by Marie Carnay
Ian snorted. “That’s crap and you know it. No one can work twenty-four seven.”
“Isn’t that what you’re paying me for?”
“No. I’m paying you to catch the bastards. Doesn’t mean we can’t engage in…other pursuits.”
The muscles in Trent’s jaw flexed. “What are you saying?”
Ian didn’t know. Not entirely. “Let’s see where it goes. That’s all.”
“I’m not getting into some competition with you, Ian.”
“I never said anything about a competition.”
“So what? You mean leave it up to Holly to choose?”
Visions of Blake and Devin and their fiancée flashed in Ian’s mind and he grinned. “Not everything has to be about winning.” Trent frowned as Ian stepped closer. “Sometimes it’s a tie.”
* * *
HOLLY
Holly fidgeted with the hem of her dress. She never expected to run into Ian or Trent coming back to Midnight Cove. Feeling a spark of attraction to anyone? Let alone two? Ridiculous. Things like that didn’t happen to her.
As she skimmed her toes across the inky surface of the pool, the water rippled.
Ian Knowles. She knew he had more money than she could fathom. A huge house. Tons of friends. But she’d forgotten how his eyes lit up when he smiled. How the warmth of his skin seeped straight to her core. How desperate she’d been all those years ago for him to kiss her. Just once.
Even then he’d been out of her league. It used to be age. Six years was an eternity for a teenager. Now it was…different.
She was an adult. Independent and on her own. He wasn’t the older boy next door with moppy hair and an infectious grin. He was all man and irresistible. Long hair dripping wet as he sprang out of the pool. Abs flexing as water ran down in rivulets. Holly swallowed.
Then there was Trent. From the short hair, to the eyes that saw right past her bullshit, to the way he held back and acted the gentleman even when she covered him in frosting. He’d changed so much, but still managed to stop her heart. Damn.
Holly shook her head. I need to get it together. She flicked her toes in the water and glanced out at the darkness. The sound of the waves crashing on shore melded with her own splashing and the edge of the pool disappeared into the horizon of ocean water.
Midnight Cove was full of magic. It captured people and held them in it’s gorgeous grip. It’d snared Hillary. Would it snare her too? Did she want it to?
Her mind filled with visions of Trent driving off, revving his motorcycle and never looking back. Ian leaving for college with a trunk full of clothes and her teenage crush running behind.
She should be back at the hotel, staying far away from Ian, Trent, and all the temptation the coast and the waves and the heat of two men dredged up from the depths. No way could she get involved with a billionaire or his bodyguard. It’d only end in embarrassment. Regret.
The light from the house wavered and footsteps sounded behind her. Too late. Trent crouched next to her and his jeans stretched taut against his thighs. Holly focused on the water.
“I figured you’d have gone to bed by now.”
“I should have.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I wanted to thank Ian for inviting me.”
“Is that all?”
Holly glanced up in time to catch his gaze rake over her body. She bit her lip and the truth slipped out unbidden. “No.”
Trent shifted and found her eyes in the dim light. Damn. With the shadows, the plane of his jaw and the slope of his nose turned him into something…feral. Hungry. A predator. His tongue darted out and licked a slash across his lower lip and Holly’s mouth fell open.
She’d been turned on before, who hadn’t? But never had she been so affected. So…off-balance. He could have pinned her to the stone right there and she’d have let him. She prided herself on being strong. Independent. But one look at Trent and she wanted to surrender. What the hell was wrong with her?
As she opened her mouth to take it all back, a whoop sounded behind them. A streaking blur of naked skin rushed past, flew into the air, and before Holly could get out of the way, water exploded. The wave hit her with a wallop and she shrieked as Ian popped up in the middle of the pool.
Trent cursed beside her and wiped a hand down his dripping face. “What the hell, Ian?”
Ian bobbed up and down in the pool. “Come on in! The water’s perfect.”
Trent frowned. “It’s late.”
“Not that late.” Ian turned to Holly. “Don’t be a downer, Holly. Come swimming.”
Holly wiped off her cheek and shook her head. “I don’t have a suit.”
She could see his grin despite the dark. “Neither do I.”
Oh my God. “You want me to go skinny dipping? With you?”
“Why not?”
She glanced up at Trent. He wasn’t amused. But would he…come too? It was childish and silly, but in that moment she wanted to forget all about being an adult. She wanted to go back into the past when she’d crushed on both of them and pretend. What if?
But something had to happen first. She motioned at the outdoor lights. “Not with all these lights on. No way.”
“Then we’ll turn them off. Trent, would you?”
Holly tugged at the wet hem of her dress and glanced up at Trent. “Are you coming?”
“If you are.”
She turned back to Ian. This was complete insanity. It was like she’d woken up in Midnight Cove and forgotten who she was and why she’d left. Holly bit her lip. Maybe she could have amnesia for a bit longer.
Pulling her toes out of the water, she nodded. “I’m coming.”
“Then so am I.” Trent turned and strode toward the house as Holly stood up.
“Turn around until I’m in the water.”
“Of course.” Ian swam over to the edge of the pool and turned toward the ocean.
Holly waited as the landscaping lights turned off a section at a time. At last, the whole backyard was dark except for the light filtering through the house windows and the occasional flicker of the lighthouse down the coast. They’d never see her. Not that well, anyway.
Trent’s voice sounded out of the darkness and she jumped. He was inches away and she’d never known. “Don’t get cold feet now, Holly.” His voice dropped low and she shivered. “I want you in that pool. Naked.”
She turned toward his voice, but she couldn’t see anyone. Was he waiting for her? Watching? A moment later and she had her answer. Water splashed as Trent jumped into the pool.
My turn. Holly unzipped her dress in jerky haste, fumbled with her bra, and slipped her panties off before she could rethink anything. A quick hustle up to the pool’s edge and she slipped into the warm, dark water.
Time rushed by. At first, they’d just talked. Three bodies floating in the darkness. Sharing memories of the past and what had happened in their lives since they drifted apart. How they’d changed. Grown up.
Holly couldn’t believe how Trent had joined the military. He’d been the first to break the rules. The first to cut class and smoke a joint. But he’d turned into a man. One with a jagged, gravelly voice she could listen to all night.
Ian wowed her with stories of his first bar. The restaurant. How he’d taken over Montgomery Inn and had run it with Mandy’s new husband. They’d even catered her wedding. It was incredible. They were incredible.
The warm water washed over her shoulders again and again and Holly forgot they were naked. Then Ian came up with an idea. Marco Polo. She hadn’t played since she was a kid. And never with two men who could pin her against the stone edge and steal her breath. All sans clothes.
“Marco!” Ian’s voice rang out and Holly slipped farther down the pool’s edge toward the ocean.
“Polo.” Trent’s voice came clear and steady a few feet away.
She swallowed. “Polo.” Her voice sounded foreign. Quiet and meek and so unlike her. She eased through the water.
&nb
sp; Holly felt his hand before he spoke. His fingers slid around her wrist and his breath hit hot and wet on her cheek. “Marco.” The word oozed from his lips. Full of promise and warning. Ian Knowles could still make her weak in the knees.
She tried to steady her voice, but it warbled. “Does this mean it’s my turn?”
“No.” His other arm wrapped around her middle and before she could cry out in protest, Ian pulled her to him. Her breasts, buoyant in the dark water, smashed against his chest. Tight muscles rubbed against her sensitive skin. Her nipples tightened and he pulled her closer.
“Then what does it mean?” Holly might as well have run a marathon. She was breathless.
“It means I win a kiss.”
Between the light from the house and the stars, his face came into focus. Flared nostrils. Wide eyes. Smirk.
She raised her chin. “And then what?”
“Then it’s Trent’s turn.”
Oh my God. “I don’t—”
Before she could finish, Ian swooped in. His lips crashed into hers and his tongue darted inside her open mouth. Damn.
That kiss. Gone was the teenage girl who wanted a guy to lead. She wasn’t a shrinking violet, but there he was pinning her down and stealing her oxygen. She fought against him, thrashing in the water as his arms tightened around her. Her nipples rubbed against his chest and he groaned into her mouth. He lashed his tongue across her lips. Forced her to yield. To give herself up.
She moaned and he pulled away. “Ian—” Wait! Holly reached out, but only found water. He’d left her.
“Marco.” Trent’s voice echoed over the water and Holly’s eyes went wide.
Oh my God. Ian was serious. The sting of his kiss still echoed across her lips as she swam back to the edge of the pool. She reached for the stone edge and let the word slip into the dark. “Polo.”
“Marco.” Trent’s hands found the ledge before Holly’s. One on either side, his thick, sturdy arms caged her in. She spun around in the water. “We shouldn’t…I can’t…”
“Shh. Don’t talk. Just kiss me.” Trent leaned in, eyes open and full in the dark. His lips grazed hers. Gentle. Slow.
Oh, hell. His body slid close. Thighs against thighs. Chest against chest. She closed her eyes and his tongue darted out. Taking. His cock, thick and erect, pressed against her belly and she moaned.
Trent stole the sound with his tongue, lapping up her body’s consent as he flicked his tongue against hers. Where Ian was fast and shocking, Trent was slow and sultry. Deliberate. Beyond sexy. They both were.
It was all too much and not enough. Visions of the three of them tangled up all night flashed through her mind. Heat and lust and sin. Everything she wasn’t. Everything she’d never had.
Trent pulled away and she gasped. “I can’t do this.”
“That’s not what your body says.”
Holly squinted into the dark. Trent’s brown eyes swam in his face like two endless whirlpools and she could see herself falling. Drowning.
She licked her lips. “My body’s not in charge.”
“Maybe it should be.”
The water rippled around her and Trent disappeared. I can’t do this. I shouldn’t be doing this. She turned and hauled herself out of the water. All she could think about was getting out of there and giving her brain a chance to catch up to her racing heart. Who kisses two men like that? Why would they want her to?
She ran across the patio to her pile of discarded clothes. Let them see her naked ass. She had to get out of there.
“Leaving so soon?”
She snatched everything up off the stone and clutched the pile to her chest. “I have to work early in the morning.”
Ian rested his forearms on the edge of the pool a foot away. The light from the living room cast shadows across his face as he raised an eyebrow. “You sure that’s why you’re leaving?”
“No. I’m not sure of anything at the moment. I’ll see you later.”
“You can count on it.”
Holly hustled away from him and down the path to the guest house. She knew she was being childish by running out on the guy who’d given her a great place to live just because things got weird.
But she wasn’t a teenager anymore and playing naked pool games didn’t get her anything except an unsatisfied throb deep inside.
She turned the knob on the front door and let herself in. It shut behind her and she rested her bare back against the wood to catch her breath. She could taste the ghost of Trent’s kiss on her lips. Feel the shadow of Ian’s body pressed up against her.
A thrill coursed through her. Holly couldn’t claim to be a good girl—she’d had her share of boyfriends since high school. A few even pushed her to the edge.
But she’d never had the same kind of rush. Two men wanting her, kissing her. Needing her. It lit something up. Turned her cold, empty insides warm.
She closed her eyes and sagged to the floor. No matter how much she denied it, Holly wanted more. Their hands and tongues all over her. Their heat igniting in the dark. Damn it. She wanted to burn.
CHAPTER FIVE
HOLLY
WHY DID I get myself into this?
Holly toweled off her hair and hurried to get dressed. In the dark of the night with the buzz of alcohol and unexpected attention, she’d been turned on and more than a little confused.
In the harsh light of a Monday morning? Pissed was more accurate. Ian had taken advantage. Throwing his guest house at her like scraps for a starving dog then coming on to her and trying to get…what? A threesome? He probably thought she owed him one.
Gah. He was as bad as her mother. She’d thought money was the cure to everything, too. The minute she’d sunk her claws into old Mr. Mosterly was the minute she’d forgotten all about being a mother.
Holly couldn’t compete with trips to Aspen and diamond necklaces. Show houses in Midnight Cove. Lavish parties for celebrities and rich vacationers. In one year, her mom had gone from an ordinary wife of a lawyer to queen of the grown-up mean girls. A society woman with no time to share custody of an awkward teenager.
Holly huffed and put on her makeup. Ian was just like her. That party? She shook her head. I can’t believe I let myself get sucked in. The lifestyle of the rich and famous wasn’t for her. No way. Give her a kitchen, a tiny apartment, and a nice cat, and she’d be set.
She stalked out of the bathroom and yanked open a drawer. Grabbing an armful of clothes, she walked over to the bed and dumped them into her duffel.
Trent was probably just a hanger-on these days. Ian had scored the big money, so he stayed around. One of those always on the periphery just tagging along.
Screw that. Holly wasn’t going to be another one. She wiped her lips with the back of her hand. I can’t believe I let them kiss me. I am such an idiot.
She threw the rest of her clothes in her bag and zipped it shut. Forgetting Ian, Trent, and ever stepping foot in a Midnight Cove mansion was the best decision she could make. She needed to focus on Hillary and her catering. She could hunt for a job in Los Angeles in her spare time. Focus on work, not on her sudden, throbbing libido.
Sex never fixed anything.
After picking up her bag, she snatched her purse and took a last look around. Bye-bye guest house. Hello, hotel. She was strong. Independent. No man was going to hold the reins on her life. Certainly not two.
She flicked off the light and threw open the front door. Her Volvo sat right where she’d left it in front of the house. It seemed only fitting she was leaving Ian’s mansion in the same car her father had driven out of Midnight Cove all those years ago.
Holly threw her bag in the passenger seat and slid in. Hey, old friend. She still remembered the day her father came home from work, frown lines etched into his forehead. She’d just turned eighteen.
“How’d you like to move to Los Angeles, Holiday?”
She’d stopped stirring a pot of spaghetti sauce and turned to him. “What do you mean?”
&n
bsp; “I’ve got a job offer. A new firm in LA. You and me…we could start over. What do you say?”
Holly had looked at him for a minute and then turned back to the sauce. She’d stirred it around and around until she’d built up enough courage. “What about Mom?”
Her father had set his briefcase on the floor with a thud. “Your mother’s getting married.”
Holly remembered how she’d glanced up and seen regret in her father’s eyes. “Did she even ask about me?”
He’d smiled then, but it was laced with anger. “I think LA will do us both good. I’m going to go change.”
She’d watched him walk away and that was the last time they’d ever spoken about her mother. It had been just the two of them. No fancy cars. No lavish vacations. Just a tiny condo in Encino a few blocks from her dad’s office.
They’d always had each other and for years, that had been enough. She couldn’t believe he’d been gone a whole year.
The engine rumbled to life and Holly blinked back the past. She didn’t belong in Midnight Cove. Getting sucked into Ian’s life and all his excess would only end in heartbreak. Just like it had with Brandon. Her mom. Holly put the car in drive and eased down the driveway and out the open gate.
The sooner Hillary hired a permanent assistant and Holly could get back home, the better. She turned onto the road and accelerated, driving past mansion after mansion. Gated compounds and immaculate landscapes and more money than sense. Thank God she was leaving.
Her parents might have died, but that didn’t make the pain go away. She saw what could have been in every oversized front door and picture window with a view of the ocean. Brandon could have Midnight Cove. She didn’t want it.
Holly huffed and pressed the brake to ease into a curve. What the hell? She pushed harder, but nothing happened. If anything, the car picked up speed. Shit.
She pumped the brake again and again, trying to get it to work and slow the car down. But the car just kept going. Holly wrenched the wheel as she headed into the bend and the tires squealed as she barreled around it.
Oh my God. The road sloped down in an arc, hugging the lots on the edge of the ocean until the view opened up and Holly could see the water. If she didn’t slow down, she’d end up careening through the guardrail and onto the beach. No way was she ending up in the ocean.