Page 17 of Nothing to Do

“Zane…” she said and tried to pull away.

He tightened his grip. “Something scared you; I want to understand what it was.”

“Nothing, no, I—”

“Come on, babe. We got past the barriers and gave each other a second chance… What did I do wrong?”

“Nothing!” she exclaimed, horrified he’d think that.

“It was a good kiss,” he said, somehow moving closer. “We felt good together.”

Her gaze floated up to his. “Yes,” she conceded in a whisper. “Too good.”

“Help me understand, baby,” he murmured, his palm skimming upward until the edge of his thumb grazed her jaw. “What’s going on in your head? You don’t want this…? Don’t want to see what this is?”

“I don’t do casual sex,” she blurted out. “I’m sorry, I… It’s not a big deal, I’ve done it, didn’t enjoy it, so decided not to do it again… Years ago, I mean, not because of you, just…” She shrugged. “You’re very attractive and I know we have chemistry, but I can’t. I just can’t do—”

“Hey,” he said, cupping her face. “Who said anything about casual?” She blinked at him. “Baby, I think you’re amazing. You’re hot and so… alive. I wasn’t looking for you, foranything… You know how they say as soon as you stop looking for a relationship, that’s when one finds you? Babe, I flew thousands of miles to a basically deserted island and… here you are.”

“We’ve known each other three days.”

“I know,” he said on a short laugh. “I’m not suggesting we fly to Vegas and make it official, just…” His focus shifted as his fingers rose to a tendril of hair hanging by her face. “This isn’t nothing.”

It wasn’t. Thea was drawn to him. Something in her had connected itself to something in him.

The incredulity just wouldn’t go away.

“It’s been three days,” she said again.

His broad smile heralded an exhaled laugh. “I know it would sound nuts to anyone else, but…” He peered deeper into her. “It isn’t just me, is it? All you wanted from me was sex?”

Locked onto his gaze, her hands somehow found their way to his chest. “I don’t know what I want from you… But if we hook up for a one-night thing… We have the next twenty-something days here and—”

“We don’t need an expiration date or to put any pressure on each other,” he said, wrapping his arms around her shoulders to pull her closer. “Until we decide otherwise, you’re mine. I’m yours. We’re together. Nothing casual. Doesn’t make forever inevitable, we just be… together.”

The idea was tempting. “It can’t be that simple.”

“You don’t want to be mine?”

He squeezed her so tight she felt it in her lungs. The depth of his possession finally relaxed her enough to smile.

“Is this your idea of a shortcut into my panties?”

He bobbed his chin toward the desk next to them. “The desk could probably hold us.”

Wrinkling her nose, she pushed her shoulders back against his embrace to get a better look at him. “You said there were tables upstairs. The chaises are still outside… And the beach is just over the wall. You lack imagination, Drift.”

“Do I?” he asked. “Maybe imagination can be your department.”

“So what’s your department?”

“I come up with the ideas, you figure out how we execute them.”

“Oh yeah? So your idea is…”

“Getting into your panties.”

Bending his knees, he sank lower to grip her ass. His audacity wrought a shriek of a laugh from deep inside her.

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