He buries his face between my breasts, holding me against his firm body until I can barely move my hips. His cock jerks, pulsing like a faint heartbeat as he grunts against my skin and comes. Seconds later, he releases me and swipes the hair away from my face.
“Oh, kitten.” He takes a deep breath and lets it out. “You’re in trouble.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Bennett
Itry not to slip as I hoist Cat over my shoulder and carry her into the hall. The things I need to do to this woman require a little more room and a lot more privacy than this hot tub can provide.
“My clothes!” Cat says with a giggle. “They’re still on the floor. What if someone finds them?”
“I’ll tell them I suspected you were the Wicked Witch of the West, so I doused you with water and proved my theory correct.” I smack her ass, and it jiggles beside my head. I can’t wait to bite it.
Male voices reach my ears as we near the main hall, and I’m tempted to walk right out in the open with my prize draped over my shoulder like a championship belt. But I feel Cat tense against me, and I can’t do it. I can’t betray her trust. I lower her to her feet, and she chews her lip and looks up at me.
“Let’s just keep it quiet until we figure out what . . . this is, okay?” she whispers.
“And what is this?” I ask.
She motions between us, then toward the upstairs rooms. “You know . . . We’re fucking, I guess, but I still don’t know if there’s more to it.”
I hate that she thinks the ball is entirely in her court. Like I’m some lovesick puppy she can play with when she feels like it. That’s therealproblem here.
After taking a few steps forward, I peer around the corner and spy Maverick and Jim by the staircase. She might have snuck off with me had it been anyone else, but the moment she sees Maverick, I’ll be forgotten, despite what she said in the hot tub.
“Who is it?” Cat whispers.
I sigh and motion for her to see for herself.
She tiptoes closer and peers around the corner. As soon as she spots Maverick, her body tenses and she nearly leaps backward.
“Shit,” she says. “There’s no way we can walk out together without drawing attention. We’re both in swimsuits, so that looks suspicious enough.”
I try not to wince as her words strike a soft spot inside me.
“Yeah, you go on ahead,” I say. “Leave your door unlocked and I’ll slip in once the coast is clear.”
I don’t like the moment of indecision that flickers through her eyes before she nods her head. She might have said she was undecided about Maverick, but it seems like she’s more undecided about me.
I swallow my emotions as I watch her steel herself to round the corner. It’s difficult to admit that I want her more with every passing second, but I do. Not just her body, but everything about her.
When she told me about her brother, that’s when I knew. Hearing the hurt in her voice made me hurt for her. Something inside me longed to ease her pain and ensure she never hurtsagain. Empathy isn’t a foreign emotion for me, but it is where love interests are concerned. As terrifying as it is, though, I find myself wanting to explore this more than she does, and that’s more frightening than anything else.
Her musical voice reaches my ears as she greets the two men, and I grit my teeth as I cower in the shadows like vermin. She lets out a soft laugh, and I want to punch a hole in the nearest wall. Whatever Maverick just said couldn’t have beenthatfucking funny.
I step a little closer to the corner so that I can listen in, but they’re too far away. Their voices reach my ears, but the words are a series of muffled mumbles and mutterings. Goddamn all this wood and its sound-absorbing properties. If I want to hear what they’re talking about, I’ll need to get closer.
I round the corner like I have somewhere to be, careful that my gaze doesn’t linger on Cat for too long. It’s a feat, really, because she’s still in that tiny bikini. Maverick is too focused on her glistening tits to see me coming, though, so that’s a bonus.
Jim gives me a small wave as I start up the stairs. I wave back and keep going, but he calls my name before I reach the top landing, and now I’m stuck. I wait at the top as he grips the railing and makes his way to me.
“Dinner’s been cancelled, I’m afraid,” Jim says. “Well, not cancelled, but there won’t be a formal call to dinner. Chef has agreed to accommodate a limited room-service menu for the evening.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Well, yes, for the most part. A few of the guests felt a little under the weather after the event, so Ezra and I thought it best to give everyone the night off to do whatever they’d like. It was that or cancel the excursions in the morning.”
I cock my head and look at him. “Excursions?”