Otherwise Engaged (7 page)

Not only was he
losing Carolina to a man who—who was what? Surely, he could come up with
a substantive flaw for the man. Okay, so he had a decent job if he could throw
around money all the time. Or maybe he was just in debt up to his eyeballs for
all this. Yeah, Rain would rather think that. Maybe he even had a gambling
problem. But even if he wasn’t in debt and didn’t have a gambling problem, there
had to be something else. Maybe he sucked at sports or couldn’t dance. There
had to be something. Everybody had flaws. Except for Rain. That was a joke.
Kind of.
He smiled to himself at the thought of his own
cleverness. Maybe this guy didn’t have a sense of humor.

Wrong, wrong,
wrong.
On the sense of humor at least.
By the time
they were seated at the restaurant—damned Manny had pulled chairs out for
both women before Rain had a chance to—Manny had both women rolling.
Daphne laughed so hard that tears came out of her eyes. She dabbed at them with
the corner of a linen napkin. Rain was too busy looking for flaws and avoiding
showing any signs of being impressed to laugh.

“Carolina tells
me you two are dating now,” Manny said, his arm casually thrown over the back
of Carolina’s chair. Another thing that was bothersome was how comfortable they
looked together. As if they belonged together when they clearly didn’t. They
couldn’t because Carolina belonged with Rain. Manny was a wrench thrown into
Rain’s life
plans, that was
all. He was a wrench that
could be removed, though.

“Yeah,” Rain
said, watching Carolina for signs of jealousy as he patted Daphne’s hand. He
left his hand on top of hers. Carolina sat a little taller in her chair and
smiled at them. Her smile didn’t reach her eyes, though.

Daphne smiled
sweetly. She pulled her hand from beneath Rain’s under the pretense of taking a
sip of water. When she put her water glass down, though, she was careful to
keep her hands out of easy grabbing distance. She folded them on the table in
front of her. “Yes. It’s so new. I haven’t had the chance to tell many people.”
She looked at Rain. “I can hardly believe it myself.”

“Well, I think
it’s great,” Carolina said in a tone that might have convinced someone who
hadn’t known her so long. “You two have been friends for so long. We all have.
That’s nice that your friendship turned into—more.”

Rain glanced at
Daphne. She didn’t seem to be buying Carolina’s fake enthusiasm either. He
could tell by the way she wouldn’t meet either of their eyes and the stiffness
in her posture. Daphne chose to focus her gaze on Manny instead. Being friends
with both of the women so long, he was pretty good at reading their body language.
And Daphne’s body exuded guilt.

Daphne said,
“Yeah. It’s really been…beautiful.” The way she said “beautiful” made Rain want
to cringe.

“Don’t hold
back on our account,” Carolina said. “You’ve seen how sickening we are with the
PDA.” There was a bit of a challenge in her eyes as she added, “Feel free to
express yourselves.”

Ah great
, Rain said. Hoping Carolina
didn’t suspect it was all a show, and hoping Daphne wouldn’t pummel him too
badly later, he said, “I told you she’d be cool, Daph.” He rubbed his hand over
her shoulder.

“I just wanted
to take it easy on you, sweetie,” Daphne said. “You had that nasty groin injury
last week, and I wouldn’t want you to get too carried away and overexert
yourself.” She gave him a sweet smile, but he could swear she was choking back
a laugh.

“How considerate
of you, honey,” Rain said. He guessed he deserved that.

The server came
over to take their orders. Carolina and Manny ordered
a
seafood
paella to share. How sickening. Sharing food? Really? It was
like they were trying to win an award for most nauseating couple. Daphne
ordered something with a name he couldn’t pronounce much less remember. Rain
ordered a steak medium rare. Maybe ordering the steak at a seafood place was a
mistake. He didn’t know, didn’t much care. He was much more interested in
watching every move of the couple across the table so he could come up with new
and better reasons that Manny was a lame substitute for him.

After the
server left, Manny and Carolina bent their heads close together and murmured in
Spanish for a few moments. Rain spoke English, Thai, and Japanese fluently. He
only knew the little bit of Spanish that Carolina had taught him. And they were
talking too quickly and quietly for him to be able to tell what they were
saying.

When they
looked up again, Carolina’s eyes were all love glazed. Rain studied his water
glass and tried to keep his face neutral. Letting the bitterness show would not
be sexy.

“How do you
guys like Puerto Rico so far?” Carolina asked.

“It’s
beautiful. I can’t wait to hit the beach tomorrow,” Daphne said. “What plans do
you two have for tomorrow? Wedding things?”

Carolina
wrinkled her nose in a way he’d always found adorable and said, “My last
dancing lesson before the wedding.”

Manny laughed.
He sounded like a manic horse.

“Oh yeah.”
Daphne nodded. “I heard you’re trying to teach Carolina to salsa. How’s that
going?”

Manny grinned.
He looked at Carolina, and they both burst out laughing. Manny said, “Not
well.” They started laughing again.

“Hey. I never
had interest in learning before,” she said.

“Baby,” Manny
said, putting his arm around Rain’s Carolina. “You have to be the only Puerto
Rican who can’t Salsa.”

“It’s a Cuban
dance.”

“Doesn’t
matter.”

She laughed and
shrugged. “So take away my membership card, okay?”

He laughed and
kissed the tip of her nose. Rain clenched his hands into his fists beneath the
table, but forced himself to maintain an expression of polite interest. He’d
never win Carolina over by being a jerk and letting Manny come out looking
better.

The
conversation then turned to Salsa and Merengue and all sorts of other things
Rain had no interest in. He was content to sit back in his corner and think
sulky, petty thoughts about Carolina’s ostensibly perfect fiancé. There had to
be a flaw somewhere besides the
horse laugh
. He
planned on finding it and exploiting it.

The problem
was, though, by the end of dinner—and maybe the drinks helped—Rain
was having just as much fun talking and laughing as everyone else at the table.
It turned out Manny was a huge Real Madrid fan. So was Rain. They also shared
interest in baseball just as Carolina had told him they did. Manny had gone to
Thailand on a backpacking trip after college, and the two ended up trading
crazy stories about their adventures in Bangkok and about hiking in rural areas
of the country. Manny even knew a little Thai—very little. Maybe three
words. But it wasn’t like Rain’s Spanish was much better.

The problem
with Manny was he was quick to make friends. Too damned likeable.
Unfortunately, Carolina and Daphne had been right about this fool, Manny. It
was impossible to hate the guy.

As they left
the restaurant later, Rain and Daphne trailed Manny and Carolina.

“Sorry. Hope I
didn’t go too far earlier,” he said.

“It’s okay,”
she said, but her smile was strained. “So what do you think?” She nodded ahead
in the happy couple’s direction. “Of Manny?”

“I mean, he’s
okay, I guess.” He added silently,
but he’s
still the competition.

“Carolina’s
really happy with him,” she said. Her tone carried both concern and warning.

He watched
Carolina and Manny’s backs as they walked a few yards ahead hand-in-hand. The bright
neon lights of the storefronts on either side of the street next caught his
interest. Then he spied a guy across the street carrying presumably his
girlfriend on his back. Rain had carried Carolina like that one night after
she’d broken a shoe. He remembered feeling her chest pressed closed to his
back, feeling every breath she took and the more rapid movement of her chest up
and down when she laughed. And her chest had been moving pretty rapidly later
on that night as well.

Daphne must
have realized he had no intention of responding to what she’d said about his
Carolina being happy with Super Fiancé. After a moment of silence, she asked,
“You want her to be happy, right?” She dropped her voice to a near-whisper. “If
you love her, that should be exactly what you want.”

“Yeah,” he
said.
But she’d be happier with me.

Chapter Twelve

The next
morning, Daphne woke early and sat up in the ridiculously comfortable bed. She
ran her hands over the smooth, white duvet. She could have stayed there, sunk
into that feather top mattress all day, but she had to resist the temptation.
Today was a beach day, and she didn’t want to miss one moment of it. After all,
she didn’t get the luxury of many beach days in late December.

She pulled
herself out of bed. She almost went out into the suite wearing only the cami
and shorty shorts she’d slept in before remembering Rain was out there.
Slipping on a big, fluffy white robe she’d found in the closet, she opened the curtained
French doors that led into the living area.

She took a few
steps forward and saw that the couch was empty. Then she saw Rain on the floor
in front of it doing push-ups. She watched his back muscles ripple
appreciatively for a moment. It’d been so long since she’d seen a half-naked
man in real life. It’d been even longer since she’d seen one with a back like
that. He looked like the guy from the Nordic Flex commercials, only with a
slimmer build. Maybe he was more like Josh Hartnett in Lucky Number Slevin from
the neck down. He was
lean
yet muscular. Not too big,
definitely not too small. Just right.

She hadn’t
realized she was staring until she heard him say, “Good morning.” He’d gotten
to his feet and now stood shirtless before her. Her eyes drifted down to his
abs—yep, the six-pack was definitely still there—and she finally
made herself look away.

You’re not only shameless, you’re
ridiculous,
she
told herself while staring down at
the carpet.

“I,
um—hi,” she said.

“You sleep
well?” he asked. She could hear the grin in his voice, but she didn’t dare look
up at him.

“Yeah. That bed
is really great.” What would it be like to share that bed with Rain? She
stumbled toward the small kitchen area, still half-asleep and now thrown off-balance
by Rain. “I was gonna make some coffee. Do you want some?” She was safe now
with her back turned to him as fiddled with the coffee machine.

“Sure.”

“Okay. ‘Cause
I’m making some for myself, and I thought since I’m doing that maybe you would
like some. So I thought I would ask. I know you’re a coffee drinker.” Oh lord.
She was babbling. She fumbled with the filter.

She sensed him
behind her and tensed. She hadn’t heard him walk up, but he was barefoot.
And silent as a ninja.
Damn Rain. She ripped the filter she
was trying to pull from the stack.

“Here, why
don’t you let me do that?” He reached around her and grabbed the stack of
filters from her hands.

She moved away
as if she’d been burned by his touch. In a way, she had been. She shrank against
the far counter and watched him prepare the coffee.

“You still
going down to the beach today?” he asked, looking over his shoulder at her as
he did so. Oh yes, Lucky Number Slevin. She imagined Rain coming out of the
bathroom later wrapped in only a towel. She wouldn’t mind being a spectator to
that sight. Nope, she wouldn’t mind it one bit. Wait. She had to stop this kind
of thinking.

She cleared her
throat and said, “Yes. Yes I am. Right after coffee.”

“You’re not
going to eat anything first?”

“I’m not a big
breakfast person.”

“Most important
meal of the day, you know.” He glanced over his shoulder at her again.

She laughed, a
little too high, a little too nervous. “That’s what I hear.”

He started the
coffee maker. Then he turned to her and grinned. Why did he have to have those
perfect teeth?
That perfect, radiant smile?
“Why don’t
I take you out to breakfast?
After coffee, before the beach?
I’d like to make yesterday up to you. And to thank you for putting up with me.”

“I—um…”

“And then we
could go to the beach after,” he said. “That is, if you don’t mind me tagging
along.”

“You don’t have
to.”

“I want to.”

She stared at
him for a moment, trying to decide if it would be a mistake or not to encourage
this. She shouldn’t be hanging out with him. He was her wedding date, and that
was it. He could spend the rest of the time dreaming up ploys and chasing after
Carolina or doing whatever else he wanted to do. The more time she spent with
him, the more painful it would be when he was gone again. No matter what he
said, he wouldn’t keep in touch. Who knew when she’d see him again after they
got back to D.C.? And even if he did stay in touch, they would only be friends.
Good friends? And heaven forbid, if he
did
manage to Carolina back…Oh. Oh, she couldn’t even begin to imagine what would
happen then.
Too painful.

Why couldn’t
life just come with an owner’s manual?

“Daph?” he
asked, peering at her with those gorgeous hazel eyes. “Are you okay?”

“Uh, yeah.” She
tried to swallow against her dry throat.

“So how about
it? Wanna hang out today?”

“Sure.” She
nodded. “Okay.” It couldn’t hurt. It was only breakfast followed by a lazy,
relaxing day at the beach. She’d probably be asleep on her beach blanket most
of the time.

She was wrong.

They got an
umbrella from the hotel’s stash and set it up on the beach along with two beach
chairs. Out on the beach, they had so much fun together. She’d forgotten how
much fun it was to spend a day with him. He seemed totally stress-free.
Carolina barely came up at all. When she did, Daphne brought her up as a test
so she could watch Rain’s reaction. He would change the subject shortly after
she was brought up every time.

She wore the
swimsuit she’d gotten from Sand and Water—a black one-piece with the
sides cut out, so that the obliques she killed herself in
Pilates
class for would show. She caught Rain appreciating it a time or two and
considered it worth the way overpriced amount she’d paid.
Not
that she wasn’t sneaking her own looks.
The upper body she’d admired
briefly in their suite that morning was now on full display.

Daphne screamed
as Rain dragged her toward the surf with his arm around her waist. He’d just
caught her after chasing her down the beach. She’d run away from him after he
told her it was time for a swim when she complained about how hot it was.

“Don’t you dare
put me in the water.” She laughed between shrieks as she tried to loosen the
firm grip he had on her waist. “I can’t get my hair wet before the wedding!”

Rain chuckled
and kept pressing forward easily enough as if she weren’t even digging her
heels into the sand and attempting to slow their pace.

“I mean it,
Rain!”

“Don’t worry,”
Rain said. “We’re not going in very far.”

True to his
word, Rain stopped in the shallows. The water lapped around their ankles, and
sand eroded from beneath their feet. Rain loosened his grip on her waist but
didn’t let go. She stood with her back to his chest.

“This better?”
Rain asked.

Oh yeah.
“Sure.”

“Are you any
cooler?”

Oh not at all.
“A little.”

“Good.” He bent
down and scooped water into his hands.

“What are you
doing?”

“Cooling you
off.” He let the water trickle from his hands over her shoulders. Rivulets of
it ran down the front of her swimsuit, and she shivered. For some reason, even
though his actions were fairly innocuous, they were a total turn-on.

“It’s so
beautiful here,” Daphne said, looking out over endless miles of clear
blue-green water. It was hard to believe that it was late December—almost
January—with the sun beating down on them and palm trees swaying in the
breeze farther up the shore. A light breeze tickled her salty skin. “I kind of
wish we didn’t have to go back.”

“I know,” Rain
said in a low voice, his lips close to her ear.

Did he mean the
“we” part? Certainly, if he did, he meant it in terms of him and Carolina and
not him and Daphne. Right? Of course he did. She really needed to not play
these mind games with herself. But still.

Rain’s arms went
back to her waist, and his head was still pulled in close to hers.

Around midday, when
they got back to their beach chairs, they found that a group of guys and a
couple of women around their age had set up camp next to them. They seemed to
be locals by what she overheard of their conversation in Puerto Rican accented
Spanish.

One of them
leaned over and introduced
himself
. “Hi. I’m
Julio.”
 
He held out his hand for
Daphne to shake. His silky black hair fell over his forehead, and he had a
great dimpled smile.

Caliente
. She shook it. “Daphne.”

“And who is
your friend there?” he emphasized the word “friend” and nodded in Rain’s
direction.

“Rain,” she
said. Just as Rain had let Carolina make inferences yesterday, Daphne was going
to let Julio make any and all inferences he wanted to make.

Julio’s smile
widened. Introductions were made all around. Rain seemed a little stiff when he
introduced himself to Julio, though. After everyone was introduced, Julio went
back to talking to Daphne.

“So what are
you doing here in this beautiful city with your friend, huh?” Julio asked, once
again emphasizing the word “friend.” My, he wasn’t bad to look at in only those
light blue board shorts that looked great against his dark skin. His broad,
well-muscled upper body tapered nicely into his waist.

“We’re in town
for a wedding,” she said.

“Not Carolina Perez
and Manny Estevez,” he said.

“Yeah. You know
them?”

“Manny, that
crazy bastard, is my cousin!” he said with a laugh.

She grinned.
“So I guess I’ll see you around over the next week or so.”

“You definitely
will.” He held her gaze with intense, dark eyes as he said this. Then he gave
her a grin full of perfectly square, straight teeth. “You let me know if you
need anyone to show you around. I know all the good places to go around here.
Things you’ll never find in a tourist guide.” He shook his black hair out of
his face. “I’d love to give you a tour of San Juan.”

She thought she
heard Rain mumble, “I bet you would.” But when she looked over at him, he was
laid back on his reclined beach chair, arms behind his head, eyes seemingly
closed.

She turned back
to Julio. “I’d love that,” she said. They talked for a little while about
things she should definitely see while in Puerto Rico. Then the others said
something about a beach volleyball game. They invited her and Rain to play.
They agreed. After the game, Daphne took a long, sun-drenched nap. Then they
headed back to the suite to shower and get ready for dinner.

Back in the suite,
Daphne said, “Today was fun.”

“Yeah. And it
looks like you picked yourself up a real catch,” he said, wearing an expression
that was somewhere between a smirk and a sneer. “Rico Suave there was all about
you.”

Daphne laughed.
“His name was Julio, you know that. And he was nice. At least he was genuinely
interested in me and not using me as part of his sour-grapes, testosterone
riddled, manly man, you-Jane-me-Tarzan contest.” She tried to keep her tone
light and teasing because it wasn’t like she had real interest in Rain. Her
only real interest was in making sure he didn’t hurt Carolina. Daphne had
learned a long time ago that she and Rain were better off as friends. He’d been
so right not to let her cross that line all those years ago.

“Oh?” he
laughed slightly. “Was that a dig at me? Am I Tarzan?”

She shrugged,
letting a playful smile dance across her face. “Just saying.”

“Hey. I’m just
looking out for you. I know that guy’s type. I’m that type.”

“Maybe I could
use a little love ‘em and leave ‘em in my life,” she said, toying with the flimsy
edge of her cover-up—a sheer black piece of material that was designed like
a shift dress and didn’t cover up much at all. “Besides, you’re not really my
boyfriend, you know. You’re just my make-believe boyfriend when the ‘love of
your life’ is around.”

“I’m just
trying to look out for a friend. And hey, what’d you mean by saying ‘love of my
life’ like that? Like you don’t believe she is. Because she is.”

“Is she? Or are
you like a little kid who doesn’t want anyone else to play with his toy?”

“What?”

“You’ve had
time—years—to realize it. You’ve known Carolina for nine going on ten
years.
Almost a full decade.
Apparently, it takes her
finally getting over you and meeting this amazing man who treats her the way
she’s always deserved to be treated for you to realize you ‘love’ her more than
anything else in the world. Do you want to spend the rest of your life with
her? Or are you just prepared to wreck her life out of jealousy or hurt pride
or whatever else might be going on with you?”

Rain looked
down at the counter that bordered the kitchen area for a moment. When he looked
up again, his face was impassive. “I think it’s time for a shower so we can get
to dinner. I’m starving. You want to go first or me?”

They had one
and half bathrooms in the suite, so only one shower.

“You can,” she
said. He nodded and disappeared into her bedroom and toward the bathroom. She
sat out on the garden terrace until she heard him call out from the living
room, “I’m done.”

She walked into
the room and noticed he was wearing only a towel. She’d gotten her wish from
earlier. Lucky Number Slevin for sure now. No. Hotter. She needed to think
about something other than a towel being the only thing separating her from
Rain’s nakedness. And quick. Trying to distract herself from how close she was
to seeing all of Rain’s perfect body in its naked glory, she asked, “Where are
your clothes?”