A Harmless Little Ruse (Harmless #2)(22)

Hard. I’m hard in seconds. This day feels like emotional ping pong.

At the Olympics.

Tiffany re-appears, carrying a third glass, and she pours enormous drinks for the three of us, waving Mark and me over. “Come on! No one wants to drink alone. Especially with such intriguing men just a few feet away. Indulge me?” She gives us a duck face pout.

Mark shrugs and says, “Why not?”

I join them. As I sip my drink, I know I’ll regret it in the morning, but I don’t care.

I stopped caring the minute Lindsay disappeared with Gentian, who was following my orders, and didn’t say another word to me.

“Tiffany is one of my good friends,” I say, my body warm and the ocean night air some of the sweetest smelling breezes on the planet. Life is good. I have a place on the ocean, more money than I need, and I run a tight ship. A night here and there of relaxing and having fun should be a part of my life, right?

So why can’t I stop thinking about how Lindsay’s bare thighs felt in my lap earlier today?

“I am?” Tiffany says, leaning forward. Her top is basically two gold Band-Aids connected by gold string. “I didn’t know you felt that way, Drew.”

“Sure do, Lindsay,” I reply.

Her face freezes into a mask.

“Tiffany,” Mark says softly.

“Right. That’s what I said.” Didn’t I?

Mark raises one eyebrow. Tiffany smiles, but it’s a cold look.

“What do you do for a living, Mark?” she asks, her hand on his forearm, deciding to make him her target.

“Oh, you know. A little bit of everything.”

“Are you a personal trainer like Drew?”

Mark’s drink sprays everywhere. “Like Drew?” he chokes, avoiding my eyes, thumping his chest as he clears his airway.

I flex my arm and let my biceps bulge. Why not? I may not want to sleep with Tiffany, but at least she has a healthy appreciation for my presence.

Unlike some other women I know.

Tiffany squeezes my arm and sighs with delight. “Oooo. So strong.”

Mark starts gagging.

“Wow! You really swallowed wrong.”

He just laugh-chokes.

“I never swallow wrong,” she says to him with a wink.

I start laughing so hard I choke.

We’re a pair.

“You two are out of control!” she declares with a laugh, reaching up for the fakest stretch I’ve ever seen, showing off the fakest pair of breasts I’ve ever had in my face. They look like two cantaloupes stretched under a skin tarp. “I’m getting so tired,” she says as she pretends to yawn along with the stretch.

“Me, too,” Mark whispers. “Tired of Drew the personal trainer.”

“You guys could easily lift me, huh? Being men who work with their bodies for a living.”

I’m thinking Tiffany works with her body for a living, but in a very different way.

“What do you do for a living?” Mark asks, making conversation.

“I do camera work,” she says with a wink. He doesn’t ask any follow-up questions.

Smart man.

My blood pounds like an electromagnetic pulse pointed straight up the coast to Lindsay’s father’s compound. The same wind that brushes my hair forward is the wind that blows on her face right now. Is she outside, staring at the stars? Looking at the ocean? Sleeping? Thinking of me and touching herself?

I’m already throbbing and have a piece of granite in my pants. Letting my mind wander doesn’t take any effort and it feels loose and fine. All the tightness left me long ago, the world swimming before my eyes. I could stare at the moon forever.

I could stare at Lindsay for even longer.

Why’d she lie for me? Creating that fake intruder story was pure genius. No one suspected she was making it up. Plausible deniability was built in. She was quick on her feet and convincing. Blaine could barely argue. In private, I’ll be crucified, but in public, he had to play the part of the poor politician attacked by some stranger.

By now, some PR person is giving this a positive spin. Hell, by morning Blaine will be hailed as a hero who took a punch or two to save baby kittens from being killed by Godzilla.

Still does nothing to explain why.

Why Lindsay covered for me.

Sure, the satisfaction of watching Blaine bleed was part of it, but not all of it. Lindsay’s acting in erratic ways, though she pulled it together for that stage performance next to the senator and Monica. How can she be that composed, and then fall apart in my lap, followed by such strategic thinking in the moment to cover for my lack of impulse control?

She’s a paradox.

She’s my paradox.

“Hey, you two. I don’t know about you, but I think this could turn out to be the night of my life,” Tiffany says, coming in with a sultry voice and a hand on my ass. I move out of reach. I assume she puts her other one on Mark’s butt, because he jumps and moves away from her.

“Sorry. My fiancée would kill me.”

“She doesn’t have to know.”

Mark cuts me a look that could shatter diamonds.

“I have a girlfriend too, Tiffany,” I lie.

She frowns. “You never mentioned her before.” She’s caressing my ass again and moving close, pressing against me as I twist away. She smells so good, and her skin is soft and hairless. I could sleep with her. Just once. It would feel nice to disappear into someone else for a few minutes.