“You have a roof deck?” she asked.
“Better than that.” He winked, the shine of his eyes stilling her breath for a moment.
She stepped past the door and the smell of chlorine wafted up around her. She gasped. “A pool!” She skipped toward the long rectangle oasis of blue water and it felt like a scene from the movies. The city all around her, this paradise in the sky. “You said we didn’t have a pool.”
“It’s not for guests.” Luke stood against the railing with his ankles crossed. His navy suit, the water in the pool, and the sky above, it all gelled together into a picture of perfection. My Blue Heaven.
“Do you use it?” she asked, lowering to run her fingers through the tepid water. It was heated, too!
“A little. I think Gray comes up here every morning and does laps.” Luke pushed off the railing and crouched down to hold her so she didn’t fall in. Not that she’d mind.
“Let me guess? In the nude?” she asked him with a sneaky smile.
“Tristan and I put our foot down on that one.”
“I can stay up here for a little while?” With every act of generosity Luke showed her, she lost a piece of her heart to him. The fact bearing down on her with every setting sun stung her into the silent admission that she had fallen in love with Luke Hart.
“You can come up here whenever you want, Lexi.” He tugged on her hair again. “You’ve done great work on that contract,” he said.
“Thank you for the chance to prove myself.” She wanted him to feel proud of maintaining a good relationship with a woman who worked for him. “That also makes you a great boss.”
“Not too bossy?” his voice purred.
So close.
Stepping back and morphing into the good little assistant, she said, “In case you forgot, I like the bossy billionaire side of you.”
“That’s not something I’ll ever forget.” Luke’s blush flashed neon red against all the blue around them.
“You know what?” she said with a happy breath. Mostly because they managed not to lose their heads and sink back into the guilt swamp. “I feel better already.” She tugged on her ponytail and turned away from the view of the city. “Let’s go get on that call.”
“You’re sure?” He peered down at her, his eyes always sending heat through her body.
“Yeah.” Gazing out at the water, the gentle ripples and hum of the hotel’s heartbeat around her gave her an incredible sense of calm.
She grasped his hand and led him back to the steel door thinking, she was so coming up here later that night.
Luke
“I DON’T WANT TO SEE that piece of shit in my hotel again,” Luke said, interrupting Tristan’s call by pounding a fist on his brother’s desk.
Raising a dark eyebrow at him, Tristan said into his phone, “I’ll call you back.” After he hung up, he turned his golden gaze to Luke. “Wanna narrow that down? Who?”
“That friend of yours,” he grumbled, his anger steaming back up. He’d kept it at bay while showing Lexi the pool, all the while rage had coiled up inside him.
“Damon? What happened?” Tristan removed his glasses like he knew some of Luke’s crazy was coming his way.
“Do you know why he recommended Alexis?” He paced in front of his brother’s bookshelves.
“Because she was qualified?” Even Tristan made it sound like a rhetorical question.
“That and he had a relationship with her when she was at Fordham. He seduced a student.”
“Jesus.” Not much shocked Tristan these days, and he hated soiling his brother’s opinion about an old friend.
“He propositioned her right there in my lobby.” He respected the hell out of Lexi even more for stuffing away the anguish she had to feel about Luke parading those women into the hotel and keeping her cool. Luke caught one guy touching her and he could have strangled the jerk. “Like getting her this job gave him the right to drag Lexi up to her room. He’s got a wife and a kid.”
“What an idiot.” Tristan rubbed his eyes and put his glasses back on.
Luke drew steadying breaths to calm down. Not wanting his brother to know how the thought of any man touching Lexi, married or not, had him spiraling with rage. “Oh, I showed Lexi our pool. She was visibly shaking, I wanted her to catch her breath. I told her she could use it.”
“Okay, but...” Tristan snorted. “Did you warn her about Grayson?”
“Definitely.” He rolled his eyes. “One look at Gray’s package and she’ll never want...” He caught himself and brought a fist to his mouth. Shit.
“What’s going on?” Tristan adjusted his glasses and stared at him. The guy missed nothing, did he? “Why are you so protective of Lexi?” When Luke only dragged in a ragged breath for an answer, his brother stood and marched toward him. “Luke, please, please tell me there’s nothing going on with her. I mean, she’s a great woman. If ever someone was perfect for you, she’s it. The lawyer thing. The smart thing. The hard-working thing. The dedication thing. Her family values. The crazy pink hair thing was a surprise, but hey, sometimes we don’t know what we really want until...it’s staring at us.” Tristan might have stopped talking about him and Lexi. “But not while she works here.” And he’s back...
“That sounds like a half-assed blessing, if I ever heard one.” He was more stunned than amused.
“I want it to happen for you, man.” His brother had grown up so damn much in the last few months, it gave Luke tremendous hope for himself—Gray, too—when it wasn’t scaring the ever-loving fuck out of him. “It’s awesome, being in love.”
If there was a time to tell Tristan he’d slept with Lexi, it was now while his brother was dishing out sympathy. Confess, how he couldn’t get her out of his head. How his body craved her. How his heart had fallen.
But they had the trip coming up. His brother would squash that. Or send him off to Chicago with disappointment in his eyes. Luke’s feelings for Lexi were showing through in ways he could no longer control and he needed to offer some kind of acknowledgment.
“I won’t bullshit you. I like her,” he confessed, his heart soaring when he said it out loud. “A lot. Okay. You said it yourself, she’s great. For me. I see it, too. But I know what I need to do here. Trust me. I’ve not asked for your trust before.” Because he didn’t deserve it.
Tristan changed emotionally in that moment. Luke asking for his faith. That trust couldn’t be bought when he put his law license on the line for his brother by threatening Laney’s boss with a crap lawsuit to get her designs back.
That trust couldn’t be bought when he walked away from a ten-billion-dollar offer on the hotel because Tristan had fallen in love with the place and wanted to make an honest go of it.
He’d heard no one could love someone else without loving themselves first. He wasn’t sure what he felt about himself was love, exactly. But he sure as shit loved his brothers. That was a good start.
Later that night with the smell of chorine still in his nose and after Gray’s suggestion he needed a swim, Luke found himself dragging on swim trunks. He was keyed up as hell and hoped a relaxing swim would calm him down. Allow him one damn good night sleep. The tension rising up in him was making him ready to explode.
Shirtless and with a towel slung over his shoulders, he climbed the steps that led to the pool deck. The moment he opened the steel roof door, the energy around him rearranged. An electric chill hit him square in the chest.
The source of the fire zinging through his veins was swimming in his pool.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Luke
Lexi’s graceful arms wind milled in and out of the water propelling the long line of her body across the length of the pool. Pink bands that matched her hair streaked across the horizon making the blue sky even richer.
Never had this deck felt more alive with Alexis in the pool, and her shine gave it a run for its money.
Cautiously, Luke stepped toward the lounge chairs lined up against the glass railing
fearing the worst. On the end of one chaise lay a blue skirt and peach-colored sleeveless blouse, buttoned down the back. The clothes Lexi had on earlier that day.
He swallowed further catching a black lace bra draped lazily over the arm of the chair. Like perhaps Lexi had taken it off in a hurry and flung it making a mad dash into the water so no one would see her naked.
Panties.
Where were the panties?
Was she wearing them?
The erection hit him, so strong, so fast, he had to grip the chaise. This wasn’t going to end well for him.
Test. Test. This was another test. Deep in the pleasant and productive conversations he and Lexi would have during the day in the office, her eyes never let him forget she still wanted him. Would stop what she was doing at any moment and let him take her.
He forgave her, though. Figuring unabashed youth coupled with unstoppable lust must be a powerful force to fight against.
But he couldn’t let her win.
The gasp coming from the pool shot his eyes that way.
“Oh my God. What are you doing here? Gray said you two were going out for dinner.” She bobbed in the water, the shiny swells of her breasts tempting him.
“Did he now?” Bastard brother of his set him up.
Nodding, she added, “And please tell me Tristan and Laney really went to a fundraiser.”
“Clearly, I’m not at dinner with Gray. But yes, Tristan and Laney are out,” he answered her, keeping any frustration out of his voice.
Lexi hadn’t turned on the pool lights that would illuminate the submerged part of her body against the gentle motion of the water. He didn’t need the light. He knew every inch of her. She gave nakedness a whole new meaning the way she’d opened herself up to him. Unabashed and unstoppable, all right.
“Do you want me to leave?” he asked with a tightness in his chest. “I can come back.”
Her arms flailed out of the water and she swam over to the spot he was standing. Giving him the perfect angle to look down at her. And see everything.
“No. Let me leave,” she offered.
Yeah, like he wanted her to get out of the pool. Right now. Like that. “No. It’s fine. We’re adults.” He tossed his towel on top of the same chaise with her clothes even though there were five others. Next to the row of lounge chairs were three cabanas, and on the other side of the pool, a private bar he wished had some booze waiting for him.
Hoping the shock of water would tame his hard-on, he pitched back a few steps and dove into the pool sailing clear over her head.
And now, he was in the pool with a naked woman he couldn’t get out of his head.
Dumbass.
He surfaced and swam to the far edge, eyeing the changing room with two bathrooms and a sauna, next to the bar. If he’d been alone, he would start doing laps and grind through until he couldn’t move his arms anymore. Anything to help him sleep. Exhaust his body to the point of collapse.
I know what will exhaust the fuck out of you so you collapse...
Not much in life made him run for the hills. Luke faced shit head on. This thing with Lexi, this undeniable attraction that had grown into something deeper by the day had him by the balls. Blue and aching, like now.
Enough with the tests, he thought, as he swam the length of the pool. Maybe it was no longer a test.
Maybe it was...fate.
“You’re very soothing to watch,” Lexi broke the silence from the other side, the night sky framing her.
Or maybe she’d been speaking the whole time, and he’d been so deep in his thoughts nothing had made it into his brain. “Is it wrong to say, I feel the exact opposite right now watching you?”
“Wrong to say it. Stupid if you felt nothing. You’re in a pool with a naked woman. One you’ve slept with. I’d be more worried about your libido if you acted like it was no big deal. Then I’d be...hurt.” She turned around and rested her forearms on the lip of the pool deck.
Shit.
Exhaling, he swam over and came up beside her. Yup. Naked. Where were her panties? Unless, dear God, does she work without fucking panties in the office? He swore under his breath.
She didn’t notice his meltdown because she looked like she was falling apart herself with her head dumped in her hands.
“What is it?” Luke asked and inched closer.
“I was so stupid,” she whispered, and he prayed she didn’t mean him.
“Um...”
“Damon.” Saying the name made her wince. “He told me he was separated. Getting a divorce, but she was dragging it out.”
“If I may be an inappropriate boss again for a moment.” He grazed over her body, his dick throbbing. “Men can be real scumbags. He’s not the first or the last to pull that one.”
Luke purposely never asked his father whether he’d been faithful to his mother. He couldn’t bear to have that information in his head and then have to look at his mother. Now, seeing that hurt on Lexi’s face, he hoped he’d made the right decision.
“Well that’s depressing.” She faced him, as if maybe she forgot about her nakedness. “Something tells me you would never do that.”
“Considering what I saw as a lawyer, the cruel divorces, and my childhood... No, I can’t see myself doing that.” He swam closer to her, shocked when she slinked back.
Oh, honey... She could have waved a red cape at him.
She blinked again and again like a thought was coming to her. “Oh shoot, it’s late.”
He exhaled with an ounce of gratefulness. One less thing to feel guilty about. “I guess,” he agreed, nodding at her.
She winked and then to his utter amazement, she pushed out of the water in one smooth glide. A move many women attempted and failed miserably. If leaping out of the side of a pool was an Olympic event, Lexi would get tens across the fucking board.
Only now, he was watching her bare ass sashay away, water sluicing down the fine lines of her back. Her hair, darker now from the water swinging in front of her face. Jesus Christ.
Just start swimming. Because he knew she’d be turning around to show him what he was denying himself. Nope. Not falling for it.
The next sound he heard startled him more than if a black helicopter landed on his roof and a band of fucking Navy Seals jumped out and pointed Uzis at him. The steel door opened up.
That shadow told him immediately who it was. The height. The wide span of shoulders, those tree trunks for fucking thighs. Luke pushed out of the pool, scoring a three, tops, for his dismount. He sprinted toward Lexi, grabbing his towel in the process and covered her body in a move that felt more like a tackle.
“What the heck?” she said, gasping. “Oh.” Her voice got deep, catching his brother, Gray, saunter over to the pool.
“Hey, kids,” Gray said as if they were sitting on the steps of his hotel sharing an ice cream cone and not in a full-on embrace hiding her naked body. “Still up here?”
Gray shook his head and dropped the towel from around his waist. Luke scornfully watched his naked ass dive into the pool in a perfect swan dive. He didn’t care to be manipulated like this. Baiting Lexi to come up here while suggesting he needed a swim. So they could do, what?
As if they weren’t still standing there, Gray cranked out laps like he couldn’t care less his brother had a naked woman wrapped in a towel. Where Lexi’s gentle long strokes pushed her arms into the water like a hot knife in butter, Gray’s massive arms and choppy forceful strokes looked like a jackhammer breaking up cement.
Luke knew the right thing was to bring Lexi one floor down into his apartment. Or walk her to the changing room, at least. Let her get dressed with dignity. Only he didn’t think for one minute if they ended up behind closed doors, he’d let her put a stitch of clothes on.
In the moonlight she looked flawless, her skin so smooth, everything so tight and perfect. Her beauty was subtle, but when he took it in, it walloped him. Shaking his head, Luke steered Lexi into a cabana and drew the curtain.
/> Catching his breath, Luke said, “Stay here. I’ll get your clothes.” He waited for a response, but only faced a blank stare as she stood there, wrapped in his towel. “Lexi, don’t look at me like that. We can’t, you know that.”
Her eyes moved across his chest and her lips parted to take in sips of air drinking him in. God, the way she looked at him. Him, just for him. The thought of never being stared at like this again gave him a sharp pang in the chest. As if the sight of him robbed Lexi of her better senses, she dropped the towel. Son of a bitch, his memory failed him miserably remembering what she looked like naked. His mouth watered as his eyes slid across her round perky breasts, those nipples hard and erect. Whether it was the evening breeze coming in from the breaks in the cabana drapes or his stare, he didn’t know. And didn’t care. Her adorable belly was made for his kisses, her innie, a perfect well for his tongue.
Lower... God, the glistening smooth skin and tiny slit. As if this torture couldn’t get any worse, she lowered herself on the loveseat and...spread her legs. “Two second rule?” she said on a shaky breath.
“Huh?” was all he pushed out, he was ready to have a heart attack. Yet his feet moved and next he was on his knees in front of her, his hands running up her thighs. “What’s a two second rule?”
Instead of explaining, she pulled his mouth against hers, and right there he thought this was the best fucking idea ever. Two seconds. Just here. Just them. In that moment. Nothing else. She needed his kiss the way he needed hers. It felt too good to stop.
So, he didn’t.
He goddamn devoured her back. Smoothing his hands across her waist, he cupped her ass and ground his wet covered hard-on against her writhing pussy.
“I can’t help it.” He lowered his head to take a nipple into his mouth. Puckered and firm.
She moaned and rocked against him. With one of her legs in his hands, he circled his hips against her center begging for him. The sopping wetness of his swim shorts made him think of being inside her, but she deserved more than cold soggy fabric. Here goes nothing...
Bossy Billionaire Page 15