“It’s your turn now,” Carroll told Andy. “Don’t screw it up.”
“But first, swimming! It’s too hot not to jump in.” Gwen tore off her cover-up and revealed a perfect-ten body complete with a belly-button piercing she’d insisted was still “in.” A tattoo graced her shoulder blade, a smattering of butterflies and flowers in full color. When her groom called down for her to jump, she did.
Kelli wrinkled her nose. “I’m not getting in that water.”
Vanessa agreed and they moved to the other end of the boat farthest from Andy and Gage, while Carroll argued they were “spoilsports” and leaped in behind Gwen.
“Movie kiss, huh?” Gage asked.
“The good ones are already taken,” Andy argued.
“Not true. There are lots of great movie kisses available. What about Dumb and Dumber, where he tries to eat her face?” At Andy’s aghast expression, he chuckled. “I’m kidding.”
“I was thinking more like Lady and the Tramp. What could we use as spaghetti?” She looked around at a few ropes and wrinkled her nose. Definitely not. But something similar—something tame and not embarrassing.
“What about The Notebook?” he asked. “The kiss in the rain is iconic.”
It was also...intimate. Plus, Gage would have to lift her and that would be weird. It wasn’t as if Andy was dainty.
“No,” she told him. “It’s not raining.”
He narrowed his eyelids as if he knew why she’d bowed out of that suggestion. Then his face lit up. “I’ve got it.”
“What?”
“Nah, I’m not letting you shoot this one down or reason us out of it. I’ll tell you right before it happens.”
“What if I haven’t seen the movie?”
“Trust me. You have.”
“What if I haven’t?” She liked being prepared—especially for a kiss in front of her relatives.
“You have. But if you haven’t, I’ll walk you through it.”
But that didn’t make her feel any better. Her stomach jumped in anticipation, nervousness and excitement switching places in a do-si-do.
“Why me?”
She blinked at the question. “Sorry?”
“Why did you approach me in the bar that night and offer to pay me two grand?” he asked, his voice low so as to not be overheard. “Were you out of options, or was there something else?”
She studied his rakish curls, warm caramel irises and affable smile. She could lie, but she decided not to. “You looked nice.”
She winced, worrying that the comment was almost a repeat of the “nice hair” one earlier, but Gage grinned.
“And? Am I?”
“Very.”
There was a distinct pause where they watched each other and the pretending seemed to fall away. A moment where Andy caught a glimpse of the possibility of more if she would only open herself up to it... if only he would.
She blinked to break the intense eye contact and Gage’s smile snapped seamlessly into place.
“Take this off and swim with me.” He plucked the edge of her cover-up.
“That’s okay.”
“No. It’s not. It’s a hundred-and-fifty degrees out here. Let’s get wet.”
Something about the way his voice dropped suggestively made her consider doing more than kissing him. If her tingling innards were anything to go by, she was starting to consider a host of other possibilities.
Naughty possibilities.
“Your face is red already. See? You’re hot.” He tugged at her cover-up and she let him take it off, holding her arms overhead. She was hot, all right. When the white gauzy material was done obstructing her vision, she came face-to-face with an expression on Gage she’d never seen before. Playful was his typical MO, but this look was...fiery.
Heated and scintillating.
Suggestive, and not in the “pretend” way.
“Hot,” he repeated, his smirk twitching his lips. “Damn, Andy.” He took her hand and helped her to her feet. Then he grabbed the personalized tote that read Gwen ♥ Garrett where he’d stuffed their towels and sunscreen and produced a bottle.
Wide, warm hands on her hips, he turned her. “I’ll do your back.”
* * *
Gage momentarily lost the thread of whatever he was talking about when he removed Andy’s cover-up.
Beneath the shapeless square material was hiding a lithe body. Her shoulders were delicate and round, freckles dotting them like they’d been misted on with a spray bottle. Her back was muscular and strong, and he noticed more freckles as he smoothed sunscreen over her shoulders. There was something intimate about slipping his fingers under the straps of her suit, especially where her bikini top tied into a bow at the middle of her back. His fingers flinched as he imagined tugging that string loose and releasing her breasts, maybe smoothing his hands around to cup them. He’d thought she was a B-cup, but now that she was mostly undressed, he guessed she bordered on a C.
Leaning close to her ear, he said, “Is this okay?”
“Hmm?” She sounded distracted, like maybe she’d been enjoying his hands on her skin as much as he was.
“Are you comfortable with my touch?” He applied the cream to her lower back and braced her sides with his hands. “This is how our kiss will happen,” he murmured into her right ear. “I want to make sure I’m not weirding you out.”
In a perfect reenactment of what was to come, she turned over her shoulder to look at him, blue eyes wide and curious. A high-pitched voice rang out—Gwen’s.
“They’re doing it! I know the movie!” she called up from the water.
Gage jerked his attention to the guys and girls in the water, and then to Kelli and Ness on the boat. Everyone was watching.
“No practicing! Do it now!” Gwen shouted with a happy laugh.
“Gage?” Andy’s voice was a soft, curious pant. “What are we doing?”
He slid his hands up her waist, lifting her arms and holding them straight out to her sides. He walked her forward to the edge of the boat as their audience cheered.
“Titanic!” Carroll shouted.
Over her shoulder, Andy sent him a smile.
“You’ve seen it?” he asked.
“Of course.”
“Then you know what comes next.” He tugged her hair from her ponytail, releasing the silken strawberry blond strands, gripped her waist and lingered over her shoulder. As if God was helping out, a breeze kicked her hair at same moment she turned her face to his and he lowered his lips.
The kiss was soft and expected, but what was unexpected was the way her curved bottom nestled perfectly against his crotch as he used every faculty in his brain to keep from hardening against her. She raised a hand to the back of his neck in perfect movie form and held him against her, her fingernails tickling into his hair as he moved his lips over hers.
More cheering erupted from the water and on the boat and Andy eased away from him. Perfectly comfortable and confident.
He loved seeing her that way around her family. Since they’d arrived, she’d been walking on eggshells...or thumbtacks, depending on which of her family members was around. Now, though, the feisty glimmer in her eyes was one he’d seen time and time again in a business setting, where she was cocksure and definitive.
Nothing turned him on more. Especially when she reacted that way to him.
“I’m calling it, guys,” Gwen shouted. “Best couples’ cruise kiss. Now you two have to stay together forever. You just won first place.”
Ten
Andy showered after Gage, insisting he go first so she could take her time. He agreed since his showers took all of two minutes. Now he sat on their suite’s sofa, where he was watching TV. The true crime documentary wasn’t keeping him from picturing her in there, water sluicing down her trim form and droplets hanging o
ff nipples he’d seen the outline of in her bikini top but had yet to taste.
“Dammit.” He adjusted a budding erection and addressed his lap. “We’re faking. Understand?”
That wasn’t sinking in for any part of his anatomy, including his brain. After the Titanic kiss, they’d swum in the lake, the water warm on the surface and bone-chillingly cold at their feet. Since it was sand-bottomed, they’d found water about four feet deep to stand in while everyone enjoyed beer or rosé and the coolness of the water in contrast to the baking-hot sun.
During that time, Gage allowed himself to touch Andy freely and she’d glided against him, her skin slippery from the combo of smooth water and creamy sunscreen, turning him on in a way he hadn’t known possible.
She was his colleague, and this was an act. She’d made that clear when she’d invited him, and by footing the bill for his stay. But he couldn’t escape the niggling feeling that she was enjoying herself as much as he was. That their chemistry was hot enough that her sisters kept pointing it out.
She’d thwarted her sisters’ teasing by batting her lashes at Carroll and rolling her eyes at Ness, but Andy liked him. He could tell. She responded to him. If they were to go to bed together, he would blow her mind.
The only problem was that he wasn’t confident he could disentangle from her as easily as he had from, say, Heather, the last woman he’d dated. What he’d experienced with Andy so far—whether working closely with her at Monarch, or hanging out with her family—was deeper than mere surface attraction. Sex wouldn’t dampen the simmering attraction between them. It would ignite it.
That would make walking away harder and Gage would eventually have to walk away.
The bathroom door swung aside, steam billowing from the small space. Andy emerged, her cheeks rosy, her hair wet and combed straight, a white towel wrapped around her body.
Speaking of igniting...
“I’m sunburned.” She pouted.
“What? How?” He moved to her, flicking the TV off as he went and tossing the remote onto the couch.
“I don’t know. Maybe the sunscreen washed off.”
She turned around and peeked over her shoulder, reminding him of the boat kiss and the press of her ass against his front. He swallowed a groan.
“Here.” She pressed two fingers into her red shoulder and the color changed to creamy pale before quickly fading to red again.
“Does it hurt?” He repeated the move on her back where her reddened skin resembled her shoulders. “Did the hot water of the shower hurt?”
She paused in thought. “No. Not really.”
“Then you’re fine.” He smoothed his fingers along her back and over her shoulder, the feel of her soft skin having a drugging effect on him. Touching her sent his fears of future entanglements up in smoke. The devil on his shoulder assured him she’d be worth it, and damned if the angel on his other shoulder didn’t agree.
She came closer and gazed up at him with an earnest gaze almost as naked as she was. Such vulnerability.
Those warning bells made one more attempt to stop him but he justified that Laura had never had this much vulnerability in her eyes.
Or was that longing?
Only one way to find out.
“Do you have any idea how sexy you are?” he murmured.
Her reaction wasn’t a gasp of surprise or a sigh of capitulation but instead a challenging smile followed by “Ha! You must have me confused with Gwen. Or Kelli. Or...any of my sisters.”
She threw a hand of dismissal that he caught in midair. He tugged her to him, and she gripped her towel with one hand to keep it from slipping.
More’s the pity.
“No. I mean you.” He didn’t smile, making sure she knew he wasn’t playing around. “You’re sexier than all your sisters put together.”
“Gage.” She released her hand and patted his chest as if leveling with him. “Save this stuff for an audience.”
He gripped her waist and pulled her against him, her towel gaping when she let it go to steady herself by grabbing his biceps.
She didn’t believe him.
She had no idea how sexy she was. And that invited a fun challenge that far outweighed his concerns of getting in too deep.
“Want me to show you?” He had to ask. She was too skittish to ask him for what she needed. Plus, he respected her. If she had no desire to find out what he had in mind for her tonight, he’d go back to that horrible pullout sofa bed. He’d go there rock-hard and in need of an ice bath, but he’d survive.
“Show me what?”
He stroked his fingers over her collarbone to her shoulder. “Well. I could point out that you’re delicate and strong at the same time.” He gripped the towel hanging precariously on her body, holding it closed but allowing his fingers to graze her cleavage. “Then I could mention how much I’m dying to see your breasts after they teased me by bobbing in the lake in that sexy string bikini top you wore.”
Her smile slid away, lust blowing out her pupils.
“My breasts...?” Her brow crimped like that phrase didn’t compute.
“And those legs.” He closed his eyes, flared his nostrils and grunted for effect. “They’ve been killing me since you started working at Monarch.”
“Gage...”
“Am I making you uncomfortable?” His eyes moved to her pink mouth.
“No. I—I was going to ask you if you were serious about showing me.”
Hard-on. Achieved. His shorts tented and he shifted to bump into her hip.
“Hell, yes, I’ll show you. Over and over if you like.” He grinned. Excited. Wanting that.
“No making fun of me.” She pointed, her voice stern, her finger an inch away from his face. He bit it and soothed the bite by suckling and then letting go in a long, smooth motion.
She licked her lips in anticipation.
“Definitely, you’re in need of a lesson, Andy. That is...if this is a yes.” He had to be crystal clear she wanted this.
“Yes,” she breathed.
Oh, it was on.
He yanked her towel aside and dropped it in a damp pile at her feet.
* * *
Cool, air-conditioned air hit her body as goose bumps rose on her arms. Gage kept his hands on her sides, but the look in his eyes was feral in the best way. He wanted her. He thought she was sexier than all her sisters combined.
She dismissed the possibility that he’d lied about how attractive he found her simply to get into her pants—or towel as it were. Andy was no dummy. She’d worked with Gage in close proximity and had been around him enough to see his guard dropped. Gage might very well be the last salesman on the planet who wasn’t full of crap.
Which meant he’d been sincere about every nice thing he’d said to her.
“I want to look so bad,” he said with an impish smile, and then she realized he meant down at her nude body. He’d kept those melted-caramel eyes on hers ever since he pulled her towel off. The fact that she still held his gaze was a powerful feeling indeed.
Confidence surged through her at earning his attention, at holding the cards. Her yes determined how far they went tonight. He’d made that abundantly clear.
Hands on his T-shirt, she gripped twin fists of the material and tugged upward. “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”
“Deal.” He had the shirt off in record time and she thanked the good Lord for her sight. Gage’s chest was beautiful. The strong, firm pectoral muscles and ridges of his abs. He wasn’t so much thick as lean, his waist tapering to a tantalizing V that disappeared into his shorts. Shorts that were straining against a part of him that was definitely, if outer appearances were to be believed, thick.
She lifted her eyes to apologize for ogling, only to find his gaze on the ceiling.
“Gage,” she whispered, leaning in and brus
hing her lips over his. There was a benefit to being almost as tall as he was, though now that she was sans heels, she had to climb to her toes a little. “You can look now.”
He cocked an eyebrow and lowered his eyes, his smile fading into an expression of awe as he perused her body. He took a full step back, holding her hands out at her sides.
“Damn.”
Were a headshake and a damn signs of disappointment? She wasn’t sure...
“Not what you expected?” She tittered a nervous laugh.
“No.” He didn’t let her squirm away, cupping a breast and thumbing her nipple. “Better.”
His other hand held her jaw and he didn’t wait for her to answer before he kissed her, sliding his tongue into her mouth to tangle with hers.
They made out long and slow, his hand moving from one breast to the other as her tender buds peaked at the attention. Her wet hair dripped down her back, leaving trails of water over her backside and doing a good job of mimicking the wetness between her legs.
By the time Gage moved to her neck and was tonguing the very sensitive patch of skin behind her ear, she was wrestling with his shorts and shoving them down his thighs.
“There she is.” He sent her a grin that could only be described as wicked. “I’ve been waiting for you to let go with me, Andy. Since you stalked over to me in that bar, I knew this was in there. All that cool control didn’t fool me for a second. You take what you want, don’t you, sweetheart?”
Her heart thudded like it’d punched the air in triumph.
She did take what she wanted.
At work. In her business life.
But in her personal life, she’d never been so bold.
It was Gage.
He provided a very big safety net for her high-wire routine. Maybe it was their arrangement, or maybe it was simply him. He was easy to be around, comfortable in his own skin, and she’d begun replicating his smooth confidence.
“Are you asking me to take you?” she asked, her smile incurable.
“No. I’m telling you to take me. Have at it.” He held his arms to his sides as his shorts slid past his knees. Somehow, with his shorts around his ankles and his boxers distorted by the ridge of his erection, he didn’t look silly. He looked scrumptious.
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