“You really should be wearing a hat, darling,” she said. “You’re going to get sunburned.”
“Didn’t bring one.”
“All that room in your suitcase and no hat?” She tsked. Then she pointed off to the side. “I see the channel that way, where the boats are coming out.”
“I’ve got this under control.”
“Oh, that’s right. My husband doesn’t like when other people give him directions.”
“Your husband is doing just fine without direction, as you might have noticed.” It was true. They were entering the channel, and he navigated the little boat through the maze of coral that led to shore.
“He’s also sounding grouchy,” she said. She put a finger to her chin, like she was thinking. “Hmm. What could I do to put him in a better mood?”
“Agree to go snorkeling instead of sitting in an inflatable dinghy in the hot sun?”
She shook her head. “I don’t mind the fish, but I’m not sure I want to be swimming around with things that are bigger than I am.”
“So if I want to snorkel, I’m doing it alone?”
“I’m afraid so,” she said. “But I don’t mind. I can stay back on the boat while you swim.”
“With Dan? Fantastic.”
Ruby bit back a smile. “Is my husband jealous?”
He muttered something she couldn’t hear. Oh, there were so many fun ways she could play this, especially since they were stuck in this tiny boat together. But she was making him row in the heat, so she went for the sexiest one.
“I can make you feel better,” she said, resting a hand on his thigh.
He jumped under her touch, rocking the dinghy. Ruby grabbed onto the sides, and she was pretty sure Adrian was glaring at her underneath his sunglasses.
“That’s not how married couples act,” he said, like he was the authority on this subject.
He looked so scandalized that she couldn’t resist teasing him. “Do I need to explain how babies are made?”
“I mean out here, in public,” he grumbled.
She shrugged. “I’m pretty sure married couples have a little fun.”
At least in the beginning they probably did, though it was hard to imagine her parents even smiling at each other. Maybe Cristina and James didn’t seem like the kind of couple that locked themselves in their office for a lunchtime quickie, but still...there were a lot of married couples out there in the world. Some of them had to be more sexually adventurous. She blamed her own skepticism about what marriage meant on her parents, but what was Adrian’s excuse?
“What’s your family like?” she asked.
His brow creased. “They’re great. Why?”
She waved off his question and focused on the answer. She wasn’t sensing a lot of tension on the general topic of family. Hmm. Was he divorced? That wasn’t part of the office gossip, but maybe it was old news? Thirty-eight was old enough for him to have been both married and divorced long before she joined NY Creatives Media. “Have you ever been married before?”
“No.” The answer came out sharply, and he scowled. “What are you getting at?”
“I’m just trying to figure out where you picked up on your aversion to marriage.”
It was hard to read his expression behind the sunglasses, but she was pretty sure it was surprise. “I’m not against marriage. Not at all. Pretty much the opposite, in fact.”
Then why the hell aren’t you married? She almost asked the question aloud but, thank God, thought better of it. Honestly, though, she couldn’t imagine why Adrian wouldn’t be married if that’s what he really wanted. He was wealthy, fit and good-looking, so that alone should attract a good deal of candidates.
The other reason this surprised her was that he showed absolutely no interest in women at work. To be fair, he treated all employees with equal bluntness, regardless of gender, though his critiques were usually fair. Usually. Still, Ruby couldn’t make sense of him. What was stopping Adrian Wentworth from getting married? Well, besides the fact that he could be an asshole sometimes.
Everything she knew about him suggested that he didn’t lie or even skirt around the truth, so she could just ask him why he wasn’t married. But she was pretty sure that when questions got too personal, he’d just clam up. Ruby searched for a way to carefully continue probing.
“If your vision of marriage is not your wife pleasuring you in a dinghy out at sea, what is it?”
He froze, pausing in his rowing again, as if the idea startled him.
A rush of desire shot through her as the scene took shape in her mind: unzipping his pants, listening to his torn groans as she licked his cock. A real-life version would probably involve tipping the little boat over and end with a call to the police to report public indecency. In her imagined version, his carefully controlled exterior would crumble, and all that would be left was that raw hunger from the night before. Damn, that was hot.
He shook his head like he knew what she was thinking. The boat had drifted off course, and he maneuvered the oars to point them in the right direction again, then kept rowing toward the channel.
“Come on, Adrian,” she said, flashing him a smile. “Tell me what marriage should look like.”
He rowed in silence for long enough that she suspected he’d stonewall her all the way to shore. But then he sighed. “I can’t believe you want to have this conversation.”
“I’m not going to let it go, and you’re stuck in a boat with me.”
“Fine,” he said, pausing midstroke. “Marriage is about building a family, not blowjobs in public. It means a partner you can depend on.”
Ruby rolled her eyes. “You and my parents would get along well.”
He frowned. “I’m probably closer to their age than yours, so I wouldn’t be surprised.”
His words were clipped, but she could hear that same hunger leaking into them. A shiver ran over her skin. An older man. Someone far beyond Jimmy’s frat-boy years. Someone serious. Focused. Just thinking about those ideas made her hot.
“It’s true. My parents were young when they had me.” She made air quotes. “An accident.”
But that was the wrong thing to say, because he frowned—and not the good kind of frown. “That’s an awful way to say it.”
She blinked at him. When her mother had first used that phrase, it had hurt. Badly. But she’d used it so many times since then, the edges had dulled until it no longer cut. Just bruised a little. But Adrian wouldn’t understand that...would he? “So marriage isn’t about finding a soul mate?”
Adrian gave his driest laugh and started rowing again. Definitely not a believer in magic connections.
“And it’s not about great sex?”
“The average couple has sex just over one time per week. Maybe it lasts thirty minutes? An hour?”
“That’s generous. I’d say ten minutes tops.”
“Maybe if you’re twenty-five,” he said, giving her a skeptical look over his sunglasses. “The point is that there’s one hundred and sixty-eight hours per week. I sleep an average of seven hours per day, so that leaves one hundred and nineteen hours to consciously be aware of a relationship. Sex is less than one percent of married life. And it should be treated that way.”
She stared at him. “You made this into a math problem?”
“Of course I did.”
“What about the spark?”
“Overrated.”
“So how do you keep sex out of the equation?”
“None of your business,” he grumbled.
She gave him a sweet smile. “Everything’s my business, husband.”
After a few silent strokes of the oars, he paused. “If you really want to know, I wait until date number six to have sex. Just to make sure it’s a good match in other areas.”
“Really?”
He huffed out a breath a
nd continued rowing. “Really.”
It was just so...clinical. She could see him on one of these stuffy dates, stiff in his chair, assessing the candidate from across the table. Did he have checklist of wifely qualities? It was the opposite of romantic or anything else she’d want in a marriage.
Ruby frowned. “Have you ever been in love?”
Adrian gave her a sigh of exaggerated patience. “Not that it’s any of your business, but yes.”
“And the sex was good?”
He hesitated. “Yes.”
“But it ended.”
“Yes.”
She blinked. He had spoken just one word, but there was vulnerability in it. Maybe a few days ago she wouldn’t have picked up on it, but she heard it now, loud and clear. Why had it never occurred to her that his heart could have been broken? Even when she’d asked if he’d been divorced, she’d assumed he’d left someone, not the other way around.
Ruby was insanely curious. Who was this woman? How long ago did it happen? But the question she most wanted to ask was impossible to answer: What did Adrian in love look like?
Before she could ask him any of those questions, he spoke again.
“She was fun and sexy, and there was always something going on when I was with her. We fought a lot, and I didn’t know what to do with that.” Adrian was rowing harder now. “She probably would have left if the company I worked for hadn’t taken off. I can see that now, though at the time I didn’t. Or I didn’t want to. And then...”
His voice trailed off, and his movements slowed, like he was lost in thought. Ruby waited, frozen in place, for him to say what happened next. Whatever it was was heavy, weighing him down. What had happened? Then he frowned and shook his head. “It was a long time ago, and I was young and stupid. But it did help me see what I’m looking for,” he said, all traces of vulnerability gone from his voice. “And it’s not lusting after a woman thirteen years younger than me, who wears a cheerleader costume to work.”
The words took her breath away. They were the truth, but why did he have to say it like being herself was somehow lacking? Still, it shouldn’t hurt for him to state the obvious. Marriage was so far in the distance for her, too. So why did it feel like he’d just slapped her?
Adrian was watching her now, his frown deeper. He dropped the oars and swiped a hand over his mouth. “Shit. I’m sorry.”
“You really can be kind of an asshole,” she said flatly.
He flinched, like her comment had hit its mark, and a little guilt seeped in for lashing out. She swallowed and turned toward shore. There were couples everywhere, sitting on beach chairs, fitting on masks and snorkels, like being together was so natural, so easy. The two of them couldn’t even be a decent fake couple together.
Adrian muttered a few more curse words under his breath, and she could feel his gaze, heavy on her.
“You’re incredible, Ruby,” he said softly. “You’re smart, you work hard, and you’re upbeat and nice to everyone. Even me, when I don’t deserve it at all.”
He took his sunglasses off when she turned back to him, so he was looking at her. Her heart thumped in her chest. Goddamn her heart, traitorously swayed by his words. His praise was so rare and hard-won, never insincere, and her entire body glowed from it.
He took a deep breath and added, “Whoever you’re with is an incredibly lucky man. You’re exactly what any man your age would want.”
“Like Raj?”
Adrian winced. “That was another asshole move on my part. I let my own... Never mind. I apologize.”
She blinked, and a reluctant smiled tugged at the corners of her lips. So he had deliberately sabotaged things between her and Raj. A tiny part of her had suspected as much, but she’d never have guessed in a million years that he’d come right out and say it. Yes, it was an asshole move, and she figured Adrian deserved more tormenting, so she pushed him a little further.
“What feelings are you talking about?” she asked, giving him her most innocent smile.
He frowned, rowing silently, so she prodded him a little.
“You’re not afraid to mock my age and Halloween costume, but you can’t discuss feelings? Hmm...”
“Fine.” He huffed. “I find you incredibly hot, and it’s taken all my willpower to ignore that. Seeing you with Raj pushed me over the edge. I know you have a right to choose whoever you want, but that night I just couldn’t handle it. There. I said it. Satisfied?”
She smiled. “Very.”
And very turned on. She’d gotten Adrian to admit he’d been jealous, and her imagination was going wild. If he had been the one in that dark hallway, what would have happened? More than kissing, that was for sure. Her breath caught in her throat as she pictured it. Her back to the wall, Adrian’s big, hard body against hers, his cock pressing between her legs...
Did she still want him, despite the fact that he’d just hurt her? That felt more than a little messed up. She looked up at him again, wondering where this was going.
“But now that we’re staying in a cabin alone,” she went on, “your current plan is to avoid me as much as possible, with an occasional insult thrown in?”
He gave her his signature Adrian stare, like she didn’t know what the hell she was talking about. Except she did.
They were in shallow water now, and he climbed out, soaking half his shorts. He walked through the water, pulling the dinghy behind him with her in it like she was royalty, though the life jacket took away from some of the dignity of it. Ruby stretched out her legs and propped them up on the sides of the raft as he pulled it out of the water and onto the sandy beach.
He reached out his hand to help her up. The sides of the little inflatable boat were round, and he had to practically lift her. Her hat fell off into the sand, and she grabbed it, brushing it off. Before she could put it back on her head, Adrian was there, standing close.
He lifted his hands, and she held her breath, waiting for what he was going to do. Tangle his hand in her hair? Kiss her? But he didn’t do either of those things. Instead, he unsnapped the buckles of her life jacket.
“I’m so, so sorry I hurt you,” he said softly.
She opened her mouth to lie, to tell him it didn’t matter, but he shook his head.
“Hear me out, please.”
His breath was warm and sweet, and she closed her eyes, just enjoying the feeling of being taken care of.
“I’m so fucking hot for you, and it’s driving me insane,” he said, his hands slipping inside the life jacket onto her barely there cover-up. Her skin prickled as his palms traveled lower, brushing over her nipples. She shivered with pleasure. “I keep telling myself all the reasons I should leave you alone. That’s what you heard, Ruby. What I’ve been telling myself to keep this attraction under control. It has nothing to do with you and everything to do with the fact that I’m trying not to be the asshole executive who sleeps with the woman he absolutely shouldn’t.”
He sounded so repentant, like it was tearing him up inside. She reached her hand up to his face, caressing his cheek.
“You’re forgiven,” she whispered, and she meant it.
The tone between them had shifted, like that part of him he’d been trying so hard to shut off was now on, full blast. He slid the life jacket off her shoulders, and even this had a sexual feel to it. God, she wanted this man. There was no way they could spend the rest of the week ignoring each other.
His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, and his jaw clenched. She unsnapped his life jacket and pushed it over his big shoulders, tracing the muscles of his arms with her hands.
“Is this really so wrong? What’s the worst that can happen?” she whispered as his life jacket dropped to the sand. “That this thing between us gets hotter? That we can’t keep our clothes on around each other?” She moved her hands back up his arms and shoulders to his neck. “That no matt
er how many times you come, you’re never, ever satisfied?”
A groan rumbled in his chest, deep and raw.
Ruby smiled up at him. “God, I hope that’s what it’s like for both of us.”
She took off her sunglasses, folded them and hung them on the neckline of her cover-up. She squinted, the sky bright and blue behind him. Slowly, he took off his own sunglasses and shoved them in his pocket. The wind blew gently, carrying voices from farther down the shore. But it felt like they were alone, the warm sun shining down on them, just Adrian and her.
His dark lashes fell, and he licked his lips. His hand wove into her hair, and, slowly, so slowly, his mouth dropped to hers. His lips lingered against hers, barely touching. She took his bottom lip between her teeth, and his whole body shuddered. Then they were kissing. All the tension of the morning exploded, bursting again and again with each delicious slide of his tongue against hers. His mouth was hungry, almost desperate. She held onto him, pressing her body against his, the warm water dripping from him, his hard muscles tensing, moving, and his erection growing against her belly. She was desperate for him, and they were so far from their cabin.
She cupped his face and pulled away. He was breathing rapidly, and she swallowed, trying to get her own breathing under control.
“You’re pushing me again, Ruby,” he whispered. “And I deserve it.”
She smiled.
“You just want a kiss? Or are you looking for more?”
His touch was gentle, almost reverent. Each word, each stroke of his hand in her hair echoed through her, setting off new sparks of pleasure.
“Why do you want this?” he asked. “Too many ten-minute fucks with college boys who have no self-control? Is that why you’re looking for someone older? If we do this—if—it will be the hour-long version, and it’ll be dirty.”
Oh, yes. She knew this had been simmering somewhere inside him. This was the Adrian she craved, his protective layers down, his lust raw and urgent. Just like her own.
“That’s exactly what I want,” she whispered.
He stilled under her hands, and for one heartbreaking second, Ruby was sure he was going to call it all off. But then his mouth was on hers again, hard and demanding.
Pure Satisfaction--A Hot Holiday Romance Page 8