Lost in Paradise (Paradise Club #2)(20)
No, don’t be like that, Ivy. Stop projecting your past onto someone new. Alex has shown you nothing more than a considerate ear, so don’t push him away because you think he might not be what he portrays himself to be. He’s been honest with you since you met. He could have lied and said that he hadn’t enjoyed the services of his host, but he told you the truth. He’s also told you the truth that he wouldn’t mind sleeping with you again, and he wasn’t offended or turned off over you telling him you’d slept with your host.
Urgh. I hate what Steve has done to me, and I still can’t believe I’m letting that man have power over me all these years later. I sure as hell don’t think he’s still thinking of me, that’s for sure.
“Ivy, are you okay? You’ve gone quiet suddenly. We don’t have to go to the waterfalls?” Alex states categorically.
The golf cart has stopped at the entrance to the falls, and Alex has turned his body toward me and is looking into my eyes as a small frown pulls against his forehead. And that’s the thing with Alex, who is still a stranger to me technically, he would turn around and take me back to my room if I asked him to. He would also not pressure me for more if I made my thoughts known that I wasn’t interested. And because of that, he makes me feel safe around him. Maybe that’s why I feel comfortable brain-dumping my innermost thoughts to him after only knowing him for twenty-four hours. I wonder if Nate is like this too? It would explain why my sister is so smitten with him after everything she’s been through.
“Sorry, lost in my head. I can’t wait to explore this with you.” I turn fully in my seat and give Alex my full attention. I watch as those green eyes light up, the frown that was etched across his skin vanish, and his square jaw relaxes as if he was holding his breath, waiting for my answer to be something else. He’s got a day’s worth of stubble across his jaw, a bit of pink sunburn across his cheeks, and the preppy, suave-looking businessman I met last night has been replaced with a relaxed jungle golf cart explorer.
Alex reaches out and cups my face with his large palm. “We can just swim. We never have to do more, okay?” he says seriously, rubbing his thumb across my cheek. “I’m just as happy being in your company as I am in your bed.”
Wow. That was not at all what I was expecting.
“Thank you. Come on, let’s explore and see how the day goes.”
He gives me a lopsided grin and jumps out of the cart, and I follow. We take the path through the rainforest until it opens out to a large waterfall area. There’s a dark blue pool, or maybe you’d call it a lagoon, that stretches quite a way to a large waterfall that is flowing down the side of the rock face.
There are sun chairs scattered around the water with white umbrellas, and there are cabanas that look like they would fit a large group. There are also cane pods that are dotted around the waterline, where I guess people can go for privacy. It looks like they have built a faux beach flowing into the water, an area for people to laze around before swimming out into the deeper area.
“There’s a pathway hidden amongst the ferns that will take us inside the waterfall,” Alex states.
That sounds fantastic. I’m also intrigued.
We follow the path for a bit, with the sound of the water becoming louder and louder the closer we get—it’s almost deafening. Then you see the hollowed-out entrance, and we walk toward it. It’s dark, but as soon as you cross over from outside to inside the cave, it is littered with millions of LED fairy lights that light up the cave like the night sky. This place is beautiful. There are faux fire tiki torches on the sides of the cave as you follow the pathway until you see a blue glow, and that’s when the magnificence of what is inside of the cave hits you. Inside the waterfall is a never-ending lagoon that weaves around the stone of the cave, which is sticking out from the water like columns. There are benches carved into the stone on some of the columns—I guess if you need a mid-swim fuck. It’s incredibly magical, and I’ve never seen anything quite like this before.
“I thought you said there was a jacuzzi in here, not a fricken underground water system,” I say to Alex, who chuckles at my comment.
“There are jacuzzi areas scattered throughout the lagoon.” He grins.
The water looks so inviting, so I place my bag down and begin to take off my sundress. Alex starts to get undressed too.
“I didn’t bring any trunks so you okay if I go commando?” he asks, holding the edge of his shorts.
“Go ahead,” I reply as I watch him slide everything down and kick it to the side. He stands before me naked and proud before taking a couple of steps and diving into the lagoon. I bite my lip as I contemplate doing the same.
They say, when in Rome …
Alex pops back up from under the water and looks over at me, waiting for me to follow after him. What he wasn’t expecting was for me to kick off my bikini and dive right in. When I emerge from under the water, he’s smiling at me. The water isn’t deep, it’s almost over my head, so I must tread water a little, but Alex is standing, and it’s at his shoulders.
“Come here,” he says, grabbing my arm as I hold it out for him, and he pulls me to him. “Don’t want you to drown on me.” He grins as I wrap myself around him.
“Ever the gentleman.”
“I try to be, but it’s hard when your bare pussy is pressed against my stomach.” His dirty words surprise me, and I gasp before I start to tease him with said ‘pussy’ rubbing against him. “Keep going like that, Ivy, and I’m going to find it very hard to keep my hands off you,” he tells me through gritted teeth.