“Which begs the question, why would someone have drugged you, only to let you slip away? Perhaps you just drank a little too much on an empty stomach?”
She swallowed back her huff of indignation. But she couldn’t tell him about Willie’s scheme, and without that motive, she didn’t have much to stand on. “I hope that’s all it was.”
Reed patted her arm. “I will keep an eye on you. If I see that you’ve had too much to drink, I’ll personally escort you to your room.”
That was so not what she wanted, but she gave him a gracious smile and a thank you.
“What did he want?” Sax asked when he rejoined her, watching Reed walk away.
She relayed the conversation. “He’s being very nice. Is it a cover-up or is he trying to ferret out information about questionable activities?”
“That’s where knowing the accomplice is so important. Willie’s working at the Connections office now. Dayum, there’s your friend.”
“He’s not my friend!” she hissed, surreptitiously glancing in Magnum’s direction.
He stood in the pathway, taking them in with an odd expression. Sax was much less surreptitious as he looked at Magnum, who quickly wandered in the opposite direction.
Sax shook his head. “That guy gives me a vibe.”
“I know what you mean. He’s always skulking around. Watching. And it’s not like he’s trying to date me or anything.”
“You sure about that? He was at the mixer laying on his lines.”
“I know, but whenever he talks to me, he’s not flirting. He’s being nosy. Usually about you. Maybe it’s you he’s trying to date.”
Sax snorted. “I doubt that.” He laced his fingers with hers and they continued down the winding concrete path, appearing to all the world as a couple. As soon as they turned past the tennis courts, they slowed down. “He’s up to something. I just can’t figure it out. But I will.” Sax stopped at the entrance to the employee living quarters and turned to her. “I need you to hang here and alert me if you see Willie.”
“Trying to keep me out of the fun breaking-and-entering stuff?”
His mouth tilted up in a smile that matched hers. “That’s a perk. But I do need a lookout. Willie was in his office a few minutes ago, but there’s no telling when he’ll be off and running again.”
Sax had tucked the container into his waistband, and the baggy shirt hid it well. He disappeared down a sun-dappled path. She did like the sort-of-business-geek look. She liked the sexy, confident, green-eyed side, too. Heck, she liked all of him. A lot. Not that she’d let on. No, she could just enjoy this adventure they were involved in. Enjoy the way he was helping her figure out who she was. She could do all that without falling in love with him, right? What was the point, with a guy who was never going to take the chance of committing, and her with her safe job in Illinois?
With a sigh, she turned to watch the path in the near distance. There was a constant flow of people, couples holding hands, people laughing and playfully shoving at each other. The way she and Sax did. And, she realized, the way she and Lane hadn’t done, even though they’d been together all those years. Most of them, though, separated by distance. What was the deal with that?
The sight of Willie shot her heart into her throat. Her fingers tightened on her phone, ready to send Sax a text. But Willie was intent on his course, which was the Wild side. A few moments later, Magnum sauntered past. Thankfully he didn’t see her.
Hands slipped over her shoulders, and she spun with a scream. Which she held in as she came face-to-face with brown eyes she knew were a spectacular shade of green.
“You were a million miles away,” Sax teased, looping his arm around hers and leading her toward the main path.
No, not that far. “Willie just walked past. We should go to the Wild side.”
Sax gave her a heart-fluttering grin. “Talk dirty to me, baby.”
She nudged him playfully, hoping to cover the way her cheeks were flushing. She’d already been naked with this man, had seen all of him. Well, as much as she dared to look at. But there was a dirty side whispering in her ear—maybe not dirty so much but wild—that wanted to see all of him, to actually look at all of him. Wanted to touch him. The memory of his hands sliding over her skin flared hot and fierce inside her.
Willie went to the refrigerator at the Wild bar and pulled out his tray of shots. He set his two bombs at the back, put a cover on them, and headed toward the pool area. People cheered as he made his way toward the pool with all the colorful little cups, keeping his hand over those two red ones in the back. He met the gaze of a man lying naked on one of the lounge chairs, who didn’t look excited about the shots as he gave Willie a hard smile. Then he gestured with his chin toward a blonde three chairs down.
Sax grabbed towels as they headed toward a few empty chairs in the pool area. He leaned close and whispered, “That’s Predator Eric, who’s apparently a regular. So regular that he belongs to a special club, like a frequent predator program that they have here. I overheard him pressuring Willie to provide the goods.” His disgust was clear even as his expression remained placid.
“Oh my God, are you serious? This keeps getting worse and worse.”
“Not for long, darlin’. Not for long.”
Willie made his way toward the woman the predator had indicated. At first she demurred the offer of a shot, but it didn’t take much for Willie to persuade her. He handed her one of the red ones, then went on to deliver the second one to another woman. Jennessy hated imagining herself as the target. A victim. She clenched the towel she was sitting on, imagining Willie persuading her to take a shot. Had she resisted at first? She’d never been big on doing shots.
Willie settled back against the bar and waited for his victims to fall prey to the drug. The predator also waited. What if Jennessy had ended up with him? She had been incredibly lucky to end up with Saxby.
In more ways than one.
She leaned back into him. “This should be good.”
It had been twenty minutes now, past when the drug would have taken effect. The second woman stood, gathered her things with nary a wobble, and headed off toward the guest rooms. Willie watched her with a jaw so tight that Jennessy thought it might snap. She had to hold in her laughter. His gaze shifted to the first woman, who appeared to be sound asleep.
Predator Eric was watching too, impatience tensing his entire body. He pushed to his feet and headed toward the bar, his gait stiff. Sax pulled Jennessy’s hair away from her neck and planted a soft kiss just below her ear. “I’m gonna get us some drinks. What would you like?”
She shivered, feeling those warm lips all the way down between her legs. More of you. She had to clear her throat before answering, afraid her voice would come out all squeaky. “Bring me a margarita, please.”
As she watched him head to the bar, trim hips, tight derrière, and broad back, he seemed as comfortable in shorts as he was out of them. Then again, he had the hottest body in the vicinity.
He leaned against the bar and spoke to the bartender, positioning himself only two stools away from Willie. Unfortunately, two women sitting on Sax’s other side leaned over and said something flirty to him, trying to pull his attention away from the conversation the two men were having. Jennessy knew it was flirty because of their cutesy smiles and the way they tilted their heads and toyed with their hair. The territorial growl that came out of her mouth took her by surprise. She had to grip the chair to keep from launching herself over to the bar. Sax turned his attention to the two drinks the bartender was making, watching as Willie and Eric parted ways. He didn’t give the women another look as he headed back toward her with the drinks a minute later. When he did glance back, it was to check on Willie.
Sax sat down, straddling the chaise lounge facing her. “I couldn’t hear their convo,” he said.
“Because women were flirting with you.”
“No, because they were too far away, and with the music and blenders and other
convos going on, there wasn’t a chance.” He held out both drinks. “I didn’t know if you liked salt or not, so I got one of each.” He held them out to her, letting her choose.
“I’ve never had one with salt.” She took the one with the salted rim and tried to find a spot that wasn’t so heavily encrusted.
“Want me to show you how I’ve seen it done?” He brushed off a spot on the rim with his thumb. “Now, dab the tip of your tongue on the salty part before taking a sip here.”
She touched her tongue to the salt, then took a sip from the clean section. “That worked perfectly. But did you want the salt one? You’re giving me a hungry look.”
“Either one is fine. It was that thing you did with your tongue…never mind.” He shook his head and turned his focus back to Willie, who was heading toward the main part of the resort. “Do you like the salt?”
She’d been too distracted to even pay attention, so she took another dab and sip. “I like the salt. I like the margarita, too.” She held out her drink. “You can lick mine if you want.” She knew how those words sounded the moment they came out of her mouth, and she honestly hadn’t meant them that way. Well, consciously anyway.
Sax obviously took them that way, because he groaned, throwing his head back. “You’re killing me.” But he wrapped his fingers around hers on the glass stem and brought the rim to his mouth. As she watched his tongue touch the salty rim, she understood what he was talking about.
Because she could so clearly imagine his tongue laving other parts of her. Parts that had merely gotten a tease earlier and ached for more. And knowing that all she had to do was say the word and he would gladly deliver more had those parts tingling. To her horror, her mouth started opening to beg, and she pushed out, “Should we be following Willie?” instead.
“Not necessary. We’re going to listen to him.” He extracted his phone and the earbuds from his pants pocket, and pulled up the surveillance app. Then he tucked her hair behind her ear and pushed one bud into her ear. Their knees brushed as they faced each other. He put in his earbud and bobbed his head and started singing Jet’s song, “Are You Gonna Be My Girl?” as though they were listening to music. He looked so darned cute. And he could sing well, too.
“You’re looking at me in a very interesting way,” he said, his eyebrow arched.
“That’s because you’re a very interesting guy.”
“As in the way people use interesting to describe something weird?”
She laughed, remembering their earlier conversation about her hair. He said he loved it. She traced her fingers down one of her curls. “No, definitely not. I think you’re pretty—”
A sound through the earbud cut her off. A door slammed, then footsteps pounded across the floor. Shuffling sounds. Muttering. More footsteps.
After a few seconds of silence, Willie’s voice shouted, “You’re cutting the K, mon! This last batch is nothing…no, you’ve never stiffed me before, but something happened to this shipment. I need more tonight. One of my best customers is getting pissed, because I can’t deliver…yes, I will calm down…no, I don’t wanna find another supplier…okay, I apologize, mon. I’m under pressure here. Can you just meet me tonight at the Point, usual time…Thank you.”
The door closed and cut off his voice.
“He’s getting more tonight,” she groaned.
“Which means the women here are safe until then.”
“And also means more bumping and knocking into him when he does get it. Do you know how hard it was to smile at him, much less swab his chest?” She shuddered.
“You were amazing. Did I tell you that?”
It felt as though her smile lit up her whole face. “You can tell me again. I can always use some positive reinforcement.”
He chucked her chin. “That’s what I’m all about, darlin’. Your wish, my command.”
All her breath whooshed out. “Oh, Sax, when you say things like that…”
“What?”
I feel dangerously close to falling in love with you. She wiped off what she was sure was a dreamy look on her face. “You scare the heck out of me.” And that wasn’t far from the truth either.
“Me, scare you?” He chuckled in that lazy Southern way. “There’s nothin’ scary about me. Unless you’re a bad guy and we’re meetin’ in some back alley in Kabul.”
“Maybe unnerving is more apt. As in, it’s unnerving how comfortable I am with you. Even from the first time we met, there I was spilling my secrets.” She covered her face. “And throwing myself at you.”
“Yeah, you were making it hard—I should say difficult, but hard works, too—to stay unattached. It’s funny how working together has been much more”—he brushed his thumb over her lower lip—“effective.” His gaze held hers. “Interesting. Definitely more fun. As long as I can keep my focus on my assignment and not on all the things I want to do to you.”
She swallowed hard on those words and the heat in his eyes that indicated how much he wanted to do those things. Sparking how much she wanted him to do them. “Focused. Yes, we need to stay focused.”
“Wait a minute. Before we were interrupted, did you call me pretty?”
She reran her words through her mind, then laughed. “I was going to say pretty extraordinary. But you are pretty, now that you bring that up.”
He leaned closer, his nose brushing hers. “Mm, pretty and pretty extraordinary. Anything else? I could use some positive reinforcement.”
She tapped his upper arm. “I bet you get plenty of that. Like from those women at the bar.”
Even though he was very close, she could still see his grin. “But you’re a college graduate, which makes you pretty smart. Pretty and smart. So I’m putting a lot more weight in your assessment. And I don’t think I’ve ever been called extraordinary before. I rather like it.”
“No one’s ever called me amazing either. So, where do we go from here?”
“We have a couple of hours before I need to get into position.” He stood, reaching down for her hand. “Let’s go play.”
Chapter 11
As Jennessy and Sax were making their way toward the beach, a musical note alerted guests to an upcoming announcement. “Hello, all you beautiful people. It’s Leroy, your activities director. Who’s having fun?” People cheered and lifted their drinks. “Who wants to have even more fun?” Louder cheers and whistles. “I thought so. Remember when we were kids, smearing ourselves with finger paints? Well, we’re all grown up now. Who wants to smear paint on someone else?” Lots more cheers. “Then come on over to the main pool area and let’s get dirty together.”
People started packing up their belongings and donning their bathing suits. Jennessy swung her gaze to Sax, who was looking at her expectantly, as in, Well?
The wild side whispered, Yes! The nervous, more demure side started to make excuses about why body painting with Sax would be a bad idea, but the words “Why not?” came out before she considered anything too carefully.
She was relieved to put on her bathing suit, not sure she’d ever be comfortable walking around in the nude. He led her down the path to where a group gathered at the bar beside the pool.
“You ready to get artistic?” Leroy, who looked like a wrestler, hollered from his perch on the stage. The crowd responded with wild cheers. “Only a few rules, my Wild and Mild friends. Bottoms on, tops optional. No running off with the supplies. And one last rule: Get wild!”
The crowd surged toward tables littered with pots of paint.
Queen’s “Body Language” played while everyone gathered their supplies and went to work on each other. She and Sax took a few of the small pots and found a place off to the side near a wall of foliage. He opened the containers and set them on the railing separating the bar area from the mini-jungle on the other side. She did the same with hers.
“Who goes first?” he asked.
“Me,” she said, her fingers literally itching to touch him. “What should I paint?”
&nbs
p; “Anything you want. Except maybe flowers. Or unicorns.”
Of course, he would give her no real direction. What did she want to paint? Nothing girlie or airy fairy. Something tropical. She dipped her fingers into the blue and smeared it over the contours of his chest in an arc. A dolphin came to life on his skin, jumping from his stomach all the way to his left pec.
She caught herself being a perfectionist. Here she was, fixing a smudge, smoothing an edge, trying to make it just right. So she let go, painting without reservation. She was here to enjoy touching him, not to paint a perfect dolphin.
Because he was sure enjoying it. His nipples had hardened at her first touch, and as she worked on the tail down by his waistband, she saw that another part of him had, too. She inhaled at her power to affect a man like Sax that way. She flattened her hands and let her palms slide over him. He threaded his fingers through her hair as she worked, his eyes half closed. He was a man who immersed himself in an experience.
She knelt to the level of his belly button, drawing octopus tentacles down to his waistband. His faint golden hairs shone through the purple paint as her fingers bumped over the ridges of his abs.
A memory flashed into her mind, triggered by his fingers gripping her hair and his stomach temptingly close: her mouth moving over those abs, his pants unzipped, the tip of his penis thrust out of the top of them. Licking and nibbling his skin, wanting to take him into her mouth.
She glanced up at him, taking in the spot just beneath his chin. “Sax, did I…when I was drugged, did I…go down on you?”
“No,” he said with such certainty that she was tempted to drop the whole thing.
“But I just got a—I don’t know. Memory, maybe.”
“The literature said people who are given the drug might have flashbacks. But you will not remember going down on me because it didn’t happen.”
She knew his integrity, believed him, but the memory of sucking on his skin and craving more persisted. “I wanted to, though, didn’t I?” She traced her fingers along the top of his waistband, leaving a faint purple line.
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