Legacy (Sociopath Series Book 2)(52)

I find myself staring into flashing sunspots, wondering how fresh blood would dry in the heat. My mouth is dry with the taste of that lukewarm Coke; heat prickles along the back of my tongue. This is always how it takes me, sudden and unprovoked.

“Mr. Underwood?” Leo whispers, clasping my arm. “Really?”

“Uh-huh. Mrs. Underwood.”

She narrows her dark eyes at me in feigned disapproval. “Right.”

“We’re on our Blood Honeymoon.”

Those eyes widen, and she pales. “Ha f*cking ha.”

I grab her around the waist, dragging her back against my sweat-damp torso. She smells like the pink flowers around her neck, notes of sweet pollen mingling with her freshly blown candle scent. “I’m on a roll. Sunshine agrees with me.”

“It’s probably worried about what will happen if it doesn’t,” she mutters, though she lingers in my embrace. Savors it.

It’s our first big display of affection in front of Ash. You’d think he’d be too preoccupied with the massive ray, but no.

“Is she your girlfriend?” he asks pointedly.

Fuck. Well. It was going to happen.

Ethan yanks a Moshi Monsters cap from his rucksack, and pushes it on to Ash’s head in an attempt to distract him. Ash fiddles with it a second and then peels it off.

“Yes, she is,” I reply. “That’s okay, right?”

Leo tenses in my arms.

He chews on his lip with crooked teeth. “She plays good Kraken.”

I snort. “Is that so?”

She brings her sandaled foot down on mine. “Oh, be quiet.”

“Are you getting married?” Ash goes on. “Are you in love?”

Ethan winces in apology. “Ash. It’s rude to ask about stuff like that.”

“I don’t like it when there are secrets,” he throws back. “We don’t keep secrets in our house. That’s what you always say.”

No, Ash, you don’t keep secrets—what with all of mine, there’s no f*cking room.

“Nobody’s keeping secrets, buddy. Why don’t you go take a nap, and then we’ll find out what kind of ice cream they have here?”

He sighs, as if this is some great trial. “Okay. But they’d better have butterscotch.”

Ethan takes his hand and starts to lead him toward a villa. “I bet we can see more fish from our room…”

“That went well,” Leo mutters.

“He’s tired.”

“Yeah, I suppose so.”

It’s good that Ash isn’t all over Leo. I haven’t decided what the future holds for us all, as a unit—I like to keep people in neatly divided boxes, always knowing their place—and if he’s not attached to her, so much the better.

“Come on then, Mr. Underwood.” She tugs on the arm I still have wrapped around her waist. “I want to see what a water villa looks like inside.”

The interior of our cabin is a perfect canvas: white and mahogany, cream and pine. A hap-hazard melding of different woods and pale colors, rugged and rustic and expensive all at once. A huge four-poster bed, its posts carved like vines, dominates one side of the room; the other side is home to a nest of couches and tables. Pink and yellow blossoms float on water in glass bowls, the air conditioning blasts cool air down in chunks, and a platform out back leads to our own personal outdoor bath and shower.

I could get used to this, which is exactly why I mustn’t.

“I found the mini bar,” Leo calls from her kneeling position beside a billowing white curtain. “I have a taste for champagne all of a sudden, and I blame you.”

“Drinking away your troubles?”

“Drinking away my post-flight nerves.” She pulls out a huge green bottle with gold embellishment, and begins rooting around for glasses. “The troubles, to use an old cliché, suddenly seem far away.”

“But first…” I come up behind her again, tugging on her loose ponytail and thinking about the way she bent over, all bare and inviting, back in the jet cabin. My cock, restless as ever, begins to swell. “Come try out the shower with me.”

She puts the bottle down beside a bowl of flowers and turns, her fingers darting to straighten my collar. “Isn’t it…ah. Won’t everyone see?”

“We’re a thousand miles from civilization, and you’re still worried about being watched.” I tut. “Sweetheart. Lighten up.”

“We both know what you’re going to do to me in that shower, and I hardly think Ash needs to witness it.”

“There are walls, you dumb little pickle. There’s just no ceiling.”

“Oh.” She walks her fingers to my mouth. Teases her thumb across my bottom lip, frowning in concentration. “We are kinda dirty after that flight, huh?”

“Very dirty.” I have the biggest shit-eating grin.

A knock on the door makes Leo jump.

I peel her thumb from my lips to plant a kiss on its smooth tip. “That’ll be the luggage. Clean clothes.”

“Sounds good to me.”

I stumble over to the door, still grinning to myself and wafting the hem of my polo shirt about to usher cool air over my belly. When I pull it open, there are no suitcases. Only Gwen.