“Sure, that we can manage. Sounds good to me, too. Then we can come back in and order room service.”

“Ahhh. Divine.”

He grinned at her and sent up probably the hundredth prayer of thanks that he was here with Kelsey and not his ex on some sham of a honeymoon. Courtney could probably make some guy a happy man one day… She was smart and beautiful, certainly no fluff piece of arm candy. She was his younger brother’s age but already ran her own business—a downtown boutique his mom frequented—and it was there he’d met her for the first time. His mother still couldn’t convince him there weren’t ulterior motives involved the day she called and asked him if he’d stop by the store and pay on her account. Courtney had been working that day. He’d asked her out on the spot. His mom knew him too well.

She’d managed to fit right in with his sometimes overwhelming, boisterous family. But like all the others, she just wasn’t the one for him. Though she’d perhaps come closest.

He often wondered if they’d have made it to the altar even if she hadn’t been unfaithful. She’d presented him with an easy out, and he’d pounced on it. He wondered what Kelsey would say when she heard Courtney and Todd had split up.

Ordinarily, Evan wouldn’t have given a damn what happened to Todd Jacobs. He wouldn’t have wasted a single thought on the bastard if there hadn’t been ramifications for Kelsey. If Courtney was to be believed, any day now Todd could come crawling back to Kelsey. The thought made his blood seethe. He wanted to talk to her about it, ask her how she felt…but she was having too much fun to dredge up that stuff, and he figured if he asked her she would give an answer that was automatic instead of genuine. But if, if Todd showed up at her door…would she listen to his excuses and take him back?

Evan didn’t think so, but he didn’t know. She seemed to carry a lot of guilt over the fact that her marriage had failed, regardless that it was not of her doing. Guilt could be a bitch of a motivator.

Kelsey followed him in for a quick dip in the waves before they collected their beach gear and headed for their ridiculously lavish suite. His parents certainly hadn’t spared any expense, probably a testament to how desperate they were to marry him off.

But it seemed nothing could stop the intrusion of reality. For the second day in a row, there was a frantic message from Evan’s legal assistant waiting on his BlackBerry.

He cursed when he saw the number, and Kelsey laughed. “Duty calls, even in paradise,” she said, patting him on the shoulder as she slipped past him into the bathroom…surely to shower all that sand from her glistening body. God, how he’d love to do it, he thought as he reluctantly called his assistant’s personal cell to see what the hell had blown up at the office. Given the four-hour time difference, everyone would be home by now.

Even as Delilah finished updating him and started jabbering in his ear about God knew what, his mind kept going back to the image of Kelsey standing naked under the spray, her hands all over her body as she rinsed away the banana-scented oil adhering the grains of beach sand to her skin. And him running his tongue along her tan lines. Jesus. His c**k began to swell inside his swimming trunks. If she came out now… Shit. He needed to go check baseball scores or something, anything to get those pictures out of his head.

He wiped his fingers hard over his eyes. “Delilah, I have to go. You guys have a good week. Call me if anything else comes up.”

Plenty had come up here. Evan cut her off without waiting for a reply and drew a breath, resisting the urge to adjust himself because it would probably only make the situation worse to touch it. He sat hard on the bed and collapsed back on the mattress.

Not helping matters was his nearly undeniable suspicion Kelsey had masturbated right here in the bed next to him last night, thinking him asleep. He had been mindfucked on that one, a grown man not knowing what the hell to do with the enflamed, sober female next to him—turn over and help her out at the risk of embarrassing the hell out of his longtime friend, or let her finish, only to have to creep into the bathroom and take care of himself after she was asleep.

Like a dumbass, he’d chosen the latter. The thought of her fingertips slipping through her wet folds with gentle urgency, the memory of what it had felt like when he’d done the same, had his dick throbbing now like a smashed thumb. He wondered if it was him she fantasized about touching her as she came silently next to him. If she would’ve liked it if he had turned over and replaced her fingers with his own. If she’d have begged him to push his c**k into her pu**y, already wet and ready for him. If she would’ve cried his name into the darkness as she climaxed in his arms, no more need for silence.

Ten years ago there wouldn’t have been a question. The girl had carried her soul in her eyes. She only had to look at him back then and he knew she could be his for the taking. But the sweetness and innocence he’d loved in her as a friend had been the very things that kept him away.

He’d been a double major in political science and criminal justice, president of too many damn clubs and honor societies to remember, all to bulk up his law school apps. He’d been a social animal, but he hadn’t had time for anything more than superficial, shallow relationships with girls he knew were just passing through his life. He hadn’t wanted to get derailed by love. And Kelsey, he knew, would have damn well derailed him. One taste of her and he feared he would have wandered around lost in a euphoric fog.

He hadn’t been thinking fate would step in to keep her in his life all these years. But it had, and even worse, Kelsey’s gray eyes had cooled over that time. Nothing there gave him any indication whether she still felt anything for him, just one drunken confession he wasn’t entirely sure if he should believe or not. He was praying for something in there to reveal itself in the light of day, to let him know she really was susceptible to him.

Her giving in to a physical need and getting herself off within arm’s reach of him still wasn’t enough…too much was at risk. She was driving him crazy, just like she always had. Why did their timing always have to be so off? If she still wasn’t over Todd, he didn’t want to get caught up in that baggage no matter what he felt for her.

Their friendship was far too precious for him to throw caution to the wind and offer her everything, only for her to leave him when her ex-husband showed up at her door full of apologies and promises.

Kelsey wiped the steam from the mirror with her towel and stared at her reflection. Her skin was flushed from the heat of her shower…or the wild sexual heat she’d been in ever since Evan showed up at her door to sweep her away to paradise.

“You’re in a mess,” she informed herself quietly, as if she didn’t already know. The very mess she’d anticipated. Sighing, she grabbed her hairdryer, flipped her hair over and began to blow it dry.

She didn’t want any more nights like last night and the one before. Upon first arrival Evan had offered to take the sofa in the living room, but she’d felt wretched about that, being this was his trip—his should-be honeymoon, she reminded herself. She’d offered to take it herself, and he flat refused. So lying next to him in what seemed like acres of bed, yearning for him yet unable to touch him, had twisted a dagger through her heart. She wanted to be in his arms, those strong, lean-muscled arms…and it was the very place she didn’t need to go.