Page 90 of Third Chances (Men of Manhattan 2)

I grabbed a beer from the fridge and kicked it closed with my foot. I was almost relieved that I hadn't found Daphne. Yeah, she was upset and needed someone to comfort her, but that someone wasn't me. Despite what she might think, I didn't do anything wrong. I defended my brother. She was in the wrong. She should be apologizing to me, not the other way around. And if I had found her crying, I would have tried to comfort her like an idiot. She probably would have just thrown more insults at me.

After switching my wet swim trunks for sweatpants, I lay down in the bed. This weekend was supposed to be fun. Instead, it left me questioning how I was living my life. And no matter how much I told myself I hated her, I couldn't seem to stop thinking about Daphne. Just picturing her face and her perfect tits made my blood boil. But it also made me hard as a rock. What was going on with me? Was this a failed conquest thing? Maybe if I could just fuck her, I could forget all about her and this awful vacation.

I downed the rest of my beer and tossed the bottle in the recycling bin. One thing was for sure, I needed to stop moping around in my room. There were tons of single women here. I was just horny, that was it. I didn't need Daphne. I'd find another dime and call it quits on paradise. Or maybe I should just use the magazine I bought James.

The magazine was sitting untouched on the nightstand. But I didn't need it. I thought about my hands on Daphne's ass and her moaning in my mouth. She had gripped my hair in her hand, trying to deepen our kiss. I could easily imagine her falling to her knees and putting her soft lips around my cock.

A knock on the door made me groan. It was not easy to hide a boner in sweatpants. I readjusted myself and walked over to the door. After I got rid of whoever it was, I'd take a nice long shower. I opened up the door and Daphne was standing there staring at me with her big green eyes. Well, if staring at my abs counted as staring at me. Strands of hair had fallen from her ponytail and curled in the humidity. She had mud all over her sneakers and shins and her shirt was sticking to her chest from sweat. Her face was flushed, either from being perpetually embarrassed from all the stupid shit that came out of her mouth or from being incredibly turned on by the site of me without a shirt. Probably both. Either way, she didn't look like she was crying anymore. Which meant I had no obligation to try to console her, something which she really didn't deserve anyway.

"Can I help you with something?" I didn't even try to hide the acid in my tone.

Her eyes immediately met mine. "Yeah, sorry. Can I come in?"

Why the fuck do you want to come in my room?

She didn't wait for my answer, she just walked right in like she owned the place.

I put my arm out, not letting her walk past the small entranceway.

Daphne stopped and almost jumped as the door closed behind her with a thud. She looked behind her at the door, and then back at me. Her voice made a small squeaking sound when she tried to clear her throat.

Don't worry princess, I'm not sandwiching you here so I can fuck you. I'm not letting you walk past me into my bedroom so that I won't be tempted to fuck you. Seeing her by my bed would probably be too hard to pass up. Especially since I was already hard. "Did you want something?"

She folded her arms in front of her chest. "Yes, actually. I came here to apologize." It didn't sound like an apology. She sounded angry and snooty.

"Fine. Apology accepted. You can go now."

She frowned. "You don't sound like you accept it. I know I was out of line last night..."

"Why are you here, Daphne?"

"To apologize. If you would let me get two words out..."

"No, I mean why the fuck are you even here? I didn't go on the zip lining tour to purposely avoid you. That's where you're supposed to be right now. So how about you go run back to your friends?"

"I can't."

"You can. Here, let me get the door for you."

She stepped in front of me when I reached for the doorknob.

"Jesus Christ, Daphne. What do you want from me? I tried to be a good guy. I tried to take things slowly with you. And you just freaked out on me for no reason. I doubt you've actually changed your mind about anything you said last night, so I don't know why you're here. And even if you did, I don't give a shit about your apology. If anything you should be apologizing to my brother."

"I already apologized to him."

I couldn't pretend to not be surprised. That didn't fix what had happened, but it was still nice to know that she wasn't a complete asshole. "Really? And what did he say?"

"He was certainly a lot nicer than you." She looked so fucking sexy when she was angry. Her cheeks were even rosier and her hands were balled into fists like she wanted to fight me.

"I'm sure he was. Look, I'm not my brother. I'm not a nice guy." I wanted to take her right against this wall. I barely knew her and I wanted to fuck her brains out. She had no idea what kind of man I was.

"What, do you like the idea of being a bad boy or something? You give off this air like you don't give a shit about anything. But guess what? You do. You're upset with me because you care so much about your brother. You told me that story about getting arrested in Costa Rica. Guess what, tough guy? You got arrested because you cared." She poked me in the center of my chest.

I looked down at her hand as she slowly splayed her fingers and pressed her palm to my chest. There was still fire in her eyes, but it didn't look like she wanted to kill my anymore. And it definitely didn't seem like she was here to apologize anymore. But she had been so persistent about not wanting sex. So what was she getting at exactly? "Why aren't you zip lining right now?"

"Because I was scared."

"Scared of what?"

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