Page 18 of The Fake Boyfriend Fiasco

“Close your mouth,” he winked, “before you catch something.”

Aria dropped her lip gloss. Oops. “Piss off.”

“Just some friendly advice.” The lip gloss rolled toward him, and he bent to pick it up. Call her a perverted motherfucker, because Aria watched eagerly for some slippage in that towel. It was just plain curiosity, that’s all. She’d never been with a guy who had thighs like fucking tree trunks. She wanted to know if they made his dick look smaller by comparison.

Though it certainly hadn’t felt small, earlier in the pool.

Nik picked up the lip gloss—his towel remaining tragically secure—and moved closer to the vanity. But he didn’t hand it over. Instead, he squatted down beside her chair, those muscular thighs and solid calves making her mouth water. Aria’s gaze caught on the way his towel rode up, and then on the carved lines of his abdomen, and then on the little drops of water sliding through his chest hair. Finally, she reached his face and found him smirking.

“You look good,” he said.

“You don’t have to compliment me, Nik. That’s not in the contract.”

“I know. But since my eyes are working fine, and I can speak, and you’re wearing that… I might as well tell you. You look good.” His gaze ran from her bare legs to the low V of her neckline. He reached out and traced a finger over the fine cross tattooed between her breasts. She tried not shiver as his calloused skin rasped over hers. Her nipples felt like bullets, so sensitive she almost whimpered as they tightened against her dress.

For a moment, his gaze held hers, hot and dark with promise. But then he looked away, shaking his head slightly, breaking the contact between them.

“Sorry,” he said, holding out the lip gloss. “I meant to take my clothes into the bathroom. I forgot.”

The loaded meaning behind that apology stiffened her spine. “It really doesn’t matter to me.”

Nik arched a brow. “It doesn’t matter to you if I wander around half-naked?”

“Nope.” His fingers brushed hers as he handed the little tube of gloss over, and the heat stirring between her thighs became a full-blown inferno. She was surprised she didn’t burst into flames. Still, she opened the lip gloss and prayed her hands wouldn’t shake as she applied it. The way her heart was pounding, they just might.

“Are you sure? Because it seems like it does.”

Well, that did it. Pride and stubbornness truly piqued, Aria turned a slow, disgusted look at him. “Sweetheart. Do you know how many men I’ve seen naked?”

His smirk faded at that, becoming something slightly darker. “I could not begin to guess.”

“Enough. More than enough, really. You could walk around swinging your dick like a toddler, and I wouldn’t bat an eyelash. So, don’t ever think I’m concerned by your abs and your… towel.” Her don’t-fuck-with-me tone might have faltered a little bit at the end, there. But he didn’t seem to notice; he was too busy scowling at her, his usually cheerful face thunderous.

“So, you don’t care,” he said flatly, “if I wander around naked. You are not remotely affected by my presence.”

She rolled her eyes, flicking her hair as she turned back to the mirror. “Feel free to strip off and stick this lip gloss up your arse, if you want. I’ve got plenty more.”

He straightened up abruptly. “That’s great. Since you don’t mind, I’ll just behave as I usually would.” And then he dropped the towel.

She absolutely did not look. Not at all. And he certainly didn’t stand there and shove it in her face. No, he turned away almost immediately, casually going about his business. He got dressed while telling her where they were going for dinner, how much Varo and Kieran liked her, and complimenting her overhead throw.

While Aria applied her bloody lip gloss, and hummed in response, and acted natural. And tried not to think about the glimpse she’d gotten from the corner of her eye, just before he’d turned away. A glimpse of his thick, dark cock, not hanging by his thigh, but standing hard against his stomach.

Only she couldn’t stop thinking about it. Oh, dear.

* * *

“I think I’ve found my people,” Aria shouted over the music, leaning against the bar. “Cuz if this is your friends’ idea of a quiet night…”

Nik knocked back another shot and grinned through the harsh taste. “It was supposed to be a quiet night. But sometimes we get carried away.”

She laughed a little louder than usual, throwing her head back. The movement made her wobble on her high heels, so he wrapped a hand around her upper arm to hold her steady.

“I think I might actually be drunk,” she said, finally figuring out what her bright eyes had already told him.

“I’d fucking hope so after all that vodka.”

She scoffed. “Clearly, I’m not used to shots that aren’t cheap and watered down. You can let go now.”

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