Page 10 of Scarlett and the Big Bad Billionaire
I should have hauled my ass out of the pool at that point and dragged her out too, insisting we call it a night.
But I wanted to keep talking to her.
Something about her raw vulnerability attracted me like a moth to a flame. It was probably just as dangerous.
“You know what else is grueling?” I said. “Peddling imprinted sex toys.”
I gave her a smile meant to dazzle the sadness and all those inconvenient questions out of her head. “I mean, modeling all those different condom styles is brutal.”
Red laughed out loud, a glorious sound that sank into my skin like sunshine.
“You’re funny,” she said.
“I’m serious. I can demonstrate like, twenty a day or so, but after that, I’m just wiped.”
She laughed even louder. “Nobody can get hard twenty times a day.”
“Wanna bet? Clearly, I’ll have to prove it to you.” I sank down, grabbing her ankle and jerking her beneath the surface.
We both came up laughing.
“I didn’t see any anacondas while I was under there,” she said. “Maybe just a teensy baby water snake.”
“Oh, now you’re really asking for it.” I started to go under again, but she shrieked and kicked away, swimming toward the waterfall.
Naturally, I chased her.
She stopped just short of the cascade and swirled to face me, treading water and smiling.
With her eyes shining and her wet skin glowing in the landscape lights, the curtain of rushing water providing an almost otherworldly backdrop, she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
Without forethought or permission, the words in my head popped out of my mouth. “You are gorgeous.”
I could see from her expression I’d surprised her almost as much as I’d surprised myself. Come-on lines weren’t my style. Then again, it hadn’t been a come-on. I’d only stated the truth.
“So are you,” she whispered.
Then she surged toward me and wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me under the spray of water with her and kissing me.
Wow.Her breasts were pressed against my chest, soft and full and fucking perfect.
For a few seconds I was so shocked I couldn’t think. I just went with it, kissing her back. Her lips were soft and plush, and she tasted sweet, like lemonade and Ouzo.
Ouzo.
Right. She was drunk. And I was stone cold sober.
If we’dbothbeen inebriated and decided to go for a little moonlit dip together, it might have been a different story. But I was supposed to be the responsible one here.
I broke the kiss.
She didn’t act insulted, only sighed and lay her head on my shoulder. Her arms stayed locked around my neck as I treaded water, trying to hold her up without pressing her against my (inevitable) erection.
“Ready to go?” I asked gently. She seemed to be winding down, her alcohol-fueled energy burst apparently expended by the swimming.
She nodded against my neck. “I’m so tired. This has been a terrible, awful, no good, very bad day.”
“Okay. Hang on.”
