Chapter Thirty-Three

Rio

Bryn was going back to work tomorrow, and it was taunting me. I hadn’t expected things to go this way. Not so quickly. I’d thought she disliked me. I hadn’t known she was going to light up like a firecracker when I kissed her. But she had, and all the reasons I had fought to give us a chance were gone. One taste of her, and I was hooked.

The next few nights, she would be working, and we wouldn’t have much time together. I was already dreading it. If Pops didn’t need me at the market so bad, I would take off, so we could have days together. Being away from her even for a few hours bothered me. I knew that wasn’t mentally healthy, but fuck if I could help it.

Henley had helped me out by offering to take Cullen swimming in our pool, then keeping him there for the night. Bryn had told him she’d be there when he woke up. Saul had agreed to go get the little girl who was his sister by birth but had been adopted by a young couple in town to come swim too. Cullen got a playdate with another kid, and I got Bryn alone. I wanted a date night with Bryn. I wanted to take her somewhere nice. Let her see I wanted more from her than her body.

Henley had already picked up Cullen when I arrived to get Bryn. When the door opened and she stood there with a black satin dress that was fitted and hit mid-thigh, my heart thudded in my chest. Her long hair fell over one shoulder, and her shoulders and collarbone were bare. There wasn’t much cleavage, but there also wasn’t a bra. I swallowed hard.

“You look beautiful,” I said.

Her smile was always shy when I told her how beautiful she was. As if she didn’t believe me and was embarrassed. It was part of what made her perfect.

“Thank you,” she replied.

“You’d better come out here,” I told her. “If I come inside, we won’t make it out tonight.”

Her eyes widened, and for a moment, I thought she was going to ask me to come in. Even with her innocence, she was hungry to do more. That didn’t help my self-control.

I stepped away from the door. “Get out here, Bryn,” I said.

She reached for a purse and stepped outside. The heels weren’t like the stilettos she wore at work, but they were definitely fuck-me heels. I would be taking those off tonight. I placed my hand on her lower back and led her down the stairs and to the Jeep. Not looking at her chest to watch her tits bounce under the thin satin fabric was difficult. I managed to only look three times before opening the door for her to climb inside.

There was a brand-new box of condoms in the backseat, but that wasn’t for my Jeep. I was not going to take her in my Jeep. Not for her first time at least. In the future, it could happen in here, but not tonight.

“Where are we going?” she asked as we pulled out onto the main road.

“Sterling Sand Dollar,” I replied.

“The one with the rooftop seating overlooking the water?”

I nodded. “That’s the one.”

She smiled, and not taking her directly to her bedroom and burying myself in her the moment she’d opened the door was a good thing. Bryn didn’t get to go to places like this. She didn’t date, apparently. Her life had been ruled by Tory.

I put my hand on her thigh because I needed to be touching her while I drove the five miles to the restaurant. Fighting the urge to slide my hand higher up her thigh was difficult, but I managed it. Mostly by asking her things about Cullen, like when his birthday was and where he was going to go to school in the fall.

We didn’t go inside; instead, we checked in for our reservation outside, and the hostess walked us over to the elevator for the rooftop seating. It was virtually impossible to get reservations up here, but Saul’s father owned the building, so he’d made it happen for me.

The table seated in the far-right corner, away from the other tables, had to also have been Saul’s doing. I owed him one. There were limited tables up here, and we had managed to get the one that was blocked from the view of other tables with an ornate railing. I wasn’t sure patrons were regularly sat back here.

I sat on the same side as Bryn, so we could have a clear view of the beach. Also, I didn’t want a table separating us. The sounds of the crashing waves, ocean breeze, and soft music that was playing gave us a sense of privacy.

The server arrived and took our drink orders. Bryn ordered water, but I ordered a bottle of champagne. She said she would drink a little but that she rarely drank anything. Once the drinks arrived and we chose our meals, I allowed myself to finally touch her. I placed my hand back on her thigh and ran my fingertips inside her leg, where the softest flesh was.

“Do you eat seafood?” I asked her casually. “You ordered the only chicken dish on the menu.”

Her breathing had picked up some from my caressing. I liked being able to affect her so easily.

“I-I-I don’t know,” she said.

She was already stuttering. That did something to me. Every damn time. When I knew she was so turned on that she couldn’t concentrate on talking, I felt like I’d won something I didn’t deserve.

It also made me want to push her more. I let my fingers move up higher inside her thigh. “You don’t know? Have you never eaten seafood?” I asked.

Her nipples were hard and clearly visible through the satin fabric of her dress. She swallowed hard and then shook her head instead of answering.

“Are you afraid to try it?” I asked her, then moved my hand a little higher.

Bryn opened her legs more, and that single move made my cock throb. She looked up at me, and I bent my head to capture her mouth with mine. I tasted her honey and sunshine as my hand slid further up her thigh until I found the wet lips of her pussy with only a thin strap of fabric going up the center.

“A G-string,” I whispered against her lips.

She nodded.

“It doesn’t cover up much,” I told her as I played with the string, tugging it so that it rubbed her clit roughly.

She bit her bottom lip and muffled a sound. Her eyes fluttered, and she moved against my hand. I’d started this, but I needed to stop it. No one was going to watch her come. That was for me alone. I moved my hand away, and her eyes opened. The distress from my stopping was clear on her face. My dick was aching. I should have known better than to put my hand down there.

“No one sees you come but me,” I told her.

She looked around, and we weren’t in anyone’s sight.

“At any moment, the server could return,” I said.

She looked so damn let down that I was tempted to chance it and get her off. I licked her off my fingers, and her eyes grew wide as she watched me.

“Rio?” she asked me then.

“Yes?”

“After dinner, can we go back to the apartment?”

I had planned to take her for a walk down the beach, but maybe that would be better for another day. “Is that what you want to do?”

She nodded.

“Why?” I asked, wanting to hear her say it.

I expected her to blush or lick her bottom lip nervously. Instead, she leaned closer to me, letting her breast graze my arm.

“Because I want you to fuck me,” she replied.

My hands fisted, my dick jerked in my damn pants, as if it had been called to action, and I clenched my jaw to get control of my thoughts.

“What is it? Don’t you want to?” she asked me, concern now in her gaze.

“God, yes. I just didn’t expect you to ask for it.”

“Why?”

I looked down at her, afraid to touch her. “Not something I expected from you.”

Her face flushed, and she looked down at her hands. “I’m sorry.”

She was misunderstanding me.

“Bryn, you don’t apologize for turning me on.”

“I was?”

All I could do was laugh. If she made me keep talking about this, we weren’t going to make it to the meal.