Wash (8 page)

A surge of guilt rolled over him once
again, and he actually winced. “I know you’re having a hard time
forgiving me,” he said. “I don’t blame you. What I did was selfish
and—”

I met his gaze straight on and cut him
off. “Despicable. What you did was just despicable.” I crossed my
arms over my chest, the way I always had whenever I was upset with
him.

The waiter returned and poured a glass
of wine for each of us, then left the bottle.

I pasted on a fake smile. “Thanks.” I
gulped down the entire glass of wine in one gulp, then poured
another.

He reached for my hand. “Am I that
awful to be with?”

“
Please don’t touch me,
Jake.”

Emotion poured from his voice. “We
have a history together. We were lovers, but we were also best
friends, Ashly. Can’t we just be friends now?”

I poured more wine. “A friend would’ve
never stabbed me in the back the way you did.”

Ignoring my command not to touch me,
he stroked my hair from my face and gazed deeply into my eyes.
“What can I do to make it up to you?”

I stared at the breathtaking sunset as
it unfolded. “That’s just it. There’s nothing you can
do.”

The waiter set down a platter for Jake
and a salad for me.

“
Thank you,” Jake
said.

The waiter smiled and turned to
leave.

I picked up my salad. “I’ll see you
back in the room.”

“
I can’t believe you’d
prefer to eat that in the room when you could enjoy a sunset dinner
by the ocean.”

“
I suppose you aren’t used
to women running out on you, huh?” I sarcastically snapped. I
guzzled the rest of my wine, then grabbed the bottle to take with
me and stormed off. The setting sun flooded the sky with more
brilliant
colors, and part of me wanted to
stay and watch Mother Nature’s spectacular light show,
but the stubborn side of me fueled my quick
departure.

* * *

After I ate my salad, I took a shower
and dried off, only to realize I’d left my nightgown in the
dresser. I wrapped a towel around me, peeked out, and called Jake’s
name. When I got no answer, I ran to the dresser and rifled through
the drawer. Just as I grabbed my black nightgown, the door clicked,
and Jake walked in.

“
Jake, I’m not
dressed.”

He met my gaze and smiled. “I can see
that.”

I bit my lip hard, unsure which of us
was more shocked. “Don’t look.” When he covered his eyes, still
grinning from ear to ear, I scurried back into the bathroom and
slipped into my gown. “Uh…sorry about that,” I said awkwardly when
I stepped out of the bathroom, dressed this time. “I’ll try to be
more careful next time.”

“
I’ll be sure to knock next
time,” he said.

I nodded. “I’m going to bed. Um, I
guess you can sleep on the floor.”

“
Wonderful,” he said with a
laugh.

I slipped under the covers, closed my
eyes, and fell asleep.

* * *

When I felt someone gently touching
me, I fluttered my eyes open and glanced at the alarm clock. It was
seven a.m.

“
Get up,” Jake said. “We
have an appointment with our underwater photographer in an
hour.”

“
I can’t believe I slept
this late. I’m usually such an early bird.”

He handed me a Danish and a small
carton of milk. “Well, I’ve got breakfast covered. I couldn’t
sleep, so I went for a run, then took a shower.”

After breakfast, I went to the
bathroom to take a shower. Wet towels and clothes were strewn all
over the place, and Jake had had the audacity to move my makeup so
he could make room for his electric razor. Perhaps worst of all,
the toilet seat was up. I could definitely tell he was used to
living like a bachelor. “Jake!” I said. “This place is a mess. I’m
surprised you flushed the toilet.”

“
Give me
some
credit, would
ya?”

“
Why’d you move my stuff? I
had everything all laid out for easy access.”

“
You were hogging the
counter space. Where was I supposed to put my stuff?”

“
Tell me you didn’t use my
toothbrush,” I said. I slammed the door with a huff and jumped into
the hot shower.
Boy, this is gonna be a
long trip,
I thought as the warm water beat
down on me.

After getting ready for the day, I
opened my laptop to check my messages before we left.

“
We’re gonna miss our
appointment,” Jake said. “Can’t that wait?”

“
It’s work, so no, it
can’t.”

“
We’ve gotta go right now,
Ashly.”

“
Fine!” I said, shutting my
computer.

* * *

Our photographer shut off the boat
engine, and waves gently rocked the vessel. “We’re here,” he
said.

The sun shone on my face from its
place in the clear blue gorgeous sky. I stood at the railing and
leaned over, glancing down at the turquoise water of the Coral Sea.
I smiled as streaks of yellow, red, and blue swarmed around the
boat.

Jake inched closer, and his hot breath
brushed my cheek like a tropical draft. “Are you ready? Let’s jump
in!”

His sapphire-blue eyes sparkled, and
his brown hair whipped around in the wind as he met my gaze and
smiled. I brushed my hair behind my ear and smiled back at him.
When he removed his shirt, I couldn’t help but stare at his massive
body and all those thick, rippling muscles; he was even more
gorgeous than the last time I’d seen him without a shirt. His
beautiful body was so ripped that I was practically drooling over
him, and I was sure he’d spent hours at the gym every
day.

Without hesitation, Jake
jumped into the pristine water with a loud
splash
that caused our photographer
to laugh.

“
Your boyfriend is quite
the daredevil,” the photographer said. “I haven’t even checked for
sharks.”

“
He’s not my boyfriend,” I
said politely. “Is it okay to go in now?”

He looked through his binoculars in
every direction. “Looks good.”

“
Ooh, the water’s
wonderful!” Jake shouted. “Come on, Ashly!”

I leaned over the railing. “Forget
something?” I asked.

He grinned. “Guess so. Can you throw
it down?”

“
Sure.” I took off my long,
colorful wrap and adjusted my red and purple one-piece. I put on my
mask, snorkel, and fins, then grabbed Jake’s gear and jumped in. I
couldn’t fathom that I was actually floating above the actual Great
Barrier Reef. After I handed Jake his gear, I took a long, deep
breath and ducked my head under the water.

A school of yellow fish swirled around
us, and the underwater photographer began snapping away. “They look
good,” the photographer said. “I’ll have the CD and eight-by-tens
delivered to your hotel room when we get back.”

“
Thanks,” I
said.

He grinned and climbed back into his
boat. “For now, though, I’ll give you lovebirds some time to be
alone,” he said, ignoring my earlier claim that there was nothing
between us.

“
We’re just friends,” I
said.

“
The way you were staring
at him?” He laughed. “I don’t think so. You were lookin’ at that
boy like a crocodile looks at a chicken!”

Jake began to laugh.

My cheeks burned. “I was
not!”

Jake’s grin grew even
wider.

“
I wasn’t,” I
retorted.

Our photographer held up his
binoculars. “Enjoy yourselves. I’ll keep an eye out for any company
of the fin and toothy variety.”

I swallowed hard. “Why does that make
me a little nervous?”

“
We’ll be fine,” Jake said,
grinning. “C’mon. Let’s have some fun. It’s not every day you get
to splash around in Jaws’s backyard.”

When he clasped his hand around mine,
my skin began to tingle. His warm, soft fingers rubbed against the
back of my hand lightly as he pulled me toward the reef, and I
softly tugged my hand away; Jake had no right to hold my hand like
we were lovers on some excursion.

I dived deeper, to a point where the
visibility was awesome. The reef was beautifully decorated in a
kaleidoscope of marine life, from clusters of colorful anemones to
large sponges, coral, and starfish. Thick carpets of strawberry
anemones covered the bottom, and Jurassic-sized sea fans swayed in
the current like branches in the wind. I noticed every light and
shadow and thought about how wonderful they would be to capture
with my own camera.

I grinned at passing tropical fish all
decked out in startling reds, blues, greens, and yellows. There had
to be zillions of them. My eyes opened wide as I noted their
sparkling appearance, complex patterns, and vibrant coloration. The
spots, stripes, and shapes were all as different as snowflakes, and
some shapes and patterns I couldn’t even identify with my
vocabulary.

Jake’s black hair flowed
out in the water, waving back and forth with the rhythm of the sea.
A stream of bubbles came out of his mouth as he smiled, his eyes
wide. He picked up a huge stingray measuring at least five feet
across from wingtip to wingtip. I reached out and touched the
gentle giant as it swam out of Jake’s hands and disappeared into
the sandy sea bottom.
Too cool!
It felt soft and slimy, like a big, wet Portobello
mushroom.

I resurfaced and gasped for air, then
dived down again. I kicked hard to propel myself forward, gliding
over a beautiful coral garden. The formations offered vivid
patterns, fantastic shapes, weird textures, and unique colors I’d
never seen before, all bolder, brighter, and more brilliant than
any I’d noticed on previous dives. I couldn’t resist touching a
colony of green coral as I swam by, and when I did, in an instant,
the entire colony changed from green to red, like some mermaid’s
Christmas decoration.

I burst through the surface. Sucking
in long gulps of air, I noticed radiant sunbeams glinting in Jake’s
blue eyes; in the sunlight, they were absolutely blazing blue, and
I’d always been a sucker for baby blues.

“
How are you doing?” Jake
asked.

“
Good. How about you? Are
you doing okay?”

He nodded and said between breaths,
“This place is…it’s incredible…all those colors and…the fish.” With
that, he let out a soft groan and turned away.

I touched his shoulder. “What’s
wrong?”

His jaw set into a grimace. “I cut my
leg on the coral, but it’s nothing to worry about.”

My lips pressed into a grim line.
“Nothing to worry about? C’mon, Macho Man. Let’s get you back to
the boat and all bandaged up.”

“
Aw. That’s so cute,” he
said.

I stammered, shocked and a bit
insulted by his condescension. “What?”

“
You still
care.”

I rolled my eyes. “There are two
things I care about in this instance. One, if you get an infection,
you might not be able to finish the journey, and I’ll lose my
inheritance. Two, if sharks smell that blood you’re leaking all
over the place, we both might lose our limbs. I’m not willing to
risk it, so turn your stubborn butt around and swim back to the
boat.”

He grinned. “That’s not it at all. I
saw genuine concern in your eyes. You can give me a million excuses
if you want, but deep down, I know you’re worried about
me.”

“
Whatever, Jake,” I
said.

I waved our photographer captain over
and told him that Jake had been injured. He motioned us back to the
boat, and as soon as we were aboard, he sped off, heading back to
our island oasis. Fortunately, Jake’s gash wasn’t severe, and it
only required a bit of peroxide and a little gauze. I almost
laughed when the peroxide stung him, but I managed to hold my
tongue.

We spent a few days in Australia, only
talking when absolutely necessary. I tried to stay away from our
shared room as much as possible by going out and exploring the
island. Making small talk with him in the hotel was more than I
could bear. The man was supposed to my husband. If things had gone
according to plan, we would have been enjoying sunset dinners,
staring lovingly into one another’s eyes, then heading back to our
room to make love all night. Instead, we weren’t even friends and
were nothing more than hostile roommates, prisoners of one
another’s forced company. I could barely tolerate him, but I knew I
had to.

* * *

Back at the airport again, I was
dressed in dark-washed jeans and a white, lacy top. My hair was
pulled back and held by a sparkly white clip made of seashells, a
souvenir from our first stop. Jake was handsomely dressed in a snug
black shirt that perfectly accentuated every muscle of his chest,
tucked into blue jeans and finished off with brown shoes. Muscles
bulged in his arms when he picked up my suitcase.

“
I got it, Jake,” I said,
reaching for my bag, “but thank you.”