Solving For Nic by Lexxi Callahan Page B

that smelled like the ocean. She could hear the ocean too, and the air smelled like salt. There was a bell sounding in the distance.
    The Keys.
    She was in the Florida Keys. With Nic.
    Lizzie straightened and pushed her hair off her face. She vaguely remembered arriving last night. He'd carried her inside, unzipped her dress and pulled it over her head. When she’d expected him to kiss her, he’d put her in bed, the soft sheets seductively cool against her hot skin. She didn’t remember much after that.
    Paper fluttered behind a glass of orange juice on the bedside table. Welcome to Paradise was scrawled carelessly across it in sharp black strokes. She dragged her hand down her face. What the hell had she been thinking? Or drinking?
    Sheer white curtains billowed in the warm breeze let in by the open doors. She took a deep breath, knowing there wasn’t an escape route this time. She swallowed down the panic. The curtains danced. Seagulls echoed in the distance.
    Maybe it was paradise.
    Lizzie grabbed the orange juice and the two painkillers sitting next to the glass. He thought of everything.
    She found her dress draped over a chair, with her shoes and carry all next to it. She stared at it for a minute, a tendril of concern floating through her murky brain. Something was missing. She sipped the juice and sighed. She’d figure it out later. She finished the juice as she walked into an open kitchen that would make Jen sob.
    When he’d said he had a house in the Keys, she’d pictured a charming cottage painted bright yellow with a thatched roof. She glanced around the open floor plan. The furniture could have been recovered from a British Colonial tree house. She stepped towards the long bank of glass doors along the back wall. Outside, a swimming pool masqueraded as a rain forest lake with a waterfall splashing at one end.
    Beyond the pool, a long pier stretched out into the blue-green water. Nic jumped down from the huge fishing boat floating at the end of the pier. Dressed in a faded pair of cargo shorts that rode dangerously low on lean hips, he had a handful of fishing rods. She couldn’t decide which was more scandalous. Nic fishing or Nic in shorts and a faded denim button-up shirt that he hadn’t bothered to button up. She forgot the question when he stripped off his shirt and she got a good look at all those long lean muscles. The dark hair covering his spectacular chest made Lizzie’s palms itch.
    He was, in a word, perfect.
    Fascinated, she watched him bait the hooks and cast lines out into the water. He dropped down to sit on an ice chest. Lizzie’s head tilted to the side as she watched him. He didn’t move other than to make small adjustments on the fishing line.
    Nic Maretti.
    Fishing?
    Not what she expected at all.
    She turned away from the window and headed back to the lavish master bedroom. She quickly made up the bed then walked through to the bathroom. The huge whirlpool tub beckoned but she pushed away the urge for a long hot bubble bath. Maybe later.
    She dropped her carryall on the vanity and dug out her tooth brush and lime green bikini. While brushing her teeth, she spotted a stack of beach towels with another bathing suit on top. Holding the toothbrush in her mouth with her teeth, she moved across the room to examine the suit. The black suit was her size and looked vaguely familiar. It wouldn’t hurt to try it on.
    The bikini fit perfectly. Déjà vu teased at the corners of her mind as she picked up the matching sarong and scarf. She loved the tiny shells and charms dangling from the gauzy fabric. She knotted the sarong around her waist. The shells and metal charms jingled as she moved.
    She’d seen this bathing suit before. She’d pinned it on one of her Pinterest boards when she’d been snowed in last winter and dreaming of the beach. She went to get her phone to check her Pinterest app then realized what was missing. The beaded bag that had her cell phone, her ID, ATM card and pretty