The Playboy

by Alice Ward

  “You like giving me head, Sloane?” he asked and I opened my mouth in answer. He chuckled, but his nostrils flared as I took more of him in my throat. “You’re driving me crazy,” he murmured, his voice raw with tension.

  When he pulled out again, I gasped for breath. “More.”

  “You sure, baby? I’m getting close.”

  I wanted all of him. I didn’t want him to stop. “Please, Zane. I want you to come for me.”

  He cursed and feed me his cock again, holding the headboard to support himself as he fucked my mouth. I’d never done it like that before. It was a first, and I loved the way he made me feel powerful and helpless simultaneously. I loved how my jaw hurt, how my arms ached, how my fingers itched to touch him.

  He kept moving, watching his cock slide in and out, then his eyes closed as he moved faster, giving me another warning. “I’m going to come.”

  I was ready, swallowing, feeling the power of accepting every part of him, not backing away from this challenge.

  Just as I watched him come, I watched him recover from what I’d done for him. He opened his eyes and pulled away from me, letting the ties of my hands and ankles loose.

  “Thank you,” he murmured, pulling me against him, his lips in my hair as he fought to control his breathing. “Thank you so much.”

  I smiled, curling into him, sated and secure, even though all we’d done was officially foreplay. “Will you make love to me tonight?” I asked, tracing a finger down his arm.

  He lifted my chin and kissed the tip of my nose. “I’ve never made love to anyone before.”

  My insides curled, warmed by the admission, knowing it was true. “Don’t worry, I’ll show you how.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Zane

  Adorable.

  I still hadn’t officially had sex with the woman beside me, but I’d never felt closer to anyone in my life. The way she had trusted me only minutes before changed something deep inside me.

  “What time is it?” she asked. “As much as I don’t want to move right now, I also don’t want to miss dinner with Charles and Grace.”

  I lifted my head just enough to see the bedside clock. Shit. We’d been laying here for over an hour. I groaned and rolled onto my back.

  “Is that man-talk for ‘time to go?’” she asked, her voice teasing.

  I grunted. “Me no want to go.”

  She laughed. “Okay, Tarzan. Then you don’t get my making love lessons later.”

  I practically leapt from the bed, earning another laugh from her, then dragged her to the bathroom where I turned on the shower.

  “I don’t have any of my things here,” she reminded me as I pulled her under the warm water.

  “Can you make do with the girly spa soaps the resort left for now?”

  She poked me in the chest. “You really don’t understand females very well, do you?”

  I snorted. “I know enough to make you explode, if I remember correctly.”

  That earned me another poke in the chest, but also a cute little blush on her cheeks.

  We showered, and I enjoyed washing her hair, listening to her moan in pleasure as I massaged her scalp. “How lucky I am that I’m your neighbor,” she said. “If I’d chosen the bungalow on the other side of Smith, we might never have met.”

  “Fate is a funny thing. If I hadn’t been out on my deck, I might have never seen you.” Pushing her head back, I rinsed the shampoo out of her blonde hair, loving the feel and smell of it. When I brought her head back up, I couldn’t resist a little kiss.

  I stopped when my cock twitched. We didn’t have time to do any more. There was dinner to get to, mafia shit to unravel. She smiled as she took the shampoo and washed my hair in return. I looked at her as she moved her hands through my hair.

  I loved the way her eyes lifted at both sides just a bit, the tiny freckles covering the bridge of her nose. Her lips had the most perfect cupid’s bow right in the middle. Her teeth were white, straight, with a tiny gap between the middle ones. “Did you wear braces when you were a kid?”

  She laughed and gave me a little you’re weird look. “I did. I was a member of the gap-toothed freckle-faced club as a kid.”

  “I bet you were adorable.” She rinsed my hair, then poured body wash in her hand, washing my shoulders and chest, my arms. When my cock took notice, I grabbed the soap from her hands. “Better let me do that. If you raise the beast, we’ll never get to dinner.”

  She grinned. “What about you? Have you always been this perfect?”

  “God no. I was a gangly teenager with all knees and elbows. I wore glasses up until I was twenty-two when I had laser surgery. You would have found my retainer to wrangle my buck teeth in line especially attractive.”

  She laughed. “Are you serious?”

  “Unfortunately. I was a dork.”

  The grin on her sweet lips made my heart ache, it was so cute. “I bet you were a cutie-pie.”

  “I was not a cutie-pie. I didn’t fill out until I was nearly twenty. Only then did I begin to get some weight on me. And once that finally happened, I began to workout with a trainer. The retainer came off, my beaver teeth were a thing of the past. I got myself a haircut, taming the curly mess I inherited from my grandfather and became the man you see before you.”

  “And what a man you became,” she purred as she ran her hands over my chest then over my shoulders, leaving them on my biceps. “A very beautiful man.”

  “You’re making me blush.” I wasn’t blushing, I was excited and happy she found me so attractive. She made me feel more manly, more attractive, and sexier than I’d ever felt. I took her by the chin and pressed my lips to hers. “I bet we’d make some gorgeous kids.”

  She opened her eyes and batted her long lashes at me. “You think so?”

  I ran my hands down over her voluptuous breasts, over her round hips and pulled her close to me, flesh to flesh. “I think so. Well, maybe after retainers and braces and such.”

  We laughed, and each moment we spent together made me like her even more. Underneath all the mystery, she was real, as contradictory as that sounded.

  “We need to get ready,” she said, reaching to turn off the water.

  I handed her a towel. “I know you’re right, but all I want to do is keep you naked, take you back to bed, get you on your knees, and—”

  She put a finger to my lips. “Dinner. Stop talking, you’re killing me.”

  Grabbing her wrist, I sucked a finger into my mouth, sucking gently. “You’re killing me too.” I took her face in my hands. “Let’s get dressed and get you wired, then the rest of the night will be ours.”

  She nodded, and I kissed her softly, then stepped away so we could do what needed to be done. She slipped back into her clothes and escaped to her bungalow to finish her routine.

  Fifteen minutes later, I was knocking on her door, then stepped inside when I heard her call out for me to, “Come in.”

  I followed the sound of a hair dryer, then grinned as I stepped over shoes and a few dresses she’d clearly tried on and tossed aside. I found her in her bathroom, and my heart squeezed in my chest.

  She was wearing a strapless sundress that fell just past her knees. There was nothing overly sexual about it, but the dark navy gauzy material was perfect on her.

  I leaned against the doorjamb and watched her run some type of torture device through her hair, mildly concerned when steam spiraled up from her head. She met my gaze in the mirror. “It’s not fair that men have it so easy.”

  Refraining from telling her I’d been ready ten minutes ago, I just grinned as I became familiar with her routine. Once her hair was straightened and some type of good smelling spray plastered on, she did some kind of magic to her eyes, sweeping on multiple colors that deepened and highlighted their natural beauty.

  A sweep of some rose-colored powder on her cheek gave her a pretty glow while a darker bronze color was dotted strategically on her brow and jawline.

  “
Can I be perfectly honest with you?” I asked as she traced a coloring pencil around her lips.

  “You can.” She filled in her lips like one would do color in a coloring book.

  “I kind of like this spy thing.”

  She raised a brow. “You do?”

  “Yeah. I have a degree, but I never liked being behind a desk. Same with my parents’ company. It never caught my interest, and thank goodness, they never pressed me to become part of it.”

  She turned to face me, a little tube of lip gloss in her hand. “Well, you might want to get past this first assignment before you make any life-altering plans.”

  I grinned. “True, but so far, this is exciting. I think that’s what I’ve been looking for, you know? And who knows, maybe one day you and I can open a private eye business. A couple of super sleuths who save the world, one perp at a time.”

  She turned to face the mirror again, smoothing the gloss over her lips. “Who knows? Anything could happen, I guess.”

  “Would you be willing to give up photography to take this kind of thing up full time?”

  She fastened a bracelet around her wrist, not meeting my eye, the smile sliding from her face. “We can talk about that. But not tonight. We need to hurry, and I’m not wired yet.”

  “Let me do it.” I waggled my eyebrows at her, hoping to break the somber mood our conversation had thrust her in. “I just want to see how it works, of course.”

  She rolled her eyes, the smile coming back. “You just want to play with my tits some more.”

  “Maybe do a little of that too. They’re righteous. You can’t blame a man for taking every opportunity he can get to play with those babies.”

  She checked herself one last time in the mirror. “Come on, Romeo.”

  Back in the bedroom, I picked the wire up from the dresser. With a sly smile on her face, she pulled her top down, and I groaned as her breasts popped free. I looked at her naked tits and sighed, adjusting my pants. “I’m going in.”

  She laughed and held out a hand. “I can do it if it’s going to make you uncomfortable.”

  “No way.” I slapped her hand. “I like the way you make me feel uncomfortable.”

  Together, we got her wired, although I was concerned about how it would feel when it was time for the tape to come off.

  “You can kiss it and make it better later,” she promised me then groaned as I took her nipple in my mouth. “Focus,” she said, pulling the dress up and going back to the mirror to look for any sign of it showing through. “Perfect.”

  I fist bumped her. “We’re a good team.”

  The smile almost slid from her face again before she caught it and forced it on even brighter. Was she just nervous about tonight? Or nervous about us? I couldn’t tell, and now wasn’t the best time to have that conversation.

  As she finished getting ready, I picked up her discarded clothes and hung them in her closet. It was then I noticed the sparse amount of clothing she had with her and made a mental note to surprise her with some new things from the local shops.

  “Let’s go shopping tomorrow.”

  “For what?”

  “I’d love to see you in some bright colors.”

  She looked down at the navy dress. “Are you saying I look dowdy?”

  Oh. Shit.

  I held out my hands. “No. You look fabulous. I just think some of the island colors would be gorgeous with your coloring.”

  She didn’t look convinced. “I don’t need you buying me things, Zane.”

  Women were evil.

  “Get over it. I’m going to buy you lots and lots of things.”

  She slid her feet into the same sandals she wore yesterday, and I made a mental note to add shoes to our shopping list.

  “I can buy my own things.”

  “I know you can buy your own things, but I want to. Isn’t that one of the pleasures of being a boyfriend?”

  “I—” Sloane stopped arguing and tilted her head to one side.

  “What?”

  She held a finger to her lips and shook her head before walking into the living room. From outside, I heard someone giggle and Sloane reached for her purse.

  “What?” I asked again.

  Sloane rolled her eyes. “It’s her?”

  “Who? Grace?” I got another eye roll. “How do you know?”

  “The giggle is a dead giveaway.”

  Another giggle, louder this time. “That?”

  “Yes.” Sloane checked her dress. “Showtime. Are you ready?”

  I took a deep breath and held out my arm. “Ready.”

  As I opened the door, and we stepped through just before Charles and Grace passed by, I thought about our future after we left the island. We had a lot of things to plan out. I wasn’t letting this woman get away from me. No matter what.

  But we had to get through this first. Get the information out of Charles, then I’d charter a private jet to get us the fuck out of there. Although I was excited about all of it, I knew I had to play it cool.

  With a wave to Charles and Grace, our mission had begun.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Sloane

  A star-filled sky hung over our heads as we walked with Charles and Grace to a bar for predinner drinks.

  Nerves sizzled in my stomach, and I prayed I was doing the right thing. Before getting dressed, I’d checked in with Agent Matthews and had gotten approval to allow Zane to help me. My handler actually seemed impressed with my quick thinking and use of available assets.

  But I still worried that I was doing the right thing, pulling a man I was beginning to care for into this mess. Before I disconnected with him, Matthews’s last warning was for me to make sure I controlled the situation. But the man by my side wasn’t making that easy.

  He proved that once again as we sat at a small table, having drinks with the other couple. His lips rarely left my face and his hands were all over me. It wasn’t that I disliked it, I actually loved it. But it was making it hard on me to concentrate enough to make small talk that might get some much-needed evidence on Smith.

  I tried to think as Zane nibbled my neck. “I’m a photojournalist. You’ve probably seen some of my work if you’ve read a newspaper in the last few years. What is it you do, Grace?” I thought working on her first might ease Charles’ mind for when I asked him about his occupation.

  But Grace didn’t answer me, Charles did the talking for her. “My girl has no need to work. Taking care of me is her job.” He ran his arm around her and pecked her cheek. “Isn’t that right, doll?”

  Grace pressed her hand against his chest as she looked at him with large, grateful eyes. “That’s right. My job is to take care of you.”

  Zane’s hot breath moved past my ear. “I’m going to take care of you all night long.”

  A shudder ran through me, followed by a tingle along my inner thigh where Zane’s fingers roamed under my dress. I took his hand, moving it just a bit, as being diddled under the table wasn’t a very ladylike thing to do. Plus, I had business to attend to, a thing Zane seemed to be forgetting as he pawed me.

  After taking a moment to calm my heated body and wandering mind, I turned my attention to Smith. “What is it you do for a living, Charles?”

  “My family has an Italian restaurant in Jersey.”

  “Mmm… Italian is my favorite. What’s the name? I’d love to try it if I get to that area.”

  Smith seemed to be enjoying the show of my smacking Zane’s hand away. Maybe the tactic was brilliant. After all, how could he ever expect that I was trying to get him to expose important information that would have him spending time in the pen when I was busy with my hands-on boyfriend?

  “Rubio’s. It’s a pretty nice joint. You have to try my ma’s meatballs. Oh, Lord, but they are to die for.” He rubbed his belly as he thought about the food.

  “I’ll do that. How long will you be on the island?” I pushed Zane’s hand down as it was creeping up my side. Holding it, I hoped that would
keep it still for a while.

  “As long as I want. I booked the place for two weeks. Some friends of mine are going to come for a few days sometime next week. Grace will be left alone while I spend some time with them. You guys should keep her entertained for me.” He eyed Zane. “Can you do that? Keep my girl entertained while I do a bit of business?”

  “Absolutely. Anything for you.” Zane gave him a smile then nodded toward Grace. “You can hang with us. That’ll be fun.”

  “That will be fun,” I added, smiling at Grace. My pulse had picked up speed at the news, as I I was confident that I knew who his buddies were. If I could get a date of their arrival, then I could call in the big boys to make the bust. “When are your friends coming?”

  He shrugged. “Like I said, sometime next week. We don’t like to set dates and shit like that. We’re a bunch of fly by the seat of our pants kinds of guys.” He ran his hand over Grace’s cheek. “I don’t want my doll here to have to deal with my friends. Some of them are crude.”

  I leaned up, resting my elbows on the table, feeling Zane’s fingers trail down my back as his lips pressed against my shoulder. “Why don’t you just blow them off if they’re not the kind of people you want around your girl?”

  Charles snorted. “Not that easy cutting some people out of your life.”

  I smiled. “Kind of like family.”

  He laughed. “Exactly. Can’t get along with them. Can’t kill them. So what do you do?”

  I lifted my glass to him. “You smile and deal with them the best you can?”

  He clinked. “Exactly.”

  Unsure of how far I should push him with questions, I decided to not press the visit further just now. Besides, I was beginning to worry about the recording device as I’d felt the tape tug a few times when Zane pulled me close to his side. I decided to check it.

  “I’m going to visit the ladies’ room.”

  I hoped Grace wasn’t one of those females who felt that no woman should ever pee alone. She apparently wasn’t because she stayed while I excused myself.

  Zane smacked my ass before I could get away from the table. “Hurry back. I miss you already.”