Chapter Five
That slow, sexy grin of his caused her insides to melt. Not to mention those dark hooded eyes of his which gazed upon her as if they branded her.
“Just as soon as you do me that favor.”
“And what would that be?” Olivia asked.
“Cover me in the wet mud here on the beach. Then leave the towel so I cover myself up later.”
“Cover you in wet sand?” Marissa put her hands on her hips. She was knelt by his head, blocking Olivia’s view of his face, but not the deep purple bruises that wrapped around his side and on his shoulder.
“People come here and pay hundreds of dollars at the spa to be packed in the mineral rich mud of the beach. The rich minerals are said to be good for the skin and have other healing properties.”
Olivia noticed how Jacques expressed the word healing. She knew from conversations with her father, that dragon shifters healed differently than humans.
“He’s right.” She didn’t want to give Marissa, a chance to argue and she didn’t like the way her friend seemed to drink in all of Charming’s nakedness. His manhood hadn’t shrunk any in the midst of time around him.
“Come let’s cover him up.” Olivia scooped up sand and Charming helped her, starting with his sex first. Marissa didn’t appear too annoyed with having to rub her hands over his body.
“The wet stuff is the best.” He pointed down closer to where the rolling waves lapped at the edge of the beach a few feet from where he lay.
“Can you get it and I’ll pack it on?” Olivia knew by the Marissa’s hard stare, she wasn’t happy, but for the life of her Olivia couldn’t figure out why she had gotten all possessive and protective over Jacques Moldvan.
Even the thought of Marissa getting close to him had raised her ire and she’d had to refrain from bumping her best friend away. They’d never fought over a man.
Which as Marissa moved away to get the wet sand, she pointed to her ring finger. Olivia looked down to where the sparkling diamond winked at her in the fading afternoon light.
“Hey…” Jacques, her prince Charming, said when her hands stopped scooping sand over his hip. Her hands shied away from his sex.
“Does the sand and mud really help you heal?”
“Yeah, it does. Thank you for that.” And his eyes looked past her to Marissa coming back with hands full of mud. She walked up and dropped on his chest.
“This will take forever.” Marissa held out her muddy hands. “If this messes up my manicure you are getting me a new one.”
“I’ll paint your nails myself if you like,” Jacques offered.
Olivia reached behind her as the sand was damper and muddier to shove against him. “There is container in our bag with fruit, maybe you could use that?”
“And what do I do with the fruit?”
Olive heard his stomach grumble. She almost told Marissa they could feed it to their hungry dragon but caught herself. Marissa’s father may be friends with her family, but she knew the dragon thing would freak her out and cause an even bigger problem for Olivia later.
She tried to concentrate on her hands, scooping muddy sand and covering Jacques body in it. A few times he sucked in his breath, but he wouldn’t admit if she’d hurt him as she pressed and spread parts of the gritty beach over his body. Marissa sat near his head with the container, his head cushioned by the towel, she feed Jacques the pieces of grapes and oranges.
With the last of the fruit gone, Marissa shoved the container to Olivia and said, “Your turn.”
Gingerly, Olivia got up and went to fill the glass bowl with muddy sand. What choice did she have?
Her future had been arranged for her. It didn’t matter if she found the dragon in the sand handsome or not. Her father would never accept one as a son-in-law, and Avram Zoltan would make good on her father’s promise of her hand in marriage.
Down the beach, she spied a woman sitting too far to make out any other features. In the distance, a man strode towards the woman. She envied the woman if that was her man, for at this time in her life, Olivia hadn’t been given the choice on who she could love.
Even if she felt her heart beating a little faster around a certain dragon.
When they’d finished covering him from neck to toe in the muddy sands, they gathered their stuff and walked away from him as instructed.
Olivia couldn’t help glancing back as they left the beach. “You’ve got to get your head out of the gutter,” Marissa pushed her forward to keep walking away.
“Me?” Now that made her mad. “You’re the one who couldn’t take your eyes off his man part.”
“Man part?” Marissa giggled. “You have so much to learn about men.”
“And you would know?” Olivia said, bitterly.
Marissa shrugged. “Maybe since he’s going to be our slave and all, I’ll let you have some fun with him before you go walking down the aisle.”
“How kind of you, considering he is my slave. I’m the one who made the deal with him.” Olivia marched on, the other couple from the beach had disappeared, no doubt going elsewhere to finish what they started in private.
Even that thought, and Jacques laying back there covered in the beach, stirred her down to her heart shaped secret garden.
“And you’re the one who is getting married soon.” Marissa stopped as the stepped upon the boardwalk. She paused, tossing down her rhinestone sandals, “How do you know him by the way?”
“What do you mean?” Her stomach fluttered, putting on her sandals.
“You called him Charming. I heard you.” Marissa sat down her bag, pulled out her bathing suit cover and pulled it down over her head. She pulled out her hair and fluffed it, surprising Olivia, she didn’t search for a mirror before picking her bag back up.
“I met him once.” Olivia tucked her wrap around her waist and they resumed walking.
“And…”
She knew better than to think Marissa would drop it. Not when Marissa had expressed such interest in him.
“I met him on the ferry over to St. Ives.”
“Isn’t that island restricted?”
“Only certain areas, like this place.” Olivia didn’t want to talk politics it always gave her a headache. And, it reminded her of the situation she had gotten herself pulled into down at the beach.
“It’s a good thing your marrying a military man so we can keep traveling to these places. Especially, if the tourist guides look as good as your slave man.” Marissa winked.
Olivia shrugged, a little fun before she got married never hurt anyone.