Besides, overworked teachers didn’t flirt with gorgeous Australian supermodel-type guys. And they definitely didn’t get naked with them. On the first—or any other—night together.
She heard Liz’s voice in her head. “Overworked teachers get to have a sex life too you know,” she’d said as she plunked down her credit card at the register of the swimsuit shop. Julia had shushed her, horrified at the knowing grin of the cashier.
“You should listen to your friend,” the woman said as she folded Julia’s gift in tissue paper and found a bag. “Wherever you’re going, in these suits you’re bound to have a good time.”
“See?” Liz raised an eyebrow. Julia didn’t respond. She was still wondering at how her friend had gone from practically celibate and constantly wary to the authority on all things sex.
“As long as you can get out of Chicago in the middle of winter, you’re going to have a good time,” the cashier added, handing Liz her receipt, and on that at least, Julia had to agree.
“I want you to have fun,” Liz had said as they left the store and headed to lunch.
“I will.” Julia clutched the bag. “I just don’t want it to seem like I’m bailing on you, you know?”
“Seriously?” Liz shook her head. “First of all, it’s a week—so I’m going to assume you’re coming back. And secondly, I promise I’ll be okay. You’ve done so much for me, but you can’t spend your whole life worrying. Danny and I are hanging out over New Year’s, and then before we know it, you’ll be back. How much trouble can I get in until then?”
Liz was joking, but Julia hadn’t wanted to answer. Wasn’t that what she was afraid of—that at any second something could go wrong? A flashback, a memory that came without warning, any number of reminders that used to set Liz into a downward spiral again?
But the worst parts hadn’t happened in a long time. So maybe Liz was right. Nothing much could happen in a week. And who could live always preparing for something bad to go down?
Now, as Julia examined herself in the mirror above the sink to make sure her boobs weren’t popping out all over the place, she couldn’t tell if she felt secretly pleased or beyond horrified that she was even considering yielding to Liz’s entreaties to have a good time.
If Blake was even interested.
He probably had a ton of friends and flirted with everyone, which was how he’d managed to meet so many travelers. She was just going to have a beer, she told herself firmly.
Absolutely zero expectations.
Chapter Two
Blake lounged in the shade and poured another round. He’d been in Brazil long enough to do like the locals, ordering rounds of the large bottles called garrafas and pouring the amber liquid into cups so small they were hardly more than glorified shot glasses. Ice-cold perfection in the afternoon sun.
“Someone joining us?” Chris asked as André plunked down an extra glass.
“New guest arrived and I told her to come on out,” Blake said. “Her name’s Julia—a Yank.” He pretended to be concerned with making sure each glass was full to the brim. Did he sound normal? He was trying to sound normal. After all, she was just another guest in the random flow of travelers to come and go.
Just another really gorgeous guest with a beautiful smile and bright eyes who’d stared at him like he was dinner and she hadn’t eaten all day.
“Uh oh,” Chris said, turning to Jamie and shaking her head. “Blake’s got that look in his eye.”
“I don’t have a look!” Blake protested, and took a huge gulp of beer so he wouldn’t have to say more.
“Um, you didn’t until that,” Jamie said, twisting a strand of unruly beard as he stretched out in one of the pool chairs.
“Lukas, doesn’t Blake have a look?” Chris called. Lukas heaved himself out of the pool and came over, wringing water from his swimming trunks. A cluster of small holes marred the fabric across the bottom. He claimed they came from a lion cub dragging his clothes off the line one night when he was camping in a ranger park in Tanzania, but Blake thought it more likely he’d worn through them and didn’t want to get a new pair.
Still, the pinpricks were a good conversation starter. Lukas had shown up at the hostel the same day Blake met Jamie and Chris. When they were all lounging by the pool, Lukas and Chris struck up a conversation about his near run-in with the unseen cubs. The four of them had been hanging out ever since, with a few other travelers coming in and out as they passed through the town. After so much time on his own, it was nice to have regular company. Blake would be sad to say good-bye tomorrow, especially to Jamie. The two had become close during late nights talking and laughing over bottles of beer. Blake had made an itinerary, though, and he planned to stick with it.
“Blake always has a look,” Lukas said as he reached for his glass.
“See?” Blake said. “This is just my face. I’m sorry if you don’t like it.”
Chris stuck out her tongue, so Blake did, too.
“Such a beauty,” Jamie sighed, and pulled Chris onto his lap, planting a kiss on her freckled, sunburned cheek.
She only stayed for a minute, though, before she downed her glass and cannonballed back into the pool. “Are you coming?” she called, floating on her back. Jamie swallowed the last of his beer and made a more modest splash.
Blake lifted his glass, signaling that he’d be in when he finished. He took extra small sips, wondering if Julia would actually join them. Not that it mattered, he reminded himself. He was leaving for Buenos Aires in the morning.
And he’d been looking forward to it, too, until he laid eyes on the raven-haired beauty by the front desk idly sweeping her hair up and suddenly wished this wasn’t his last night in Foz do Iguaçu.
Blake had seen more than a few beautiful women in Brazil. He’d even slept with some of them, figuring that after all the years he devoted to his ex-girlfriend, Kelley, he deserved a little fun. The fewer strings attached, the better—both literally and figuratively. Some of the women down here wore hardly anything on the beach. Flo dental, they called their bikinis. Dental floss. If they didn’t mind that he was gone the next day, then neither did he.
But somehow Julia didn’t seem like just another pretty face. Okay, pretty face and long, stunning legs, hips curved in all the right ways, delicate breasts peeking through her thin white tank top like she didn’t realize she would drive any red-blooded man wild as soon as he laid eyes on those sweet, pert nipples saying hello…
All of that was enough to pique his interest, but then there was her blush. Of course he’d noticed her checking him out while he stood in the doorway in his board shorts, watching her watching him back. Plenty of girls saw him shirtless on the beaches, decided they liked what they saw above the waist, and eagerly got to work discovering what his lower half had in store. The interest had skyrocketed after he became—it was still hard to wrap his mind around it—something of a recent celebrity in Oz. (Not that he’d taken advantage of it back home. But it was nice to know he could still turn heads in a place where nobody knew his name.)
Yet where he might have expected to meet Julia’s brazen eyes inviting him to explore her own body in equal parts, instead she’d quickly blushed and looked away. Those two pink apples on her cheeks and the downward swoop of her lashes excited him so much more than a direct invitation ever had. More than any overt offer ever could. It made him want to find out what was going on beneath the surface of her smile and how he could make her blush like that again.
Before he’d known what he was doing, he’d walked over to help her with her things, even though she was obviously capable of handling her bags on her own. But he’d wanted to hear the sound of her voice. Wanted to see the shape of her mouth as she formed her lips around the words. The thought of those lips made him shift uncomfortably in his seat. Maybe he should take a dive in the pool.