Where would two mature and sophisticated temporarily roomless adults go to boink?"

"Did you say boink?"

"I guess I did."

"Aren't you the romantic. Come on, let's find a boink nest."

They wandered to the beach. Under a moonlit sky that was splashed with countless stars, the gentle surf whispered against the shore. They approached a fabric enshrouded hut, used during the day by masseuses and now blessedly vacant.

They looked at each other. It would do.

As they approached, a low whistle sounded from the path. Nick could just make out the form of a security guard approaching them.

"Wait here," said Nick.

The guard, evidently aware of what Nick and Sarah had planned, shook his head.

Nick reached into his pocket and removed a handful of bills. He offered them to the guard and placed a finger to his lips. The guard flashed a smile and winked. Taking the money, he tapped a finger to the side of his nose. He turned and sauntered down the path, whistling softly.

Nick hurried back to Sarah.

"Well?"

Nick parted the thin fabric that enclosed the hut. "It isn't much."

"But it'll do."

A padded table occupied the center of the space. The walls billowed gently in the ocean breezes and the moonlight illuminated the ceiling, providing just enough light for Nick to recognize just how attractive and painfully desirable Sarah was.