Page 26 of Faking Ever After

“What? No.” Percy tensed. “Of course not.”

“I could,” I offered. “If that’s what you want, I’d do it.” When had I become so submissive? Ah, but this was a free, all-inclusive vacation to Greece. I could pay him back by making some ex-boyfriend jealous.

“Not at all,” Percy said. “I’m well and truly over him.” His chin quivered as he looked away. “We’re still in touch. I admit, we don’t talk as much as we used to, but he’s still the guy who made all this possible. Had it not been for him, I’d never have sold a single line of code. He was the one who wowed the executives in pitch meetings. And for that, he deserves an invite.” I thought I heard him mutter, “If he doesn’t cancel at the last minute like always.”

I nodded. He most definitely wasn’t completely over this guy. Was he still madly in love? I doubted it. But getting dumpedsucked and it wasn’t easy to get used to the sensation. I’d had plenty of practice and it still didn’t sit well with me.And that is precisely why you won’t get involved with Percy.This voice of reason surprised me. It wasn’t like Percy was going out of his way to seduce me so that I would need to resist him. He was simply magnetic and so very human that I couldn’t help but be drawn to him.

“You can count on my help, Percy,” I said. “For what it’s worth.”

He looked at me with unfiltered surprise in his eyes. “It’s worth a lot, Finn.”

Whatever else I had meant to say was gone from my head. My mouth opened, but I shut it and nodded. I hid the surprise as best as I could, but the sudden realization that he was telling the truth, that I wasn’t just a billionaire’s accessory item for a brief exhibition, made my heart beat a slightly different tune. “Well, then,” I said lightly in an airy voice. “That’s settled.”

Percy’s gaze darted away from me. He glanced at the distant buoys and then shot me a challenging look. “Can you swim, Finn?”

“Of course I can swim,” I said.

He hopped onto his feet before I knew it and pointed to the buoy. “I’ll race you there.”

“I’ll bet you ten bucks you won’t beat me,” I yelled after him as I scrambled to stand.

Percy was already near the sea when he looked over his shoulder and grinned at me. “Deal!” With two long paces, his feet splashed into the shallows.

Seven and a half minutes later, I chided myself for the gross lack of self-confidence that stopped me from making that a million bucks instead.

CHAPTER 10

Percy

Even the longest,most interesting day seems to pass far too quickly when you’re awaiting dinner with my family.The thought swirled around my head as Finn and I trailed the beach back to the house. When we arrived, the terrace doors were all open, and the two of us climbed up the slope separating the backyard from the beach.

“Looks like they’re all asleep,” I said. Long afternoon naps were a common thing around here at the height of summer.

“Not for much longer,” said Finn just as the clanging of pots and pans reached my ears from the kitchen.

Dimitrios hurried out and greeted us in passing while carrying two huge platters to the dining table on the terrace. The scent of moussaka filled my nostrils and my mouth watered. “We’re in for a treat,” I told Finn.

My hired boyfriend rubbed his hands together and gazed after Dimitrios like he was going to eat the moussaka and the man together. “And suddenly, I’m starving.”

We hurried upstairs before the others were up. Finn showered first, and I lingered in the room, enjoying some solitude before all hell broke loose. My thoughts wandered to the safebox, curiosity zinging through me uninvited. I could neverresist a mystery, a puzzle I should leave far out of my mind, but this one was not for me to solve.It’s just his passport, I told myself. All sorts of things happen to people these days. For all he knew, I could be out to trap him here forever.But why hasn’t that bothered him sooner? Why today?

Finn stepped out of the shower in a fashion I was becoming used to. He was half-naked, dripping, and handsome enough to make me forget what I’d been thinking about. I pulled my gaze away from his tanned skin and cleared my throat. Clumsily, I took a step back, turned on my heels, and inspected the paint on the walls. “Did you have a good…erm, shower?”Fuck my life, I thought to myself.

Finn chuckled. He didn’t bother to answer the question. Instead, he hummed something as he rummaged through his backpack and carried away his clean clothes for the evening. When he was done, we swapped places, and I hoped that a scalding shower might wash away the awkwardness of the previous moment.

Normally, I could hold the reins pretty well, dammit. I had held it together at the beach all day, but we had been surrounded by people and we spoke of Richie. Those things were enough of a turn-off to help me remain cool. Now? We were all alone and Finn had been naked underneath the towel.

My mind was a treacherous bastard. As I stripped and entered the spacious shower, it supplied me with every naughty image of Finn without the towel that it could have concocted. I could picture it so clearly, the curve of his ass and the shape of his cock.

My hands rubbed my chest and stomach, soap foaming, water pattering against my hand and flowing down the length of my back. I pressed my left hand against the tiles and lowered my right along my abs, then wrapping it around my swelling length and holding my breath as shudders rocked my chest. “Oh,fuck,” I whispered, my fist tightening around my cock, stroking it slowly, carefully, and as quietly as I could.

I shouldn’t be doing this, I thought.He’s just ten feet away. He’s ten feet away, and I’m using him, rendering all the talk of boundaries meaningless.But these thoughts evaporated in the cloud of steam that surrounded me.

This whole day had been a mess of feelings, sensations I couldn’t control, urges I couldn’t tame, and needs I could never fulfill to satisfaction. Since waking up next to him, seeing him sprawled out on the bed and wearing only his underwear and the tangled duvet, until now, while he sat in the other room, waiting for me.

Is he lying down?I imagined that he was. I imagined that the day we had spent together was as filled with the sparks of desire for him as it had been for me. I imagined he couldn’t control himself, either, so he lay on the bed, his underwear lost somewhere on the floor, his smooth, tanned legs spreading, hands dragging up his thighs, revealing his hard cock and heavy balls. I saw myself leaning in, my head between his thighs, my face buried deep until my lips could feel his taint.

My cock throbbed, and I choked, but not quickly enough to stop the moan that tore loose from my throat. As lust soared through me, I clenched my muscles hard and stroked myself faster, my throbbing cock sending ribbons of hot, white cum splattering the tiles and my lungs burning with the air I held.

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