Left Drowning(67)

“Ah, how quickly you forget.” His hand covers my breast, and he tightens his hold for a brief moment. “I don’t believe in fate.”

“So you don’t believe that you’re fated to come repeatedly tonight?”

“That’s not fate. That’s just fact.” He kneels in front of me and presses his mouth over my underwear. “And we’re both going to come repeatedly tonight. I have spent the entire day thinking about how good you taste.” The back of his hand runs gently over me. “I didn’t hurt you last night, did I?”

“No,” I murmur.

“Or very, very early this morning?”

“Definitely not.”

He leans forward on his knees and kisses me. “You’re not sore?”

“Not much.”

“In that case, there will be even more coming tonight.”

I reach behind me to steady myself on the wall. I try to focus for one more moment before my ability to think clearly collapses. “And what about Sabin?”

“I have no idea what his plans are for tonight.”

“Very funny.”

“Probation, license suspension, and he’ll be writing a big check.”

I inhale sharply when Chris follows the line of my underwear with one finger. “Could be … worse.” My voice is shaky and I can feel my skin heat up. For an all-too-short time, he touches under my underwear slowly and carefully. I am beyond worked up and wet within seconds.

Chris stands up and kisses me on the cheek.“ You should get dressed. We gotta go.” I can feel him smiling against me.

“What? You said dinner was at seven.”

“I lied. We’re meeting earlier because Sabin wants to go to some play.”

I really shouldn’t have a tantrum because that would be tacky and pathetic. But I still give him a look that says I might kill him.

“I’m not going with them,” he reassures me.

“What reason did you give?”

He grabs my ass with both hands. “I said that I couldn’t be out late because I had to come back here and f*ck you until you pass out.“

“Christopher!” I laugh. “You did no such thing.”

“No. I still haven’t even told them you’re back, so they’re going to flip. They missed you. Especially Sabin.”

“I missed them, too.” I start to slip from his arms. “For the record, I do think you’re an * for teasing me.”

I sit on the edge of the bed and start to put on my black nylons. Chris folds his arms and leans against the wall, watching me, studying the way I move. While I’m completely comfortable with him in almost every way, it’s making me nervous to have his eyes on me so intently. But l can tell that he likes this, so I take my time getting dressed, doing what I can to draw it out. By the time I slip on the second high-heel black leather boot, Chris looks like he’s about attack me. Damn, Estelle is good.

After I slide the dress over my head, I cross the floor slowly and turn my back to him. “Zip me?” I lift my hair.

“Of course.” He’s clearly trying to torture me because he smoothes his hands over my entire upper body before zipping my dress in the slowest possible manner.

I tilt my head back and lean into him. “Chris …”

“We have to go, or we’ll be late.”

I hate him right now. I hate that he has the self-control to get us out of the room, because I can damn well feel how turned on he is.

“Dinner better be really f*cking good,” I say.

Chris drives us to the restaurant in his truck. We haven’t said it out loud, but it’s pretty obvious that we’ve agreed not to go out of our way to let on that our only real plans for the rest of the week are to have sex with each other.

The restaurant is modern and dimly lit with blue starburst lights. Sabin, Estelle, and Eric are seated at a large semicircle booth, and Sabin flies out of his seat when he sees me.

“Lady Blythe McGuire!” He rushes over to me and lifts me into the air in a hug. “I missed the hell out of you. What are you doing here?” He sets me down and holds me by the shoulders. “Wait. Is everything all right? You okay?”

“I’m fine. I just came back early and ran into Chris. Apparently, the Shepherds and I have excellent taste in hotels.”

He hugs me again. “C’mon. I’ll buy you a drink.”

He scoots me into the booth first so that I’m next to Eric, who hugs me, and Estelle on his other side air-kisses me. I love that we are in this fancy restaurant, and Sabin has on his cowboy hat. Chris sits next to his sister and takes a sip from her water glass. Everyone is tan and radiant looking, and I am blissfully happy because I am back where I belong.

“Our girl has returned early,” Sabin announces, “so now we have someone we are not related to who we can play with! Chris has been sick of us since New Year’s Eve, but I know you can counteract how boring we are. Right, Chris? Blythe is a lot more entertaining than us.”

I have to bite my cheek so that I don’t burst out laughing. I can’t even look at Chris.

“None of you are in the least bit boring,” I say. “You guys must have had an amazing trip. So tell me all the details! How was Hawaii?”

“Full of spectacular hard-bodied men,” Estelle says dreamily. She is, as usual, in full makeup and beautifully dressed in a taupe sweater that looks like cashmere.