“Not gonna happen.”
“Why? Is it the chick? She is hot,” he acknowledged.
Something inside me went caveman. “Keep your hands off her.”
He held up his hands like Whoa, whoa! “I wouldn’t mess with your girl, bro. You know that, right?”
I stared at him straight in the eyes. “Only because you know I’d kill you.”
He laughed it off. “There is that. Look, man, seriously – I love you, bro. I do – and I get it. You want some time off. You want to do the Peter Pan thing.”
I frowned. “What, never grow up?”
“No, bang Tinkerbell. Or Wendy. Or both at the same time.”
Ugh.
“I get it,” he continued. “I’m on a sort of extended vacation myself.”
“You’re always on an extended vacation.”
“You know what they say – the best deals happen on the golf course.”
“And the poker table,” I said. “And the yacht. And the strip club. And the brothel…”
He laughed again, not a care in the world – or any shame at all. “You know me well.”
I looked at him suspiciously. “Did Bryce drag you all the way down here just for this?”
“No, I was already out here.”
“What a coincidence.”
He gestured around us, apparently at the yacht itself. “Seriously, dude – do you know how fast one of these things travels? Don’t flatter yourself.”
“So you’re here… why?”
“Protecting my interests. But also protecting yours.”
“How so?” I scoffed.
“You got other people besides me who want you back. And they’re going to start getting ugly about it.”
I shrugged. “Let them.”
“This isn’t just about you anymore. This is about a company you’ve built. And the thing about companies is… well, they’re sort of like medieval kingdoms. You may be the king right now, but you decided to make a pilgrimage to… I don’t know, wherever people do that sort of shit. The problem is, the Pope doesn’t like how you’re running the town. And while you’re gone, the Pope might just decide to crown another king in your absence. You get what I’m saying?”
I squinted at him. “Who are you in this scenario?”
“The town crier. ‘Watch out, dude!’” Vic yelled, then settled back with a grin. “Don’t worry, bro, I got your back.”
“Uh huh. And who’s the Pope?”
“I think we both know who the Pope is.”
Unfortunately, that was true.
So I tried to duck and weave. “Your grasp of medieval history is pretty weak.”
“It’s good enough to know you’re going to lose your kingdom if you don’t sack up and start playing Game of Thrones.”
I stood up and turned to go. “Thanks for the orange juice.”
“Before you go, answer me one thing: why all the cloak and dagger shit?”
My guts went cold, but I didn’t betray my emotions. Or, at least, I hoped I didn’t betray my emotions. “What do you mean?”
“Come on – you’re totally not letting her know who you are,” he smirked. “It’s like you’ve got a secret identity – at least with her. Why?”
I stayed silent.
“You really like this girl?” he asked, disbelieving. “You think it could go somewhere?”
“I want to see. If she likes me for me.”
“She’s going to find out eventually. If she was smart enough to use Google – ”
“Nice seeing you, Vic,” I said as I headed for the door.
“Awwwww, come on – stay for a while. We’re gonna have chicks wrestling in Jell-o in an hour,” he wheedled, as though that would entice me.
“No thanks.”
“You’ll thank me some day for looking out for you, bro!” he called out as I pushed open the door.
“Right.”
Please – shoot me if I EVER thank you for anything, Vic.
39
Katie
I think I was at about nine on the nuclear scale of pissed-off-ness when Ian walked out of the super-secret bunker.
He totally had this whole Don’t mess with me vibe going.
After all I’d been through, though, I didn’t give a damn about his vibe.
“What were you doing in there?” I demanded.
He looked at me like I was insane. “Talking. What’s wrong?”
I didn’t like how I sounded, but the words came out anyway. “I saw the girl who came out of there!”
“Oh – Chantal? Or – Juliana,” he said, as though he could just barely be bothered to get her name right.
My face flushed red with anger. “Can’t remember?”
He scowled. “Hey – I didn’t want to come here. This is on you.”
All my frustrations boiled over in one huge mushroom cloud. “Well, I didn’t know you were some alcoholic asshole who treats women like they’re objects for your personal gratification!”
Now he looked at me like I was from Mars. “I’m NOT.”
“Your friend is like that.”
“He’s not my friend,” Ian snarled as he walked away.
“Where are you going?” I yelled, partly to be heard above the music, and partly because I was royally pissed off.
“I’m getting the hell out of here.”
I followed about ten feet behind him as he walked off the main deck, down the ramp, and onto the floating marina. He swung his leg over one of the jet skis we’d ridden here –
“You can’t take that!” I protested.
“The hell I can’t.”
“That’s – that’s stealing!”
“Fuck him, he’s got 20 others.”
I stood there on the pier, arms crossed in silent judgment.
“Well?” he challenged. “Are you coming or not?”
I felt a magnetic pull towards him… but my pride won out.
“I’m not going to steal one of those,” I said haughtily.
He jerked his head back over his shoulder. “Then climb on.”
My reply shot out of me before I’d even considered it. “I’m not going to ride with you!”
You arrogant son of a bitch! I added in my head.
He shrugged. “Then stay here.”
He unhooked the mooring line and kicked the jet ski backwards –
Suddenly I was seized with the image of an afternoon of drunk naked women and dozens of replays of I’m Bringin’ Sexy Back.
“…wait!” I cried out.
He smirked. “Better get on now. Train’s leaving the station.”
I hated him – and myself – but I ran down the ramp and climbed on the jet ski behind him.
“You’re an asshole, you know that?” I snarled in his ear.
He started the engine. “You must like assholes, then, since you’re about to break the law with one,” he shouted.
Panic rose up inside me like a tsunami. “What?! Wait – ”
“Too late!” he laughed, and gunned the engine.
We zoomed away from the pier and headed out on the open sea.
40
We were about a half mile from the yacht when my anger got the best of me.
“STOP!” I screamed in his ear.
He cut the engine and turned around in alarm as the jet ski slowed to a halt. “What?!”
“What happened in there?” I demanded.
He looked surprised at first, like maybe he’d thought I was in pain, only to find out I was just pissed off. Then he got angry. “Nothing!”
“You were in there for almost twenty minutes!”
“So?!”
“So what happened in there?!”
“Why do you keep asking me that?!” he raged. “Nothing happened! I talked to Vic, that’s all!”
It made me sick to my stomach to even put the thought into words, but I had to know: “Did you have sex with that woman while you were in there?”
His reaction was a mix o
f anger and indignant shock. “NO!”
I could feel my throat closing up and my eyes burning with the beginning of tears, but I ignored it and just hung on to my anger. “Would you tell me if you did?”
“I didn’t!”
“But would you tell me?”
“Are you like this with every guy you hang out with?!”
He hadn’t answered the question.
Now, I suppose he might have had good reason for that. In retrospect, I suppose I might have sounded controlling – especially for someone who hadn’t even slept with him yet.
But I’d fallen for this guy, and I was convinced I’d seen evidence he was a womanizing bastard. Which hurt, because I so didn’t want him to be that. I wanted something real between us. Yesterday had been one of the best days of my life, and I didn’t want to give it up.
But when he answered, all I heard was You don’t get to ask me questions like that!
And I can have sex with whoever I want!
And No wonder your relationships fall apart if you’re like this!
Which reminded me of Rick.
“You DID have sex with her!” I exploded.
“I DID NOT!”
The words came spilling out of me now. “That Vic guy is a jerk! He uses women and he’s totally disgusting!”
“I agree with you!” he shouted.
That took me by surprise. “Then… why did you go to his boat?”
He looked like he was about to turn into the Incredible Hulk. “BECAUSE YOU WANTED TO!”
I was about to protest that when something happened that completely took my mind off the argument.
A fin broke through the water behind Ian, not twenty feet away.
“OH MY GOD!” I screamed, and jerked back – then realized I had nowhere to go. A couple more feet and I would have fallen off the rear of the jet ski.
I could tell from his expression that he’d forgotten our argument. “What? What is it?”
I pointed past him with one shaking finger. “SHARK!”
He swung around to look – but the fin was gone. “Where?!”
“It disappeared, but it was right over there!”
“You’re sure?”
Asshole!
“I’m not making it UP!” I yelled.
“Okay, okay,” he said calmly. “I’ll just – ”
He hit the button.
The engine tried to start, but didn’t catch.
“Huh…” he said.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN, ‘HUH’?!”
“Hold on – ”
Suddenly, not five feet to our right, another fin broke the water, then sank below the surface.
“OH MY GOD!” I screamed.
“What?!”
“We’re going to die, we’re going to die – ”
“We’re not going to die!”
“HAVEN’T YOU SEEN JAWS?!”
He was trying to remain calm, but I could feel the tension in his body. His muscles were clenched tight as a fist. “We’re fine, we’re fine, nothing’s going to – ”
And then all of a suddenly, multiple fins surged out of the water all around us. At least six on each side, a dozen glistening shapes emerging from the waves.
Dolphins.
A pod of dolphins.
It was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen in my life.
I burst into tears – although it probably had less to do with the natural splendor of the moment and more to do with overwhelming relief that I wasn’t going to die.
All the tension immediately drained from Ian’s body, and he slumped down in the seat. “Wow,” he said, looking all around us as more dolphins appeared. Fifteen, twenty, twenty-five –
“Oh my God,” I whispered, as they swam away. One even jumped a couple feet out of the water and splashed back down into the waves.
Ian burst into good-natured laughter. “You scared me for a minute.”
“I was scared…”
He turned all the way around in the seat, actually standing up and sitting back down so that he was facing me and straddling the seat. He tenderly looked me in the eyes, then wiped the tears off my cheek softly with his thumb. “I wasn’t with anybody else, I promise you.”
“Why were you there, then?” I asked, my voice quiet rather than angry or demanding.
“…I used to have business dealings with him. I owe him some money. He wants me to do something I don’t want to do, but I can’t tell you any more than that.”
My eyes widened. “You’re not… in the mob or anything, are you?”
He looked at me in shock, then burst out laughing. “Hahahaha! NO.”
I felt relieved, but still wary. “And he doesn’t want you to do anything… bad, does he? Like… illegal?”
“No. He wants me to run a business for him, and I don’t want to.”
“Oh,” I said, and sighed with relief. “So you promise you weren’t with anybody else?”
He smiled. “I promise. I’m only interested in you.”
My heart skipped a beat.
“…really?”
“Really.”
That was when he leaned in and kissed me – softly, tenderly.
41
I closed my eyes and gave myself over to his kiss as he cradled my face tenderly in his hands.
I put my hands on his shoulders –
Oh God.
I’d forgotten how incredible his body was. I could feel every defined muscle under his taut skin.
His hands dropped from my face to my shoulders… then to my sides… then to my waist…
Still we kept kissing.
His tongue brushed against my lips, and I opened my mouth to him.
His hand, huge and powerful, touched my breast.
With my eyes still closed I moaned into his mouth, which only emboldened him.
His hand cupped my breast now, and his thumb gently stroked my erect nipple beneath my bikini top.
Oh God, I was so wet.
I moved my hands from his massive arms to his chest, and lightly traced my fingers over his skin. I felt the bulging pecs, the deep troughs of his abs. Then I touched the fabric of his swim trunks… except there was something hard and stiff jutting up underneath them.
I hesitated – but I felt his right hand massage my breast, and his left hand press into my back.
I couldn’t contain myself. I ran my fingertips down the wet fabric, felt the rock-hard stiffness beneath. He was really, really big – bigger than any guy I’d ever felt before.
His hand slipped under my bikini top. His fingers glided sensually over my skin, and he gently squeezed my nipple between his thumb and forefinger.
Oh God, yes –
I gripped his cock under the suit, felt it pulse in my grip.
His left hand reached under my ass and pulled me up. I stood halfway and struggled onto his lap –
His cock, long and hard under the fabric, pressed between my legs.
A quiver shot through my pussy, and I began to grind slowly against him, rubbing my clit against his shaft.
Little ripples of pleasure shot throughout my body.
Still we kept kissing, our tongues gliding over each other.
His right hand completely pulled my swimsuit top up over my breasts. His left hand gently stroked my bikini bottom, his fingertips massaging my pussy –
I gasped, then came to my senses and broke off the kiss.
“Oh my God – we can’t do this out here,” I whispered in a panic.
He laughed. “Why not?”
“The boat – ”
I looked over. The yacht was hundreds of yards away. It looked like a child’s toy bobbing on the water.
“They can’t see us,” he whispered seductively as he nibbled my ear.
He was probably right.
“But people on the beach – ”
I looked in the opposite direction. The shore was just as far away, and the sunbathers were nothing more than little specks against the yel
low sand.
“They can’t see us either,” he said, and lowered his mouth to kiss my neck.
Warmth and pleasure cascaded down my back, and my eyes closed in a hypnotic trance.
“Unnhhh,” I moaned as he bent his head to my breasts and began to suck on my nipples.
I felt his hand slip down to his waist. At first I thought he was going to touch me again, but instead I heard the wet sliding of fabric.
And then I felt something hot and stiff – hard as steel, but as soft to the touch as satin – brush against my thigh.
His cock.
“Ohhhhh,” I moaned as I ground my clit against him some more.
I let my head fall to his shoulder. I smelled the rich, masculine scent of his body, felt the warmth of his skin against my face.
At the same time, I let my hand travel down and touch his erection, allowing my fingertips to ‘see’ what my eyes couldn’t at the moment.
Wow.
The head was so big. I could feel it swelling against my hand, that big ridge at the edge of the crown… and the shaft… incredibly thick… soft veins standing out from the taut skin… with a thatch of curly hair at the base…
If I’d been wet before, now I was drenched.
“I don’t have a condom,” he said. “Is that a problem?”
My eyes fluttered open, and I pulled back to look him in the eyes.
“Well… I’m on birth control,” I said hesitantly. “But… have you been tested?”
He nodded. “I’m clean.”
My heart was beating hard in my chest. “…okay…”
He smiled gently, and that put my fears at ease.
I felt his fingers between my legs. He pulled aside my bikini bottom, which was soaked – and not from the ocean.
He stared into my eyes as he lifted me up the tiniest bit, then guided me back down.
Oh GOD.
My mouth dropped open as I felt him slowly enter me. The blunt tip of his cock slowly pressed between my lips, so big, so huge –
“Go slow – go slow,” I begged.
He nodded and supported my weight with his hands under my ass, letting me take control of how fast and deep he went. I slowly lowered myself down on him, no more than an inch every ten seconds.
Sex On The Beach: Bad Boys Club Romance #1 Page 10