“We’re down with either one,” Cyrus said with an affable smile. The call of the coquí frogs seemed to grow louder in the heavy silence.
Galen turned the evidence this way and that, trying to make sense of the scene. But after an endless moment, he knew there was only one plausible explanation.
Their hip new friends were swingers, and they wanted to do the old swap-around with Lacey and him.
Well, shit.
Chapter Six
Blood rushed to Lacey’s ears and her brain froze. Cyrus’s lips were moving, but his words weren’t making any sense. We’re down with either one.
She opened her mouth and then closed it again with a snap, unable to fully grasp what was happening. Cyrus’s fingers traced a path from her shoulder to the nape of her neck, and although she didn’t feel any malice coming from him, the desire to jerk away was almost overpowering.
Galen locked gazes with her and gave her a reassuring smile. There was no tension in his tone when he turned to Nikki and spoke. “Listen, I’m flattered, and I’m sure Lacey is, too, but—”
“Ah, the ‘but.’” The other man’s grin turned sheepish as he released Lacey and stepped away. “I’m really sorry; I thought this was already sort of agreed upon.” He sent his fiancée an irritated look. “I told you, babe. They’ve only got eyes for each other. You were way off.”
Nikki’s brow wrinkled and she ran a hand through her wet hair. “When we were in the ladies room at the restaurant, I out and out asked her if she would do a full switch and she said yeah…”
Lacey’s face burned. “I thought you meant the lip gloss.” She crossed her arms over her chest, suddenly feeling more naked than she’d felt when the tide had swept away her bikini top.
Nikki chuckled, and then her chuckles turned into full belly laughter. A moment later, Cyrus joined her. “Oh my God.” She gasped, swiping tears from her eyes with her knuckle. “I had no clue what you were doing with that. Cy, she sort of took my lip gloss and gave me hers and I was totally baffled, thinking, Must be a Rhode Island thing.”
Cyrus howled and Galen’s ear-to-ear grin made Lacey’s cheeks burn even more. Still, they were handling it really well, and when she thought about it, it was kind of funny.
“It must have been wishful thinking on my part,” Nikki said, setting a hungry gaze on Galen. Just when a stab of jealousy poked through Lacey’s semi-shock, Nikki set an equally hungry gaze on Lacey. “I don’t know who’s sexier, him or you.”#p#分页标题#e#
“Definitely him,” Lacey blurted.
That got them laughing again, although it took Lacey a little while to catch up.
When the chuckles died down, there was a long and uncomfortable silence. “So are we all cool then? Friends but not luvahs? Unless of course you change your mind,” Nikki said, waggling her brows.
Could these cool, beautiful people actually be attracted to her? Boring, white-bread Lacey? In spite of her embarrassment, she found herself just a little tickled at the thought. Instead of hiding her flaming-hot face like she wanted to, Lacey smiled. “Sure thing.”
They all stood around, unsure of what to do next, when Galen saved the day. “On that note, I think it’s probably best if we call it a night. Neither of us got a whole lot of sleep and we still have to walk back. We truly appreciate your hospitality.”
Galen inched toward the side of the pool, waiting for her to follow suit. She sent a panicked glance at Cyrus and Nikki, who took pity on her by swimming off deeper into the lagoon. As soon as they were out of sight, she scurried out of the pool and into the towel Galen held out for her.
“You okay to walk back or do you want to get a cab?” he asked softly.
“It’s less than a mile; we can walk.” Despite the balmy air, her lips were trembling and she pressed them together to make them stop.
“It’s okay, squirt. You’re okay. We had a great night until that weirdness at the end, and you handled yourself beautifully. Now let’s get the hell out of here before they think we changed our minds.” That got her moving and a few minutes later, they were dressed and calling out their good-byes to Cyrus and Nikki.
They headed off back down the beach toward the villa. To his credit, Galen didn’t say a negative word to her. The old Galen would have. He would have raked her over the coals about her naiveté and busted her chops mercilessly about the whole incident. Lip gloss, indeed. Her cheeks warmed again and she broke the silence with a groan. “Oh my God, that was so mortifying.” She had opened the floodgates, so surely now he would tease her about it.