Hired To Love

Chapter Eighteen

              Naiya Parker-Wyatt

Obviously I've never been to St. Marten. Hell, up until this morning when Keon and I were on our way to the airport I didn't even know that the place existed. The second we arrived to our terminal area, Keon gave me a sleeping pill because the entire idea of us flying in the air scared me. He wanted me to experience it first to see how I like it but he also didn't want to take any chances when he saw me looking nauseous.

Anyway, this place was absolutely gorgeous. I woke up this morning thinking I was in heaven. I was grinning from ear to ear as my eyes scanned the entire bedroom, finishing at the bathroom door where Keon was standing looking at me weird. He made fun of my grin saying that I could play the Cheshire Cat if Broadway ever did a musical and needed an actual human to play it. That made me laugh and him too, a little, before he asked me if I wanted to go swimming. That got me out of bed rushing to my suitcase to pick out which one of the adorable bathing suits I wanted to wear on the vacation first.

And here we are.

I'm swimming and he's lounging on the beach chairs wearing a tie dye bucket hat, cut off dark washed jeans that came to his knees and black flip flops. I should've known he wouldn't get in here which made me wonder why he was out here. And then that's when I noticed the large sketch notebook on his lap, the pencil in his hand and the box of color pencils on the table beside him. He was staring at me, it seemed, through his dark Ray Bans. He would look at me, then down to his notepad where his pencil would move and then up at me again. Biting on the corner of my bottom lip with my eyes squinted from the hot sun, I held myself on the ledge of the pool and stared at him. If he was indeed staring at me, he would ask me the same question he always does-

"Why the hell are you staring at me Naiya..."

I motioned for him to come over. I saw him lick his lips slowly as he shook his head a bit. Still, he stood up dropping his sketch pad down on the beach chair where I left my cell phone and large sun hat that Tessa talked me into getting saying that I would need it where we were going. She was right.

As Keon made his way over to me, I watched his expressionless face down to his chiseled chest. He must have snuck my sun tan bronzer lotion on because his chest looked good. He wasn't too buff and he wasn't too skinny-he was just right. I've seen him only once or twice before shirtless and each time it was a blessing to see. Those other times he didn't know I had been looking but this time, I knew he did. Especially since I had on sunglasses that didn't hide my eyes from others like his did.

"You called me over just to get a close up of me or did you wanna say something?"

My cheeks quickly started to burn so I knew I was blushing. Thanks to my chocolate skin he couldn't tell, "Uh I-I just wanted you to come closer...you were so far away..."

"I'm fine where I am..."

"Please? Put your feet in the water or something..." I pouted my bottom lip just a little. He thumbed his own lips before turning around and walking away. I watched him as he picked up his sketch pad and pencil box and slid his feet out of his flip flops. He came back over and sat down on the edge of the pool dipping his feet into the water. He picked up his sketch pad and resumed sketching.

I was shocked that he had done this much considering the fact that the last time he and I were out at the pool at the house, he refused to get near the water. It made me wonder if he had a bad experience with it. I wanted to ask but...we were having a good moment right now and I didn't want to ruin it with a question that might derail him.

I leaned back to float up on the water. The tip of my toes touched his feet causing him to lightly kick at me with a smirk on his face. He was still looking down at the sketch pad but I managed to see the smirk.

I think.

I placed myself up onto the lounge chair floaty. It was strong enough for me to sit Indian style on it. I allowed it to float me around the pool wherever the little waves took me. When it floated around to Keon, I held onto the ledge until I was next to his legs. He looked up at me briefly, which he resumed doing from before, and then down at his sketch pad. Before I could ask him what he was doing, our personal "butler" Zaire came out. He stood off to the side behind Keon who turned his head to look up at him. What I noticed last night when we came in and this morning at breakfast was that he knew sign language and used it.

He started to sign a few seconds before he spoke, [Would you like drink?]

"Something to drink?"

Keon signed, with one hand, that he wanted the usual, which was Hennessey. Zaire nodded and turned his head to me. "And you miss?"

"Uh yes I'll have a piña colada." I've never had one but I've heard they were good.

Keon looked at me, smirked and then looked back up to the guy and signed something else. I never learned that one and Keon did it too fast for me to catch. Zaire chuckled and nodded before going back inside to make our orders. Keon went back to sketching, avoiding any eye contact. I tapped his leg until he looked at me, "Uhm what did you tell him?"

"Told him to make your drink virgin."

I blushed, "Oh..." He licked his lips and resumed sketching. Which reminded me that I wanted to know what he was doing. Every time I would move and sneak a glance, or move period he would maneuver the sketch pad around so that I wouldn't see it. I tapped his leg again. He slowly lifted his head back up to look at me with an irritated expression. I fought a giggle and pointed to the drawing.

[What you drawing?]

[Picture.]

Smart ass.

[Who on picture?]

He closed the sketch pad and his box of pencils. When he stood up and took them back to the beach chairs I pouted again, even going as far as to fold my arms. He came back over and sat down on the edge again, putting his feet back into the water. Zaire returned with our drinks. He handed me mine and then Keon's. Mine had a pineapple on the rim and a cherry on top of the whipped cream. Of course I ate the cherry first. I planned on saving the pineapple for last.

"I never got to ask...how did you like yesterday?"

I sat my glass down next to Keon and climbed out of the floater to sit next to him on the edge of the pool. "It was a great wedding. Granted, I would have wanted it to be under different circumstances but everything was beautiful down to our forced vows. What did you think?"

Keon looked at me in silence for a minute before shaking his head. "It was aight." I mean I know he was completely against yesterday but I kind of wanted him to at least sound a little more enthusiastic.

"The food was good."

"Yeah..."

"And the music."

He shrugged his shoulders, "Of course because I picked out the deejay."

"So what didn't you like besides the part that you were marrying someone you didn't want to, kissing someone you don't love-"

"The kiss wasn't that bad. You're getting the hang of it-"

"-holding hands with someone you falsely labeled as a prostitute-"

"See why you gotta bring up old shit-"

"-and slow dancing with someone who was paid to have sex with you."

He furrowed his eyebrows and looked at me, obviously taken back by my choice in words. "I-Naiya don't make it sound like I despise you."

"No, I know you don't despise me because if you did you wouldn't be here...even though this was forced too."

"Sure I would've wished that I was marrying someone who I chose to marry but don't act like that's not something we both want."

"I'm not-"

"You're trying to make me out as the bad guy for saying that I didn't like the wedding."

"Because of me."

"It's not about you Naiya. You're not at fault for this...my dad is. And did you really have to bring up that old shit? I thought we got pass all that?"

"We did."

"So what's the issue?"

Nothing. Nothing was the issue. To be honest, I don't know why I went off like I did. None of his statement was a surprise to me because he's expressed his feelings about it before. I guess, I figured that with the friendship he and I were building, he would feel better about being forced to marry me. Still, that didn't mean that he would want to do it. He wasn't in love with me. And I wasn't in love with him. His statement just...placed me back into the reality that this paradise fooled me out of. This place had me thinking that things were grand and perfect. It made me forget that we were forced into a marriage with the threat of me being placed back into the foster care system where no potential parents longed for me, and a foster home where the manager's nephew liked to rape me every night.