The Honeymoon Prize by Melissa McClone Page A

good at playacting, the line between real and fantasy sometimes blurred, but Addie hadn’t forgotten their agreement. Discrete affairs were okay. A reasonable request given this was going to be a five-year marriage of convenience.
    So why did the woman’s blatant interest in Nick make Addie so uncomfortable and a little sick to her stomach?
    Maybe she thought he’d take a break from flirting around during their honeymoon. Maybe she needed more food—a get-her-through-this chocolate something or other.
    Addie touched his shoulder. “I’m going to see if any chocolate mousse is left.”
    He picked up his beer. “I’ll come with you.”
    She wanted him with her, more than anything, but this was part of their arrangement, for better or worse. Putting off the inevitable would only make dealing with women flirting and wanting to pursue Nick harder the next time. “Stay here and finish your beer.”
    His forehead creased. “You sure?”
    “I’m sure.” Well, sort of. She was curious to see if he flirted back.
    He smiled at her. “Enjoy the dessert.”
    Addie nodded again. She shouldn’t be upset or disturbed or anything. Yet she was.
    She walked to the outdoor dining area, took a bowl of chocolate mousse from the dessert display, then sat at a table with a direct view of the bar where she could see Nick. Well, his backside. She kind of understood why a moth might dive-bomb a tiki torch. She couldn’t look away.
    Before she stuck her spoon into the dessert, the strawberry blonde sidled up to Nick. She held a drink in one hand and touched his shoulder with the other.
    Not wasting any time.
    Addie shoved a spoonful of mousse into her mouth. The whipped chocolate went down smoothly, but she could be eating white rice for all she tasted.
    Nick chatted with the woman. Addie could only see the backs of heads, but she imagined they were smiling, especially the woman. Addie stabbed her spoon into the mousse.
    The woman flipped her hair behind her shoulder with a practiced flair, the kind reserved for actresses, supermodels, and socialites. Nick laughed. The woman pressed her chest against his upper arm. He didn’t move away, but downed the rest of his beer as if he wanted to get out of there.
    Reality smacked Addie in the stomach. This didn’t look like flirting but wanting to fool around. She covered her mouth with her hand.
    Darn him. Couldn’t he have waited until they were off the island? If he got caught, he would blow their happy couple cover. Would Nick think sex with a stranger was worth his job and Emily’s?
    Yes.
    The Nick that Addie had known most of her life was a lady’s man, player, heartbreaker. But here on the island, she’d forgotten. Forgotten about his dating habits. Forgotten about his reputation. Forgotten about women’s response to his good looks and charm.
    She shouldn’t expect Nick to act differently. That went against his nature, but watching him now felt strange, almost . . . wrong. She didn’t understand why.
    Back in high school, when Nick had asked out one of her friends, Addie had told herself being his long-term friend was more important than being his short-term date. When he was deployed, she’d understood and supported him when he proposed to Carrie, knowing his baby needed a father. But Addie couldn’t rationalize why she wanted to dump her bowl of mousse on the woman’s head. Or why Nick needed to do this now ?
    When Addie wanted him sleeping with . . .
    Well, not with another woman.
    The bartender placed a cocktail and another beer bottle in front of Nick and the woman. The strawberry blonde raised her glass in a toast, the way Addie had done with Nick on the airplane and their first dinner. The mousse hardened in her stomach like a leaden weight.
    Okay, she didn’t expect Nick to be celibate for the next five years, but she hadn’t imagined feeling so conflicted over seeing him with another woman. And tonight was only the beginning.
    Could she handle this for the next