Page 42 of 7 Nights of Sin

"You don't," he said with a shrug in reply. "I just wanted to check in yesterday, and you were nowhere to be found."

I bit my lip and glanced away. "Check in about what?"

"You know what, Caro. I wanted to make sure..." He sighed. "I wanted to see if we were okay. After what happened."

After we slept together, I wanted to say. But putting it in words felt dangerous. I sighed. "What do you want from me, Kevin?"

He frowned, eyes clouded for a bit before he shook his head. "You know what I want."

"No, I don't. You can have anything and anyone you want. You've proven that time and time again, clearly. You could be out there right now, finding some woman who thinks the sun shines out of your ass and would suck you off just for the pleasure of saying she did it. So I want to know why you're bothering with me."

His eyes’ expression didn't clear, and he just looked at me like I was crazy. "I don't want some random woman," he said finally. "If I wanted that, that's what I would be going after. But I'm not. I'm here. Because I want you."

There was so much sincerity in his tone, and I swallowed hard against it, not even sure how to respond. It wasn't what I wanted to hear, but it made me feel warm inside at the same time. It made everything so much more complicated than it needed to be, but I couldn't look away from him.

Three nights we had been here together, and it seemed like we always ended up like this, staring at each other and waiting to see what happened.

"I don't believe you," I murmured, even though that was a misrepresentation of the truth at best and a flat out lie at worst.

"Get in this hot tub with me and I'll prove it," he said, and his voice was husky and deep, his eyes piercing into me. “You look like you could use a nice, relaxing soak anyway.”

I was supposed to say no. I was supposed to tell him to fuck off, that I wasn't one of the women who longed for his attention the way others did. I was supposed to walk away and go back to my room and then get on a plane and go back home and leave all of this behind me.

But that wasn't what I did.

I stood there for a second, mouth dry, heart pounding, while my head screamed all the reasons I was being an idiot for even considering doing what he told me to do. I had no reason to listen to him.

Too bad the rest of me didn't get the memo, apparently. Because my hands were moving, pulling my shirt over my head and letting it fall to the wood of the deck.

I unclasped my bra and took that off too, dropping it on the ground. I took off my shoes, my socks, and my pants, and then kept going until I was completely naked, standing there in the open air of the deck.

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