“Don’t get up,” Charlie whispers into my ear.

It’s sometime in the early morning, the light more gray than anything else. “I have to get up.”

“You don’t,” he murmurs.

“I do.” It’s true—I have to pee. But it only takes a few minutes to dart to the bathroom and back, and then I slip back under the covers with Charlie. “What were you saying?”

“Stay here with me,” he says lazily, and that sets the tone for the rest of the day.

We doze for another couple of hours, until the morning sunlight is streaming through the sliding door out to the balcony.

That’s when he does it. 

That’s when Charlie reaches for the remote on the bedside table, looks at it for a long moment, and stabs his thumb down on the power button, turning on the TV. I look at him with my mouth hanging open. “What’s going on? Did you pay them to create a special channel just for you?”

He arches one eyebrow at me. “Why on earth would I do that?” The channel that’s on the screen now is the one that every hotel and resort on earth has—a long, continuous loop of ads meant to sell…I don’t know, other resort vacations, I guess. Charlie narrows his eyes and watches it for at least a minute. 

It’s an eternity.

“What are you doing?” I say the words softly. He might be going into some kind of trance, and I don’t want to disrupt it.

“Finding something to watch,” he whispers back.

“On TV?”

He looks at me like I’ve just landed from another planet. “Yes.”

This hushed conversation is telling me absolutely nothing, so I curl up against the pillows and watch.  

Charlie flips through a the lineup, passing up what looks like a local access station from the Midwest, a cooking show, and a cartoon that blares violin music from the TV. He frowns a little when he lands on a channel that’s showing a commercial for a fast-food restaurant. “This is…” His voice trails off.

“Worthless?”

“Bizarre is the word I was looking for.”

He scans through a few more channels, and finally something catches his interest. It’s a marathon of a show featuring a team of lawyers. We could watch this all day, only—

I prop myself up on my elbow and look into Charlie’s eyes. “Tell me what’s happening.”

He grins at me, like I’m taking all of this far too seriously. “I’m relaxing.”

I gape at him. “Now? Now you’re going to take it easy?”

Charlie shrugs a shoulder. “Why not?”

“Why not?” I run my hands over my hair. “Because you’ve spent this entire vacation leaping out of bed the instant you wake up so you don’t miss a single email. You’ve ignored me at dinner to answer your brother, whatever that disaster is or was. We had a fight about your phone! Tell me you didn’t forget already.”

“I didn’t forget. I saw your point.”

“My point about what?”

“Oh, don’t be silly, Josie. You’ve been wanting me to lean into this vacation thing since we…started talking.” I’m struck by a hazy memory of throwing up on his shoes. I haven’t been that drunk since then, which is both sad and entirely appropriate. “This is exactly what you wanted.”

“I don’t know what I wanted,” I admit. “I know I wanted you to stop checking your phone all the damn time—”

“I have to run my business—”

“—and last night you did that. But…lying in bed watching TV? While we’re at Emerald Shores?”

Charlie curves one arm around me, pulling me in close. He smells like saltwater and shampoo, a clean, cologne scent resting lightly over everything. The smell of him makes me want to straddle him right now. “You seem tense.”

“I’m not tense. I could probably stand to be more tense, because—” I’m tiptoeing way too close to the full truth about why I’m here. “You’re the one who needs to—”

“I’m doing it, Josie. Right here in front of you.” He kisses me just below my earlobe, and it sends a river of pleasure rushing down my skin. “Take a day off with me. There’s nowhere we need to be. I don’t have anything pressing at work—” He kisses me again. “—at least, I don’t think there’s any emergency to attend to, and you don’t need to think about vacation plans.” He kisses the hollow above my shoulder. “You don’t have to haul me out to the beach, or that godforsaken swim-up bar—”

“It’s like you don’t like to have fun—”

Charlie doesn’t let me interject. “You don’t have to say anything,” he says with a sultry grin. Then he’s shifting down under the covers, hooking his fingers into the waistband of my panties, and tugging them down to my ankles. I kick them off, a laugh rising in my chest. There’s not an ounce of pressure on me, not for the rest of the day. With Charlie’s hands on me, there’s nothing else I could want in the world. 

He lifts me in his arms, turning me so that I am straddling him. I bend down to kiss him and the noise of the television fades away. All it takes is one movement—one lift of my hips—to work him inside of me. We take our time. It’s so deliciously slow that by the time he’s taken me completely, his hands guiding my hips closer to his with every thrust, I’m a human puddle of pure desire. 

Nothing else matters.

Nothing else…almost.

* * *

The bed is a mess.

Charlie laughs out loud, one hand thrown behind his head, and reaches for another piece of toast.

We’ve ordered room service twice, not bothering to put the trays in the hall, so there are three stacked up on the bedside table. We had steaks for breakfast and breakfast for lunch, because, as he said, “Why the hell not?”

“What’s funny?”

“This show,” he says, shaking his head. “It’s so ridiculously predictable.” He takes another bite of toast. “I love it.”

I raise my eyebrows. “This day is full of surprises.”

“It’s not surprising for a man to like a television show.”

“It’s surprising for Charlie Cash to like a television show. How could you ever fit one in when you’re working for Cash Industries twenty-four hours a day?”

“You tell me. You must work around your job when you’re planning all these vacations,” he teases, leaning over to kiss my hair. “Unless you have an incredibly lenient boss. I’m not that kind. I force all of my employees to strictly follow the vacation policy.”

I snort. “Yeah, and your sister? She works for you—that’s what you said. I can’t picture you being a hard-ass to your own siblings.”

“Then you haven’t been paying attention,” he says with a wry smile. “I’m a hard-ass with Adam, when I have to be.” He cracks a big smile. “I bet you’ve got your boss wrapped around your finger.” Then Charlie’s expression darkens, like a thundercloud is passing. “I shouldn’t be jealous.”

The tension sings in my chest while I search for the words. I don’t have a boss. I’m getting cut off unless I find a job. Once I land in the city, I need to have a plan, otherwise—

“Don’t tell me about him,” Charlie says, and reaches down into my tank top to rub the pad of his thumb over my nipple. It pebbles underneath his touch, and a zing of pleasure spirals its way between my legs. “Not on our day off.”