by Avery Flynn
“No, it couldn’t be.” He glanced back at Aubrey. She smiled at him, her cell phone camera facing him, and waved. There wasn’t a flash, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t taken a photo. Had she been documenting their every move, is that what she had to tell him before? “It’s gotta be a different person.”
“Yeah, that’s likely,” Byron scoffed. “Blonde hair. Huge koi tattoo on her ribs? Looks like she’d melt if you put her in your mouth—of course you’ve probably already done that and know for sure.”
His grip tightened on his phone until the corners ate into his palm. “Fuck you, Byron.”
“Don’t hate on the messenger. The good news is that we have the identity now and I’m working to get the Insta account shut down. Copyright violations or something, I don’t know Fred will come up with some scary bullshit to put in a cease and desist. All you have to do is stay clear of that woman from now on.”
The pronouncement still hit like a sucker punch. Carter knew his brother was right even if he wanted more than anything for it all to be a misunderstanding too many things suddenly made sense. There were too many coincidences. Had she arranged to have a connecting room? Had the pants theft just been a rouse to get his attention? Were her friends in on it? How much were the gossip sites willing to pay for the photos? Was all of it bullshit?
A dark, swirling anger as the inevitable realization exams too tangible to ignore made his entire body tense as he watched Aubrey. “We’re in Nassau together.”
“Then get back to the ship and ditch her,” Byron all but yelled into the phone. “Remember what’s at stake here, Carter. What’s more important, some chick you met on a singles cruise or the role of a lifetime?”
He stared at his phone after his brother hung up without a goodbye, per usual, and tried to unwind the emotions twisting him up. Part of him wanted—needed—to believe it wasn’t right, that Byron had gotten it wrong. But that wasn’t possible. His brother was a lot of things, but he was damn good at his job and he was thorough. There’s no way he would have named Aubrey without a solid, air-tight case.
Carter looked up to where she stood about a third of the way up the limestone staircase. She paused to take a photo of the waterfall next to stairs and then turned around and waved at him again. He didn’t wave back. He couldn’t. He was having too much trouble catching his breath after that gut punch. She hesitated for a moment, then headed down to him.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
And the concern in her voice as she took his hand, that all too familiar buzz of awareness shot through him at her touch, had him rethinking the truth again. Was he really this gullible? Or was there more to all of this than he or Byron knew? God, the whole thing made his head feel like it was going to explode.
“We need to get back to the ship,” he said.
Once there, he’d figure this all out. He’d get the truth from Aubrey and after that he had no fucking clue.
She looked down at her clock on her phone. “Oh shit!” She turned the screen to face him. “How is it that late?”
Adrenaline jolted him into motion. They took off at a sprint. Backtracking their path back to the port should have been easy, but that wasn’t how it worked out. After at least five wrong turns, they got there right in time to see the ship heading home without them.
“What do we do now?” Aubrey asked, her eyes wide with panic.
Wasn’t that the question he couldn’t get out of his head. “I’m getting a hotel room and then we’re going to have a talk and you’re going to tell me everything.”
Because that discussion sure as hell wasn’t one that could take place in the open. He wasn’t about to have his cover completely blown by having a fight with Aubrey in the middle of the Nassau cruise ship port where any tourist with a camera could document the entire thing and sell it to the highest bidder. He took her hand and started toward the hotel they’d passed a few blocks ago.
“Carter, what’s going on?” She asked, taking a step and half to every one of his long, fast strides.
“We’ll talk about it at the hotel.”
“No.” She tugged her hand free and stopped walking. “You need to tell me right now.”
He turned, the white noise of his hurt and anger rushing in his ears and blocking out the sound of the ocean, the people passing them on the sidewalk, and everything else in the world except Aubrey. He heard her perfectly and it cut right through him that she was still playing the innocent. She wasn’t dumb. She had to have guessed the gig was up, but she couldn’t let go. Whatever the payoff was, it had to be significant.
“I know you were the one running that damn thirst account that said I was on the cruise.”
She took a step toward him, reaching for him. “I can explain.”
He sidestepped her easily and started walking again. “Not here.”
And as they made their way at a fast clip to the hotel, he pushed down the part of him that still hoped there was an explanation for all of this. He couldn’t afford to let that happen, he’d been fooled by her already once and he couldn’t let that happen again.
Ten
Aubrey was fighting to hold it together when she walked through the hotel room door and into the suite with its three walls of windows overlooking the hotel’s private beach. At any other time she would have rushed over to the panoramic view of the Nassau Harbor to look out at the gorgeous Caribbean water and sent up a thankful prayer that there had been a hotel room left at the last minute.
Not this time.
It was all she could do to even glance over at the early evening view. All she could do was watch Carter as he strode over to the desk and set the room keys down with deliberate care, each move precise and controlled. Then, he stalked over to the window stared out at the harbor, his entire body tense.
She stood her ground near the door, wanting to give him his space. “I know you’re mad, but I can explain.”
He didn’t bother to turn around. “Can’t wait to hear it.”
The ice in his voice pelted her and she flinched. What had she been expecting? She’d known it would go like this and, honestly, this was why she’d waited. She’d been a giant chicken putting off the inevitable because she wasn’t ready for this, she wasn’t ready to lose Carter.
Exhaling a deep breath, she straightened her shoulders and look him straight in the back of the head. If he wouldn’t turn around, fine, but it was past time she finally got the truth out. “The thirst account, it’s for fun, I never meant it to hurt you. It was just a hobby, a silly thing. It doesn’t mean anything. No one is just one thing. I can be the woman who started a dumb Insta account and the one who fell for the last man she ever expected to meet.”
“Really?” He turned around, his hands were shoved into his pockets and his face blank of all expression as if they were talking about the weather or how long to microwave a day old glazed donut. “That post could fuck my entire career path.” His voice held steady, as calm as the water in the harbor. “I’d say that means something.”
The casual dismissal in his tone, set her on edge but she bit it back, fighting to keep the emotion out of her voice. Losing control right now would not help. “I didn’t know when I posted it and by the time I figured it out, it was already everywhere.”
He chuckled. It was not a nice sound. “How convenient.”
“Not really, not at all,” she said, her voice breaking as she blinked back tears. “Once I met you, got to know you, having the post, the account seemed weird.” She took a step toward him, arm outstretched, as if physical contact could make him understand that none of this had been malicious. “I never meant to hurt you.”
The absolute ice cold fury in his expression stopped her dead in her tracks and her gut dropped. It was too late. It had been from the beginning and she should have known that but she let herself believe that there could be more. It had been a pretty dream, but it had never been real.
“That’s what you think I’m so pissed about?” Carter
crossed his arms over his chest as if he had to contain himself. “That you had a damn fan account?” He let his head fall back and let out a hard laugh, then continued his voice rising with each word. “Of all the— I’m pissed because you could have told me and you didn’t. You knew how much this role meant. I told you.” Pausing, he rubbed the back of his head and pursed his lips together, obviously trying to pull back. When he started speaking again, his voice was quiet and heavy with resignation. “And you kept silent—even after the post was deleted.”
“I wanted to tell you—I tried—but you didn’t want to listen.” She wasn’t innocent here, but she had tried to tell him. “Every time I started, you changed the subject or kissed me.”
“Of course,” he said smacking his palm against his forehead. “It’s my fault you didn’t tell me. But what does it matter?” He closed the distance between them, stopping just short of touching. “We were just fucking.”
An angry heat rushed up from the pit of her stomach, rushing through her like a wildfire because that was not true—at least not for her and she would have sworn not for him either. “Is that all this was to you?”
His gaze dipped down to her mouth and then away, a bitter smile twisting his lips. “Don’t pretend you ever thought of it as something beyond a way to gain more visibility for your Insta.”
“Damn it.” Heart racing, she cupped his face in her palms, forcing him to look at her, as she rose to her tiptoes desperate to make him understand. “What’s between us is more than just some stupid thirst account. I’m falling for you.”
“Very convincing.” He turned his head, kissing her palm. “I almost believe that but we both know it’s nothing but lust.”
“Carter, you know that’s not true.”
Aubrey dropped her hands, but it was too late. The sensual pull of being this close to him, the touch of his lips still buzzing against her hand, the way her body was still so attuned to his as if she could feel his touch before he even reached for her—all of it wound its way through her, making her overwhelmingly aware of how much she ached for him.
“Do I?” He came in close, holding back on touching her as if giving her a final out, one he knew there was no way she wanted to take. “I wish I did.”
Aubrey held her breath as the world stopped in that moment, the one when anything could happen. She could walk away now or she could try, one last time, to make him understand. The thing was, there wasn’t a choice. She leaned up and kissed him, putting everything she had into it hoping he’d recognize the truth in her touch.
He pulled back, but there was no missing the hard tension in his body or the desire darkening his eyes.
“This isn’t going to change anything,” he said, his voice a rough rumbling jumble of need and want.
“If that’s true, then why are you scared to touch me?”
“You want me to touch you?” He took her by the hips and pressed backward, backing her up against the wall and lifted her up so she fit perfectly against his hard cock. “You want this, Aubrey?”
She didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
This was a mistake, but there was no way Carter could walk out of here without touching Aubrey again. Yeah, he was probably being an idiot but part of him couldn’t let go, not yet anyway.
He brushed his thumb over her slightly parted mouth. She shivered and nipped his thumb. Giving in to the wicked temptation she offered, he lowered his mouth to hers in a demanding kiss, melding his lips to hers, not waiting for an invitation to sink his tongue into her luscious mouth. Dragging his hands upward from her hips, he lifted her sundress higher as he went until he had to pull away from her to pull it over her head and fling it across the room. He’d no more than done that than he dipped his head back down, feasting on her mouth as he plastered his hungry body against her, rocking against her even though the friction wasn’t nearly enough. He wanted—needed—more.
He wanted to watch her tits sway as she rode him until she couldn’t come anymore, have her fall into a sweaty heap beside him to sleep, and then wake up a few hours later to do it all again and again and again. Fuck. Was there anything more dangerous than that? Easing back from her, he fought to steady his breathing and get the world back on an even keel. Fucking to prove a point, that’s all this was. It’s all it ever could be.
He rocked his dick against the crotch of her soaked panties, slow and steady, so unlike his heartbeat. He didn’t seek out her kiss-swollen mouth, instead he zeroed in on the base of her throat, sucking and nipping at the sensitive flesh then licked his way up her throat, bringing his mouth against her ear.
“Do you feel how fucking hard I am for you?” He ground his cock against her, squeezing her ass cheeks in his firm grip. “This is what you do to me every time I so much as think about you and it’s only been a few days. I guess I should be grateful. A few months, years, with you and I’d be lost.”
She stiffened in his arms. “Put me down.”
He stilled against her, their position as intimate as it could be with her still in panties and him still in his jeans. Way to go asshole. How about you keep your jerk mouth closed unless someone writes the lines for you? He knocked his forehead against the wall but released his hold.
She glided down his body until her feet touched the carpet and pushed him back several paces so that the back of his knees nearly hit the bed. Not giving him time to recover, she swept her leg behind his and knocked him down onto the Snow White comforter.
“Just fucking, huh?” Her hands were on the button of his jeans, flicking it open with ease. “Is that all there is between us?” She yanked down his zipper and shoved down his jeans and boxers. “Fine. Then let’s fuck. One more for the road, right?”
He lay flat on his back, never moving a muscle while she stripped him, turned on beyond belief, her ferocity making his balls ache. And as she stood, looking down at him as she slipped off her bra, he deliberately slid his right hand across his pecs, over the flat landscape of his abs and stopped only when he wrapped his long fingers around the base of his shaft, rubbing his cock in long, slow strokes.
Watching him, she cupped her tits and rolled her hard nipples. “I will miss seeing you do that.”
“You like watching me jerk off?”
“Almost as much as I like this.” She strutted to the edge of the bed, lowered herself, and planted her knees on either side of his thighs before wrapping her hands around his wrists and bringing them up over his head. She ran her hands down his arms, keeping herself positioned so that her center hovered directly above his hard cock but didn’t touch it. It was fucking torture. Without hardly any effort he could pull his arms free, flip her, and sink balls deep inside her, but there was something about the way she was looking at him right now — half in awe and half out of her mind — that made him want to find out what she’d do next. He didn’t have to wait long. She lowered her head to his pecs and lapped at his flat, dusky nipple, drawing him into her mouth and sucking.
His moan echoed in the room, and he bucked against her just enough to bring his dick into direct contact with her.
She clicked her tongue against the back of her teeth. “I don’t think so. Not yet anyway.”
Still holding his arms in place, she scooted higher over him, kissing her way up across his shoulders and up his neck, teasing him within millimeters of losing all control.
“Just.” She brushed her lips across his but pulled away before it developed into a real kiss. “Fucking.”
He practically heard glass shattering at that moment when his control broke. Slipping free of her hold, he moved his hands to her round hips, rolled her over, and settled himself between her splayed legs and bent down to take her mouth with an intensity that shook him to the core. His tongue swept inside her mouth, teasing her until she was writhing beneath him, her busy hands gliding over his thighs to his ass and urging him wordlessly to move against her. On this point, they were in agreement. He lowered himself until his cock lay nestled against her core, her dam
p panties the only thing between him and her pussy’s slick tight grip.
His hands were everywhere at once, caressing her tits, skimming across her stomach, and finding their way between her panties and her silky folds. He dipped a finger into her entrance, his thumb circling her attention-starved clit as her wanton moan filled the hotel room. The sound reached somewhere deep and primal inside him, but he wanted to push her, make sure she always remembered this, remembered him.
He dipped his head lower, taking the elastic band of her panties between his teeth and dragging them down her legs. Pushing her legs back open as wide as they could go, he kissed and licked his way up her calves and thighs, not stopping until he arrived at her slick entrance.
“Say it, Aubrey,” he said, his words pressing up against her swollen flesh as his tongue and fingers worked in concert.
“Say what?”
God, that breathy about-to-come tremor in her voice nearly killed him, but he had to do this. He had to prove the point. “That this is just fucking. That it doesn’t mean anything.”
“You’re an asshole, Carter.”
“Yes.” He felt her tighten against him, so close to coming and he stopped, stilling right as she was on the edge. “Say it anyway.”
“It’s just fucking.”
Like a gullible fool, he would have sworn he heard a catch in her voice but he knew better. She’d lied to him for the entire cruise. Why stop now? He sure as hell wasn’t. Renewing his efforts, he lapped at her clit and worked his fingers inside her, focused on making her come so he could block the rest of it out. Then, her muscles locked and she came undone.
Her taste still on his lips, he leaned back and grabbed his jeans, pulled a condom from his wallet, and unrolled it over his cock as he watched her come down from her orgasm. He wouldn’t forget the sight. Her blonde hair fanned around her as she looked up at him with that dazed, satisfied look in her eyes. It was almost enough to make him forget. God knew, he wanted to because Aubrey was right, this had never been just fucking.