she kissed him. “I’m serious.”
She let her tongue flick against his lips. “So am I.”
They didn’t make it to the beach after all.
Chapter 10
The next day, Zane convinced her to take the tour of the island with him. Kendall wasn’t interested in seeing all the places the former owner had taken drug deliveries, but she agreed to go when Zane promised her it would be fun.
“It better be,” she grumbled good-naturedly. “I only have one day left to sit on the beach and bake myself to a decadent golden brown. It’s cold back home, you know. February is a nasty month.”
He took her hand. “I promise you, it’ll be fun.”
She spied the glint in his gorgeous eyes, and heat curled in her belly. “I think I know what you have in mind. Naughty.”
“That’s what you love about me though, isn’t it?” he asked with a sly grin.
He left her to head for the front desk to sign them both up for the trip, leaving her bemused. Love? Surely it was too soon for anything that serious.
He didn’t give her time to contemplate it because he was back in a minute. “C’mon, they’re leaving from the driveway. We almost missed them.”
By silent consent, they dropped each other’s hands when they got in view of the bus. There was nothing illegal about what they’d been doing. Not only were they not working, they didn’t work for the same office or even in the same district. All the same, advertising the fact they’d been humping like rabbits for the entire week didn’t seem like a smart thing to do.
Steve and Stella had snagged seats near the front, but Kendall didn’t see Jean and Kevin. Maybe he didn’t want to try the hike. She and Zane went toward the back of the bus and sat down.
“I feel like I’m back in high school,” she mumbled as they slid into the worn industrial-green seats. “Minus the zits and plus the tits.”
His low chuckle burst out. “I can’t believe that.”
“What?” She nudged him with her elbow. “That I had zits?”
“Nah.” He gave her breast a surreptitious feel. “That you didn’t have tits.”
She giggled, just like in high school, as the bus began to move. It bumped along the cracked and breaking pavement until the road became dust. A flock of squawking chickens scolded them as they left the hotel compound. A few leaning, decrepit huts marked where the former servants had lived while the drug lord and his cronies dined and slept in comfort just inside the estate walls. Kendall didn’t like seeing Corazon del Mar in such disrepair, but she was glad the staff was no longer segregated.
The island was tiny, but the poor condition of the roads made the bus trip last thirty minutes. At the end of the bumping, twisting trip, Zane had begun to lose the color in his cheeks.
“Are you all right?” she asked him in concern.
He nodded, jaw clenched so tight she saw the tic of muscles in his cheek.
He didn’t look all right. Kendall pawed through her bag and took out the most important things. Then she handed it to Zane.
“If you need this…”
He shook his head violently, but still didn’t speak. Kendall patted his arm, uncertain of what to do. The bus bumped to a stop, and Zane was on his feet and down the aisle before any of the other passengers had even stood. Kendall wasn’t so lucky. She had to wait until all the rest of the people had moved off the bus before she could get out.
She found him sitting, head in his hands, on a large wedge of rock that stuck out of the untamed foliage. “Hey.”
He looked at her, his skin still pale, but he managed a grin. “Hey.”
She sat beside him. “Are you okay?”
He nodded. “Sorry. I have a bad stomach. When I was in high school, I got stuck on a ride at an amusement park. It took them forty minutes to cut the power.”
“Don’t be sorry.” She linked her hand through his. “I can’t eat peanut butter and jelly. My dad left a sandwich in the sun once and I ate it. Just the sight of a jar of grape jelly can make me heave.”
Stella came over and handed Zane a bottle of water. Her eyes took in their entwined fingers, but she didn’t say anything. All at once, it didn’t seem so important to Kendall anymore that they keep their new relationship a secret. “Some water might make you