Page 5 of Prince of Tides
Holy hell, woman. Get your shit together. You’re engaged to a wonderful man. This playboy is nothing. Just the hired help. He’s absolutely not worth risking your relationship over. That’s for sure!
It didn’t matter that Eric had never made me feel like that before. Thatno manhad ever turned my body to mush the way Rip did, with only the barest of touches. I had a ring on my finger, and I had to behave.
You’re just going nuts because Eric has been gone for three weeks, and you’ve been coming off birth control in that time. You aren’t thinking right. Calm yourself and save it for some baby-making later tonight! Don’t let hormones wreck everything you’ve been so happy about for the past few years.
Taking a deep breath in, I let it out slowly, pulling my eyes off Rip and his finely chiseled body hidden beneath the shirt and pants.
“Laurie?”
The voice came from somewhere in the room. A familiar voice. One I hadn’t heard in close to a month.
“I’m sorry,” I said to Rip with a smile. “I, um, have to go. That’s my fiancé.”
“Of course,” Rip said, nonplussed. He made no move to leave, however. “It was very nice to meet you, Laurie.”
“You, too,” I said, finding myself drawn back into the swirling depths of his eyes, twin maelstroms of color and darkness.
Somehow, I turned and headed back inside, trying to ignore the fact that, minutes later, my hand wasstilltingling from where Rip had gripped it. The back of my palm pulsed slowly in time with the pressure from my clit, as if the caress of his lips on my hand directly linked to the space between my legs.
“Hey, babe,” Eric said as he approached me, wrapping me in a hug.
I returned it, still in a daze. How could someone have made mefeelthat way?
“Why are you carrying your bag?” I asked, my hands finding the duffel bag strapped across his chest and hanging off his back. I should’ve seen it, but I wasn’t thinking straight. “Did Winston not take it for you?”
“No, I can carry it,” he said, casually brushing off the insult from the butler, who was paid to do things like carry people's bags for them.
“It’s his job,” I muttered somewhat angrily. “It’s his way of insulting you by not offering to carry it.”
Eric smiled and waved it off, bending down to kiss me. I let him, but guilt swarmed me as I spent the next few seconds wondering what it would be like to kiss Rip instead.
Enough. That is crossing a line.
“I’m a big boy,” he said, puffing out his admittedly large chest.
“Eric Wrexton II,” I said teasingly. “You are one of a kind. You know that?”
He laughed and kissed the top of my head with affection. “I’m serious. It’s no big deal. I know he’s not my biggest fan. I’d rather pretend it doesn’t affect me. That way, he won’t take any satisfaction from it.”
I sighed, shaking my head. “Okay, I guess. If you insist.”
He nodded. “I do. Now, what?”
“Take a shower. Put on some non-airplane clothes. Dinner will be served shortly, and Daddy will never let me hear the end of it if you’re late or not freshened up.”
Eric pouted at that. “So you won’t be joining me in the shower?”
“Maybe later,” I laughed. “But not now, no.”
“I’ve missed you,” he said in a low growl. “I’m ready.”
“Me, too,” I said. “I haven’t taken a single pill since you’ve been gone.”
“I’m gonna put a baby in you,” he purred before coughing, completely ruining the mood.
“After dinner,” I told him with a laugh. “Now, go, shoo, hurry up.”
Eric disappeared into the bathroom, peeling off his clothes in a trail as he went. I stared after him, but I wasn’t seeing my fiancé. I was seeing someone else. Once the door closed, I turned to stare out the glass of the French doors.
