by Shain Rose
I didn’t shrink at his assessment. I was confident about how I looked even if I was standing in front of one of the most attractive and powerful men I’d ever met. “And? Am I different?”
I didn’t realize I was searching for a compliment until he replied with an insult. “No different, Vick. You are who you are. You look how you look. A sunset isn’t going to change that.”
I rolled my eyes and shoved past him. When we got to a fork in the path, I stopped and asked, “Which way to your hotel room?”
He halted at the fork too. He put his hand on the small of my back before he asked, “You sure you want to come to my hotel room? Will you remember any of this in the morning?”
He wanted to make sure I hadn’t drank too much. Or that I wouldn’t regret the decision I was about to make. He was giving me a way out, and for some reason that made the way out much harder to take.
“Which way?”
“We should probably call it a night.”
I glared at him. “Which way, Jett?”
He sighed and turned to his right without answering. I followed.
Our hotel rooms sat on the edge of cliffs that overlooked the ocean. They were more like condos or suites, so big and inviting that they each had their own entryway. We walked up to his door, and he swiped the keycard while looking at me. The beep sounded, and he twisted the handle but didn’t look away. “We walk in here, we lose the facade, Vick. I’m too on edge to play any games or recite some fairy-tale poetry you might want for your happy ending to your day.”
I shrugged and walked right past him into his place. “I intend to make you recite poetry because you want to, Jett. It’s never forced. It’s—”
I didn’t finish my sentence because he grabbed my face and devoured my mouth.
I gasped in surprise, but he didn’t let up. He dove in deeper, pressing his body against me. The way his tongue tasted mine, the way he didn’t hesitate but gripped my face like it was the only thing he ever wanted made me feel like we had something more than just tonight.
He kissed me like he wanted there to be more.
Maybe I imagined it, because then he pulled back and held my face in his hands. His blue eyes looked almost black, and he stared at me like he wanted me to see into his thoughts. “This is reality, Vick.”
I leaned in to kiss him, and I didn’t hold back. I wrapped my legs around him and let my dress bunch up. I felt him against me. He was long, hard. Ready.
He slid his hands down to my butt and groaned when he felt just a thong beneath my dress. He lifted me up and carried me to his bed.
I didn’t look around or take in how he had set up his suite. I didn’t care. When he fell back onto the bed with me on top of him, I lifted myself so he could slide my dress over my head. Then I was back on him, sucking his bottom lip, biting it, and working his belt and zipper underneath me.
His hands slid up my back, and one wrapped around my ponytail. He pulled it hard enough that I leaned back and moved to the side. Then he was on top of me, taking over. He ravaged my neck, biting it roughly and then licking it better. He didn’t waste time taking off any more of his clothes. He grabbed protection, slid my panties over to the side and plunged into me.
I was ready for him, so ready that I orgasmed on his first thrust. I pulled him close and screamed into his shoulder as stars brighter than the freaking sunset burst through me.
I rode my high and he let me, watching me the entire time in the darkness of that room.
When I came down from it, legs still wrapped around his waist and him still deep inside me, he said, “You’re in the darkness now. You want to know if you look any different than when you were under the light of the sunset?”
I barely comprehended what he was talking about but I nodded. “Sure,” I mumbled in a state of shock at how blissful it was to get off by none other than Mr. Negative.
He looked down at where our bodies connected and then back up at me. “Still the same. You look exactly the same. Truth, doll.”
I shrugged, not caring that he hadn’t given me a poetic line. I’d just had a fairy-tale orgasm.
His next words seared into me though. They left a tattoo on my heart.
“Beautiful as fucking ever. Most beautiful thing I’ve seen in a long time. Light or dark. Under any light.” He waited a beat. “Truth.”
Then he rocked back to thrust into me hard, not giving me a moment to respond.
I blame alcohol for the idea of love that swirled in my head. He balanced me and showered me with compliments throughout the night. His whispers of how perfect this was, how good I felt, sparked my own dreams of a wedding day, of a happily ever after. The way his hands smoothed over my skin like it was made of pure gold and the way he ran his nose along my nape.
He wanted me the way I wanted him. I knew it. He wanted the love, the future, and the commitment.
Like stars glittering against the night sky, I felt like I shined damn brighter than ever before with him beside me.
After we made love again, he fell asleep, and I raked my eyes over his entire body. He breathed in air like he dominated it, his muscles rippling with the effort. The frown he normally wore disappeared, as if his dreams freed him from the drain of reality. He looked at peace and he needed that. Worrying about every war the world waged at every moment of the day wasn’t healthy.
I could attest to that. Once upon a time, there was no happily ever after for me.
I fell asleep after snuggling into his arms. I was excited for what the morning would bring. We would talk over the future and enjoy the sandy beaches of Kauai.
His arms weren’t around me when I woke. I stirred and found not even a sheet covering my body. I woke up cold and sat up to look around.
The sun shined into the bedroom, and I smiled as I breathed in that humid air, listened to the rustle of the trees, and thought about our extraordinary night.
I stretched and winced a little, knowing I would need water and ibuprofen to fend off the headache that was sure to come after the amount of alcohol I'd consumed. Even more so because Jett had ravaged me last night. I was sore in places I wasn’t sure I’d ever ached before.
He strolled in from the bathroom, a white towel hanging from his hips and a few stray droplets of water glistening on his chest.
Part of me couldn’t believe I’d slept with that amazing specimen all night long. Every muscle cut into the next with precision and they moved in beautiful sync with one another as he entered the room.
He hadn’t looked toward me yet as he dried his hair with another towel. I let the sheets hang loosely on me as I tried for a sexy rasp, “You look good this morning.”
Jett jumped in surprise and then his whole body went rigid. “You’re still here?”
I frowned. “Well, yeah. I just woke up. I figured we could lounge in bed …”
“I don’t have time for that.” He stepped back as if offended by my suggestion.
I scooted off the bed and found my dress in a ball on the floor. "You're totally right. We should start the day off by getting outside to explore this amazing island. Do you have some sweats I could borrow? My dress…" I held it up and shrugged, knowing that guys loved when a woman wore their clothes. I hoped he’d think I looked cute standing there completely naked.
I was excited to see his face when I slipped on the shirt he would give me, excited to spend the day with him too.
He didn't move to get me a change of clothes though. He stared at me like gum on the bottom of his shoe. My smile dropped a little.
Did I imagine that look of annoyance?
He raked his eyes up and down my body and then rolled them. Dramatically. "You can't just wear that dress for a minute to get back to your place? It can't be far from here …."
"But I thought we—"
"We?" He spit the word out like it was gasoline in his mouth. "There's no we, Pix."
"Last night was …"
He held up a hand to stop me. "Last night was last night
. Now last night is over."
"But you said—"
"Nothing to make you think this would last till morning. Honestly, why did you even stay the night?"
Shock ping-ponged through me. And the reality that he’d spoken so damn highly of dropped down on me like a lead weight, crushing all my hopes with that one question.
“I stayed because I thought we were enjoying each other.”
“I enjoyed fucking you. I think it’s safe to say you enjoyed that part too.”
I wanted to throw my dress at him, but I didn’t want to retrieve it completely nude. So, I took my time stretching out the wrinkles all while I looked at him.
He didn’t shrink away from my glare. He met it head-on by crossing his arms and pointedly looking at my deliberately slow movements. “I don’t have all day, Vick.”
“Wow, you know my name now. Not your little pixie anymore, huh?” I fumed. “And you had all night. You can spare me a precious few minutes of your day so I can at least look presentable when I do the walk of shame.”
“Oh, please,”—he turned toward the living area—“half of the island is probably doing the walk of shame. You could call it a normal stroll at this point.”
“Where are you going?” I quit trying to smooth creases from my dress and threw it on as I stomped after him. “You don’t get to whisper sweet everythings in my ear all night and then act like a complete jerk the morning after.”
His face held a question. “‘Sweet everythings'?” He burst out laughing, like the answer he found was the most comical thing ever. He laughed so hard he bent at the waist and held himself up on the island counter near the living area. The towel barely clung to him as his whole body shook.
Maybe he’s joking with me. Maybe he’s laughing because he’s about to tell me he really does see us going somewhere.
“You.” He wiped his eyes quickly and then shook his head as he righted himself. “‘Sweet everythings.’ That’s ridiculous. You know what a one-night stand is. I know you do.”
My laugh died as my jaw dropped.
“Come on.” He rolled a finger in front of him, motioning for me to start moving. “Let’s get moving. I need to get dressed.”
I snapped my mouth shut. I straightened up. And I stepped up to face the terrible morning this was turning out to be.
“You know what?” I stalked toward him, not waiting for him to respond. “You’re exactly what is wrong with this world. Don’t tear me down because I had a fucking hope that this was more, you dick.”
His eyebrows slammed down. Good, I wanted a reaction.
“I know where I’m not wanted. And I’ll walk out of here happy, Jett. You want to know why?”
He lifted one shoulder, but he watched me like I finally wasn’t a joke to him or just a one-night stand. All of a sudden, I had his attention. His sapphire eyes held mine, and they didn’t look away. It was almost like he wanted my disdain. When most people would have shied away from being reprimanded, he reveled in it.
“I’m thankful I enjoyed a couple orgasms from you and now I get to leave you and all your negativity behind. I thought you might be deeper than it, that you just saw this world differently from me, but you’re only searching for grim places, and I’ve been down that boring road before. I want the light, and I’m good enough at finding it that I can honestly say”—I slipped my shoes on, glancing at him while I did—“this will be one of my better mornings because I got to leave misery—you—in the dust.”
With that, I swung open his front door and flipped my hair over my shoulder as I walked out.
Smiling.
4
Jett
That girl was something.
I smiled as she turned to leave. I waited for her to turn back and catch one last glimpse of me. I wouldn’t have minded one last look at her too.
Sleek and well-packaged woman that she was, her body would drive any man insane with her long legs, tiny waist, and curves in all the right places. I wanted her to turn so I could see her face and the smooth, soft skin right where her jaw and neck met, the place I now knew drove her fucking crazy when I bit at it.
I wanted to see those honey-colored eyes burning with resentment and fight in them. She bled confidence when someone cut her. Surprisingly, I found that blood attracted me.
I prided myself on not caring about the women I brushed off. I never gave them a promise, just like I hadn’t given Vick one. Yet, she targeted the jugular by calling me on my flaws and leaving me to think about them.
Normally, women knew what a one-night stand looked like.
A shiny outlook on the future blinded her to all we had last night. I wasn’t the one at fault, but there I was questioning myself.
She was the best I’d had in a long time. I practically got hard just watching her walk away. My body wanted her in a way I didn’t want a lot of other women, but I wasn’t stupid. I knew I could find someone to fill her shoes any day of the week. There were billions of women in the world and she was only one of them.
She was only one, and yet, when she didn’t look back at me, I almost went after her.
Almost.
She flipped her long blonde hair like it was waving goodbye and good riddance. I had wrapped that hair around my hand and owned her last night. Saying goodbye shouldn’t have been that easy for her. To most of the women I slept with, it wasn’t.
I shook off our encounter and got to work. Businesses had to grow. Money had to be invested. I had to focus. The world my family built had to run and run well. People depended on that. I wasn’t in Kauai to play around.
I took breaks here and there.
Jax and Jaydon would have killed me if I didn’t.
But I wanted to take my own life when I found out that day one of our excursions was a paddleboard lesson on a private beach across the island. We sat in a large van, piled on top of one another. And our driver looked completely incompetent.
I surveyed the van. “Put your seatbelt on, Jaydon.”
He smirked, “Sure, Dad.”
Everyone else complied without me pushing further. If I had to be the one with the stick up my ass so that everyone would live, so be it.
Somehow, Vick ended up next to me. We didn’t talk because, thankfully, I’d brought my laptop so I could catch up on emails.
I lost my patience after watching cars take turns to cross a one lane bridge though.
“Who booked this?”
Vick jolted a little at my tone, and Brey answered meekly from behind me, “I did. I didn’t know there would be so much traffic or that there was only one lane.”
Jax’s hand was on her thigh and he smiled like we had all the time in the world. “It’s fine, Peaches.”
Vick wiggled next to me like excitement was about to burst out of her. “We get to take in so much of the island. Look out that window!” She pointed as she practically shouted, “The fog hugs those mountains like a cocoon around a caterpillar. I love this! I could spend days doing this.”
I grunted. “No one has days to spend bouncing around a damn island.”
The tension in the van thickened. No one responded to my lashing out at Vick, and the woman just looked down at her phone as if she hadn’t heard me.
Suddenly, from her phone, I heard an excited weedy voice, “Vicky! You FaceTimed me finally.”
Her face lit up like a firefly in the middle of a warm summer night. “Steven,” she breathed and held her phone just far enough away from her face that he got a damn good angle of her neckline. The neckline I had ravaged the night before. “Kauai is gorgeous.”
“I told you it would be. How was the wedding? Brey and Jax with you?”
“Everyone’s here!” She swung her phone around to showcase all of us. Then she practically dangled her phone out the window. “And we are enjoying the freaking fantastic views. Isn’t it absolutely breathtaking?”
His low hum came out as a squeak over the phone’s speakers. “Vicky, I really wish I could have come with yo
u. My apologies to you all. I’m sure the wedding was amazing.” Then he cleared his throat and said in a voice I am sure he hoped was casual, “And I see even Jett’s taking a break from work to sightsee.”
She angled the phone so we were both in the frame for Steven to see. “Jett’s still working. Laptop came along for the ride.”
Steven chuckled, but it was strained. “I see. Well, good to meet you through the phone, Jett.” He didn’t really think that. Anxiety bled out of his smile. “I know we may do business together soon.”
“Right. My lawyers and the financial team are reviewing some details before we reach out. I know you’ve been working closely with them and my investment reps. I’ll be sure to personally take a look before we make our final decision.” Because I hadn’t looked at all. I didn’t scope out every company we absorbed. I trusted my team to do that.
He looked relieved as he sighed into the phone. Then, his eyes shifted over, and I knew from the smile that stretched across his face, he was looking at Vick. “Well, that makes me so happy, Jett. Vicky, you are always influential and indispensable, I swear.”
Her friend Katie grumbled behind us about him calling her Vicky, but she ignored it and said, “I’m excited to get back to work. I’ll look over the contracts you sent me tomorrow morning.”
“Perfect. Call me once you do.”
“Sounds good. Talk soon.”
He smiled and then the video chat ended.
“Seriously,” Katie piped up from behind her. “Can he stop calling you Vicky? You hate that nickname, and I do too. It’s fucking gross.”
“It is not gross,” Vick retorted. “He doesn’t mean any harm.”
“Harm? Ha! He’s practically pissing on you by calling you something no one else does. He wants to bone you.”
Vick didn’t deny it. She smiled like she hoped that was the consensus. “I hope you’re right. We’ve been friends for a few years, but I think he’s starting to really make an effort. Brey was there last time we all went out for drinks and he totally looked like he was into me, right?”