| |
CHANCE’S HEART RACED faster than the time he’d driven a Bugatti at one-hundred-sixty mph through the streets of Monaco for a Bond film. He didn’t know if it was because of this weird total blackout...or because now he knew that Anda hadn’t walked away from him.
He fumbled at the ties to the swagged drapes at the front of the cabana. It’d get colder soon. The thick canvas that usually blocked the baking sun should help protect them from the dropping temps.
Since it was winter, even in Vegas, Chance had seen blankets draped over the couches earlier in the day. The mini-frig held bottled waters and booze, for that matter. Snacks, too, that would stay cold at least until morning. So basic survival was covered in this luxury pseudo-room.
Chance used his shins—not by choice—to get them past what he remembered to be a cabinet topped with electronics and, a few steps later, a coffee table. He guided Anda to sit on the wide cushions of the sofa. “Staying put is our smartest move right now.”
“Agreed.” Although her voice lifted at the end of the word as if she wasn’t convinced.
But he was.
If there were something bad going on, they were safe here. Nobody knew they were outside, and nobody would expect people to be sheltering in a pool cabana. It’d keep them from being noticed if there were...bad guys...on the property. If everything were on the level, nothing more than a huge power glitch, then a bunch of hotel staff would come looking for them. Eventually. And probably loudly.
He knew a lot of ways to disable someone. Couldn’t pick apart or fake martial arts moves without knowing the real thing. Chance knew he could protect her...against a few people. No more than a handful, at best, though. Not getting into danger in the first place was the best move.
Plus? No way would he leave her alone to go check things out. Chance wouldn’t leave Anda’s side until this all shook out.
On the other hand? Anda was the one who’d seemed on the verge of sprinting from his side right before the blackout. Getting her calm—and distracted—might not be his biggest challenge. The blackout could be the only thing keeping her here, talking to him.
And God, he needed to keep her talking to him.
As casual as Clooney after two tequilas, Chance asked, “Do you want something to drink?”
“I appreciate the offer, Mr. DiMarco, but I’m a little too churned up right now to toss back a soda.”
Chance interlaced his fingers through hers again. Anda grabbed on tight. He didn’t mind admitting that the contact with her made him feel stronger. “Pretty sure these big money cabanas are stocked with wine and booze.”
“Maybe later. Once I’ve stopped imagining all the ways this blackout could mean something terrible is happening.”
There was his opening to redirect the conversation. And yeah, the timing might be shitty. But it was just dark. The sky wasn’t on fire or anything. How bad could the dark be...as long as it went away by about seven tomorrow morning?
At the least, it’d distract Anda from freaking out. Getting her mind off the blackout was the only way he could figure out to help right now.
Who was he kidding? Even the blackout couldn’t distract him from being so close to finding out what really happened when Anda walked out on him.
“Ah, funny you should say that. Because I felt like the world crashed to a stop seven months ago. The day you left me, without a word. With no explanation, no goodbye. So right now?” Chance folded his other hand around their joined ones. Maybe this time it’d be enough to keep her next to him. “I’m feeling pretty damned optimistic.”
“Chance, this isn’t the time to toy with me. My pulse is already racing faster than it gets in cardio kickboxing class. No games, please. No tricks to keep me calm.”
“No way,” he promised. What would convince her? After wracking his brain for a few moments, Chance said in a low voice, “I swear on my sister and my niece that everything I say to you tonight is the truth.”
“Okay. Me too.” She kicked off her shoes and curled her legs beneath her. Or so he guessed from the rustle of her jeans against the cushions and the way her body canted a little further away. Damn darkness. “So here’s a truth: I worked harder to get over you than anything else I’ve ever done.”
“Right back atcha.”
Silence hung between them, as thick as the darkness.
Finally, Chance asked, “Did you? Get over me?”
“No.” It came out as barely a whisper. As if she were worried what the admission would cost her. Or how Chance would respond.
His entire world shifted back on its axis. “Thank God. Because I sure as hell didn’t come close to getting over you.” Chance reached to put his arms around her, but Anda awkwardly weaved out of his embrace.
“I feel like we’re going around in circles. We’re not clearing the air.”
“Okay.” He’d jumped ahead to wallow in relief. But Anda was right. They needed to figure out what drove them apart. Because Chance was more and more sure that it wasn’t either of them. “Tell me what happened after that last night in Colorado.”
“When I left your room that morning, I fell right back into my own bed. You wore me out. Knocking woke me up a couple of hours later. There were two crew members and the host. Brecken said you’d decided to cut me from the show immediately. You didn’t even want to do a DreamChoice ceremony. You wanted me gone. They packed my bags while I took a quick shower, and I was on the next plane back to L.A.”
It was eerily close to what they’d told him, but in reverse.
It explained everything.
Chance tunneled his fingers through his hair, tugging hard. Didn’t help his frustration any. But it kept him from punching the cabana wall while imagining it was Brecken’s face.
Because the time they’d lost together couldn’t be recovered. The hurt they’d both suffered had scarred them, too. And now he knew where to put the blame.
He blinked against the dark, wishing he could see Anda’s face as she realized he hadn’t asked her to go. “When I woke up and went to breakfast, Brecken was waiting for me. He said you’d insisted on leaving first thing in the morning. No note, no goodbye, and that you refused to do a DreamChoice ceremony, even though it meant giving up your pay for that week’s episode. You wanted to be gone. Away from me.”
“Oh, Chance.” She leaned in close again, patting his thigh. “None of that’s true. I swear.”
“I believe you. And I hope you believe me.”
There was no hesitation at all from her. “I do.” This time, her voice was strong and sure.
Chance reached out, hooked his arm around her waist and swooped her in to lean against his side. Anda fit perfectly. Her head tucked right below his chin, and he inhaled the fresh, wildflower scent that floated up from her hair. It reminded him of the afternoon they’d shared in the mountain meadow.
But as long as nothing...catastrophic...was behind this blackout, his new favorite scent might end up being the chlorine overlaying the air in the cabana. It’d remind him of the night they cleared the air and Anda came back to him.
Hopefully.
Slowly, running his knuckles down her cheek, Chance said, “I think we were played.”
“But why?”
This could be dumber than the time he’d agreed to get thrown off a horse into a saguaro cactus. Without padding. If Anda disagreed with him, it’d be just as painful, too. But she’d been honest with him about her feelings. No matter how much of a sucker punch to the gut it might end up being? He owed her the truth about his.
And on the off chance there was something big and bad behind this blackout? Chance absolutely needed to let Anda know how he felt before it was too late.
His hand dipped to brush a thumb against her full, soft lower lip. “Because there’s not much drama to two people falling in love.”
“You...on the show...you were falling in love with me? You never said...”
She sounded stunned. Not good or bad, just stunned. Chance kept going anyway. “I didn’t say for a couple of reasons. Contractually, I wasn’t allowed to until the final DreamChoice ceremony where I picked the winner. But at first, I didn’t know, Anda. I had friends, my job, and sex was something for fun, or to burn off stress. I’d never fallen in love before. And a reality show is a damn strange place to figure things out.”
“Then how did you know?”
Man, she wouldn’t give him an inch. Chance didn’t blame her for being cautious, either. Not after what she’d been through for seven months.
“Because I couldn’t stop thinking about you, Anda. I literally had fifteen other beautiful women trying to get in my pants, and all I wanted to do was wait for you. I wasn’t acting with you. I was me. Like I am with my sister and my best buds.”
“I liked the real you. I wanted more.”
“How much more?” There was the sound of some animal—a jackrabbit or squirrel—scuttling out in the brush. Chance would literally give a year’s salary to be able to see her face. “Look, I woke up thinking about you. Fell asleep the same way. Every night of the show. Every night after you left the show. And every night since somehow you landed back in my life here. The only thing that’s changed is that I’ve fallen for you even harder now.”
Her cheek nestled more into the dip between his neck and collarbone. One hand came up to rest on his chest. “Your heart’s racing.”
“Yeah, well, I’m pretty damned nervous that you won’t say what I’m hoping to hear.”
Anda pulled his right hand around to rest where her pulse galloped underneath the thin skin of her neck. “I’m nervous, too. About admitting what I’ve been feeling for so long. What I felt embarrassed, ashamed, to admit once I was certain we had no future. That didn’t stop the feelings, though. I never found a way to turn them off.”
This was all kinds of good. But Chance knew the riskiest thing you could do in a stunt was relax. Assume it was all going well before you finished. You had to stay focused the entire time. So, he couldn’t relax until Anda said the words.
“Tell me. Tell me now,” he rasped out.
***
ANDA HAD HELD WHAT was in her heart under lock and key for so long. Letting it out was as scary as...well, as this blackout. But with God knew what happening outside, this dark cabana felt safe, with Chance in it. With Chance literally and figuratively propping her up as they stretched out on the sofa.
She was well aware he was the only thing keeping her from sinking into total panic.
That surety, that comfort in his presence—that meant she had to tell him.
Funny, the blackout made it a little bit easier. She wouldn’t be second guessing every twitch and blink of his face. Anda just hoped he wasn’t mad at her for not admitting it sooner. Chance had been so brave to open up to her, after being convinced that she’d left him. That she didn’t care.
Thank goodness he didn’t know about her evil plan for revenge sex, to humiliate him.
It didn’t matter. That had been a dumb decision based in hurt and bitterness. The blackout wiped all of that away. He never had to know how thoughtless she’d almost been, how mean.
She’d make it up to him, starting right now. By telling him everything. By being the best possible girlfriend. By never again hiding how she truly felt.
Anda curled her fingers in, tunneling in between the buttons to rest against his warm skin. Then she licked her lips. And smiled—even though he couldn’t see it—in sheer relief at finally sharing with Chance.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen. The odds were against it. All my friends rolled their eyes when I said I was going on Man of Her Dreams to fall in love. But I thought, why not try? And it turns out that I started falling in love with you on the group dates. Things only got better when it was just the two of us. The night we finally made love? I had to fight against letting the words spill out. I was so happy. I was truly with the man of my dreams.”
It only took seven months of torturous heartbreak, a trip to the desert, and a total blackout to get it out of her.
In one of those displays of his amazing strength that always surprised her, Chance lifted her. For a moment, still stretched out, Anda felt like a flying superhero. And then he twisted, flipped her in the air to settle her on the sofa.
On his knees next to the sofa, he ran his hands up and down her torso, fingers catching in the macrame-esque open weave of her shirt. “I can’t touch you enough. I can’t touch enough of you.”
She knew exactly what he meant. Blindly she reached out, snagging his head down for a kiss. Anda missed his mouth on the first try in the overwhelming darkness. That was okay. She’d cover his cheek and jaw with teensy love bites until she got there.
A sort of half-laugh, half-moan rumbled up from deep in his chest. “You’re adorable.”
“Rats. I really ought to match you in the sexy as fuck department.”
“Thanks for the compliment.” His hands moved up to her cheeks to hold her still. Then Chance found her mouth—on the first try—and gave her a kiss that was devastating in its slowness and thoroughness. “But all I want is you, Anda. Equal parts adorable, vulnerable, brave, and yeah, so sexy that I could eat you up in three big bites.”
“I wouldn’t object. Oh, but...crap. Do you think these cabanas are so well-stocked that they’ve got a jar of condoms?”
“We’re not on the show anymore, so I doubt it. No need, though. Christ, Anda, we started tonight on a date. So, my wallet is stuffed with a strip of six condoms. I had high hopes for how the night would end.”
So had she. But with a completely different outcome.
This was better.
Even with an end-of-the-world blackout going on around them.
“If you’ve got six, then we don’t have to wait. We can be fast now, and then take our time all the way to sunrise.”
“See? We’re completely on the same page.” There was rustling and zippers and a few thuds as Chance undressed swiftly. Anda sat up to pull off her cowboy boots. And her jeans. Because without any light, she didn’t want to put any tricky barriers between her and Chance and their orgasms.
But before she could remove her shirt, Chance’s knees straddled her thighs. Thank goodness for oversized poolside sofas!
“You’ve been driving me crazy with this shirt. All these holes that make me want to rip it off.”
That was hot. “Except that there’s a nude camisole layer, too. Far harder to rip off.”
“Challenge accepted.” Chance laced his fingers through the open design, plucking at her nipples.
With the double shirt, she hadn’t bothered with a bra. And because yes, she’d wanted to drive him a little bit crazy. So, it only took a few soft pinches before Anda was gasping and arching up into his touch.
She’d been frantic with need from the moment he admitted his feelings.
Now she was desperate.
Chance tunneled his hands up from beneath the hem all the way to the top. Anda couldn’t see his smug smirk, but she knew it was there. Because then he ripped her shirt in two with one good yank. “I’ll buy you a new one tomorrow. I’ll buy you twenty.”
“Let’s not worry about tomorrow,” she said, as a tiny bit of dread and worry crept through the inky blackness back into her belly. “Let’s just enjoy tonight.”
“Nope. I’m not settling for that again. I need to know there will be a tomorrow with you, Anda. And another after that, and another.”
Screw worrying. They’d face whatever was happening, whatever would come, together. “Yes.”
As soon as the word left her lips, Chance buried himself inside her in one excruciatingly slow stroke.
Anda almost came right then and there.
He scraped his teeth together into a gentle tug at her nipple that bobbled between pleasure and pain...a.k.a. sheer pleasure. Then he laved his tongue in warm, wet circles as he pumped in and out.
Anda caressed his back, up and down, over the tightness of his ass, along his hips to his waist and then back to his impossibly broad shoulders. Because all of the touching wasn’t enough. Having the hair of his legs scratch against her thighs, one hand sliding up and down her side while the other gently knotted in her hair...it wasn’t enough.
All of her energy was gathered right between her legs, but there were so many sensations to enjoy that none of them could tip her over the edge. Her intense craving for more of everything kept her teetering on the outside of that bubble of pleasure.
Chance lifted his head to murmur, “I adore you, Anda.” He kissed her, tongue thrusting in the same rhythm as his ceaseless hips.
That was all it took. The bubble opened up, sucking her in to its pulsating shivers of satisfaction. Her whole body bowed beneath him. Chance increased his pace to four more sharp, fast strokes before letting out a groan that was almost a bellow.
Then there was only the silence and the darkness and their harsh pants.
It was glorious.
It wasn’t enough for her. “Well, it’s still completely dark. So....do you want to go again?”
“Right now?” He pushed the hair off her face with careful fingers. “Without a break for a drink or a snack?”
With five condoms left? “Mmm-hmm.”
“You bet I do.”