Page 12 of Protecting Kelli
But it wasn’t fine. Flash was deeply disturbed. Doubly so that Kelli had heard versions of what those two idiots had said from people in the past.
“I didn’t come here to pick up chicks like the others obviously did,” he began. “I don’t date that much at all. My job takes me away from home way too often for me to be a good candidate for a relationship. The first night here, Afton came onto me. Actually, she cornered me in the hallway, put her hand on my dick, and invited me to her room. I’ve never pushed a woman away so damn fast.”
“Right. Good for you,” Kelli mumbled, looking away again.
“Theonlywoman I’ve noticed since I got here satbeside me on the beach and told me that things couldn’t be that bad.”
Kelli’s gaze, which had gone back to her food, whipped up to meet his own.
“In fact, you’re the only woman who’s managed to catch my attention in years.” The admission wasn’t hard to make. And now that he had, Flash couldn’t stop there. “You’re funny, down-to-earth, easy to talk to, and…this is most definitely inappropriate—but I think frick and frack already crossed that line, so I feel the need to make this point very clear—I fell asleep with my cock hard as a rock last night, thinking about how you’d feel under, over, and next to me. And I woke up the same way.
“You have the body of a Greek goddess, Kelli. Curvy in all the right places. There’snothingwrong with you. In fact, seeing you sitting across from me in that coverup makes me want to strip it off you slowly to reveal the gift that’s underneath…which is much sexier to me than your cousin and the Three A’s showing off their goods to the world.”
Kelli’s mouth was hanging open slightly, as if she was in shock.
Flash had said too much. Had beenwaytoo crude. But he needed this woman to understand that all the bullshit Rowan had spewed about women with some meat on their bones wasn’t the way the majority of men felt.
“Um…thanks?”
Flash let out a huff of laughter. “I think we can both agree that the people we came to Jamaica with aren’t the best examples of how adults should act.”
“True. But that now includes me. I was lying about Charlotte. I never heard her talking to her friends about an STD.”
“I figured. But it should keep those assholes from making a move on her. Maybe save her marriage.”
Kelli shrugged. “I’m not sure about that. And I don’t really feel bad about what I did. Serves her right for talking about me behind my back. Are you going to talk to Charles?”
“Oh yeah, Chuck and I are gonna talk,” Flash said. Based on what Rowan said, it sounded like his future brother-in-law hadn’t stepped out of line last night. But better safe than sorry.
To his relief, Kelli chuckled. “Ah, to be a fly on the wall for that conversation.”
“In any other situation, I wouldn’t give a shit who the man fucks. But he’s engaged to my sister. There’s no way I’m gonna let him cheat on her before they even get married. Not if I can help it, anyway.”
Kelli glanced across the room, and Flash followed her gaze to his sister’s fiancé. He was still sitting at a table by himself, still staring at his phone. This time, he had a small smile on his face. The rest of his friends were at a large table with the Three A’s and Charlotte.
Kelli looked back at Flash. “It seems to me that he’s not all that interested in the same things his friends are.”
Flash had to agree. He could be putting on a front because he knew his fiancée’s brother was watching him, but it didn’t seem like it. He was completely absorbed in whatever was happening on his phone. As he watched the man, he saw him talking, and it dawned on Flash that he was FaceTiming someone. Probably Nova.
Flash turned back to Kelli. “Are we good?” he asked.
She frowned. “Good?”
“Yeah. You aren’t…upset by what I said to you?”
To his amazement, she smiled shyly at him. “No. How can I be when I had the same thoughts aboutyoulast night when I got into my own bed?”
And just like that, Flash’s dick hardened under the table. Fuck. He hadn’t had a spontaneous woody in years.
“Good.” Then, worried that she’d think he was saying good to her statement that she’d thought about him in bed, he quickly clarified, “Good that we’re on the same page. I mean…that we’re good. Good that we’re good.”
He sounded like an idiot. Could he say good any more in one sentence?
Kelli giggled. “Yeah, good that we’re good,” she echoed.
Reaching for the pitcher of OJ—idly marveling over the fact her giggles didn’t annoy him, like the other womens’ did—Flash filled her glass. “Make sure you eat enough breakfast, I’m guessing the ‘snack’ we’re promised while on this excursion is gonna suck.”
“You don’t have to tell a fat girl to eat,” Kelli joked.
