At the door, I realized that just because I was beachside, didn’t mean I could walk around a five star hotel in a bikini, so I threw on an oversized white tee-shirt and met Finn by the elevator, determined to stop being a freak-out and act like a normal person. He gave my exposed legs a leisurely inspection.
“Like what you see?” I asked cheekily.
“Swimming might have been a bad idea.”
“Your idea.”
“Thanks,” he said dryly. “Nothing like being held at arm’s length from the half-dressed woman you’re crazy about. The Marquis de Sade would really get off on this.”
I raised one eyebrow over the top of my sunglasses. “So did you get off last night? I did. Spectacularly. Fabulous headache cure.”
Teasing him was making me feel better already.
His delicious mouth fell open and silence reigned for a full five seconds before the elevator pinged opened in front of us.
I stepped straight in and hit the button for the lobby. He only just managed to get inside before the doors shut. Then he shuffled his towels lower, so they were covering his groin. “Do you have to do that when we’re in public?” he said softly, despite the fact that we were alone in the elevator.
“All I’m saying is that a little light relief might ease the whole hot-and-bothered thing you’ve got going on.”
“It doesn’t.” He stared at the elevator doors.
I couldn’t help smirking. Again with the knowing it was wrong, but I seriously loved bantering with this guy. When the lift hit the lobby I led the way out of the hotel, but didn’t get far before I realized I was alone. I glanced back through the plate glass frontage of the hotel and saw Finn at reception dropping off the keys. Melody was gushing over him and scoping out his biceps. Bitch.
I stepped behind a pillar so she wouldn’t see me if she looked up. I was still embarrassed about the whole sleeping-in thing. Not that I should care if they thought I was a druggie. But I did. So in a way it was nice that Finn was sorting out the details of our outing. I liked that. It made me feel cared for. It also reminded me that it had been a very long time since anyone had done that for me.
Doug had been more of a feminist-equality kind of guy, letting me do my own thing. Finn had more old fashioned values, and I had to admit, being on the receiving end of them was a lot nicer than I’d thought it would be. There was nothing disempowering about it. In fact, it made me feel important and valued.
The trouble was, I could get used to it, and that would only lead to disappointment in the long run.
Finn came up beside me, oblivious to my bleak thoughts. “It’s this way.” He pointed across the road and we set off, stepping out from under the hotel portico into the scorchy-beam sunlight that immediately stung my exposed arms. I couldn’t wait to be in the water which was sparkling invitingly across the road—deep azure with tiny whitecaps coasting in on the ocean breeze. As each wave whooshed up onto the pristine white sand, I felt my shoulders relax.
There was something about the big old blue that filled me with an elemental calm, so I was quite relaxed when Finn took my hand and led me across the road during a break in the traffic. I’d been so intent on the water, I hadn’t bothered to look for cars, so his careful shepherding warmed me inside as well, not to mention that whenever his skin contacted mine, my pussy woke up and took notice.
In broad daylight, however, my emotions seemed to be taking a front seat over my libido—never a good thing—and my imaginary checklist came out with a tick beside protective which I struggled to ignore. When we were onto the footpath beside the sand, Finn let go my hand—which then felt funny hanging by my side, as if it didn’t know what to do with itself. He led me north to the big tidal pool I could see wedged between the road and the ocean. It was a paler blue, so probably shallow, which I liked. I wasn’t the strongest swimmer.
By the time we reached the benches beside the pool I was overheated, but that would only make the swim more refreshing.
“This will do.” Finn dropped the fluffy white hotel towels on an empty bench and stripped off his singlet.
At that point he was only wearing lime green board shorts slung low on his hips, and there was no way I could be polite enough to glance away. I was staring, from the top of those suntanned and honed shoulders across buffed biceps, an amazing chest and the most lickable six-pack I’d ever seen.
The sun was seriously overheating me, and all I could think about was dragging him back to my room, stripping those board shorts off him and doing unspeakable things to make him come, as many times as I could.
“You bastard,” I said, and meant it.
I couldn’t stop staring. Just couldn’t.
I expected him to gloat, but he only frowned. “Your turn.” He nodded at my tee-shirt.
“Right.” I pulled it off and tossed it onto the towels along with my sunglasses.
“Okay, that didn’t help.” He was staring back, his gaze lingering on my breasts and then sliding down hotly across my thighs and down the length of my legs.
When he’d finished his inspection, we looked into each other’s eyes, and really, I had nothing to say.
He did. “I don’t want you to think this is all about sex.”
“But…?”
“I’d happily give ten years of my life if you’d just kiss me now.”
“Kiss you where?”
He blinked at me. Twice. Then he said quite clearly, “I need to cool down,” and turned away, his expression pained, before he did a shallow dive into the tidal pool, stroking away to the other side. When he was there, he stood with his back against the concrete side.
I pointed down to the water beside me. “Is this my side?” I called across.
He nodded. “For now.”
I slid in and the water came just above my breasts. It was every bit as delicious as I’d imagined it would be, soothing my overheated skin with the silky saltiness I adored in the ocean. Yet instead of being restless water, it was lovely and still, and so clear, I could see my toes on its sandy bottom. In an effort to concentrate on the sensation of water against skin, instead of sex, I held my nose and ducked under so my hair would get wet. I stayed down for as long as I could hold my breath, then I came up and shook my head, my ponytail slapping my cheeks.
“Ouch.”
I turned around and he was almost on top of me, but with a hand over one eye.
“Serves you right, sneaking up.” But I didn’t mind the proximity.
He wiped at his eyelashes but they still looked like starfish when his hand came away. Sunlight was reflecting off his eyes and they looked luminous. “Changed my mind,” he said, and put a hand on the edge of the pool beside me, penning me in on one side. Despite the cool water, I felt myself warming, wanting him to touch me. “I never know how long I have with you. I don’t want to waste any of it.”
“Even if it’s hard to be around me?” I batted my eyelashes.
His smile was slow and probably reluctant. “You feel quite safe teasing me, don’t you?”
I nodded.
“But what if I don’t stick to business?” He moved closer, and a second later, I felt his hand on my waist. An insistent throb, throb, throb, started low in my body, and suddenly the water wasn’t cooling me anymore. My hands were restless at my sides, wanting to glide over that tanned, salty-wet skin of his, but knowing they mustn’t.
I backed up against the side of the pool, feeling breathless anticipation. He might kiss me here, but nothing else could happen. We were in a public place.
“Jill,” he breathed, his lips inches from mine.
He was asking permission, and my brain wasn’t cooperating with any reminders of why I shouldn’t.
I shook my head, but for some reason I said, “Yes?”
Luckily, the next thing I heard was a gruff voice behind me. “Keep it PG rated, you two.”
Finn immediately lifted his hand off the side of the pool and stepped away from me. “Sure, mate,” he said.
“There are kids here, you know.”
I swiveled around to see a bulky lifeguard in the distinctive yellow and red bathers giving me the evil eye.
I pointed at Finn. “It was his fault.”
The lifeguard rolled his eyes and walked off.
So I turned back to Finn and said loudly, “Let that be a lesson to you, Mister.” But my pulse was still racing and I was so disappointed that he hadn’t kissed me.
He waited until the lifeguard was out of earshot and said, “What I was thinking, getting you wet and slippery and mostly naked? That it would make abstinence easier?” He was too far away to touch me, but his gaze was doing a good job of licking around my breasts. “All I can think about is taking you back to my room, sliding that bikini off you and…”
I raised an eyebrow, trying to slow my breathing and completely failing.
“…finally doing some prac on all the theory of cunnilingus I’ve been studying.”
Oh my giddy aunt. I swallowed thickly and willed my voice to sound normal. “I must admit, I’m curious to test you on that skill.”
His eyes widened. “Are you?”
“Curiosity isn’t permission,” I hurried to clarify. Think about Missy Lou. Don’t get lured by a pair of dewy green eyes.
“True,” he said, tilting his chin up. “But if you don’t beg me to have sex with you, you’ll never find out what I can do. It could be the best you’ve ever had.”
“Sounding confident all of a sudden.”
He shrugged with what looked like practiced nonchalance. “I think I’ve got the moves now.”
I almost laughed out loud, but his cockiness was actually sexy as hell. “Well, I don’t want to miss out on the best sex of my life,” I said straight-faced.
“No you don’t.”
I nodded.
We stared at each other for as long as it took him to work out that I wasn’t going to beg. Then he said, “So I’m swimming now. I need to express some pent-up sexual energy.”
I nodded again, as if I was quite prepared to agree to anything, and he set off down the pool, those delicious long back muscles working with each stroke. I had to admit I had some major pent-up sexual energy happening myself, so I was glad of the opportunity to regroup.
I might have bamboozled him with all the bare flesh my bikini didn’t cover, but seeing him in board shorts had woken up all my girls bits as well. His new muscles and golden tan were a spectacularly bonkable combo.
I’d already been addicted to that lanky body and those cowboy hips, but seeing him buffed up was another level of Ouch, I want me some of that! How the hell was I going to resist him now that I knew what was under his clothes. He’d already had an extra-cute butt. What if he’d been working those buns? Might they be even firmer?
The thought was so obscenely delicious I couldn’t help lingering over it as I watched him swim tirelessly, lap after lap. I was happy to just stand in the water, enjoying its salty caress, thinking about what sort of caresses I’d find in Finn’s arms, wondering how aroused he could make me when a simple hand on my waist had gotten me breathless with excitement.
Then there was the idea of cunnilingus.
He knew teasing me with that would turn me on. He probably also knew that I had a vested interest in him feeling good about that particular activity, after Katinka’s rejections—not that he’d work that angle. He had better self-esteem than to lay down the pity card. But still, it led me inevitably to wonder how he’d ended up with her in the first place, and perhaps more importantly, why he’d stayed with her.
Now that I knew him better, he just didn’t seem the type to be that needy. He ran a business, was clearly intelligent, had staff, and certainly did his fair share of bossing me around! It just didn’t fit with the picture. But if I asked him about it, that would open the Ex Files and he might start asking me about Doug. I certainly didn’t want to go there, so while Finn wasn’t standing right in front of me, steaming up my brain, I should be remembering that I was supposed to be all about business, cooling the engine and working out what my next move was.
I still had fifty grand to pay the hospital in Bangkok, so I needed to ditch Finn after breakfast and do a couple of hours of job scouting to find my next husband sit. I was mentally tracking back over the enquiries I remembered when he surfaced in front of me, all dripping water, glistening muscles, slicked back hair and compelling eyes. It distracted me completely.
I swallowed down a wolf whistle and tried to sound casual. “Cool down any?”
He shook his head. “And neither am I hungry, but I think we should have breakfast.”
“Sure.” The quicker we got through that, the quicker I could retreat to my room. I swam to the side of the pool and pulled myself up on the pool ladder, no doubt giving Finn a good view of my ass on the way. Then I headed to the towels for a pat down, but the concrete beneath my feet was scorching so I hurriedly slipped my sandals on and wrapped myself in the fluffy white cotton as fast as I could. “I’m heading for shade,” I said over my shoulder as I set off for the hotel.
Finn caught me up at the road and I dutifully took his hand so he could walk me across. I should have felt five years old, but instead I appreciated his attention to my safety and the sexiness of our slippery, wet hands rubbing together. That set the throbbing off again. What I didn’t appreciate was the hipster bombshell waiting for us outside the hotel wearing black jeans, a black tee-shirt and oversize glasses. Her silky, long black hair was tucked behind her ears, and she raised a hand to acknowledge Finn as we drew closer.
I heard him say something under his breath, but he pasted on a smile. “Sieu. Is there a problem?”
“You were having a meeting with the client this morning, and I couldn’t raise you on the phone to see if you’d received my workup.” She glanced from me to Finn, taking in our post-swim attire. “You told me it was a priority job so I drove up. Is this the client?”
“Yes it is.” Finn took the black leather satchel off her. “Sieu, this is Jill Wilson.”
The twenty-something hipster held out a hand. “Sieu Lee. I’m Finn’s operations manager.”
I mustered as much poise as I could in an aqua bikini and towel. “Jill Wilson.” I fuck husbands for a living, and I’m nowhere near as smart as you. I shook her hand and turned to Finn, hoping like hell that I could disguise my anger at being put at such a disadvantage. “And what do you mean, I’m the client?”
“The tea shop you were looking to invest in,” he replied smoothly, as if he had pre-breakfast swims with all his clients. “I asked Sieu to do some background research on its profitability.”
“Oh, did you?” We stared at each other for a long five seconds during which I hoped my eyes conveyed the Fuck you Jack sentiment I was feeling. How dare he go blabbing about the idea to other people? I struggled to control myself and speak evenly. “I’d imagined our discussions were private. How awkward.” I turned to Sieu and gave her a glacial smile. “I’m sorry you wasted your time.”
I was furious at Finn in that moment, but also railing at my own stupidity. The tea shop idea had been private between Fritha and me. She’d never even told that dream to Ange or Missy Lou. I should never have told Finn. If this Sieu had been nosing around, the idea could be out in the open for anyone to jump on. And Fritha would kill me if someone else set up the shop in Belandera before she could.
I gave Finn a last how dare you glance before I excused myself and headed for reception. Luckily, the male receptionist served me. Melody was obviously busy elsewhere, so I retrieved my door key and stalked off to the elevator, angry at everyone. Unfortunately, by the time I reached my door I was imagining Fritha finding out, and how crushed she’d be, and that made me want to cry. I was such a bad friend.
I couldn’t seem to get the key to swipe open the door, and the more I fumbled, the more my throat ached. When Finn took the key out of my hand and swiped it for me, then reached past me to open the door, I was seriously blinking back te
ars.
I marched straight in, not expecting him to follow me. But a second after the door closed he said, “I’m sorry, Jill. I didn’t expect that to happen. I asked Sieu—”
“You had no right.”
Shit. My voice was trembling.
“Jill?” He came around in front of me.
I swallowed it down and lifted my chin. “You presumptuous bastard.” Anger was so much easier. “You told me that you were going to look into it. Not that you were going to blab Fritha’s secret idea to other people.”
“It’s only Sieu, and she’s very discreet.”
“If Fritha finds out—”
“I know.” He took my hands and I wanted to pull them back but he wouldn’t let me. “I’m sorry I didn’t explain the process. But this is how it happens. When you’re looking to start up a new business, you get someone to do background research on viability. They come up with ways of generating income—without anyone realizing what the research is for,” he hurried to add. “They get back to you with that information, and if you like what you hear you can choose to go forward.”
“Nobody knows?”
He shook his head. “Only you and I and Sieu. I promise.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you’d involved her?”
He frowned. “I planned to, this morning, but first I thought you were dead, then I couldn’t stop thinking about sex. And…I’m not particularly clear-headed around you. In case you hadn’t noticed.”
That probably also explained why she hadn’t been able to reach him on his phone.
I pulled in a shaky breath. Those tears had been close. “So now what?”
“Sieu wants to brief you. She’s organizing a table for a breakfast meeting, although it is closer to lunchtime.”
“But I was such a bitch.”
“She told me you’re perfect for me.” He smiled at that, and I wanted to lick those perfect teeth.
Instead I said, “Bullshit.”
“Her exact words were I like her. She’s sexy and smart. Smarter than you.”
Husband Sit (Husband #1) Page 21