Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 98226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
“Is that so?” he asked. He pulled me closer with one hand just as his other slicked up my chest in a way so possessive I felt my soul gravitate toward it like a magnet.
My entire body trembled at the warmth of his palm running over my breasts, up my collarbone, until his fingers wrapped around my neck. He squeezed just a pinch, and then released the grip, trailing his hand up more. His thumb and pinky fingers stayed fixed at my neck, but his index finger skated over my wet bottom lip.
And I opened it as if he’d entered some secret code.
His finger slipped inside my mouth, and I tasted the salt of the sea on his warm skin as a pang of desire shot between my legs. My eyes connected with his, and his nose flared, his erection flexing against me where our bodies met under the water.
“I call that bluff,” he whispered as he pulled his finger free, and I would have sworn it was someone else in my body, because I sucked it on the way out, like I didn’t want to let it go.
Like it was a different part of him entirely.
Theo groaned, his next breath nothing but a hiss, and I yelped when he yanked me toward him in the way a wild beast might ravage its prey. His lips were on track for mine, and I leaned my head back, closing my eyes, opening my mouth, surrendering.
Until suddenly, a flashlight blinded us both, along with a deep voice screaming at us in Italian.
I panicked, shoving away from Theo and shielding my eyes from the light as the man yelled and yelled. His booming voice echoed in the cave, disorienting me even more than the light.
Theo held up his hands, and when the flashlight swung to him, my eyes cleared enough for me to see the man had rowed in on a small boat labeled Carabinieri. He was wearing a uniform and had a baton attached to his hip.
Theo hollered back something in Italian to the man, who continued yelling back and shining the light between the two of us.
“What’s going on?!” I whisper-screamed at Theo.
“It’s the police,” Theo said, but there was no panic in his voice. In fact, he smiled when he looked over at me. “Guess we aren’t supposed to be here, after all.”
My eyes widened. “Oh my God! Are we being arrested? I told you it was illegal to swim in here!”
Theo laughed then, shaking his head and reaching for my hand under the water. “It’s just a little fine. But, sadly, I do believe we have to leave now.”
The police officer continued yelling, and the way he was moving his flashlight, I knew he was saying we needed to swim out of the cave now.
Theo swallowed, not bothering to fight back his smile as his thumb traced my wrist under the water. “What a pity,” he whispered. “Just when things were getting interesting.”
And I couldn’t help it then.
I laughed, too.
Theo was slapped with a fine equivalent to something around six-thousand U.S. dollars.
It was enough to make my eyes pop out of my head, but so little for Theo that he almost laughed at it when the police officer had him sign the paperwork. Then, we were escorted back to the yacht, and warned that should we try to swim in the Grotto again, we would be thrown in jail.
Wayland was on the lower deck when we pulled the boat in.
He watched us both curiously, his eyes holding mine with about a dozen questions swimming in those warm brown irises. But he didn’t question either of us, just helped us secure the rowboat back on the yacht, and then Theo quietly wished for me to have a pleasant evening and I muttered something about needing a shower before we both disappeared — Theo going one way, me going the other, and Wayland pretending not to watch us leave.
When I rounded the corner on my way back to the cabin, I nearly ran over Ivy, who tilted her head with a satisfied smirk at the guilty look on my face.
“Have a nice swim?” she asked, eyeing my wet clothes. Her eyes flicked behind me to where Theo and I had just been with Wayland.
When I finally calmed down, the first thought I had was to smack that smirk off her stupid face. But the second thought I had was that she’d just seen me with Theo, and I didn’t know exactly how much she had seen.
“Don’t worry,” she said, not bothering to wait for me to answer her question. Instead, she brushed right past me, turning and walking away backwards with her finger pressed against puckered lips. “Your secret is safe with me.”
She laughed to herself as she turned, and I thought about stopping her, asking her what the hell was wrong with her, confronting her about the pool party.