I was sure that Briana had only gotten up to go to the bathroom. Why else would she leave her purse and phone at the table? But the minutes ticked by, and she still didn't return.

What had started off as another great day had taken a shitty downturn in the last fifteen minutes. Enzo was being a spiteful bastard. Most of the time he was just a loud drunk, only getting belligerent if someone pissed him off. Tonight, however, something was up his ass because he'd been picking and picking from the moment he sat down.

After he started going on about the bet, I told him to go fuck himself and turned to talk to Charisma. I wasn't really that fond of her, but right now, she was the lesser of two evils. As I listened to her complaining about how she'd been treated unfairly at her last three jobs, I saw Kendall heading for the table and swallowed a scowl. Something about the smug smile on his face set my teeth on edge.

“Hey,” I said to him as he took a seat next to Charisma. “Have you seen Briana?”

“Have I ever.”

I wanted to ask him what the hell that was supposed to mean, but I wanted to know where Briana was more, so I just raised an eyebrow.

He drained his gin and tonic before continuing, “I saw her head back up to the rooms. She looked pretty upset about something. Are you not treating her right?”

Kendall had never taken an interest in my love life before, or in any part of my life, actually. At family functions, the few times he actually spoke to me, it was to make some snide comment about how my brothers and I had been given everything.

He could have been lying, trying to get a rise out of me, but I didn't think he was. She said she'd be back, but that had been nearly twenty minutes ago. Something had to have happened. If she'd left her things here, then what Kenny said made sense. She'd been upset by something. But what could she have heard that would have–

Enzo called for another drink, and that was when it hit me.

She'd heard us discussing the bet.

I swore under my breath.

“What?” Enzo asked, turning bleary eyes my way.

“Nothing.” Grabbing Briana's possessions, I rose from the table and muttered a curt good night before hurrying toward the elevators. I hoped she'd gone to her room, because if she'd decided to leave the hotel, it would take hours to find her, and I didn't much like the idea of waiting to make things right.

I didn’t know how much she'd overheard, but even just a little of that conversation would be enough to make me look like a grade-A asshole. Then again, I should probably hope that she'd heard more rather than less since that would have at least put me in comparison with Enzo, and I looked great next to him.

When I got to Briana's door, I knocked but heard no reply. So I knocked again. Still nothing.

I scowled.

“Briana?” I called.

Silence.

She was there. I could feel her, and the fact that she was ignoring me was starting to piss me off.

“Briana, I've got your phone. Somebody keeps calling, says it's something to do with your daughter.”

I didn't even feel a little bad for the deceit.

Okay, maybe a little.

It wasn't even a second later that the door opened a crack and Briana's hand shot out, palm upward. I placed the phone into her hand, but before she could close the door, I wedged my foot in the crack. I tried not to think about how my Italian leather shoes would take to being crushed in a doorframe. Anyway, maybe I deserved it for lying to her about her kid.

“Go away,” Briana said, not meeting my eyes. “I clearly have something to deal with.”

“I lied. Nobody's been calling.”

“Fucking bastard,” she snapped and pushed on the door. It didn't budge.

“Can you let me in?” I asked. “I need to explain some things.”

A snorting laugh came from the other side of the door. She'd moved so I couldn't see her, but she hadn't threatened to call security yet, so that was good.

“Do you ever.”

I tried to catch a glimpse of her through the crack in the door, but all I saw was the inside of her suite.

“I don't like talking to you when I can't see you,” I said, trying to pave the way with some honesty.

She was silent for a moment, likely trying to decide whether to attempt to crush my foot, scream bloody murder, or let me in. After a minute, she stepped away from the door, and it swung open.

I stepped inside and closed the door behind me as she moved half-way across the room. Her folded arms and furious expression gave the impression she was pissed as hell, but her red-rimmed eyes sent a stab of guilt through my chest.

I took a step forward, but as I did Briana took a step back. I got the message.

“You said you were going to explain,” she said. “So do it.”

She wasn't going to make this easy on me, and I didn't blame her. “I take it you overheard my brother and I talking about the bet?”

She nodded, jaw tight. “What clued you in?”

Her tone made me wonder if she wanted to add asshole on to that.

I softened my tone, as if that would make what I was going to tell her any better. “I won't lie to you and say I didn't make a bet with my brother about you. I did, but it wasn't like that.”

“Wasn't like what?”

“Like...” I waved a hand in her direction as I struggled to find the words to say what I meant. “Like whatever you think it is.”

“You don't even know what I think it is,” she challenged.

I scowled and ran my hand through my hair. “Okay, so why don't you tell me what you think?”

She squared up, eyes flashing. “You made a bet with your brother that you could get me to come to Hawaii with you guys so you could fuck me.”

I shook my head. “Not true.”

The expression on her face said she didn't believe me. “Then enlighten me.”

Shit.

I inhaled deeply before spitting out an equally disgusting truth. “Enzo wanted to make a bet that he could get you to come to Hawaii and that you'd sleep with him. I only agreed because I knew you wouldn't go for him. But part of the bet was that even if he couldn’t get you in bed, I wasn't allowed to touch you. But that's all over. I forfeited.” Everything came out in a rush, and that could have been enough, but I knew there was one more thing I had to say. I took a step toward her, and this time she didn't step back. “I forfeited because of the way I feel about you.”

I only meant to come up here and plead my case, win her over with logic and a bit of charm. I hadn't meant to cut my stomach open and spill my guts all over the designer rug, but when I saw how hurt she looked, I couldn't stop myself.

“Because of the way you feel about me?” Her expression was still guarded, but some of the anger was gone.

Then I realized she was going to make me explain it. I barely understood it myself. I was breaking one of my own rules by even having these feelings in the first place. After Maggie, I promised myself I'd never get that involved again.

Shit.

“I'm...fond of you,” I said finally, trying to dig my way out of the hole I created. “I enjoy your company, and I respect you.” Before she could respond to my cowardly non-admission, I added the thing that had been dancing around my brain since she agreed to come with us, “I need to know if you're here because you want to be, or if you're here to secure our business at your casino.”

She narrowed her eyes, but not with any sort of anger. She was thinking. At first, I thought she was trying to decide how to let me down easy. Then I realized she was surprised that I even cared about her reasons.

“I came to Hawaii as your date for business reasons, I'll admit.” This time, she stepped toward me, her arms coming down. “But I slept with you because I wanted to.”

I quickly quashed the hope that dared to flare up at her words.

She continued, “And when I really break it down, I came to Hawaii because I wanted to as well. If I'd been really against it, I would have found a reason not to come. If you told me right now that you wanted to go to another casino...I'd still want you.”

Until that moment, I hadn't realized how worried I'd been that she didn't want me the same way I wanted her. I wasn't a self-conscious guy by any means, but having feelings for someone can make even the stoniest of men a little raw, especially after what I'd been through with Maggie. Briana's words, however, were like a balm to that soreness.

I moved across the room so swiftly that she let out a gasp of surprise as I pressed her body tightly against the wall. But I couldn't wait a second more to have her, not when I'd come up here thinking I'd lost her. Not when she looked so goddamn divine in that dress, a plunging purple number that showed off her subtle curves.

And definitely now when I needed a distraction so I wouldn't think about how troubling it was that I was falling for her.

Our tongues tangled together, bodies grinding against each other. It was heat and want and need. Her scent in my nose, taste on my tongue. She surrounded me, consumed me. She was everything, and I couldn't say no. I wasn't strong enough.

I found the zipper of her dress and tugged on it, revealing the soft skin of her back inch by inch. She moaned and arched up against me as my fingertips trailed down her spine. Her tits flattened against my chest, and I could feel that she wasn't wearing a bra. I could feel her heart racing, or maybe it was mine. It didn't matter.

Her mouth tasted like wine and something fruity from her lip balm. It was divine. I sucked her bottom lip between my teeth and nibbled, her moan going straight through me.

“You're fucking sexy, you know that?” I slid my lips down her throat to the juncture of her neck. Her only response was a throaty sigh. “Tell me what you want,” I murmured.

She looked down through her lashes as I slipped one strap of her dress down and kissed along the exposed skin of her shoulder. “I don't know.”

“You don't know?” I chuckled and moved to the other side. Once that strap was down, her dress slid silently to the floor, leaving her dressed only in a pair of matching silk panties.

Fuck.

“Want me to decide for you?”

She shivered. “I want to please you.”

Her voice was barely above a whisper, and I got the sense she wasn't used to asking for what she wanted in bed. As much as her statement turned me on, it also pissed me off that the men in her past had been so selfish as to not try to understand what she liked.

“You are pleasing me,” I told her. I ran my thumb over one of her nipples, smiling when it tightened. “Fucking look at you. You're a wet dream, darling.”

A coy smile curved her lips as she shot me a look through her thick lashes. “Then I want to please you even more.”

That dark look sent a zap of electricity straight to my cock. She reached down between us, fingers wrapping around my erection through my pants. Her eyes locked with mine as she gently squeezed me. I leaned a hand against the wall for stability.

“Fuck,” I muttered, closing my eyes in bliss as she unzipped me. She pulled out my aching cock and gave one firm stroke.

“Open your eyes,” she said softly.

I did as she asked, watching as Briana fell to her knees and took me into her mouth, all the way down to the root. The unexpectedness of the movement made me glad I was supporting myself against the wall. I wasn't sure I'd have been able to keep upright otherwise. Her mouth was hot and wet. She licked around my shaft as she raised her head, taking her time despite the tension throbbing between us. She flicked her tongue against the tip, then wrapped her lips around the head, sinking down to the base with agonizing slowness. The swirling sensation of her tongue mixed with that delicious suction sent a jolt of pure carnal energy through me.

There wasn't much room for her to move, trapped as she was between me and the wall, but I found myself enjoying the restricted movement. It made me feel like I had complete control, even though we both knew the one in control was the one with her mouth on my cock. She reached up with one hand, massaged my balls as she took me down her throat, and I knew I wouldn't last much longer if she kept it up.

Best. Damn. Blowjob. Ever.

Still, I took a step back, pulling myself free from her mouth. She looked up at me, lips wet and swollen. Her nipples were hard little points, aching for my mouth.

I pulled her to her feet and smashed my lips down against hers. As my tongue explored her mouth, I reached down and grabbed her ass, lifted her up. She wrapped her legs around my waist, and I pushed her against the wall, ground my cock against her damp panties.

It was only a few moments between getting onto the bed and both of us getting naked, but it felt like an eternity. She tugged at my clothes with shaking hands, and I damn near ripped off her panties so I could sink my fingers into her silky, perfect pussy. She moaned as my fingers probed her folds, but I could barely wait to get my cock inside of her. And it seemed like she could hardly wait either. She grabbed me again, stroking me in time with my finger thrusts. My toes curled with pleasure.

I tore open a condom wrapper as I dipped my head and took her nipple between my teeth. I sucked on it hard, making her cry out. I pulled my fingers out of her, and a moment later, I was sheathed and sinking into her to the hilt. My eyes rolled back into my head, a strangled groan falling from my lips. She wailed, and I cut the sound short by slamming my mouth down on hers.

Our teeth clashed together, lips bruising as I drove into her deeper, harder. She raked her nails down my back, scoring my skin with licks of fire. It was too much. I was going to come too quickly, and I wasn't ready for this to be over yet.

I pulled out, chuckling as she cursed at me. I flipped her onto her stomach and re-entered her from behind, pulling her hips up to change the angle of penetration. She bit down on the pillow and mewled like a cat when I hit her deep. I nearly fucking lost it. How could she be so sexy when it was clear she wasn't trying to be? This was simply her, and it was the hottest goddamn thing I'd ever seen.

If she ever knew how much power she held over me, I could be fucking screwed.

My fingers dug into the soft flesh of her hips as I pounded into her, desperate to make her feel every inch of me. She met my thrusts, hands grasping the bedspread for leverage. I fisted her hair, using it to keep her exactly where I wanted while I plowed into her. Time stretched out, snapped back, and froze. Her moans reached a crescendo, ending with a throaty cry just as her pussy gripped my cock so tightly that I couldn't hold back anymore. I plunged in and came, curling my body over hers, shuddering with the force of my climax.

We stayed like that for a moment, locked together. Breathing. Sweating. Trying to realign ourselves with the physical world. I kissed the back of her neck, tasting salt on my lips. Her skin was hot and slick with sweat, just like mine.

When I rolled over onto my back, I took her with me on instinct. I didn't want to let her go just yet, and the fact that she curled into my side told me she wasn't ready to go either. She rested her cheek on my chest, and I kissed the top of her head.

We'd have to lose this peace soon enough, but right now, I planned on enjoying it.