Page 72 of Places I've Never Been

He flashed her a wicked grin and left.

“I was kidding!”

Surely, he wasn’t serious. Demanding the massage he’d offered up as a reward was just an excuse to move to the bed, not something to follow through on. She wanted a lot more than just a massage.

Adam came back a minute later with a bottle of massage oil in one hand. “I always pay my bets. Flip over and get comfortable.”

She gaped at him. “Seriously? Now?”

“Now.” He wiggled his index finger in a circle to indicate she should roll over.

Mattie stared at him. What kind of man refused to follow through the second a woman offered?

A frustratingly good man. The kind of man who cared abouthermore than he cared about himself. It figured. Just when she was ready to throw caution to the wind, the man she chose wanted to take it slow.

Then she caught the glint in his eye.

He wasn’t taking it slow to be nice. He was teasing.

Two could play this game.

She shifted until she could get a good grip on her bikini top.

Adam’s eyes widened.

The fabric was still wet, and it clung with the suction power of an octopus. She kept her gaze focused on him as she tugged, wiggled, and jiggled her way out of the top. She tossed it to the side, and it landed in a wet heap somewhere near one of the tiki torches.

She smiled suggestively at Adam. “A massage isn’t as good with the bathing suit on.”

Satisfaction surged through her when his mouth dropped open.

Mattie slithered to the edge of the bed and stood up, then slowly peeled the suit bottoms down. She kicked them over toward the tiki torch.

Adam made a strangled sound. He gripped the massage oil so tight in one fist that she thought it might pop like a champagne bottle.

She smiled in triumph, then slid back onto the bed and crawled toward the center, where she leaned back on her hands, stretched her legs out in front of her, and slowly kicked one leg over the other. The evening breeze played with her nipples until they stood at attention.

Adam stared at her like a starving man in front of a juicy steak. The muscles on his chest flexed as his breath quickened. Judging by the fullness in his swim trunks her invitation had been well received.

She arched an eyebrow at him. “Done playing games now?”

His eyes flashed with the challenge. He flipped the top open on the massage bottle with his thumb. “Roll over.”

She waited long enough to be sure he knew what he was missing, then uncrossed her legs in a slow, deliberate way that revealed everything she had tooffer.

Adam made a low, rumbling sound, but he didn’t move any closer to her. He wiggled his finger again. “Keep going.”

She groaned in protest and rolled over. “You know, it’s not that I don’t like massages. I just thought we might do something else instead.”

Adam crawled onto the daybed with her and straddled her legs just below her butt. “We’ll get to that.”

He brushed his hand across her lower back. “I didn’t know you had a tattoo.”

She glanced at him over her shoulder. “We got them at the same time to celebrate after we won Best Pop Group Performance. Four bells, one for each of us, with the infinity symbol.”

He traced the symbol with his index finger. “Bellamy Babes forever?”

She smiled at the memory. “Always.”

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