Craved Mate: Cybermates, Ayers, Candace [the rosie project .txt] 📗

celebrity status but, at over forty, I hadn’t achieved that life I’d envisioned.

“I’ve got to go.”

“Fine, but I also wanted to remind you to pick us up in the morning. Our flight gets in at 11.”

“Whatever. I’ll think about it.”

I hung up. Ben’s call helped distract me a little, but thoughts about Mac were still running rampant in my brain. Inhaling deeply, I filled my lungs with salty ocean air. Ugh! Even the scent of the sea reminded me of Mac.

He is a stranger!

This obsession with him was ridiculous. And it wasn’t right. I should be thinking about Adam, not Mac. I was supposed to feel this way about—

I groaned aloud. Of course. It was probably my dissatisfaction with Adam and our relationship that had me manufacturing this extreme attraction to a man I barely knew. Sure, Mac was hot and all, but simply put, Mac was the grass on the other side of the fence. He looked greener, but eventually he’d need fertilizer too.

The sound of water splashing nearby caused my head to swing in its direction just in time to witness a polar bear break the surface and lumber out of the ocean onto the sand. Nice.

Wait, what?

Heart jackhammering in my chest, I slid farther under the cover of shade. My breath caught in my throat. I would have screamed, but I was too afraid. I was going to be eaten by a polar bear.

Wait, why was there a polar bear in the tropics?

I thought back to the only beverage I’d consumed at Mimi’s Cabana, a diet coke. Had it been spiked with something? Some sort of hallucinogen? It hadn’t tasted funny.

The blood rushed to my head. I was going to pass out.

My stomach did a flip. I was going to throw up.

Then, before I could either pass out or throw up, the polar bear vanished—just vanished—and right where he’d been standing was a naked man.

Blink... Blink… Blink…

The man stretched, yawned, scratched under his ball sack, then jogged off down the beach.

Blink... Blink… Blink…

What did I just see? My brain felt like an old Commodore 64 with dial-up internet. I was not computing. Polar bears didn’t live in Florida. A polar bear should not be emerging from the Gulf of Mexico. But that wasn’t at all weird compared to seeing a polar bear turn into a man.

I rubbed my forehead. Polar bears did not turn into men, Mel. That could not have really happened.

I felt dizzy. Confused. Dizzy with confusion.

Was I hyperglycemic? Hallucinations could be a symptom of dangerously high blood sugar. I rifled around in my purse for my monitor and checked my sugar: 90 mg/dL, normal.

Struggling to my feet, I stumbled toward the bed and breakfast, still rubbing my forehead. I knew what I saw. I had very definitely seen a large polar bear. Then, I had very definitely seen that large polar bear turn into a nude man.

I let myself into my room, locked the door, and leaned back, resting against it. Barring hyperglycemia or being slipped a mickey, what else could have caused me to hallucinate such an unusual sight?

A stroke? I was only in my early forties and while, as Ingrid pointed out, I didn’t exercise consistently, I wasn’t in terrible physical shape either.

A tumor? That was a possibility. I’d had a yearly checkup not too long ago, but still.

It took me a while to move from that spot, but when I did, I went into the bathroom and stared at myself in the mirror. I splashed cold water on my face.

I would just go to sleep and when I woke up, maybe I’d have answers. Only when my head hit my pillow, my brain would not allow sleep. No, it wanted to think about the polar bear.

Then my brain started skipping from the polar bear to Mac.

Then, not only was my brain awake, my body was right there with it.

Sunkissed Key was a strange place. I rolled over and fluffed my pillow, silently begging my brain to turn off.

No go.

It was laser focused.

On Mac.

Mac with the strong thighs and delicious scent. Mac with the large, capable hands and steel beams for arms that could easily rescue a damsel in distress, like, oh, say, one stuck in a tree.

Mac with the very evident, very prominent, and very large bulge in his pants when he escorted said damsel down the ladder and said damsel’s butt cheek happened to graze the front of his uniform.

Rolling over again, I groaned. I had to get some sleep tonight. I had a big day tomorrow and needed to be well rested.

It didn’t happen.

No matter how much I wanted my body to relax, sleep continued to evade me.

I tossed and turned and stared at the ceiling.

I tossed and turned and stared at the wall.

I tossed and turned until I began to imagine that the polar bear didn’t transform into a random man at all, but into Mac. Then, I imagined, instead of jogging off down the beach, Mac spotted me watching in the shadows and came closer, dropping to his knees, pulling me into his arms…

10

Mel

I hadn’t gotten a lick of sleep. I was exhausted and cranky. Instead of sitting in the dining room surrounded by people, I piled a plate high with bacon, added a cinnamon roll, and snuck back to my room. Jacob had kindly gotten me a thermal carafe of coffee from the kitchen to take upstairs.

I had an hour before I needed to pick up Ingrid and the guys. I nibbled on the bacon and cinnamon roll as I guzzled the coffee like it was the last pot I’d ever see.

The drive to the airport was uneventful except, of course, for the bathroom breaks every twenty minutes.

By the time I arrived, the little group of people I loved most in the world was standing at the curb, waiting for me.

Even though I’d just seen them all a few days prior, I was so happy to see them, I parked at