"Pleasure to meet you, Paris. I'm Beth."

Paris shook her hand, but passed Beth over as if she were a tiny little bug. Instead her eyes were glued to me and my naked chest. Of course they were. I'd be looking at me too if I had to date someone who used the same comb for his hair that he did his chest.

"Senator Jace Brevik?" A predatory smile made its presence known on her Botox-infused face.

I gave her points that she could still manage to move her mouth, let alone bust out a smile with all that swollen puffy skin.

"Yes. Yes, I am."

Brett laughed. "I knew you looked familiar! What are you doing here? Beth, holy shit, that's so cool you work for a senator?"

"Work?" Beth repeated. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you know." Brett waved her off. "You always were so smart. I just figured you were here to offer support to the senator and his wife or lover or whatever. Say, where's your significant other?" Brett looked around. "I would really love to meet her. Honestly, it would be an honor."

"My Brett's in politics too." Paris kissed Brett's neck and sighed. "He's the mayor of our town."

How nice. Brett thinks being a mayor means he's in politics. I should punch him in the balls and get it over with.

"Oh yeah?" Beth's lower lip trembled.

Why the hell did she look like she was going to cry?

"Yeah, Mayor of Bellingham, but I have aspirations for more." He puffed out his chest.

Bellingham, Washington? Right. Good for him. If he kept at it, he could run against me for president, said no person ever.

"Anyway, we won't take any more of your time, but if your better half or whatever shows up while we're all at the pool, it would be cool to do a photo op."

"Why not now?" I found myself saying.

"But your girlfriend—"

I should have stopped talking. Instead, words were coming out of my mouth without my permission, and my arm wrapped protectively around Beth's shoulders. "She's right here."

Paris's mouth dropped open, and Brett turned bright red. Take that, sucker.

To add insult to injury, Beth chose that exact moment to grab my face and kiss me so hard that my mouth almost went numb from pleasure. When she pulled back, I tried to kiss her again, but she laughed and hugged me instead. The Viagra was still in full effect, and my body didn't understand that this wasn't the most appropriate of times to attack her.

I shot a look to Brett that basically said, That's right, bastard. She's mine. Be an asshole elsewhere. We're full up here.

"Wow." Brett smirked. "I, uh, I wouldn't have guessed."

"Why not?" I said smoothly. "Beth's one of the leading chemists in the field of research and development for GreenCom, she graduated with honors from Yale, and has more schooling than both of you combined. I'd say it makes sense." I pinched her ass.

She stomped my foot.

"Besides, she's sexy as hell."

"Well." Brett cleared his throat. "I guess we should take that picture then?"

Beth elbowed me again.

I glared.

She pointed down.

I cursed.

"Something wrong?" Paris purred, her talons resting on Brett's hairy chest.

Wasn't she afraid her fingers were going to get trapped? She scratched a bit, some of the hair covered her pink nails. I puked a bit in my mouth. And problem? Gone. Wow, and to think all I needed was a Botoxed woman touching another man's chest hair.

"Actually," Beth gripped my arm, "we were just on our way back to the hut for a nap, but we'll be here all week. I'm sure we'll see you later."

"Dinner," Brett said.

Would he never give up?

"Uh…" Beth looked to me for help.

"Sure," I answered without looking at Brett. "But just so you don't think we're flaky, we haven't been eating much. This trip is all about proper hydration so we can spend all day and night in bed. This is the first daylight I've seen in hours. And I intend on keeping this one…" I swept Beth up into my arms and kissed her hard on the mouth, "…very, very busy."

"Geez, get a room," Brett said under his breath.

"Oh, we have one." I smirked. "With a California king and a plunge pool. See you later, Rhett."

"It's Brett!" he called.

"Okay, Rhett!" I ignored him and walked with Beth in my arms all the way back to the edge of the pool. "Now we make a run for it."

"Now?" Beth winked.

"Don't make me chase you."

"If you catch me, you get a prize," she teased, lifting herself out of the pool and crooking her finger at me.

"I like prizes." I lunged after her.

Chapter Fifteen

"Let's go over this again. Besides the drugs, did you do anything else to harm the senator?"

Grandma rubbed her hands together as her eyes darted around the room.

"Ma'am?"

"Oh, alright!" Grandma let out a heavy sigh. "I may have helped them along in their relationship."

"Helped?"

"Lavender in the hut, fertility beads under the mattress, a dreamcatcher by the plunge pool, oyster appetizers every afternoon, and a Michael Bolton love mix."

"Michael Bolton?" the agent repeated.

"Don't knock it until you try it." Grandma smirked.


Beth


I ran to our hut, thrust my body against the door, and let myself in with the dangling key.

Jace was hot on my heels.

And I was out of breath.

But I wasn't sure if it was from excitement or embarrassment.

My past was coming back to haunt me. But it's not that it was a hard past where I'd done drugs or suffered from anorexia or anything like that. It had everything to do with insecurities, ones I'd never faced. And that was the crappy thing about insecurities: they never actually went away until you dealt with them. And I'd never dealt with mine. Ever.

And Brett? He'd just resurfaced every last one of them…

"Boring Beth, Boring Breath, Boring Breasts!" Some of Brett's friends chanted and then high fived one another.

They all walked off. Every last once, except JP.

"So, Beth." He smirked, and a piece of dark hair fell across part of his face. "Now that you know Brett wants nothing to do with you, considering you freaking plastered yourself all over the star of a rival football team, like a total and complete slut," he took a deep breath, "I figured you'd go out with me."

"Go out with you?" I said in a small voice. "Like on a date?"

JP smirked and then burst out laughing. "I'm sorry I can't do this. The guys paid me ten bucks to ask you out, but the look on your face was priceless. I have a girlfriend, she puts out, why would I go for a virgin nerd with glasses who makes guys run away screaming?"

My body crumpled against the floor. The cold tile helped alleviate the massive heat stroke that had attacked my body. I tried breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth, when I felt strong arms wrap around me and pick me up.

I snuggled into Jace's embrace and closed my eyes, angry at myself for allowing a bad high-school memory to render me completely helpless.

Within seconds we were outside, and Jace held me as he walked into the plunge pool and sat. I was in his lap, arms wrapped around his neck.

"Thanks," I said in a small voice.

Jace's face was still, angry, tight. His jaw clenched as he looked away from me and swore, slapping the water with one of his free hands. "What the hell did that guy do to you?"

"Nothing." I tried to squirm out of his lap, but his arms tightened, just trapping me all the more against him.

"Beth."

"It's so stupid." My voice caught. "I don't think I've ever been so embarrassed. I'm sorry I freaked out. I just—"

"Beth," Jace's hand traced my face, "you have no reason to be embarrassed, but if you don't tell me what happened within the next ten minutes, I'm going to get charged with murder, and US senators don't do well in federal prison."

I gave him a weak smile. "It's a boring story."

"I happen to like boring," he whispered.

If any other guy would have said that, I would have taken it as a slam to my personality. But the way Jace had said it? Well, he'd made it feel real, as if he'd been saying that he liked me, had seen beyond what others had.

"Me and a few other nerds were his pity-date at prom. I danced with him. He was really nice and then basically told me I was cool for a nerd. I refused to kiss him goodnight, and for some reason, it pissed him off that I wouldn't put out." I didn't want to tell him the truth, but there really wasn't any other way. "A few of his friends saw you and me kiss, and he was angry that I'd kissed you, a lowly sophomore from another school, and not him. He started a rumor that I'd hit on him, he'd rejected me but felt sorry for me, and that I'd asked him to take my virginity."

"Asshole," Jace hissed, rocking me back and forth in his arms. "I never thought…" he sighed against my neck, "I never thought my kiss would cause so many problems."

If he only truly knew how it had wrecked me.

"The rest of the year was absolute hell." I shrugged, ignoring the tiny voice inside that said I should tell him exactly how much that kiss had affected me, how much it had altered my view of dating and waiting for the right one. "Notes in my locker from random people calling me a slut, whore, bitch, goody-two shoes. It was like I couldn't win. I suddenly didn't fit in anywhere. My smart friends were afraid it was true because Brett was so popular. And the popular people just thought it was pathetic. My freedom came when I graduated and went to college."