“In two days.” She winked at him and climbed on the long board. Cheers erupted from the people waiting in line. She’d graduated from lessons to riding the FlowRider waves for real about fifteen minutes earlier, and this would be her last run before leaving to change for dinner. Enrique had convinced her to advance to the surfboard.
“Aren’t you a smart one?” He held her waist, his hands warm and slippery wet. “I meant when should I try for some vacation time so I can take you to dinner?”
Why did he have to be good-looking and nice? Normally she never had any problems letting guys down gently, but this time… Did she have to explain that his touch would have to burn her now in order for her to remember it? That cute and sweet weren’t enough, especially when it was his job to be nice? That as much as she hated to admit it, as soon as this became more than completely innocent flirtation, her first thought was of Lucas?
No. She didn’t have to explain any of that. As soon as she pulled her head out of her ass for a second, she remembered this was a game, too. Nothing more than some friendly flirtation between a crewman and a passenger. Unless she really wanted Enrique to stay in contact, he’d forget her as soon as she was off the boat, if not sooner. This didn’t require truth, just playing along.
“Leave me your e-mail and I’ll let you know.” She solidified the promise with a grin and Enrique let go of her.
Water sprayed in her face, building the illusion that she was surfing for real, that she was free on the actual ocean instead of a carefully controlled simulator. She leaned to the left, moving the board to stay on the wave like Enrique had taught her. Talking to him might have made her think about Lucas, but on the board she could almost forget her past, outrun her demons, and remember she was on a damned vacation.
As if on cue, her current personal demon stepped into the FlowRider line and her carefully balanced body shifted ever so slightly, tilting the board a smidge too far. She toppled into the water, bouncing on the surface.
Even though she wasn’t hurt, it was a hard wipeout. Pushing to her feet, she glared at Lucas as the people watching applauded and whistled. Lucas, on the other hand, just arched his brow and motioned toward his chest.
Like she was going to go to him now? Not while she was standing on her own two feet and proximity to him sent her over the edge of sanity. She’d deal with him soon enough. For the moment, all she’d wanted was a little distance to…
“Uh…Mercedes,” Enrique said, snagging her attention. His face was stained crimson when she turned to him. “Your suit.”
Mercedes glanced down to find her oh-so-perfect bikini top twisted to the side, one breast on full display. Heat rose in her cheeks as she jerked it back into position and strode out of the water with what little remained of her dignity.
She lost that last shred when Lucas stepped up next to her while she was tugging on her shorts and said, “So I guess I can’t use the tiny birthmark on your boob as proof that we had sex. Not when”— he glanced at the people in line— “twenty other people have just seen the same thing. Pity that.”
God, she wanted to crawl into a hole.
Did he have to make this moment worse with jokes?
At least playing that game might get her past her embarrassment.
“If my birthmark was the thing you noticed most while we were having sex, I’m not even sure what to say.” She shoved her feet in her sneakers and prayed for a quick escape route.
Instead Lucas spun her around
“Believe me, I have a very good memory of every inch of you. As for what to say, how about, ‘You owe a grand to some charity in Queens, so let me give you the correct contact info so you can transfer funds.’” He stood so close to her his words were more like breath blowing over her skin than sound, and she shivered from the contact.
“Now?” It seemed an odd time, especially if he wanted to see her later.
“Yeah. I’d prefer to do it before you decide to hang out with Mr. Washboard Abs back there instead of me tonight.”
Without thinking, Mercedes shot a glance over her shoulder. “Enrique?”
“Going to have to guess so since I’m not on a first-name basis with him.”
Mercedes blinked. Lucas was…jealous? This wasn’t fake jealousy either. The flicker of anger in his eyes as he looked past her and the tightness in his voice were impossible to mistake. Her heart started to race. It was working! The ridiculous plan was working! If only she knew how best to play it from here.
Straight. Definitely straight.
“Jealousy looks good on you.”
“I’m not jealous.”
She snorted a laugh. “Amado, if you were a chameleon, your skin would be bright green. I could stand here and tell you that even though he was a lovely instructor there is nothing going on, but I don’t think you’d believe me. So what can I do other than admire how the emotion hardens the lines on your face and makes fire light up your eyes?”
“You are such a sweet-talker sometimes.” He drew her in closer, pressing the length of her body against his. “You can do one other thing for me.”
“Other than give you another of Better Today’s business cards? Because that had all the information you need on it, including mine and Kelsey’s phone numbers.” As much as she shouldn’t, she sincerely hoped his request involved going back to his room and getting naked. “So, what else is there?”
“Really this would be for me and…what was the kid’s name you mentioned? Mario?” He jerked his head to the left.
She felt the blood drain from her face. “Marco.”
“That was it. So, Marco and I want you to take a ride on the zip-line. Same deal. You do it without chickening out, and I’ll double the donation to Better Todays. Do that and I’ll believe you about Enrique.”
She’d forgotten about the stupid zip-line in the whirlwind of her fund-raiser planning and Lucas seducing, but now that she was forced to see it, she had little choice. She’d promised. And better to get extra money out of it than do it for nothing. Still, her feet wouldn’t move. “Why? Why the rock wall? Why this of all things?”
“The rock wall because you were already there, and I just wanted to chase your ass up it. Well that and I wanted my kiss and answers. This…” His eye twitched when he glanced at the zip-line and he swallowed hard like it was his phobia in play. “This because you strike me as a person who faces her fears head-on. I need more of that in my life.”
“For today.”
“Definitely for today. Maybe tomorrow, too.” Lucas leaned closer, his lips brushing her ear. “I’ll also offer to buy drinks if you do it. We can dine in tonight and everything. Room service is optional considering what I want to eat isn’t on the menu.”
With thoughts of his tongue doing magical things again, Mercedes’s feet remembered how to move and she found herself at the gate for the zip-line. She was buckled in and strapped to the line with a little-bitty carabiner that she really didn’t trust to hold her weight when Lucas’s hands were on her, his voice whispering in her ear. “I’ll see you on the other side, and for God’s sake, keep your eyes open.”
They snapped wide at his words. Damn it, had he caught her losing herself to his voice? Promises of oral sex or not, she needed to keep her wits about her. With a mental “fuck you” to Lucas Bellamy and every other man who’d messed with her head, she pushed off from the edge.
Before her feet had cleared the deck, she wanted to go back. She couldn’t grip the overhead bar tight enough, and her hands were starting to get slippery with sweat. She’d always thought zip-lines were supposed to be fast, but this wasn’t. She could see everything. The boardwalk was seventy or eighty feet below, and if that little hook broke… Dear God, what was she doing up here? People weren’t meant to fly. They had feet not wings! This was unnatural and terrifying and…
And then it was over. She hit the platform, her legs trembling beneath her. Then the carabiner was off and she buckled. Thankfully, the crewman was ready for it and caug
ht her before she hurt herself. He lowered her to the deck and gently removed her helmet before releasing the mechanism to be pulled back to the other end.
“Just breathe, miss. You made it.”
But she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Her heart still pounded so hard she could hear it in her head, feel the blood pulsing in her ears. But she had made it. With Lucas there urging her on, she’d done something absolutely terrifying—something she probably would have avoided all week and felt guilty about not doing for Marco later.
She was still shaking when strong arms wrapped around her. “You did it, Mercedes! I’m so proud of you.”
She sagged against his embrace, hating herself for how good it felt to be there. “Yay. Go me.”
He unbuckled her harness then helped her to her feet. “I don’t know if it’s the money for the charity or this Marco character, but you obviously care.”
“I care more than any sane person.” She glanced back at the zip-line and shuddered. Never again.
“I disagree.” He brushed her hair back and kissed her forehead, his lips lingering.
The move was so sweet yet possessive that she wished it was real. Wished it could be real. “About what? My sanity?”
“The attitude in your voice. Sane people only do so much for people they love. It’s the ones like you and me who change the world because we’re just crazy enough to do whatever it takes.” He pressed a kiss to her temple, his lips lingering as he murmured, “And you just proved to me, for a second time since I met you, that maybe facing your fears isn’t a fate worse than death. It might be enough to make me believe it someday.”
Impossible. The man made it impossible to hate him when he talked like that. She wanted to come clean about everything, lay it all on the table and see where things fell. It didn’t matter if she’d walk away with a broken heart.
When she opened her mouth though, she thought of the kids. Specifically, she thought of Marco and that night in the park that changed both their lives and that unshakable, overwhelming guilt washed over her as a fist closed on her heart.
How could she even be entertaining something with Lucas when he was still on the opposite side of the land deal—a deal that she knew Better Todays had no chance in hell of outbidding him for?
She’d hate herself no matter what. Either for not doing everything in her power to make something good come out of what she’d done to Marco. Or for using Lucas. The question was only which path would lead to the most self-loathing in the end.
It wasn’t a very hard question.
He was right. She would do whatever it took. So when she opened her mouth, the words that came out were, “So…about those drinks…”
…
Something had changed. Right after the zip-line, Lucas had been sure tonight was the time when he’d be able to get Mercedes to open up. When he’d finally get to piece together the damn puzzle she represented. Once he understood what made her tick, he’d be able to walk away. That was all it would take.
Then she froze up.
Actually frozen was the wrong description for what happened. She wasn’t cold, just…harder. On the way to his room, they still bantered and joked, but the little peeks into her depths had disappeared. Then he shut the door to his suite behind them, and he didn’t have time to get a word out before she tore his shirt over his head.
“What happened to drinks?”
“I’m not thirsty, Lucas. I’m hungry. Aren’t you hungry?” She nipped at his collarbone.
Yes, damn it. He wanted her, and his dick was more than happy to make sure she knew just how much. But… “I wanted to talk to you.”
“You can talk to me after you make me scream your name so loudly that everyone on this side of the ship knows it.” Her nails raked down his back, sending shivers of longing in their wake and making conscious thoughts evaporate.
Talking would be better after he wasn’t distracted by thoughts of sex and her wet, naked body beneath his. He tore at the button on her shorts and yanked them down as soon as it came free.
“Sí. That’s more like it, amado.” She didn’t even wait for him, shoving her bikini bottoms down over her hips as he drew off her shoes.
His hands skated over her skin, reveling in its silkiness until he reached the folds between her legs. With every touch, he got harder and harder. Damn her for being this delectable. As soon as the thought entered his mind, the only thing he could think about was tasting her. He grazed his thumb over her clit and watched her tremble.
Like this, her hardness from earlier had practically disappeared and he caught a glimpse of the real Mercedes again.
A gift just for him.
In this moment, she revealed herself, hiding nothing. Soon, he’d convince her it was okay to do it all the time and not just with sex. For now though, he’d take this.
Lucas stood and wrapped his hands around her waist, lifting her onto the edge of the bar. Stepping forward, he spread her legs with his body and tugged her hips toward him until she was opened to him fully. He drank in every inch of her skin. Perfection. Right here in front of him.
The barstool clattered against the tile as he hooked an ankle around the rung and drew it over. Once he sat down, he reached over Mercedes’s thighs and pinned her wrists to the top of the bar. “Stay right there.”
She nodded frantically, and he dipped his head to tease her open with his tongue, flicking her clit on every upstroke. Pressing against her thighs with his hands, he massaged her with his thumbs, sliding them in just enough for pressure to build before taking it away again. Within minutes, her breaths grew short and labored. He thrust both thumbs in deeper, hooking them to rub against her G-spot until her thighs clenched and she gripped the edge of the bar so hard her knuckles whitened. Her head was thrown back, and she panted desperately for breath.
If he could frame one image of her to take with him to bed every night, this would be it. On the edge, looking so raw and untamed, like she could never be pinned down by a man—any man.
And now, he’d be the man who got to watch her shatter.
Dipping his head, he took her clit in his mouth and sucked on it. When she came, her screams probably were heard by at least the deck above and below them. But she didn’t scream his name. He might have to go for a repeat performance and rectify that.
…
“How are you feeling?”
Mercedes snuggled a little closer, everything right in her world for one blissful moment. Lucas was well on his way to falling in love with her. She’d just had some of the best sex of her life. She was in the fucking Caribbean on a cruise. And she was poised to make a ton of money for Better Todays so they could sweep the property out from under Bellamy Enterprises and build the playground that would help free her from the guilt over Marco getting shot.
Any unease she felt over her duplicity with Lucas was buried for the moment.
“I feel amazing.”
“Relaxed?”
She let out a slow breath, her body melding with his as she exhaled. “Mhmm.”
“Good.” His fingers ran through her hair to the rhythm of the waves outside. “Because I want to talk to you.”
Her body threatened to stiffen up as soon as the words left his mouth. Talking was bad. Things were perfect as long as she kept her distance, but every time they talked, the distance started getting erased. Too much more and she’d lose the ability to walk away when all was said and done, and she would not moon over Lucas Bellamy. She couldn’t.
Her heart started pounding, and she knew he’d be able to feel it. There was no pretending she was on the verge of sleep or that she was too tired. He’d woken her right up with his words. Panic took over and she knew there was only one way out of this.
“Amado, unless you bought that damned diamond and are about to get down on bended knee, there is nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow night.”
It was his turn to stiffen, his muscles going rock hard beneath her. “Why do you keep pushing me
away? You have no problem being in my bed—or wherever else sex sounds like a good idea—and act as if you enjoy spending time with me otherwise. But as soon as conversation enters the picture, you shut down. I feel like any time I want to talk, really talk, you push me away. Everything has to be on your terms and in your time. I’m tired of waiting to be allowed to know you, Mercedes.”
She had opened up to him a bit that first night—and little glimpses since—but it had been nothing but sex and the plan. Now…too much was on the line and he wanted more than she could give. He wanted the girl she’d been with Cole, the one who’d given up everything to be with him, and she couldn’t do it. Not again. She sighed and buried her head in the hollow of his shoulder. “I like what we have right now, Lucas. This works. Too much talking and I just see us ruining it all.”
Unfortunately the muscles beneath her didn’t loosen with her words. Instead Lucas shifted away from her and climbed out of bed. “That’s great, but if this is nothing but sex, you should go so we can both get some sleep. If it’s more than that—by whatever gauge you’re using to measure—you have to stop evading me at every turn. I thought you faced your fears.”
Only when forced to. “I’m not afraid of you.”
“Really, because you said you were. And I’m fucking terrified of you. There you have it, Mercedes. You scare the hell out of me, and I need to know why.”
“Lucas…”
“No.” He strode to the bathroom, standing in the glow of the light. “I want a whole person, Mercedes, and you’re refusing to give that to me. At some point tomorrow, I’m going to ask you to talk again. You have until then to decide if I’m worth giving a piece of yourself to.” Then he disappeared into the light and shut the door behind him.
He wanted her. He’d as much as said it. She’d won the game.
The urge to celebrate, however, escaped her. What did this mean? And how the hell was she supposed to proceed?
Only one thing was certain, if she couldn’t, or wouldn’t, give him what he wanted now, he didn’t want her here when he came out of the bathroom.
Seducing Her Rival Page 10