Chapter Fourteen

After being pampered on their spa date, Kathryn went back to her room to take a nap, and Dana grabbed her book and headed back to the pool. She had no idea what they put on her skin, but she felt refreshed and invigorated. Settling on the chair, she opened the book and sighed in pleasure. She’d been binging on this particular series for a few months now, but she hadn’t had a chance to read once she’d started working for Parker Industries.

At least some good has come out of me getting fired.

She’d barely gotten a few pages in when a shadow fell over her. Looking up, she saw a gorgeous man arranging his things on the chair next to hers. He was just as tall as Cole with the same bronze skin and rippling muscles, but he sported a small goatee and had that easygoing smile. “Sorry. Am I blocking your sun?” he asked as he sat down.

A man who apologized. How refreshing. “Only for a minute or two. The truth is that I’m not here to tan. I tend to burn to a crisp.”

“You have lovely skin. I would hate to see it burned.” He leaned over and stuck out his hand. “I’m Chen.”

“Dana. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“From the look of things, I would say that the pleasure is all mine.”

A couple of days ago, she would have been happy to have a man flirting with her, especially one as gorgeous as this, but now all she could do was compare him to Cole. Obviously, she was getting too comfortable with her role as his girlfriend.

He pulled out his own book, and she lifted her head to see what he was reading. “Oh, is that the new Steven Brown book? I’ve been trying to get my hands on it. I heard it was excellent.”

“It is! I’ve read it three times,” Chen laughed. “I’m afraid that I forgot to bring my Kindle charger, and it ran out of juice about two hours ago. I was at the bookstore this morning, but I couldn’t find anything that I thought I might like, so I figured I’d just reread this one.”

“Three times! But there’s no suspense!” Dana shook her head. “I’m addicted to this Dale Schwab series. If I read it before bed, it keeps me up at night with nightmares!”

“Those are the best kind of books.”

Dana couldn’t agree more. “If you’d like, I’ll let you borrow the first in the series for the rest of the trip. That way you don’t have to reread that book for a fourth time.”

“Really?” He sat up. “I’ll even go a step further and offer you a trade since you said you wanted to get your hands on this book.”

Excitement shot through her, and she nodded eagerly. “Yes! You have no idea how much I would love that! This is a business trip for my boyfriend, so I find myself with quite a bit of time on my hands.”

If Chen was disappointed that she had a boyfriend, he didn’t show it. Instead, he grabbed his towel and stood. “Can we go right now?”

“Of course!” Laughing, Dana grabbed her things and walked with him to the upper-deck cabins. It had been a long time since she’d discussed books with someone, and she was so engrossed in the conversation that she didn’t even notice when one of the room doors opened and a dining cart rolled out.

“Watch out!” Chen cried out, but it was too late. She walked right into it, tipping the cart over, and she went sprawling on the floor. The server apologized over and over again as he helped her up, but Dana waved him away.

“It’s not your fault. I was totally not watching where I was going. Is this chicken salad?” Dana gingerly picked at her cover-up. Not only was it soaked in what smelled like wine, but there was some kind of casserole all over it and all over the straps of her bikini top. “It looks delicious,” she managed.

Everyone laughed. Apologizing to the server, Dana tried to be more careful about paying attention to things.

“I’m not usually such a klutz,” she muttered. “That’s so embarrassing.”

“Maybe it’s because you find me charming?” Chen offered with a flirtatious wink.

Dana snorted. “We just spent the past fifteen minutes talking about murder and mayhem. Real charming.”

Finally, at her door, she opened it up and let him in. “Give me a second to change into something a little cleaner, will you?”

“Take your time. I’m loving this view.”

“If you liked the C.E. Archer mysteries, you are definitely going to like these books. They aren’t quite as sexy and raw, but they’re definitely a page-turner,” she yelled through the bathroom door. He didn’t say anything, so she fell silent as she stripped off her cover-up and hopped in the shower in her bikini. Once rinsed off, she wrapped the towel around herself and opened the door.

Chen was gone, and Cole was leaning against the wall, glaring at her.

The jealousy that had taken hold when he saw another man standing in his room was swift and terrifying. Deep down, he knew that Dana would never cheat on him, even if their relationship was fake, but seeing her emerge in just a towel had him seeing red. “What the hell is going on here?” he asked through gritted teeth.

She rolled her eyes. “Did you scare him away? I didn’t even get a chance to give him the book!”

“I don’t give a damn if he got a book. I want to know what the hell he’s doing in our room when you’re naked!”

Glaring at him, she unwrapped the towel to show him the bikini underneath. “I’m not naked. I met Chen by the pool, and we started talking about books. I offered to swap books with him, but when we started walking back, I tripped over the food cart. I just needed to rinse off. I wasn’t going to sleep with him, even if this relationship is fake.”

None of that made him feel better. “Get in the shower,” he ordered.

“What?” Her eyes rounded at his cold request.

“You need cleaning? Then get in the shower. Now.”

She still didn’t move, so he walked over to her and picked her up. She shrieked as he hauled her into the shower and shut the door behind them. Turning on the shower, he let the water hit them, drenching his clothes. His erection was painfully tight against the wet material of his pants.

“Seeing me with another man turns you on?” she asked breathlessly. Cole turned her around and untied the string beneath her back. As her top fell away, he worked on the strings at her waist until she was standing completely naked in the shower.

“Seeing you in that skimpy little thing turned me on,” he said hotly in her ear. “You’re such a hot little thing.”

He ran his hands along her body, stroking her flat abdomen and traveling up to her nipples. She arched her back and hooked an arm around his neck. “I was imagining you in here with me this morning,” she admitted with half a moan when he rolled her sensitive flesh between his finger and thumb. “Ah… Cole… that feels good.”

“What was I doing in your imagination?”

There was a beat of silence. “This.”

“I was doing more than this.” He let her go and turned her around. While she watched, he undid the buttons of his shirt and peeled it away. “Tell me what I was doing.”

He wanted to hear the dirty words in her mouth, wanted those sweet lips to sin just a little. As he pushed down his shorts and kicked them away, he straightened to find her staring. Casually, he started to stroke himself. “You’re not answering my question, Dana. Tell me what you want.”

She bit her lower lip before slowly backing up to the wall. Leaning against the tile, she crooked her finger and beckoned him. “First you made me come with your fingers.”

Groaning, he reached down and teased her. “Just my fingers and not my mouth? I was under the impression that you liked my tongue last night.”

She rotated her hips against his touch. “I did, and I fantasized about that next, but I don’t think I’d survive it.”

It was obvious that she was frustrated with him, but he still continued to tease her. “What did I do with my fingers, Dana?”

“You had two inside me,” she moaned. “Stroking me, and your thumb was on my clit, pressing and rotating.”

“Like this?” Capturing her mouth with his, he did exactly as she asked and was rewarded with the sexiest little gasp. Moving his fingers faster and faster, he stroked her until her body seized, and her muscles clamped down on him. Crying out, she buckled and started to slide.

“Oh, no, my sweet. Not yet.” He captured her and held her upright until she stopped shaking, and then he lowered himself. His own desire was heavy between his legs, but he had nothing planned for today, and he had no desire to leave this shower anytime soon. “Is this what you pictured happening next?”

Darting his tongue out, he licked her gently. He knew that she was still sensitive, and her whole body jumped in response. “Easy,” he said soothingly. “Just relax, and enjoy.”

He took his time, licking around the most sensitive part until she could handle it again. By the time he fastened his mouth on her, the water was running cold, but he barely noticed. He was so hot that he could have used the cooldown. By the time he’d tongue-fucked her to her next orgasm, he was nearly out of his mind with need.

“Cole,” she moaned. “I need you inside me. Please.”

As he stood and lifted her, hooking her legs around his waist, all his initial anger and jealousy was gone. The only thing that he needed was her. Gently, he eased inside her, gasping as she took every inch, still so fucking wet for him.

“Hell, baby, you feel like heaven,” he muttered as he started to thrust.

She cried out as he moved, thrusting from one angle and then another. He focused on his control, wanting desperately to feel her coming apart around his cock, and that would take time. He was ready to explode, but he wouldn’t come until she did.

Her body trembled for him, and he slid one hand out to roll his thumb over her perfect nipples. Her nails dug into his skin, and he started to move faster. Finally, with his name on her lips, she cried out and shattered, and it was just enough to send him over the edge. Roaring, he came so hard that he lost all of his strength, and then slid along the wall until he fell back to the floor, cradling her on top of him.

When his breathing returned to normal, he realized that she was shivering from the cold. “Turn the water off, baby,” he said gently.

She moved, reaching up and turning the handle. The water stopped, and she collapsed on him again. “Can we sleep here?”

“Keep moving your hips like that, and I’ll end up fucking you in here again,” he whispered.

Snorting, she pushed herself up and eased off him. “I’m going to need some food and at least an hour before we try anything like that again. I’m fairly certain I died at some point.”

He stood and helped her up. Grabbing the first towel, he wrapped it around her and rubbed her arms until she stopped shivering. He knew that there was no way he could convince either one of them that it wasn’t going to happen again. He’d never wanted anyone as much as he wanted her, even though he’d already had her.

When she seemed warmer, he grabbed his towel and wrapped it around his waist and headed to the room.

“What are you going to do now?”

Glancing over his shoulder, he smiled. “What do you think? I’m going to order some room service, and in an hour, I thought we might actually try the bed for once.”

“I want to be on top,” she said instantly.

The image of her riding him, her breasts swaying with each thrust had him abandoning his plan as he dropped the towel.

It was another two hours before she got to eat.