Bane’s shoulders rose in an innocent shrug, and she batted her lashes. I managed to train my eyes on hers, not let them fall to the curve of her neck, where the skin was soft and fragrant, or her collarbone, where the ridge was ripe for a touch, or the swollen mounds of her breasts in this sexy-as-fuck little dress. She knew what shrugging did. She knew that I wanted to look, that I wanted to touch her, to kiss her. And just maybe, she liked knowing that I wanted all those things. Just maybe, she wanted me to.
“Your feet are bothering you?”
She nodded.
“Let me remedy that.”
I tapped on her foot, the one swaying from her crossed leg, before taking it and placing it on the edge of the seat between my thighs. She stilled the instant my fingers touched her ankle. I peered up at her, all frozen, watching me, her lips parted, her chest heaving, her hands clutching the sides of her chair.
“Is this okay?” I asked slowly, suggestively. I never wanted to take my eyes off her, not when she looked at me like that.
She nodded, relaxing her shoulders.
I removed her shoe and massaged her ankle, watching her melt into her chair. When I pressed a thumb into her arch, she jerked forward.
“Tickles?”
She shook her head. I pressed harder, and that made it better for her. Her eyelids fluttered when I stroked along the arch to the underside. She gasped, and my attention fell to her mouth. Bane drew her lower lip in between her teeth. My pulse hammered inside my head as I took the other shoe off and repeated.
Mental note: Massage Bane’s feet more often. She obviously loved this. Her expression veered closer to last night’s territory the way she looked at me, like heated desire itself. Like she wanted me to move up her legs and in between them and didn’t care if we were in public.
But we were in public.
I settled her feet onto the floor, tucking her shoes underneath the table between us, hidden beneath the shadow of billowing white cloth. “Better?”
She nodded. I was beginning to love the way she looked at me, mesmerized. Hell, I even loved when she looked at me with annoyance. I liked making her react, making her feel something, anything. Best of all, making her look like she wanted me, because I was definitely—despite reason and against logic—wanting something with her. Even if it was just for this ridiculous fantasy vacation. It would end tomorrow, but for now, we still had tonight.
Dancing was good. An excuse to touch her, remembering how she felt, my forehead tipped against hers. Our breaths deepening. The way she gripped the back of my neck, her fingers in my hair. The urge to nudge her head back and kiss her.
But there was weariness in her features. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. Why?”
“You can tell me if this is getting to be too much. The crowds and music.”
“I want you to enjoy your friends’ wedding.”
“At the cost of your comfort? Nah.”
Her mouth tipped up into a smile as the music segued into an upbeat song. A very familiar one. Cake was playing.
We burst into laughter.
“This is a sign for more cake!” she said, pointing to the desserts table.
I knew what to do. I took her hand and led her to the cake.
“What are you doing?” she asked when I requested two disposable drinking cups and two disposable forks from the staff member managing the table.
The perplexed server gave them to me.
Without waiting to be served, I handed Bane the forks wrapped in napkins, held one cup in each hand, and wagged my brows to her questioning face. Then slammed the cups over the partially cut cake—the bottom, largest tier—and scooped up a big serving in each cup.
Both Bane’s and the server’s jaws dropped. He probably didn’t know what to do.
“Thanks!” I told him.
I turned toward a surprised Bane and urged her back to our table. I handed her the cups, grabbed my jacket, her purse, and her shoes. Facing her, I asked, “Want to get out of here?”
She grinned up at me and nodded.
And off we went into the evening, escaping the party, avoiding sunset pictures, and making the night ours.
Bane was giggling behind me, and I loved hearing it. I wanted to hear more for the hours we had left.
“Do you want your shoes?” I asked from over my shoulder.
“No.”
She followed me barefoot across granite halls and smoothed concrete steps leading from the building down to the gardens. Torchlights and large-bulb string lights lit the evening. Cooler air met us as we left the noise and warm bodies behind us.
We slowed down as we passed the pool and found an empty set of beach chairs on a small cliff overlooking the ocean, the lagoon to the left, and the way through the golf course back to the villa to the right.
We plopped down, and Bane twisted toward me. She said with absolute delight, “Cake by the ocean! Huh? Another song, you know?”
“I’m not living under a rock.” My knee touched hers.
“Are you sure?” She took a bite of cake.
I poked her side and she flinched, but she didn’t move away. I took a bite myself, watching her watching the sunset and moving her hair over a shivering shoulder.
“Are you cold?” I asked, draping my jacket around her.
She sank into the garment so that it looked twice as big. It didn’t cover her legs. “Thanks.” Bane returned to the sunset. “Isn’t it beautiful?”
“Yeah.”
It truly was. A golden, almost orangish sun floated down past the faraway clouds, transforming the sky with creamsicle and pink and blue. The colors darkened and fading light glistened on the water like a million tiny stars. The ocean looked serene and inviting for once, and not like a beautiful deathtrap.
Bane was still shivering, goose bumps on her legs.
“You’re still cold?”
“Eh, it’s fine,” she said.
“Do you want to go back inside?”
She scoffed and drew the opened jacket tighter around her.
“Come here.”
She stared at me as if I’d spoken a foreign language that she couldn’t wrap her head around. “Huh?”
I patted my thigh and raised an eyebrow. “I promise I won’t bite. Unless you’re into that sort of thing.”
Her shoulders deflated. “No one’s around, you know?”
“Yeah?”
“Who are you faking it for?”
Talk about a punch to the gut. “It’s not pretending. I don’t want you to die from a cold and then our coworkers blame me.”
“Sure…”
“I’m not in the mood for a funeral.”
Bane guffawed, slapping my arm. I was quick to grab her, pulling her toward me. “Or should I come over there?”
She swallowed, her gaze dropping to my mouth. We were leaning into each other now. It wasn’t a far distance to her lips. I touched her knee, the one against mine, and she heaved out a breath. Her skin was cool, riddled with goose bumps. During the day, this area was worse than a sauna, but at night, on the beach, the temperatures dropped.
“You’re cold. Come here.”
She didn’t argue this time. She stood and slipped onto my lap as I placed my empty cup on the ground. I readjusted her a little, asking, “Is that comfortable?”
“Yes. Are you comfortable?”
“I’m very comfortable.”
She bit down on a smile and relaxed against me. She was sitting on my right thigh, close to the hip, her legs in between mine, and cushioned against my shoulder and chest. I had one arm around her, keeping the jacket snug against her backside, and the other…well, there was really no place to put it except on her thigh. I moved down to her knees, covering them.
“Better?”
She nodded, watching the tips of my fingers tap against her knee. The hem of her dress was a little higher. The section of skin between my hand and her dress had goose bumps. I inched my fingers farther up, a centimeter at a time.
Bane’s head dropped against mine. She let out a soft sigh near my ear and I clenched my jaw. My fingers trailed a little higher, exploring cold sections with light grazes. Our breathing escalated. Her chest moved in and out in tempting glimpses beneath the open jacket. Her right hand went to my waist, clutching my shirt.
First, the tips of my fingers disappeared beneath the hem of her dress. Then my knuckles. Until my entire hand was beneath the fabric. Grazing turned into swirls; my fingers digging into her thigh, moving higher and higher, hitting the waistband of her panties. A finger slipped underneath, hooked, and tugged down. Just a little.
God damn, she moaned in my ear. I couldn’t take it. I turned my head, nudging her nose with mine so that my mouth could find hers. I kissed her slowly, gently. Savoring every second, every sweet sensation moving through our bodies. I parted her lips with mine, tasted her tongue with mine, inhaled her featherlight groans like they were giving me life.
Bane wanted me as badly as I wanted her.
Bane had fallen into the fantasy as much as I had.
Either our acting was too good, or there was something happening between us. The only question: Was it real, or would it dissolve the second we set foot on a plane?
Right now, none of that mattered. Even if it did, neither one of us cared. Not tonight.
I was vaguely aware of where we were. In the open, on the beach, not far from a fairly well-lit pool and in between torchlights. There was a sidewalk behind us where people wandered by. A toddler shrieked; a dog barked.
Bane startled and pulled away. I immediately withdrew my hand, returning it to her knee. In the dim glow of the torchlight flame, her face was flushed, her lips swollen. I pecked them.
She smiled and ducked against my side, whispering, “We’re not alone.”
I held on to her waist, asking, “Do you want to be?” My voice had come out gritty with need. There was no lie in it.
Bane pulled away and stood, and for a second, I expected her to tell me to cool off as she finished her cake. Her empty cup now sat inside mine as she slipped her arms into the sleeves of my jacket. She sat on the other chair and went to put on her shoes.
“What are you doing?”
“Have to go past the party to get to the front.”
I smirked. “You want to head to the villa or the party?”
She looked at me all sultry and perfect. “Well, I’m not in the mood for dancing.”
“You want to head back to the villa…with me?” I clarified.
“You’d let me walk back in the dark? Alone?” She pouted and I leaned over and licked her bottom lip. She gasped.
“Breathe,” I said against her mouth.
“You make it hard to breathe,” she contested, pulling on a shoe.
“Don’t your feet hurt?”
“Yes, but I’m not going to walk all the way there barefoot.”
I stood and pulled Bane to her feet. She looked so small in my jacket, but the sight of her wrapped in my clothes was an insane turn-on.
I handed her the cups. “How about a ride?”
“What sort of ride?”
I turned from her. “Hop on.”
She stepped onto the chair and wrapped her arms around my neck, cups in one hand, her purse in the other, pressing into my back. “Are you sure you want to try this?”
I reached around behind me, quickly finding her legs, and hooked my elbows around her thighs, hoisting her onto my back. Her grip around my neck nearly choked me until I had her adjusted.
“Don’t kill me!” she squealed.
“You don’t kill me!” I shot back.
“Oh! Sorry!” She loosened her choke hold and kissed the side of my neck. “Is that better?”
My grip around her thighs, skin to skin, tightened. “Are you fully covered back there?”
“Yes, thanks to your jacket. Now giddy-up.”
I maneuvered through the sand and followed the sidewalk in the growing dark. We paused at a trash can for her to dump the cups into. We left behind the crowds and torchlights. Ahead was the trail. Above, the stars and a bright moon.
I walked carefully in the dark. The last thing I wanted was to trip and hurt Bane, but I was also in a hurry to get back to the villa with the greatest hope of having the place to ourselves.