“HADDER,” MATT ANSWERED HIS PHONE curtly. “This better be fucking important,” he added before listening intently to whoever was on the other end of the line.
“Hare, you know how I feel about getting involved with them,” he responded. “They’re too goddamn sloppy, and every single one of them has a fucking hair trigger. They’d bring us a shit-ton more trouble than monetary value.”
He was talking to one of his right-hand men. Harrison March, aka Hare. From the little interaction I’d had with him during Wonderland parties, I liked him.
Honestly, Hare, Cal, and Damien were all likable, courteous men in my eyes. They treated me with respect and, taking into consideration the Penn fiasco that had occurred at Roger Gold’s party, they looked out for me. It was only Eric Queen who gave me weird vibes. Whenever I was in his presence, I always got the feeling he was up to something. Like his intentions weren’t on par with everyone else’s. For the most part, he was terse and even a tad defensive with me. I was happy our interactions were few and far between, to be honest.
“It doesn’t matter where I’m at, but I can tell you if you keep calling me with bullshit deals, I’m not going to be happy when I get back,” Matt said, and then, the call was done. He tapped the screen and tossed the phone onto the end of his beach chair.
For the most part, he’d been avoiding his phone all day, appearing too content with ignoring the outside world and solely focused on our perfect, flirty little bubble in paradise.
It was like he was giving me his undivided attention after I’d had my tantrum in the car. Half the time, I didn’t even know why I made such a big deal about questioning him on things he didn’t want me to. Fuck, maybe I was testing him. I really wasn’t sure. I was sure that if that was really my motivation, I was even stupider than I thought. What exactly did I think was going to happen when I finally reached his limit?
I sighed into the warm breeze, my eyelids fluttering closed as I breathed in the briny aroma of the sea. Wiggling and scrunching my toes, I savored the softness of the sand, still damp from the retreating tide. The sand blurred out in a blissful trance, the shore fading into liquid gold, vivid in the brilliant light.
Even though I’d lived near the California coast for most of my life, it had been years since I’d actually spent the day at the beach, much less paradise in the form of an expensive, luxury beachfront resort sitting on top of miles upon miles of untouched sand.
Through narrowed eyes, I watched as each wave overlapped the other, sending the white bubbling crests descending, and masking the shore with the transparent, fading water.
God, it was beautiful.
Once Matt had finished convincing Jack Knave not to fight him, we’d gone straight to the car and driven for an hour to another, even more secluded, luxury hotel. As soon as we got inside, he’d demanded I put on my bikini and spend the day with him on the beach.
He didn’t have to tell me twice.
With the bright pink bikini he’d managed to pack for me in my bag, we’d made our way down to the private beach of our resort, and he’d pulled two lounge chairs away from the crowd and down the sand, until he’d set them down a few feet from the water.
From behind my sunglasses, I looked at Matt, sitting beside me with his long legs stretched out and his arms resting behind his head, a pair of swim trunks and aviators the only thing covering his dominating body.
I moved my gaze down his body, taking in the lines of his slightly crested mouth, the toned muscles of his biceps and chest and stomach, and the tanned color of his skin.
God, he was sexy.
His skin resembled that of smooth caramel, the tone so warm it almost shimmered, and I longed to touch it, run a hand over one of his big biceps and squeeze.
I honestly didn’t know what we were or what we were even doing, but I knew I still wanted more. More smirks. More teasing. More soft chuckles. More time to stare into those intense amber eyes. More Matt.
Despite the risks and the possibility of danger, and even overlooking the fact that on paper most would consider Matt to be a hardened criminal, I wanted to know him. Really know him. The bad, the good, and everything in between. And more than that, I wanted him to know me.
Ever since I’d met Matt Hadder, he’d taken me on an unexpected path, and although it was confusing and a touch scary at times, he’d changed my view of the world. What was once a mind that saw things in black and white had been turned on its axis and made aware that life didn’t always make sense.
Nothing was black and white. Not wealth, success, money, love.
It was all relative, falling directly into the gray.
Most times, as much as humanity strived for solutions and logic and sense, life was a meaningless puzzle. And a lot of times, life only frustrated our expectations.
Ironically, through Matt, I found beauty in that. There was a certain splendor in living life without the shade of rose-tinted glasses and finally understanding there would always be good and bad in the world, just like I’d learned. But a lot of times, those things were connected.
I moved my gaze to the far-off horizon, the flaring hues of the sun melting into the sky and ocean like a divine painting. The forever stretching sea was masked with a hue of orange, that beautiful ember flowing into turquoise.
And it was that gorgeous view that made me realize, in the very short time I’d known him, Matt had taught me to live by my own set of rules.
I quite liked the idea of living without the hindrance of societal norms and expectations. I think I’d always known that about myself. I’d always understood that I didn’t think the same as most people. I wanted to experience. Live. Take risks. I didn’t want to fall into the mediocre and mundane like I’d seen most of my friends do.
That was why I’d moved to LA.
Now, I’d found even more than I bargained for; the word predictable wasn’t even in Matt’s vocabulary.
Together, it felt like we were our own version of Bonnie and Clyde. Two souls who played the game of life by their own rules.
I reached down and picked up the strawberry daiquiri I’d ordered from the resort bar off the sand and took a sip from the pink straw, only to be faced with the annoying, obnoxious sounds of emptiness.
Matt chuckled at my visible frown.
“It’s not funny,” I retorted, and his grin grew wider.
“Poor Alex.”
I rolled my eyes and playfully slapped at his chest as I stood to my feet. “Thirsty?” I asked. “I’m going to grab another drink from the bar.”
“Just a bottle of water, little one,” he said and then wrapped his hand around my wrist and tugged me into his lap. “But first, I want a kiss,” he whispered and waggled his brows.
I giggled and placed a soft peck to his lips.
“Nope.” He shook his head. “That’s not cutting it,” he said and adjusted me in his lap so that my legs straddled his thighs. He slid his fingers into my hair and took my mouth in a deep, mind-altering kiss.
His tongue past my lips and dancing with mine, I moaned softly.
He ran his fingers up and down the bare skin of my back, and his lips melded with mine. Soft and slow, he worked his way from one side of my mouth to the other and back again and obliterated every thought from my brain. He tasted delicious, like November, like hot chocolate on stormy evenings and crisp autumn air.
Before I could wrap my arms around his thick neck and lose myself to his lips, he pulled away and set me on my feet. I stared down at him with another little pout I couldn’t hide.
His smirk was sexy as he looked up at me from the comfort of his lounge chair. The hot rays of the sun made his tanned skin glisten. And with a playful smack to my ass, he nodded in the direction of the resort. “Now, go grab me a water and another whipped cream monstrosity of a drink for yourself.”
“You’re bossy.” I poked his bicep with my index finger, and he just chuckled.
“I’m decisive. I know what I want, and I know when I want it,” he responded. “And I also know you love being on the receiving end of my decisiveness.”
When it came to the bedroom, he had a point.
I quite enjoyed letting that big, bad man boss me around.
“Put the drinks on our tab,” he added as I slipped on my flip-flops and sheer white cover-up.
“Oh, do you mean Mr. Wonder’s tab?” I asked with a cheeky grin.
He laughed. “Mr. and Mrs. Wonder, remember?”
With a little giggle and a wave, I picked up our empty glasses and walked up the beach. Once I reached the resort bar, the sounds of Bob Marley filled the background, and a young, twentysomething bartender with mocha skin, gorgeous green eyes, and a name tag that read Eduardo greeted me with a friendly smile. “What can I get you, miss?” he asked and took the empty glasses from my hands.
“Hmmm…” I scanned the menu above the bar, and once I caught sight of another fruity, tropical, whipped cream drink, I smiled. “I’ll take a piña colada and a bottle of water.”
“Nice choice,” he said with a wink and pulled a cold glass out of the bar-side freezer. He slid a fresh bottle of water toward my hands and set to work on making my drink. “Am I putting this on a tab?”
I nodded. “Mr. Wonder’s tab.”
Eduardo finished off my drink with a hearty dollop of whipped cream, a few maraschino cherries, and a straw. He set the glass on the bar and moved over to his computer to put in our orders. After a few taps to the screen, he glanced back at me. “Mr. Wonder, right?”
“Uh-huh.”
“I don’t think the staff realized you were on the beach,” he stated. “I’ll make sure that your personal server checks in on you two frequently so that you don’t have to come to the bar to get drinks.”
“Oh, it’s no big deal.” I waved him off. “I don’t mind walking up here to put in an order.”
“With all due respect, Mrs. Wonder, it’s resort policy for anyone staying in the presidential suite,” he said with a soft grin. “It’s our goal to make sure you and Mr. Wonder enjoy your stay with us to the fullest.”
Presidential suite? Personal server?
It seemed a bit ridiculous. I had two working legs. I could manage the short walk to the bar to get drinks, for cripes’ sake.
“Seriously. It’s no big deal. I prefer to get the drinks,” I said and picked up our drinks from the bar. “But I do appreciate your generosity.”
As I headed back toward our spot on the beach, my eyes grew wide when I spotted the familiar design of red and white. A playing card stuck into the sand.
What were the odds? I thought and juggled the drinks into one hand so I could snag it between my fingertips. I flipped it over and found the King of Diamonds.
Per my aunt’s kooky friend, Ms. Gypsy, this was a good fortune card. The King of Diamonds was apparently very generous with joy. And that’s exactly what the card predicted: Happiness.
I grinned as slipped the card into the top of my bikini and headed toward the one man who brought truth to that prediction.
With my toes flexing into the sand with each step, I spotted Matt still relaxing on his lounger—but he wasn’t alone anymore. A young, curvaceous woman with bright blond hair and the teeniest, tiniest white bikini I’d ever seen stood beside him. From a distance, I could see that she was talking to him, occasionally flipping her long, blond locks over her shoulder.
Once I reached hearing distance, I heard Matt say, “That’s a generous offer, Melissa, but I’m not interested.”
“It’s Maria,” she responded with a giggle and tapped his bicep flirtatiously. “I promise, it’ll be a good time.”
Her gaze moved toward me as I got closer, and Matt’s eyes followed it. He smiled. And the instant I stopped in front of our loungers and set our drinks on the sand, he pulled me into his lap.
“Sweetheart, this woman would like us to join her in her hotel room for sex. Is that something that interests you?”
Us, huh? I’d figured him for sure. But I was a surprising development.
He nuzzled my neck, and I couldn’t stop myself from giggling.
“No. I don’t think I’m interested.”
“Me either,” Matt answered, and his tongue snuck past his lips to taste my skin. “But I am interested in taking my wife to our hotel room and eating her sweet cunt until she screams my name,” he whispered into my ear, and I shivered.
Hot damn. Now that, I was definitely interested in.
He wrapped his big arms around my body and leaned his chin on my shoulder as he looked back at the presumptuous woman standing before us. “Thanks for the offer, but we’re not interested, Melissa.”
“It’s Maria,” she spat, but Matt didn’t pay her any attention.
As she stormed away from us, he moved his lips up my neck, across my jaw, until they paused at the corner of my mouth. “You’ve got twenty minutes to finish that drink, little one. After that, that sweet cunt of yours is mine.”
Drink? What drink?
“What’s this?” he asked, fingering the playing card sticking out of my bikini top.
“The King of Diamonds,” I answered with a shrug. “It’s just a little game I used to play with my aunt.”
“You used to play cards with your aunt?”
“Not exactly,” I answered. “When I was a kid, we made a game out of collecting playing cards we found lying around on the street, the sidewalk, pretty much anywhere we could find in the city. The goal of the game is to find a whole deck in a year’s time.”
“You still play it?” he asked, and his mouth crested up at the corners.
“I just started playing it again, actually,” I explained and felt my cheeks heat from insecurity. “It’s just a stupid little sentimental thing, I guess.”
“It doesn’t sound stupid.” He kissed my nose. “It sounds meaningful and reminds me of my mother. That sounds like something she would’ve done.”
Would’ve done. Past tense. I frowned.
“She died when I was just a little boy. Six years old, in fact,” he answered my silent question.
“Who raised you?”
“My father,” he answered. “He was the only living relative I had left.”
“My aunt, my aunt Delores, actually. She’s the one who raised me.”
“And your parents?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know a lot about them, but from what I understand, they weren’t fit to be parents.”
He pulled me closer to his chest. “We have similar beginnings, don’t we, little one?”
“Yeah,” I whispered and rested my head on his chest. “We really do.”
As I stared out on to the vast sea, I sighed, contentment apparent in the pattern of my breathing. I felt like every time I learned something new about Matt, it only made me like him more. It was getting to the point that my like for him was growing into something deeper. Something that was much, much more.