Passion Abroad – A Billionaire Romance Novel

“This was a bad idea,” she muttered under her breath as she looked around. “A really, really bad idea,” she was now trying to retrace her steps but it was like her mind was blank. She couldn’t make out what was happening. She just wanted to be away from that place. After all it was his place.

“Are you okay?” Daniel asked as he stood up. To him, she looked like a confused woman who had just woken up in some strange man’s bed.

“Yeah, I’m just trying to figure out how we came up here,” she nodded and looked around.

Daniel grabbed his shirt and put it on.

“I’ll show you,” he said.

“No!” Erica said a little too loudly surprising even herself. “I’m sorry…I just…” she started as Daniel pulled his pants on. She looked at him and put on her sunglasses.

“There is no way you can find your way back to the beach without my help, Erica,” Daniel said as he zipped up his pants. He felt strange putting on his clothes with his wet boxers. He knew that by the time they got to the beach, he would look like he peed himself but he didn’t care at this point. He had never seen anyone this agitated. If he knew this was going to happen, he would have never asked her up here let alone kiss her. Unlike the walk up to the pool, the walk back to the beach was surprisingly quiet. When they finally got to the beach Daniel looked at Erica and asked if he could call a cab.

“No…no. I’ll just go,” she said before walking off leaving him standing there, stunned.

“The cab station is this way,” Daniel called out as he looked at her. Erica stopped in her tracks and turned around. She walked up to where Daniel was and he was trying as hard as he possibly could not to laugh as he pointed her to the direction of the cabs. It went without saying that Erica wished she could just fly out of there.

Throughout the drive back to the hotel, Erica was cursing herself for being so vulnerable. She hated that she was so weak in Daniel’s presence. Or was it that all that time she had stayed celibate was actually catching up with her. She was breathing hard and deep as she walked into her room. She walked to the bathroom and grabbed a towel before she collapsed on the bed. She was cursing herself for more than a thousand reasons.

“What the hell were you thinking?” she wondered as she looked at the ceiling. “At this rate you could have very well let the mailman feel you up.” She shook her head and got up from the bed before she walked to the bathroom. She turned on the water and stripped off her swimwear before she stepped into the water. She closed her eyes and ran her fingers through her wet hair as the water ran down her body. She wanted to talk to someone, needed to talk to someone but knowing her sister, Emily would have probably loved the whole thing. After a shower that took almost an hour, she stepped out of the bathroom and toweled herself up before she sat in front of the mirror. She took a long deep breath as she dried her hair out, every minute wondering why she was feeling like such a mess. “Maybe I am just being too hard on myself,” she thought. But then she brushed the thought off. That was exactly what Emily would have said. Cassandra would have probably come down to Acapulco to slap the silly out of her because according to her, Erica was trying to live her life down rather than living it up.

She looked at her phone and shrugged. She was starving and she couldn’t bear to go downstairs in case she bumped into Daniel. She didn’t know why, but she couldn’t face him. Maybe it was the embarrassment she felt or the way she just felt downright dumb for allowing herself to be so defenseless with him. She walked over to the bed and called the front desk.

“Hi, I’d like to order in,” she said as she leaned against the bed rest. “Can I have some fries and a double cheese burger?” she asked. She could almost hear Daniel’s voice telling her how predictably American she was being with her food.

“Sure, Miss Hayes. Would you like a drink with that?” the guy at the reception asked. She took a minute and shrugged.

“No, I’ll just have something from the minibar,” she said. “Actually cancel the burger. Get me some wings instead,” she added.

“Of course Miss Hayes,” the receptionist said before she thanked him and hung up. She looked around and walked over to the dressing table. She slowly oiled up as she replayed the events of that afternoon. She could still feel the warm tingle of his lips on hers. She looked at her reflection as she let the towel drop to the seat. As she oiled her torso, she couldn’t help but feel sad for herself. This was the only kind of contact she’d had in the last seven months that came anything close to intimacy. She found herself wondering why she had not heeded Cassandra’s advice and got a s*x toy. Maybe she wouldn’t be feeling this silly and/or horny if only she had taken matters into her own hands. She walked to the closet and pulled out a pair of blue tights and a white t-shirt. She pulled on the t-shirt and then put on some black panties before she put on the tights. She was about to walk back to the bed and see what was on TV when she heard a knock on the door.

“They definitely work fast in this hotel,” she thought as she walked to the door. She had a smile on her face as she opened the door. “You most definitely deserve a generous tip for…” her voice trailed off when she saw Daniel outside her door. “Daniel…what are you doing here?” she asked in a low voice.

“Can I come in?” he asked smiling at her. She took a moment before taking a step to the side, allowing him in. “So, what exactly do I deserve a tip for?” he asked as she closed the door. She pushed a strand of hair out of the way and shrugged.

“I ordered room service a few minutes ago,” she said as she led him to her bed. She looked at him and shrugged.

“Why are you here?” she asked as she looked at him. As soon as the words left her lips, she knew that she was being a little rude. She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m sorry…I…” she started before he sat down.

“I’m here to apologize,” he said as he looked up at her.

She crossed her arms on her chest and shook her head.

“You don’t have to,” she said as she looked at him. “It is as much…” her voice trailed off. She wanted to say that it was as much her fault as it was his but somehow she couldn’t bring herself to saying that. She would be admitting to him that she wanted him to kiss her. “You don’t have to,” she said again.

“I guess I just don’t know why I suddenly feel so drawn to you, so…free with you,” he said. Erica looked at him and tried not to smile. “There is something you need to know,” he said without looking at her. “The girl I told you about, my girlfriend…ex-girlfriend. It happened almost three years ago and since then I have been taking these trips around the world trying to figure myself out but every time I get close to someone, I always feel like there should be something more. Like I’m never really completed.”

Erica wasn’t very sure where he was going with this. She looked at him and shook her head.

“Daniel…” she started as she looked at him. He shook his head and stood up.

“No…don’t. I’m trying to explain myself,” he said as he took a step towards her. She looked up at him and wondered what he was going to say next. She was trying as hard as she could not to get too close to him but even then, she couldn’t deny what was happening between them. She opened her mouth to talk but a knock on the door interrupted her. She turned around and walked to the door and opened it. It was her food…finally. She smiled as the hotel employee wheeled her food into the room. She walked to where she had tossed her purse and looked through for any kind of local currency. She shook her head when she noticed that she didn’t have anything local and then pulled out a twenty dollar bill from her wallet and handed it to the waiter before she closed the door.