Shannon laughed when she messed up her footing, but Dylan corrected her step and kept her moving.

By the time the first song was done, Avery had Victor twisting her around a few times, all with a few stubbed toes, but she didn’t bring attention to his lack of grace.

Dylan took the opportunity in the change of songs to hand Shannon off to Victor as he grabbed Avery’s hand.

She followed his lead, zigzagged in and out of Dylan’s arms as he got into the music. When they came close together, Dylan spoke in her ear. “They’re both stepping on each other.”

Avery glanced toward her friend.

It was great to see Shannon laughing, and not with the superficial laughter that often came out of her, but with this deep abandon that only came with real joy.

Dylan moved the two of them to the opposite side of the dance floor and eventually pulled them away from the crowd.

“I have to ask you something,” he started.

Avery fanned herself and attempted to slow her breathing down. “Go for it.”

“Why Victor? He’s obviously on the rebound. Those never end well.”

Avery tried to find Shannon and Victor through the couples on the dance floor and couldn’t see them. “She’s on a rebound, too.”

“I thought her divorce was a few years ago.”

“It was. And she hasn’t dated since. Like at all.”

Dylan looked at her as if she were lying.

“I know Shannon. She won’t let anything happen with Victor, but he is bringing out the blush in her. And that’s a step in the right direction. I’d rather see her flirting with him than hooking up with a stranger.”

“She doesn’t seem the hooking up type.”

“She’s not. Victor seems safe enough.”

Dylan nodded. “Harmless, if you ask me.”

“Clueless, if you ask me.”

They both laughed.

Avery leaned in close, lowered her voice. “I want my friend to discover she has a vagina again, but not give it up to someone who will hurt her. She knows the score with Victor.” Though again, Avery was pretty sure the man couldn’t charm Shannon’s panties off her.

Not with the risk of her getting pregnant with a man she knew, who would find out if she had a child.

They both turned to see Shannon and Victor walking back to their table, his hand on her arm and both of them smiling and out of breath.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Dylan said.

Avery felt a slight doubt in the back of her head. “I do.”

Chapter Twelve

“I know what you’re doing,” Shannon said once the two of them were down to their birthday suits and floating in the pool under the light of the moon. The sidewalks rolled up early in Tulum, and the party below was down to a few die-hards at the bar after the band had finished for the night.

Dylan and Erasmo said their good nights, and Victor bowed out shortly after.

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t even try and pretend. Dancing with Victor, invites to dinner . . . I’m surprised you didn’t suggest he join us in the pool.”

Avery looked down at her reflection. “Good idea.”

Shannon splashed water at her friend. “He isn’t the right guy to sleep with.”

“I never suggested he is. But he is the right guy to flirt with.”

Which was exactly what she’d done all night. Avery’s words swam in Shannon’s head continually about the man’s attraction to her. Her hyperfocus on his actions made it hard to see anything but the soft brown of his eyes or the way they smiled when he laughed at how clumsy the two of them were while attempting to salsa dance. If she were honest with herself, and right now she was doing her best to lie, the man was slowly tugging on her inactive libido. Men had led her on and off the dance floors in social situations many times in the past few years . . . since Paul . . . but she hadn’t paid attention to how their palms molded into the small of her back, or how they lingered on her shoulder. Probably because those dances were obligations during her friends’ weddings or the occasional fundraising event where saying no would have proved awkward. Again, the people pleaser in Shannon would come out, and she’d dance with strangers she felt nothing toward.

Just thinking about Victor’s long fingers and laughing smile warmed her. He was different.

“Look at it this way,” Avery started. “Victor is safe, right? I mean, he just broke it off with his fiancée, and the chances of you really falling for the guy are pretty slim, right?”

Shannon instantly agreed. “He’s not the keeping kind.”

“Exactly. But he is a decent transitional guy. You haven’t put yourself out there in forever. And yet you somehow expected you’d be able to come here, pick up a stranger, have sex, and move on. C’mon, Shannon. You had to know you’d stutter a few times before your sexual engine starts to hum.”

Shannon lifted her chin, wanting to deny Avery’s claim. “I’ve been running low on fuel for a while.”

“Men like Victor are the gas station. Let him flirt. Flirt back. Enjoy his attention and learn to cut it off. Something I don’t think you’re all that practiced on. He’s on the rebound and can’t be looking for more than the same thing you are. Positive opposite sex attention.”

“I’m not sleeping with him.”

Avery was quiet.

“I’m not.”

“Fine. Don’t.”

“Avery. I’m as fertile as they come.” She’d taken her ovulation tests over the past few months and mapped out her best days to conceive.

“Condoms still work.”

“I know, but no. I’m not going there. If something happened and I did end up pregnant with Victor’s . . .” She shook her head, unable to let the image continue in her head. “That would be wrong for everyone.”

“Relax. No one is getting pregnant tonight. Enjoy the attention, Shannon. That’s all I’m suggesting. When was the last time someone looked at you the way he did tonight?”

His eyes did hold hers a lot.

“It’s been a long time.”

“The man was undressing you with his eyes every time he thought no one was looking.”

“That sounds sleazy.”

“If he was open about it and added a ‘hey baby, your place or mine,’ then yes. But he only looked when he didn’t realize anyone watched. Know the difference between him and the ‘your place or mine’ guy. That is the guy you were looking for this week. Mr. Temporary. Mr. Hot Attraction Baby Daddy Material. Not Mr. Jilted Groom Bleeding Heart Guy.”

“I don’t see a bleeding heart.”

Avery sighed. “Me either. Whatever. It doesn’t matter. Consider Victor a practice run.”

Practice run . . .

She could do that.

If it made a difference, Victor looked away when Avery stepped out of the pool.

The heat of the day had disappeared with the sun, but the warmth of the Caribbean kept the evening temperatures well into the low eighties.

The only thing that would make the habit-forming ritual of watching Shannon skinny-dip better would be if he could eavesdrop on her conversation. She felt their attraction, even though she seemed to squirm away from it whenever he leaned in close. Avery was making it easy, pushing it, even.

He had to respect a friend who approved enough to create opportunities for him to seduce. Which was why he looked away when Avery stepped out of the pool.

The moon didn’t offer much in the way of light, but that didn’t stop him from finding his perch moments before the women slid into the water.

Avery wrapped herself in a hotel issue bathrobe and disappeared into the room. Shannon lingered outside. She toweled off outside and turned around. Victor was sure that would be the end of it.

She surprised him.

Shannon dropped the towel on one of the many chairs on the deck and walked straight to the edge of her balcony. Anyone walking on the beach would have seen her . . . all of her. He glanced down at the sand and felt some relief to see it deserted.

She, too, scanned the space before leaning her elbows on the balcony to display her curves against the silhouette of the sky.

Victor squirmed in his chair, the soft erection of knowing she was naked in the pool now pressed firmly against his cotton pants.

Light went on inside their room, and Victor saw Avery pacing with a phone to her ear. Shannon seemed to notice, too, and instead of going inside, she pulled a chair closer to the railing, sat, and perched her legs so she could lounge in the moonlight.

No wonder sailors wrote stories and songs of mermaids and sirens on the shore, calling their name.

Shannon was a goddess stretched out, nude, with her head tilted back. He imagined the smile on her face and strands of her hair falling above the curve of her breasts.

Much as he wanted to free his dick, he refrained and just enjoyed her image. He had no doubt he’d recall this moment in the not too distant future when his body needed release, but doing so now, with her right there, didn’t feel right.

Yeah, and making a sport out of watching her walk around naked when she didn’t know it was anything but right.

This was his little secret. One he planned to keep to his grave.

Victor stretched out, ignored his teenage dick, and committed Shannon’s moonlit curves to memory.