It took a few more kisses, a lot more not-so-innocent touching, and a promise of free food before Dominic and I left the hotel room.
We met back with Layla and Ryan—Dominic’s partner—at the pool, and all four of us went to lunch at one of the hotel restaurants. I wanted to go to this fancy Mexican place right down the street from the resort, but Dominic put his foot down and said it wasn’t safe.
Did I really think that if these kidnappers were after me—big if—that they’d followed us an hour out of town to snatch me up on my birthday?
No. Not really. As far as I was concerned, with Dominic and Ryan here and being nowhere near our town, we were safe.
Unfortunately, Ryan had filled Layla in on the situation while Dominic and I were gone, and she freaking took Dominic’s side in the restaurant debate. Whatever. Free food was free food, and Dominic had already said I could get whatever I wanted for my birthday.
Cut to three margaritas, two baskets of cheese fries, and one red velvet cupcake with a candle to blow out later.
Layla had some drinks with me, and even Ryan ordered a beer. The only one who didn’t participate was Dominic, who sat in stiff enjoyment for most of the meal, one eye on me and the other watching for any threats.
That continued when we took the party to the game hall, and Layla and I kicked their asses in ping pong and pool. Twice. Ryan was having a way better time than his counterpart, shooting sly glances Layla’s way that she shamelessly reveled in.
‘“I’m totally fucking him tonight,”’ she’d whispered to me when we were chalking our cue sticks. I chuckled and muttered back, ‘“Do it. Someone should get laid on my birthday.”’
That’s about where we were in the night.
Layla and I were back in our hotel room, and she was getting dressed with the hopes of being undressed soon after. I was laying on the bed Dominic and I made out on hours earlier, inhaling the elemental scent of him and sighing.
“Are you sure it’s okay if I go out?” Layla asked. Again.
“For the thousandth time, yes.” I rolled over onto my stomach, propping my head up on the heel of my palms. “Just because I’m not getting any tonight doesn’t mean you can’t.”
“Okay, okay! I just feel bad.”
“Well, don’t. Ryan’s cute. Plus, he had a hard-on for you the entire time we were playing pool.”
“Well, I was shoving my ass in the direction of his crotch as often as I saw an opening.”
I snickered, remembering Ryan’s face as the evening progressed. When I said he had a hard-on the entire time, I meant it literally. The dude kept shifting his stance and hiding his crotch behind the pool table, cheeks flushed red. He had this boyish charm and panty-dropping grin that complemented Layla’s wild streak and big brown doe eyes perfectly.
They’d only met today, and already, they were more of an item than Dominic and I.
He and I had been keeping a respectable distance since our heated tryst earlier. He was too busy being on guard, and I was too worried about what Ryan did or didn’t know about us to make a move. We’d done a lot of dancing around each other, and my dancing feet were fucking tired.
Layla nodded her head towards the hotel door.
“Is he still outside standing guard?”
She meant Dominic. He and Ryan were taking turns standing outside our door through the night. Right now was Dominic’s shift, and Ryan was back in the room they’d booked for the night.
“He should be. I doubt Mr. Rulebook would stray.”
“Hey.” Layla was giving me a glare that reminded me of her mother when I slid a sulking look her way. “Don’t be mad because he’s taking this seriously. He cares about you. Get used to it.”
“It’s hard,” I grumbled, smothering my face into the mattress.
The bed dipped next to me, cool fingers shifting my hair from above my ear, tucking it back and behind. Groaning, I twisted my neck to lay my cheek against the covers, peeking a squinting eye up at my best friend.
“I know. You’re used to shitty people. ‘Cept for me, ‘cause I’m fucking awesome.” She flipped a lock of dark hair over her shoulder, and I sputtered a laugh. “I know he’s not what you’re used to, and that’s exactly why you deserve someone like him, Kit Kat.”
My mouth peeled to the side. “Someone married?”
She flicked my ear, and I hissed out a laugh.
“Someone who will take care of you.”
“I don’t need anyone to take care of me,” I said, muffling my voice into the bedding.
“I know you don’t need it, but wouldn’t it be nice?”
No. Because then I might get used to it. Then I might begin to need it. Then he might leave, and I might not remember how to live without it, and Charlotte would suffer.
“Hey.” Another flick to my ear. “Stop overthinking.”
“Ow!” Grabbing my ear, I scrambled back on the bed until my feet were back on the floor. “Don’t you have someone to go fuck so you can leave my ears alone?”
She popped up, fixing her little black dress back in place. “I do. And you…” She bent over to her suitcase, rummaging through before yanking something loose and tossing it my way.
“You’re gonna wear that and finish your birthday right.”
Kneading the silken bathing material between my fingers, I sighed and shook my head. “He won’t have sex with me until he’s divorced. I told you that.”
“I know, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still have fun with him.” She shoved on a pair of four or five inch golden heels, readying to go. “I know you’re not trying to tell me you two weren’t the reason your bed looked like it’d been through a thorough romp when we got back here.”
Guilty.
Layla walked up, now a good half a head taller than me. She blinked her gold smeared eyelids, fixing me with a stare that kept my lips shut. “Your birthday isn’t over yet. Spend the last of it looking like a queen with that knight in shining armor standing outside our door.”
So, she got that vibe from him too, huh?
Exhaling, I dropped my eyes to the bathing suit and gripped it tight.
Stupid birthdays. Stupid expectations from everyone that today had to be special. Even stupider that I kind of wanted it to be special. I kind of wanted exactly what Layla described, and I hated myself for it.
I hated myself because I was going to do it. Fuck me, but I was going to end today exactly how I wanted to, despite how dumb it might be come tomorrow morning when Dominic and I were done pretending.
Layla, sensing my decision, gave a supportive squeeze around my arm before disappearing out the door with her phone and room key in hand. I heard her greet Dominic, his ocean-deep voice addressing her back before the door fell shut.
With anticipation in my belly, I strode into the bathroom, the thin piece of fabric in hand and wiggled my way into it. Wiggled being quite a fitting description given how it was Layla’s, and her tits were a good two sizes smaller than mine, and squeezing the girls into this plunging one piece was a bit of a workout.
I managed though, tying midnight black strings around the back of my neck to fix the suit in place. Smoothing my palms down the soft material, I jerked my head up to take in the finished product.
I watched my jaw drop in the mirror.
“Holy shit. I’d fuck me.”
The front of the suit left little to the imagination, dipping a deep V to just above my belly button. It clung around my slight waist, leading up and up to the swell of my tits that were brazenly visible. They looked like soft mounds of pure white snow strapped beneath the strict black lines of the little one piece. I ruffled my fingers through my thick waves of hair, zhuzhing it up, and pinched my fingers over my cheeks.
People did that in movies, right?
A swipe of strawberry balm over my lips and a satisfied wink in the mirror, and I turned for the door, electricity buzzing in my stomach. I didn’t let myself stop once I made it to the thick-wooded maroon door. No stopping to second guess, no stopping to give myself a pep talk, because I knew I’d pep talk myself right outta this.
For tonight, we were still playing pretend, and my favorite birthday present was standing on the other side of this door.
Fingers on the knob, I twisted it open and stepped out.
Dominic was standing against the wall next to the door, stance wide set and arms crossed. My eyes were on his face as one of his thick eyebrows kicked up, head angling down in my direction. His stare touched mine for only a second. Then it was gone, raking down the trap of bare legs and well-placed curves I’d set for him.
He ate me all up, devoured the sight of me with unblushing dedication. I cocked an audacious hip out, and his eyes followed it, jaw pinching tight and pupils blowing wider, making him look just a bit wild. A bit predatory.
“Fancy a midnight swim?” I hummed, leaning against the doorframe.
A slow inhale filled out his chest, eyes of burning charcoal never lifting above my chin. His lips parted, but it took a few seconds before any words came out. And when they did, they were rough as grinding rocks.
“That’s not playing fair.”
Excitement welled in my stomach, and I innocently crossed my ankles over one another.
“I have no idea what you mean.”
Slowly, that dark embered gaze rose to me. A pleased-as-punch grin quivered my cheeks, and I locked my lips together to hold it in place.
He was mad. Not mad mad, but the kind of mad that was fun to poke at and see what happened next. The kind that said he knew the game I was playing, and he wasn’t amused.
He spoke through lips barely parted. “Go back inside your room.”
“I wanna go swimming.”
“The pool is closed.”
“And?”
The side of his mouth twitched despite him keeping his voice even and lecturing. “That usually means something to most people.”
“Yeah. Boring people.”
He argued. “Law-abiding people.”
I hummed, dropping a glance down his front, a heavy smirk dragging across my lips. “Those are the worst offenders of all.”
Flickering my gaze back up, I found Dominic caught in a war of wills with himself, and my playful smirk parted in sorrow. He’d been so worried all day despite promising me he’d pretend everything was okay until tomorrow. I wasn’t sure he’d taken a full breath since he’d gotten here. He was all shallow breathing and laser-eyed focus around every corner.
Now, our chemistry had polluted the air between us, poisoning his strict principled compass and making it spin out.
He was clearly struggling for what to do.
So much of him wanted to lock me back in the room where it was safe and no one but him could get me. So much of him wanted to play along and forget about the danger so we could be us for a bit. Once we left this hotel tomorrow and went back home, nothing would be as easy as it was at this very moment.
I pushed myself off the doorframe, closing in on him. “Dominic, my birthday’s almost over. Tomorrow, everything goes back to normal.” Wives, kidnappers, the panic. The whole twisted shabang. “Are you really gonna make me spend the last few minutes of my birthday alone?”
“Guilt trips aren’t fair when your safety is at risk.”
The hard-lined muscles in Dominic’s stomach tensed as I pressed myself to him, coming right up beneath him with whispered words and fluttering eyelids. “I’m very clearly not playing fair.”
“No,” he rumbled, eyes flaming hot. “You’re clearly not.”
Tilting up on my tiptoes, I brushed strawberry flavored lips against his, pulling his hot breath into my lungs.
“Be a little bad with me, Mr. Reed,” I murmured. “It’s the only rule I’ll ask you to break tonight.”
Punishing hands came to rest on my hips, squeezing them tight like he meant to push me away, but instead he drew me in. Regret slashed a line down his handsome face. “I’m supposed to be watching over you. Not going for late night swims.”
“But you will be watching over me.” I slid my arms around his trim waist, fusing us into one beating, breathing heart. “You’ll be with me the whole time. Plus, since it’s closed, no one should even be around for you to worry about.”
Still, he didn’t look convinced.
“Or we could go back in the room and hang out?” I suggested.
Dominic cut the room next to us a dark look. “I’m not going in there with you.”
My head tipped back beneath his like I was star-gazing in his eyes, and I pouted. It was kind of my thing today. “Why not?”
He lowered his fixated attention to my mouth—to the swollen bottom lip I’d pushed out just for him—and swallowed hard.
“Because I’m positive I would break our only rule if I did.”
Immediate flashes of his naked body and mine, tangled together in crisp white sheets, skipped behind my eyes. I saw my mouth parted in a moan, sweat clinging to his forehead, our bodies joined in a tantalizing rhythm of slapping hips. Tingles that felt both hot and cold zipped down my spine, pooling between my legs in such an obvious way. I shifted my legs, squeezing my thighs, and held onto Dominic tighter.
Oh I was so fucked—except literally.
Even the implication that he wanted to have sex with me got me wetter than any swimming could.
“Do you like the outfit?” I asked, pressing all my ten fingers into his strong back, nails waiting in ready to strike.
He felt them, eyes going hooded. “I hate it.”
“You don’t hate anything,” I breathed heavily.
“I hate that I can’t rip it off of you.”
My breathing tripped over itself, core clenching. More images of us in positions that would make nuns fall to their knees and pray piled through my head. Lust mingled in the air, braiding with our chemistry and knotting Dominic and I together like our souls were trying to fuck as much as every other part of us.
My back arched me against him, a tether in my chest linked right to his heart. His eager hands dug deeper into my waist, holding me closer and branding his touch beneath my skin, his thunder riding my veins. I sheathed my nails into his back just to watch sparks fly over his gray sky eyes and feel that growl of warning vibrate up his sternum.
This was turning too hot too quickly, and somewhere in our desire-addled brains, we knew we had to stop until those papers were signed.
“So…” I swallowed down my lust, wetting my parched throat. “Pool?”
Dominic pulled back a deep breath, sliding his palms up to my bare back. “I don’t have any swim shorts.”
“You have gym shorts. I saw you buy them earlier at the gift shop.”
He tipped a small smile. “To sleep in.”
“So sleep naked.”
That small smile drew all lazy and charmed, his hold on me going softer and sweeter than moments ago. He stroked tempered lines across my back, the tenderness in his touch fanning up to his eyes and warming them.
He was deciding what to do with me. His little lightning who wanted to celebrate her birthday all wrapped up in the thunder until the sun decided to shine, and we’d have to go back into hiding.
We couldn’t very well keep standing outside this door, torturing ourselves to see just how close we could come to tearing each other’s clothes off without actually doing it. We had to do something, and a decision solidified across his rugged face that had a smile turning up my cheeks.
He sighed.
“You get 30 minutes.”
