Chapter 4
He’d fucked up. He knew all along that simply inviting the girl out for pizza could prove problematic. I don’t need Riley Teeter in my life. I don’t even want her there. Damn it, Grayson, what’re you doing? he scolded himself. What I want is for her to finish her pretentious vacation and haul her sexy little ass home.
He was content before to assume she was just another stuck-up, rich bitch. He’d been smug with his dad, ready to avoid her, even as his father rode his ass about talking her into getting her wealthy father onboard with the new resort. The trouble was that she had looked so lost and alone. Her face, stripped of the overpriced sunglasses and designer makeup, was vulnerable and it pulled on Gray’s heartstrings. In the end, he simply couldn’t walk away from her.
“She’s a woman, not a stray kitten,” he mumbled, taking the steps faster with each word. The swim had helped, albeit not a lot. His body was lit up with the need for sex, with her in particular. “I barely made it through that damn pizza,” he added under his breath as he took yet another flight of steps. “Those nipples! Damn.” The memory of those pert, small buds stretching against the fabric of her thin dress sent a tremendous shudder through his cock. Damn it! I’ve gotta stop thinking about her, and I need to stay as far away as possible.
He paused, with one hand on the door of the apartment where his family lived. His thoughts were jumbled and torn, but one remained clear: She doesn’t deserve to be used by a guy who just wants to get to her daddy’s wallet. That his dad would even ask him to do that didn’t sit well with Gray, yet he understood the seriousness of the problem. If it was not such a big deal, his father never would have asked.
The apartment was at the top of the resort, settled back along the roof, to the right of the two penthouse apartments that were open to the public. It was quiet when he pushed the door open. The living room and kitchen, a huge, open-concept space, were dim and silent. Gray switched on lights as he went, his bare feet not making a sound on the expensive tile. There was a blue light flickering from Jon’s study, and Gray stood in the doorway, considering whether or not to go in. Finally, he cleared his throat.
Jon turned his attention away from the computer screen and a frown creased his brow, but it eased when he saw his son standing there. “You close up nice and tight?”
Gray nodded. “Yeah.”
Jon nodded, and lines of weariness carved crevices in his face. “Seems some guests helped themselves to liquor last week.”
“Really? That sucks.”
“You’re tellin’ me, son. A bunch of happy assholes with their parents’ names on the reservation but no actual adults in sight. The oldest is 18. The parents are pissed and are fighting the four grand in bills. At least we caught the little bastards on camera, breaking into the bar.”
“Yeah?” Gray shifted slightly. “Always something, huh?”
“Always.” Jon turned back to the computer but quickly turned back around. “Did you manage to talk to the Teeter girl?”
“No, sorry,” he lied. “She basically shot me down a million different ways, then walked off.”
Jon sighed. “Damn. That sucks. Keep trying, will ya?”
“Sure,” he said, but he thought, Not on your life.
“’Night, son,” Jon said, staring at his computer and wincing again.
“’Night, Dad. Don’t stay up too late.”
“Can’t sleep anyway.”
Gray sighed and headed toward his room. Once the door was closed behind him, he stripped down nude and stepped into the shower. He set the water on full blast. He had rinsed the salt off his skin in the cold shower outside, but that did little to loosen his stress-tight muscles, and he really needed to relax. He lathered a generous layer of soap all over his body with the soft cloth as the spray, hot and heavy, pulsed over his upper body. Gray ducked his head, letting the water soak his crown. He sighed as his muscles eased up, finally softening. Finally, the killer tension he’d been laboring under all day began to melt away.
Not all of his muscles responded that way, however; his dick had gone from semi-hard to erect and full. He gave the protrusion a baleful glare. “Yeah, yeah, I know how hot she is, asshole, but I sure as hell don’t wanna mess up her life by doing what Dad wants me to do.”
That didn’t seem to sway his pecker at all. In fact, it rose slightly, quivering in the air in front of his rock-hard body like it was seeking the heat and wetness coming from the showerhead—not that it would satisfy his real urge. What Gray really wanted was to bury every long inch of his prick deep inside Riley’s curvy, lean body, to fuck her until they were both satisfied and breathless.
His fingers, still holding the cloth, cupped his heavy length and he closed his eyes, letting the image of Riley swim into both of his heads. The washcloth, laden with lather and slick and oily against his flesh, stoked his imagination even higher. The cloth and Gray’s fingers moved along his swollen shaft, tightening and pulling as they neared the blood-engorged cap at the end. His knees went weak, but he managed to stay upright. His body tensed and he sucked deep gulps of air through his open mouth, feeling a blast of heated water in his throat as a result.
He pictured Riley on her knees, with her face turned upward, her throat and mouth working as she swallowed the hard, throbbing length of his dick, taking him all the way down, past those perfect white teeth and rose-painted lips, down the long, creamy column of her neck until she held him entirely within her mouth.
His legs went rigid at the thought, and his hand moved faster as he pictured it, her eyes looking up at him, her lips pursed and tugging, the heated warmth of her mouth taking him deep. His back flexed, and his hips shot forward and back. His hand worked faster, his fingers gripping his dick while he let the fantasy play out. He could feel heat and tightness gathering around his prick as the vivid image played out in his head: her nipples, jutting up in perfect little pink caps, and her eyes looking up at his through a tangle of wet, blonde hair. He wanted to tangle his fingers in it.
His ass jerked forward, his hips bucking and jerking as he jacked his dick with one hand and braced himself against the wall with his strong forearm. Hot and sticky cum flooded from the head of his dick, spilling along the shower wall before swirling away under the heavy force of the water.
Gray took a few long, deep breaths. Damn it! He had a bad case of desire for her, even if he didn’t want to. There was no way he could do anything with her without hurting her or pissing off his dad. The best thing he could do was stay as far away from her as possible. He had no delusions of grandeur; at the bar, she thought he was an asshole, and he had intended to keep it that way, but after the hour they spent over pizza he was almost sure she had changed her mind about that. Now he had to change things back to the way they were. He didn’t want to, but he had to be such a colossal jerk so she would willingly avoid him like the fucking plague.
He stepped out of the shower and into a pair of clean boxers. He walked out onto the balcony and stood there. Riley wasn’t in the penthouse, even though she certainly could have afforded one of them. Instead, she was housed in a smaller room just a few floors below his. He knew that because of the elevator she had used. That surprised him, too, as billionaires’ daughters didn’t often settle for less than the most sumptuous and expensive rooms. Then again, he had never met a woman with that kind of money behind her, so he wasn’t really sure how women of that ilk acted.
He thought about that for a moment and realized that during their conversation over pizza, she hesitantly mentioned her dream to live in a tiny studio apartment. His forehead puckered as he recalled that. Why would she want that? Is it possible she wants as little to do with her family’s money as I wanted to do with Dad’s latest scheme to get his hands on some of it? It made him wonder. Was she just a pawn, the same as him? He shook his head. He hardly doubted it.