So sex isn’t completely off limits, I thought, though while I might still want to be with a man, sleeping with him in a darkened bedroom made my skin shiver.
I decided to give myself the night off from thinking about Kai Solomon and poured myself a glass of red wine. Twilight had begun to fall when I poured another, changed into my bathing suit—a white bikini—and headed for the pool.
The setting sun bathed the sky in coppery hues, but the heat lingered.
I slipped into the water at the shallow end, near the Buddha fountain, and set my wine glass beside me. Keanu frolicked and leapt on the cement, chasing after little white moths that flitted over the flowers, and then settled on his belly near me.
The wine gave me a pleasant buzz; the water was perfect—cool and smooth over my skin—and the night sky was deepening into a beautifully dark blue velvet swath above, sprinkled with diamond starlight. Hibiscus scents hung thick and heavy in the warm air, and the burble of the Buddha fountain lulled me into a perfectly relaxed state…
“What are you doing?”
My eyes flared open to see Kai standing at the other end of the pool wearing only swim shorts.
Holy God…
Kai’s long, lean body was like a monument erected to masculine perfection, like a contrast to the squat little Buddha. His torso was cut and ridged and rippling…and any other assorted words my tipsy brain could come up with.
Perfect, it decided on. His body is perfect.
“Too bad his face has to go and ruin it.”
Kai’s eyebrows went up. “Excuse me?”
I burst out laughing and covered my mouth with my hand. “Did I say that out loud? I must be more buzzed than I thought.”
“And what is my face ruining?” he demanded, though I saw a glint of humor in his dark eyes.
“Your scowl is ruining how handsome you are.”
His lips curled in a smile. “You think I’m handsome?”
I scoffed. “Like you don’t?”
“Let’s just say I’ve heard that once or twice.”
I rolled my eyes while he dove into the deep end like an arrow and stayed beneath the water until finally breaking the surface in front of me. He whipped his dark hair out of his eyes in a spray.
God, he looks like a model in a cologne commercial.
“But you haven’t answered my question,” Kai said while I watched the rivulets of water stream over the brown skin of his chest. “What are you doing here? In my pool?”
I arched a brow and reached for my wine glass. The alcohol was making me brassy. “It’s my pool too, pal. For at least three days.”
His eyes widened, and a laugh burst out of him. “Says who?”
“Says your agent. My boss.”
“I’m your boss.”
“Wrong. Jason is my boss. You’re a pain in my ass.”
A conflicted, broken, beautiful pain in my ass.
Kai’s eyes were wicked and black in the falling night and my pulse quickened as he moved nearer.
“I like you like this,” he said, his Australian-accented voice going low.
“Like what?”