Page 46 of Nothing to Do

Tipping her head back, she welcomed the heat of his mouth closing over hers and the gentle sweep of his tongue as it—

“You guys want to have Sex on the Beach with us?” Roxie called out.

The moment broken, they smiled at each other before turning to their mischievous friend.

“You know exactly what you’re doing, Kyst,” Zane called. “Didn’t I give you my house? Twice now?”

SEVENTEEN

“TWICE?” she asked as Roxie turned on the spot and sashayed away, Zairn in her wake.

“They stayed at mine in California for a while.”

“I thought they lived in New York.”

“Officially,” he said. “They’re kind of nomads. More so than the rest of us.”

“Roxie is certainly full of energy. I can’t imagine how Zairn keeps up.”

“He gives as good as he gets. Now…” He wrenched her closer. “Enough about them, what about us?”

“What about us?”

“You want to go back to mine?”

“Yours? Isn’t this—”

“I’ve been staying in a villa by the beach,” he said. “Near where we first met.”

“The light,” she whispered. “You live in the light.”

“I… guess,” he said and snickered. “Don’t worry, any other day of the week, this place is yours to explore. We can kick Roxie and Zairn out if it means—”

“No. Roxie’s… overwhelming, but she’s kind too. She told me about your friends. About your brother… and his wife.”

“Roux is a step up in the sassy stakes from Roxie, but she aims it at Rourke. And he laps it up. You don’t have to worry about her mouth turning on anyone else.”

“I’d like to meet him, them, some time.”

“Any time you want. You’ll meet everyone eventually.” That suggested more, suggested a future. “If you want, we can go back to our hammocks on the beach…”

“No, I should get back to Alessia, I left her in the spa with her friends hours ago.”

“You should stay for dinner.”

“No, I—”

“It’s important,” he said. “The plan is to talk about the Roman situation. And you have a unique perspective on that.”

“It’s not my business to—”

“Family doesn’t have to be blood in this house. When there’s a problem, we pull together the people we care about, the people we trust, and we hash it out as a group. Alessia’s welcome to join us if—”

“No, that wouldn’t help. She can’t be objective. I’m not sure I could be either. And I’m not sure I’d trust myself around your cousin.”

“Hey, if you want to lay it out for him, feel free. The rest of us are about as mad as you were, and with good reason.”

“He abused your trust,” she said. “He scared my sister, harassed that server, and betrayed a man I care about. It’ll take a lot for me to volunteer to hang out with him any time soon.”

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