Page 49 of Hot for Hostage

“She didn’t come in here for breakfast,” he said, making me frown. “So, I added extra for your girl.”

There it was again. Someone calling Sadiemy girl.

I didn’t bother correcting him, because as far as I was concerned, she’d be mine soon enough. Plus, I liked the little kick in my chest when someone said it. “Appreciate it, Tony.”

He shooed me out of the kitchen, insisting he needed to get started on dinner, so I took the tray and followed my new lead on where to find Sadie.

Outside, my suit turned into a heat magnet for the summer sun before I’d made it halfway across the patio.

My steps slowed as I got closer to the pool and Sadie’s shock of pink hair popped out of the water next to a huge inflatable alligator. A pair of goggles covered half her face, while a yellow snorkel stuck out of her mouth.

I came up short.

Where had she found asnorkel?

“Davian!” she called when she spotted me—at least I was pretty sure she said my name. It came out garbled around the snorkel, which she spat out before giving me the sweetest smile. “Your pool isamazing.”

Leaving the tray of food on one of the tables, I slid off my suit jacket and took in the crystal-clear water of the rectangular pool. How long had it been since I’d gone swimming? A couple years, at least. “This must be the first time I’ve seen someone snorkel in it.”

“Malcolm showed me where all the pool stuff is. I wanted to try the flippers, but they were too big for my feet.” She kicked a foot out of the water with a splash, wiggling her toes. “Bear loves the inflatable alligator. He kept trying to get it to play with him.”

My lips curved, and I looked around the yard for her furry friend, but he was nowhere in sight. “Where’s your beast now? I thought he’d be out here guarding you.”

Sadie rolled her eyes behind the goggles. “Bear’s not a beast. He’s a German shepherd.”

“No German shepherd is that big.”

Her smile softened, and she swam to the side of the pool nearest me. She slipped off the goggles and set them aside, then rested her arms on the pool’s edge. “He swam for a bit, but then he took off after a squirrel. I think he’s having fun with all the land you have.” She saw the lunch tray, and her eyes lit up. “You brought food?”

“Antonio made lunch.” I walked closer to the pool. Strands of wet pink hair clung to Sadie’s neck, and her smile was infectious. “Hungry?”

“Starving.” She used a hand to block the sun and squinted up at me. “Is there any new information on what happened last night?”

My smile dropped. I would deal with whoever Fessy’s mystery friends were, but it was probably for the best she didn’t know what I had planned for them. “Not yet. Vince and Malcolm are still looking into it.”

When Sadie swam to the pool stairs and climbed out, my brain ground to a halt. She hadn’t worn her pajamas to the pool, after all. But in the absence of a swimsuit, she’d borrowed one of my undershirts.

Awhiteundershirt.

How was I supposed to string two thoughts together while she was soaking wet and wearingthat?

“Interesting choice of swim clothes,” I said through a rapidly drying throat.

Sadie glanced down in surprise, as if she hadn’t realized she was wearing a see-through shirt with very,verylittle underneath. Pink crested her cheeks before she shrugged. “Sorry I didn’t ask first, but is it okay I borrowed your shirt? It was the best I could do since I didn’t have a swimsuit.”

I didn’t mind at all—not one bit—but the urge to touch her was maddening.

On any other woman I knew, the shirt would’ve been a calculated move. An attempt at seduction. A play to get the heir to Westport’s underground into bed—and help their own standing. But unless Sadie was secretly some strategic mastermind, all she wanted to do was swim, and I needed to stop this train of thought before I pounced on her.

But with how little the shirt covered, I couldn’t resist prodding the oblivious bunny just a little. “I take it you didn’t have a bra, either?”

She looked down again, and her cheeks turned crimson. “Oh my.”

She pinched the front of the shirt and pulled it away from her body—but it only stuck right back to her like a second skin. And like a fucking teenager, I almost swallowed my tongue as I forced my gaze up to the sunny sky overhead.

This girl was going to kill me.

“I don’t sleep in a bra,” she said with a nervous laugh, which I was already all too aware of after last night. She cleared her throat. “And to be fair, I thought I’d be alone out here.”

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