by Nikki Sloane
For a suspended moment, I hung in the air and clawed futilely for something to stop my descent. I only realized what was happening as the lukewarm water rushed all around me, filling my nose, mouth, and ears.
The pool wasn’t deep, and I got my feet under me, bursting from the surface of the water and wiping at my eyes. I reeled and found her staring at me like she couldn’t believe what had happened.
My mind went haywire, but focused first on the essentials.
My phone was still playing music on the tabletop, and my wallet was in my suitcoat pocket, so both were safe. My watch was water-resistant up to ten feet, but my pants were dry-clean only.
White-hot anger shot up my spine.
I trudged through the water to the side of the pool, set a slippery hand on the tile, and tried to climb out. When I faltered, Ruby pulled up the skirt of her dress, bent, and offered a hand.
“Shit, here,” she said.
I grabbed her wrist and tugged, sending her face-first into the water, but not before she let out a satisfying scream of surprise, which was followed by an equally satisfying splash.
Ruby emerged from the water sputtering and her shoulders tight to her ears, her expression pure shock. The water line was at my shoulders, and her dress billowed around her beneath the surface. Her mouth gaped open.
“I can’t believe you fell for that,” I said.
She snarled it. “I was trying to help you, you asshole!”
“Says the asshole who pushed me in first.”
“I wasn’t trying to push you in, it just happened.” She ran a finger under each eye, wiping away the faint streaks of mascara.
“Do you have any idea how much my shoes cost?” I asked. “Or my belt?”
But my annoyance stalled as I watched her arms moving furiously under the water. Ruby wasn’t as tall as I was, which meant she couldn’t stand. I had no idea how good of a swimmer she was, and the dress tangled in her legs.
“Goddamnit,” I groaned, sloshing over to her. She went rigid as I wrapped my arms around her waist and hauled her up against my soaked chest.
Her tone mirrored my annoyance, and she squirmed in my embrace. “What are you doing?”
I ignored the question and plodded toward the stairs at the far end of the pool.
I was halfway there when she spoke again. “This is all your fault.”
The water was shallower now and I dropped her like an anchor, moving to a safe distance. “No, this is your fault. You fucking kissed me.”
She stared at the ceiling for a moment, beyond exasperation. “It’s tradition to kiss someone on New Year’s.” Her gaze focused on mine like a laser. “Should I mention you kissed me back? With a whole bunch of tongue?”
Now it was my turn to make a noise of frustration. I needed to get out of the pool. A drenched Ruby wasn’t any less enticing, and perhaps she was more. Water droplets clung to her skin and trailed down between her breasts. Lucky water drops. I wanted to follow them with my mouth.
The adrenaline from the unexpected fall was finding other places to go, mainly my cock. My dress shirt was plastered to my body and the tie weighed a ton, a sopping noose around my neck.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I said, working loose the knot.
“Like what?” She said it begrudgingly. “Like I hate that your kiss was the hottest thing I’ve had all year?”
My cock twitched in agreement, but I gave a short laugh. “The year which just started two minutes ago?”
She slapped her hand against the surface of the water, splashing me. Her jaw was set, but Christ, she looked hot like that. Water dripped from the loose ends of her pinned up hair, and the pink dress was nearly see-through when wet. Her nipples stood pointed to attention.
She seemed to be seething. “You’re the worst.”
“But not at kissing you, apparently.”
“Fuck you, Kyle.”
Something inside me snapped. The first few times I’d put up with it, but I was done with her repeated insult. I moved as swiftly as the drag in the water would allow, and shoved my hand into the hair at the back of her head, grabbing a handful of pins with the strands. I tugged her head back firmly and stared down into her wide eyes.
I’d never been aggressive with her before. I’d still been finding my way with women back then and how much they wanted when it came to roughness. But now a dark need took hold, urging me to show her how inappropriately she was behaving, and to do it in a way as if she were mine.
“Oh,” she whispered and the softest of moans followed.
Not in pain. This was distinctly pleasure.
A lightning bolt sizzled through me. I blanked for a moment, my vision going hazy. She liked this? Fuck me, did she want more? I laid my palm against her chest, my fingers resting softly around her neck. Not trying to choke her, but to signify control. I’d made it so she couldn’t look anywhere but at me. It was only fair, because I could focus only on her.
Beneath my fingers, I felt her swallow hard. And when her eyes hooded with desire at my action, I was done for. I leaned down and crushed my lips to hers.
Chapter
NINE
RUBY
Kyle’s mouth, fused with mine, was fire. All of my rage and pain melded together with our heat into an inferno that left me breathless. At least we were standing in water, so when we combusted, nothing else would go up in flames.
I skimmed my fingertips along his broad chest, which was covered in the soaked white dress shirt. It had become transparent to both my delight and horror. He looked even better than I remembered. All tight and toned, and daring me to touch.
But I hated him.
He’d put me through the wringer tonight. The high of realizing he hadn’t left, only for him to send me crashing down to the low that he’d left me another way . . . In the fucking dark.
The kiss he gave me now wasn’t like the one right after midnight. That one had been impressive, but this was so powerful and raw, I cried out against his mouth. I didn’t want him to stop like last time. I needed him and this brutal kiss, even though I despised the desire in me.
I hooked an arm around his shoulders and shoved a hand under the water, gathering up as much of my skirt as I could while not breaking our connection. When I was free and the dress was out of my way, I wrapped my legs around his waist.
He groaned in approval and stalked back into the deeper water so I was mostly weightless in his arms. The frantic sounds of our lips moving against each other echoed off the surface of the water, and could just be heard over the music.
I wanted to rip his heart out like he’d done to mine, and I was okay with tearing off his clothes to do it. Floating in his arms while we burned together left me dizzy. It was as if he was consuming my heat, feeding off it, and returned it back to me a million times hotter.
Kyle kept his hand locked in my hair, but the other drifted down the length of my spine and curled under the wadded skirt around my hips. His tongue plunged into my mouth when he squeezed my ass and pushed himself against me.
“Oh, good God,” I whispered, my voice weak and needy. As soon as it was out, I sucked in a breath. I hated how I was responding to him, and that I was letting him have such power over me.
If it were any other man, it’d be fine. I loved a guy who would take charge during foreplay and sex. But I knew if it was someone else, the likelihood of him having a fraction of the impact like Kyle did was next to nothing. No one compared. He’d left me hurt and broken, and unable to find any kind of replacement.
So I hated him.
I hated the way I loved his mouth against my throat, sucking and biting until I was a quivering mess. Breath came and went in shallow bursts as his fingertips grazed down my neck, abandoning his grip in my hair, so he could slip beneath the shoulder strap of my dress.
Goosebumps lifted on my skin, fighting to get closer to him.
He inched the damp fabric to the side, sliding it off the curve of my shoulder as he lifted me h
igher. So gravity made the strap, heavy with water, tumble down my arm. It peeled away from my skin, exposing my bare breast that was just above the waterline.
Kyle went . . . nuclear.
I gasped as his hand closed over me, and he pinched my nipple between the side of his hand and his thumb. His pinch was hard and sharp, sending a bolt of pleasure all along my body to the tips of my toes. There wasn’t time to think. His mouth covered mine and stole my breath.
He moved us so fast through the water, it made a wake and it sloshed around the pool. When we reached the side, his hips pinned me against the wall with one thrust, and I reached back with a hand to clutch the ledge. I couldn’t watch what he was doing to me as his hurried, forceful lips moved down my neck, working a steady line to what was exposed. I didn’t need any more reminders of how good he was with his hands or mouth.
His tongue found its intended target, and he swiped it over my erect nipple, making my gaze turned upward. Big mistake. The ceiling was dark mirrored glass, and I could see us perfectly from above. Our clothes were stuck to our bodies, my arm was braced on the ledge, causing me to arch my back into him, and his mouth roved over my bare breast.
If pulling down one strap of my dress was Kyle’s undoing, seeing the undeniably sexy image of us was mine. I couldn’t get the other strap down fast enough, and as soon as he realized, he was helping me any way he could.
When had I ever been so out of breath? I was panting and trying not to moan as he had both hands on my now topless body, the dress floating around my waist. The water wasn’t warm, but it wasn’t cold either, and I was grateful not to overheat. I clung to him, fisting my hands in his hair so I could hold his mouth against me. The burn of his whiskers rubbing on my sensitized skin was almost too much.
“Oh,” I gasped.
Kyle bit down, giving me a sharp edge of teeth, and my body responded instinctively, grinding against him. A noise of satisfaction came from his chest, and he bit down a second time. This one was much harder, and earned a bigger reaction from me.
I curled my hands around his tie and yanked him up, intending to kiss him, but his expression was distracting. His eyes were hooded, and every inch of his face was drenched in lust, like he was high.
As our lips smashed together, I clawed at the knot of his tie, but then his hands were there, undoing it. So my fingers raced down the buttons of his shirt and flung it open. I wanted to put my damp hands on his heated, bare skin. I needed it pressed against mine right this second, more than I’d ever needed anything else.
He didn’t take off the shirt. He tossed his wadded-up tie onto the pool deck with force, and it made a sopping noise as it collided with the ground. That was as far as Kyle made it before closing in on me.
“Shit,” I breathed as we made contact. I shuddered with relief as his smooth skin flattened me against the hard, cold tile at my back. He didn’t hesitate, like he hadn’t even heard me. His face was between my breasts, teasing me with kisses and licks, and sucking until the ache for him between my legs was painful.
No. You hate him!
The thought vanished as his hand closed on my knee beneath the water and began to slide up my thigh. I arched further into his hot mouth, encouraging him in all ways. I whispered it so softly, there was no way to know if he could hear. “Yes.”
He was hard. The bulge of his erection pressed to my center, grinding against me in a pleasurable and tortuous way. I knew exactly what it felt like with nothing between us. How much I enjoyed it when he slid inside me and let me ride into oblivion. I remembered every goddamn inch of him.
My father quit smoking fifteen years ago, but told me once if he could start smoking again without any health risks, he’d do it in a heartbeat. That’s how strong the addiction was, lingering even after all that time. I didn’t fully appreciate those unwanted cravings until Kyle. Years taught me how to deal with the urges, but the cravings for him never went away.
His palm crept along my thigh, gliding through the water and over my skin, reaching the edge of my panties in a single breath. Where the hell was the air? He drew back, leaving our lower bodies connected, and stared down at me.
The expression he held was fascinating.
His blue eyes matched the water rippling around us, and my heart twisted. I wanted to pull him closer, but also push him as far away as possible. The twinges of regret hadn’t started yet, but I sensed them looming in the distance, waiting to strike. How much damage had I done to myself by letting this happen?
“Reach back,” he said, his tone firm. “Grab onto the wall.”
Kyle’s presence was commanding, and so crazy hot, I did exactly as he asked, and for the briefest of moments, surprise flashed in his eyes. Like he hadn’t expected me to do it without question or hesitation. But of course I did. I’d always been in over my head when it came to him.
He studied me as his fingertips slipped down beneath the waistband of my panties, and although his lust-filled expression didn’t change, I could sense he felt like we were approaching a threshold. The point of no return. And he wanted to make sure I was okay with crossing over it with him.
I bit down on my bottom lip, held my breath, and gave the faintest of nods.
The slow, gentle lover he’d been before was gone. As he once again gripped my hair in his right hand, keeping my gaze locked onto him, his left hand continued downward in my panties and two fingers pushed roughly inside my aching body.
I liked this new version of him so, so much better.
The intrusion forced me to suck in a breath through clenched teeth. It was an enjoyable stretch, but a lot to take in at first, and my eyes sharpened on him. He watched every tiny breath I took and the hints of pleasure I was sure to be showing in my eyes. He studied me like he was going to be tested later and wanted a perfect score.
I whimpered when the fingers began to move, giving him a sound of contentment. Already my body was tingling and buzzing. Could he feel how turned on I was, since we were floating in the water? His heavy eyes made me think so. His chest rose and fell with steady but hurried breaths.
When he leaned forward and set his forehead against mine, I was aware I had lost some sort of battle. What was wrong with me? He’d just admitted he’d let me suffer needlessly for years, and I was, what? Letting him do whatever he wanted? Rewarding him?
“I hate you,” I whispered, not meaning it. It was a final futile attempt to convince myself of the lie.
“Do you?” he whispered back. He brushed his lips faintly over mine, teasing a kiss. “Or is it another lie?”
I groaned as his fingers thrust, and I saw flashes of white behind my eyes. God, he was so good with those fingers. I remembered every inch of him, and I suspected he knew all of me as well. Kyle knew exactly where and how to touch me to make me come out of my mind.
My tone wasn’t the least bit convincing. “No, I’m pretty sure I hate you.”
He looked smug. “Then, prove it.”
Chapter
TEN
KYLE
Ruby was pissing me off, but she was going to have to take a number and get in line behind myself. What the fuck? Currently I was standing fully clothed, more or less, in a pool, finger fucking my ex while she lied and told me she hated me.
She was topless. At least I could use the insanity plea because her body was freaking insane. Perfect, big breasts with tight, dark nipples contrasting against her pale skin. I’d barely choked back the groan when she’d let me pull her dress down. She was so fucking beautiful, it hurt. It made me weak, and all thought drained from my mind.
Existing in this state was strange. I didn’t analyze, I just acted. Did what I felt and wanted. I was rougher than I’d ever been with her, and fuck me, it wasn’t scaring her off. Ruby’s pupils had gone large and her skin flushed. Her legs had spread wider.
If that wasn’t enough evidence to suggest she liked it, there’d been that almost inaudible yes that came from her. My dick had grown so hard, it turned to steel.
It only added to my frustration. Of course she was into it. We’d clicked so perfectly in bed before. As my tastes had matured, it seemed hers had as well.
“Prove it?” she repeated.
I pushed my fingers as deep inside her as I could get them. It was a tight fit and her body clamped down, like she was trying to squeeze pleasure from me. Jesus, it was so fucking hot.
“Yes.” I pumped my fingers faster, and her hips below the water moved to match my tempo. “If you hate me, you’ll push my hand away, get out of this pool, and leave.” Her expression fell at the idea, and I was relieved. That wasn’t what I wanted, not in a million years. I strived for a mocking tone. “But you’re not going to do that, are you, Ruby?”
I ground the heel of my palm against her clit, sliding my fingers in and out of her pussy, and watched her struggle to keep her eyes from rolling back into her head. Okay, good. She was still a fan of that maneuver.
“Because,” I continued, “you don’t want me to stop.”
When she didn’t answer me, I made a face of displeasure, and slowed my hand until it wasn’t moving. Instantly she let go of the ledge behind her and plunged her hands in the water, wrapping them around my wrist.
Fire burned in her eyes. “Don’t you dare stop, asshole.”
Holy shit. An evil grin spread across my face. “You’d only hate me if I did.”
“Yes,” she breathed, her eyes slamming shut.
She squirmed on my fingers and I clenched my fist tighter in her hair, trying to hold back from losing it. I wanted to bury myself between her thighs and see if she was as unbelievable as she had been in my memories. Kissing her was better than I remembered; would sex be, too?
Would watching her come be even more spectacular? I needed to find out, so I focused. I drove my fingers inside and curled them to the spot she liked best, and Ruby jerked in my hold.
“Shit.” Her raspy curse was sexy as hell, and I kept at the spot, tapping it with my fingertips. She was up on her tiptoes, leaning back against the side of the pool, her breasts bobbing right at the surface of the water. She bucked and thrashed, sending waves away from us, and sometimes splashing me. But she didn’t notice. She was too far gone in the sensations.