“What do you recommend I do? Run over there on my hands and knees begging for her forgiveness? I’m not the one who placed a bet using sex.”
“I hate to badmouth my gender, Ethan, but men do it every day and for a lot of dumbass reasons.” His gaze was thoughtful as he took in Ethan’s appearance, which Ethan knew looked ragged. “You liked this…Olivia, right? I mean, before you knew about the bet?”
Ethan scrubbed a hand over his rough cheeks. Just a few hours ago, he’d been worried about marking up her pretty silk skin. “Yeah, I guess so. But I’m still not begging her for anything. She owes me an apology.”
“That’d be a place to start, if you can do it without losing your temper and looking like a jackass. Either way, I’d grab some flowers on the trip there, too; large jewels and good wine can only help your cause. Besides Mama would love to meet this woman who’s got your brains and balls all tangled up. Why don’t you invite her over for dinner?”
* * * *
One shower, a trip to the florist and forty minutes later, Ethan found himself standing outside Olivia’s club, wondering what to do next, when a tall, curvy woman wearing more metal than most combat veterans came striding around the corner.
She came to an abrupt halt the moment their eyes met. “You’re the asshole with the ever-ready penis.”
Not sure if he felt flattered or insulted, Ethan shifted the bundles in his arms and held out a hand. “Ethan Newton.”
“Caprice Williams.”
“Recee, the voice from Olivia’s machine.” Never in a million years would Ethan have matched the voice to the face. She stood a few inches shorter than Olivia with curly brown hair and eyes a deep, unfathomable navy. A large, cream-coloured men’s shirt hid her body from view, but the tights encasing her legs showed off their curvy shape to the best advantage.
But knockout or no, she wasn’t the women he’d come to talk to.
“Good ears,” she commented while her gaze took in his package-burdened arms and the rest of his body. “Come back to beg forgiveness or wallow in despair?”
“Any chance I can do both?”
A slim finger tugged a brown curl as she looked him over once more, and a thoughtful expression took over her elfin features. “Personally, I think she can do better than you.”
“I’m sure she can,” he admitted while biting his tongue to keep from defending himself. “Mind telling me if she’s here?”
“Yeah, she’s up there. Working the books, reviewing ad layouts and working her ass off to get the Friday night perfect. Even after a dog like you left her with little or no sleep. After that much sex, a woman should be glowing, not red-eyed and sniffling.”
Not quite knowing what to say to that, Ethan kept his mouth shut and waited for Olivia’s unique friend to finish her assessment and ass chewing.
But damn, he hated to know he’d caused that beautiful woman to cry. His gut wrenched tighter at the mental picture.
“What about the bet?” Recee demanded, her voice going hard in prepared defence of her friend.
“What about it?”
She waved a ring-covered hand in the general direction of the club. “You left here so fast after hearing about it, we’re bronzing the tracks your ass left sliding out of here.”
Heat crept up his cheeks at the woman’s words. “I may have been a little hasty in my departure.”
“Ya think?”
His patience wearing thin, Ethan did the only thing he could think of. He told the truth. “Look, I don’t know you from Eve, but I fell for Olivia last night. Ass over heels fell in love. I wake up this morning, thinking I have the world by a string or whatever that bullshit is, and I hear your voice telling the woman I fell for she’d won the bet. Drop the shoe on the other foot, honey, and tell me how much you’d like it.”
Recee’s eyes narrowed on him. “You may have a point there, robo-cock. I doubt…no, I know I wouldn’t have left without making a scene and breaking whatever was close at hand.”
Their eyes met in mutual understanding.
“Okay, this is what you need to do.” Recee slipped her arm through his and tugged him away. “Olivia is too mad to listen right now, but I’ve got the perfect plan for you to win her back.”
“I’m listening.” Ethan said and let himself be led to wherever this strange woman wanted to take him—as long as he ended up with Olivia in his life and arms when all was said and done.
Chapter Seven
Rock versions of summer favourites blared out through the hidden speakers as Livia made her way down the club steps. While her heart might feel like a burnt French fry, Club Botticelli sparkled and shined with the last hurrah of summer.
Silver and lavender bows decorated tables and chairs while huge beach ornaments hung suspended from the ceiling, enchanting the dancers and drinkers alike.
Their two bars had been made over into paradise island wonderlands, complete with soft sand, gently rolling waves—thanks to a great light show—and newly renamed drinks in honour of the end of the hottest part of the year.
“Ha,” she grumbled. “The hottest season of all, my wide ass.”
“Mistletoe, gorgeous, pay up.”
M raised the deep green leaves with their cheerful berries over her head and planted a big, wet kiss on her check. “You do know that only supposed to work at Christmas, right?”
He shrugged, looking unconcerned. The cheeky fedora hat perched on his baldhead slid over one eye made him look more like a disgruntled madman.
“Thanks, M.” She sincerely appreciated his attempt at humour, but the quicker she made her rounds, the quicker she would be out of here and nursing her broken heart.
Fool, she mentally smacked herself. Only an idiot falls in love after a few chance meetings and one night of stupendous sex.
“Anything I should know about?” She looked around, happy to see the club packed with a line waiting outside. Nothing drew people into the arms of strangers like the threat of missing a party, she mused.
“Nah.” He shook his head and the brim of his hat brushed against his nose. “Everything’s quiet, relatively speaking. The wave machine you ordered is a big hit along with the new drink names. Damn if I ever order a shot of Heat Waves, but it’s pleasing the masses.”
“Great, I’ll do a few turns around the floor and then I’m out of here.”
The hat bobbled as M nodded. “If you’re headed that way, make sure the lifeguard guy is ready to go. I’m supposed to cue his entrance in five.”
Livia swirled back around. “What lifeguard? I didn’t order a damn lifeguard?”
M shrugged his wide shoulders. “Some guy showed up before we opened, said you needed a lifeguard here. Recee gave the okay.”
Complications and problems raced through her mind. Who was this guy and what kind of trouble did he want to start at her club? And why the hell would her friend vouch for him?
“Where’s he set up at?” she demanded, relieved to finally have a person and place to vent her anger towards.
When Ethan had left a week ago, Livia missed her chance to rage at him. She didn’t know if she was angry because he left, or because he left so she couldn’t yell at him. Then again maybe her anger was because she hadn’t seen him in over a week. So now this poor sop dressed as their nod to summer would be getting it with both barrels.
“Recee stashed him your office, last I saw.” M’s answer was almost lost to the noise of the music and people when Livia spun around and stalked straight to her private sanctum.
Everything disappeared from her vision as she slammed open the heavy wooden door and shoved it closed behind her. The crack of the wood made the man lounging behind her desk jump.
“Olivia”
His voice jerked her feet to a halt.
“Ethan?” What the hell was he doing here? Had he finally managed to grow balls enough to confront her? Well, too little too late, buddy, she thought savagely. Even though there was a part of her that knew she has some explaining t
o do as well. She hadn’t been exactly truthful with him. If he’d just given her the chance, Livia would have explained everything to him. The girls, the bet and her reasons for picking him. The bet had been her justification, the perfect excuse to go after Ethan with no qualms from her conscience.
He looked both sexy and silly wearing bright red swim trunks and a loud Hawaiian shirt with huge flowers never found in nature painted all over it. He came around the desk, both hands held up in front of him.
“Please don’t hit me,” he started off, and Livia had to force herself not to get lost in his brandy-coloured eyes. “I made a mistake running out on you the other morning. I want a chance to explain myself and make it right.”
Her tongue froze to the roof of her mouth. Nothing had prepared her for this. Her stupid, needy heart sped up with hope.
Ethan didn’t let her silence stop him. He bridged the distance between them until only a few feet separated them. “I heard about the bet, and my pride and ego took over. I didn’t stop to ask you what is was about or if maybe there was more to it than I knew. I just panicked and bolted out the door. I didn’t stop running until I reached my place where my brother talked some sense into me.”
Her pulse sped as she swallowed down a case of nerves. “Is that why you waited a week to come back?”
“I had to get my ass handed to me a few times. Plus, I was kind of waiting to see if you’d come after me.”
Shock had her mouth flapping open and closed. “You stormed out of here yet you thought I’d come traipsing after you without a care in the world. I’m not that much of a fool.”
In a hesitant gesture, Ethan reached over to clasp one of her icy hands. “Just let me have this time to talk with you. If, after I’ve said everything I came here to say, you don’t want anything to do with me, I’ll respect that.”
He took a deep breath and looked straight into her eyes. “Olivia, I fell in love with you before I even knew your name.”
Ethan felt his heart shrivel, along with his eager and lonely cock, when the woman of his dreams failed to respond to his declaration. With Recee’s words in mind, he ploughed on. “I know it seems impossible, but you were…are everything I was looking for when I didn’t even know I was looking. You’re so beautiful, and that gives me nightmares of having little girls grow up to look like their mama. I love the way you can make me laugh, the way your eyes crinkle before you make some smart-ass comment, and most of all, the way you hold me tight like I matter to you.”
He debated whether to say the rest, but what the hell? His pride was all but a memory now. “When I heard that message on your machine, I swear I heard my heart break. Not very manly or macho, I know, but I’ve never been in love before. I didn’t know it would make me into a sappy, stubborn fool. I was a fool to run out on you, the best thing that’s ever happened to me, because my pride might have taken a ding or two.”
Sweat trickled down his back and he wanted to howl. This wasn’t working. Olivia still stood there, her hand in his, not saying a word, looking like a deer trapped in a set of headlights.
He took a deep breath, dropped to one knee and exposed his heart. “I love you, Olivia Paisley. I want to spend the rest of my life loving and laughing with you. Please give me the chance to show you what you mean to me. Be my forever summer girl. ”
He knelt there on the wooden floor, his heart pounding and his stomach diving. When he was about to give up hope, call it a wash, then find the nearest bar, Olivia knelt to the floor beside him.
Eyes watery, she cupped his cheeks with trembling hands. “You had me at ‘please don’t hit me’.” Tears streamed down her beautiful cheeks as laugher spilled out of her cherry red lips. “I love you, Ethan. Even when I didn’t know who you were.”
It was enough. His lungs remembered how to draw in oxygen, and his stomach finally stopped spinning inside him.
But when she leaned over to seal their declaration with a kiss, Ethan forced himself to pull back. “Not yet, honey. Remember how this goes. I get any part of my body on you and I go up in flames. We can make it upstairs before I rip those clothes off you.”
She laughed, as he’d hoped she would, then stood, tugging his hand. “Well, come on. Let’s go celebrate.”
He grinned and felt on top of the world. “First, I want to give you a present.” He reached into the multi-hued beach bag she hadn’t noticed at his feet and withdrew a long, slim silver box.
“But I don’t have anything for you,” she protested, but Ethan pushed the box into her hands anyway.
“Trust me, this one’s going to be enjoyed by both of us.”
With a wary glance, Olivia flicked the lid open and gasped at the perfectly matched string of pearls gleaming at her. “Oh, Ethan, they’re beautiful, but how are they for you, too?”
He knew there was a wicked gleam in his eyes, but could do nothing to tamp it down. Some things a man just couldn’t stop. “Put them around your neck, and when we get upstairs, I’ll show you.”
In a quick, graceful movement, Olivia snapped the strand around her neck. She grabbed Ethan’s hand, and they ran through the club, up the stairs and into the privacy of her apartment.
They tore at each other’s clothes. Their passion too hot and too long denied to bother with niceties. Soon, they stood naked, locked in a passionate kiss until Ethan swept her into his arms and straight to bed.
Chapter Eight
Ethan’s hand felt erotically hot against the coolness of her body. Livia angled her hips to persuade his fingers and tilted her chin to capture his addictive mouth. “I love the way you taste,” she murmured, a low, contented sigh of happiness escaping her lips before his mouth landed on hers.
While he kissed her, she tried to rush him, wanting to feel him deep inside her again, but Ethan put a warning hand over hers and lifted his head a fraction of an inch.
“Hey,” he protested, “watch the hands.”
She wiggled her butt, already feeling the need and desire growing inside her. The hand he pushed between her thighs teased closer to where she needed his touch. “You’re not my Master,” she told him, not caring that her voice sounded more eager than angry.
His laugh sounded strained. “What if we play like I am for while?”
She waited a beat before moving her arms back above her head and shifted a tiny bit more onto her back to give him better access. “Goodie, sign me up and call me Mistress.”
Ethan only laughed then leaned down to kiss her. She felt his wide grin against her mouth. “Oh, hell yeah,” he said.
She traced the tip of her tongue around his lips and revelled in his body’s response. His cock thickened and pulsed against her naked flesh as she whispered, “Deal.”
“Oh yes,” she moaned when his talented fingers traced her damp heat. “How can anything feel so good?”
Livia lost the power of speech and hearing when Ethan thrust three of his wide fingers inside her. He mimicked the motion of his fingers with his tongue thrusting in her mouth until she didn’t know if she was coming or still coming or had never stopped coming. The feeling was as wide and deep as the ocean, as sensation flowed up and through her then swept her away. The waves crashed together, closer and closer as she panted and moaned under his talented stroking. Wanting more, needing more.
“Stop. I nee—”
His mouth cut off her protest with another kiss. His touch firm. So perfectly what she needed, that in seconds, her whole body tightened, then burst in another mind-blowing, knee-bending orgasm.
“Am I dead?” Livia asked as she floated back down to rejoin her body.
“You don’t feel dead.” He pressed a tender kiss to her mouth. “I need you now.”
Livia gave a mock salute. “Have me now.”
When she could take no more of his erotic teasing and was ready to whimper ‘uncle’, Ethan slid back to straddle her legs.
She moved enough to make herself more comfortable, dying to touch him, to run her hands, lips, tongue and teet
h over every inch of his hard body.
Soon she’d get her chance to tease him.
Soon.
But for now, Livia took great delight in admiring the way the sunlight shone through the window on his shoulders and the muscles glistening in his arms and legs as he sat there, hovering over her, a wolf just waiting for its meal.
He reached around and unclasped the string of pearls, then pulled them over her chest. They pooled in a cool mound. Livia shut her eyes as Ethan’s roughly callused hands moved over her aching breasts.
“I love the way you react to my every touch.” He bent down and idly flicked his tongue over the taut rosy peak of her breast. Her back bowed when he took the tight bud into his mouth and sucked hard. Pleasure blasted from her breast to her cunt as her mouth opened on a silent scream. Livia almost bucked herself off the bed.
Ethan grinned as he rubbed his hard body against hers and lay beside her, skin to skin, breath to breath. The solid pulsing flesh of his penis slid over the soft skin of her hips and thighs.
A quick flip of her tongue against his skin had his flavour coating her mouth. “If I cry mercy, will you finally fuck me then leave me in peace?”
“Oh, honey, we’re just now getting started,” he assured her with his voice low.
He dangled the necklace of pearls over her chest then wound it in a figure eight around her breasts. Since there was too much of her rounded flesh to hold them in place, the now hot string slid across her flesh, causing goose bumps to prickle on her skin.
Ethan did make her wait. His scorching lips closed over one nipple while he moved the silky pearls to her other breast in a frustratingly erratic movement that had her whimpering in desire and her skin burning and eager for his next touch.
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