5
Isa
"Oh fuck," I whispered, my lips burning with the words. There wasn't an expletive in the world that could begin to describe how screwed I was the moment his eyes touched mine.
Something shifted within me, forbidden desires rising to the surface despite my attempts to shove them down deep where they belonged.
"What?" Chloe asked, moving at my side. I felt the moment she saw him. Her body went rigid; her breathing turned shallow as she studied the panther watching me.
Anyone else, and I would have said I was mistaken. That his eyes could only be on my stunning friend, who wore her sexuality like only a woman who felt free could truly do. But somehow, there was no doubting where those mismatched eyes landed.
I felt them on my skin. Felt them in my soul.
I turned away from him, making my way to the bar while Chloe raced to keep up with me, laughing. "What are you doing? You need to get your ass in that pool."
"No, I need a damn drink. That's what I need."
"You don't drink," Hugo said as he stepped up beside me at the bar.
"I do now," I snapped at him, spinning forward when the other man's eyes met mine once again in my view behind Hugo. A sinful smirk graced his face as his lips tipped up.
"And what exactly are you drinking?" Hugo asked, nodding his head to the bartender.
Groaning, I dropped my head on the bar. "I don't know. What do I start with?"
"Wine," Hugo laughed. "Maybe I won't end up holding your hair back while you puke this way." He turned to the bartender, catching his attention and ordering.“Un vino tinto.”My eyes tracked the bartender's movements, watching as he poured the liquid from the bottle and into the glass.
Even watching the process, anxiety hit me the moment he placed the glass in front of me. Without a seal on the bottle, the memory of being drugged felt closer than ever. I swallowed back the panic attack that hovered at the horizons, threatening to blur my vision, and lifted the glass to my mouth. Forcing down a hard swallow of the liquid, I found it easier to breathe as soon as the first gulp went down despite the bitter flavor.
It was irrational to see drugs in all fluids everywhere I went, but after my sister had played a part in my near date rape, I found it almost impossible not to suspect everyone of such a thing.
"What are you doing?" Chloe asked, taking the wineglass from my hand and setting it on the bar top. "What happened to living?"
"I'm living. I'm drinking and enjoying the music," I argued.
"You'rehiding. Let him show you exactly what it is to live, Isa," she said, biting her bottom lip as she looked over her shoulder at him.
"I am not hiding," I whispered, rolling my eyes up to stare at the moon in the sky overhead. "I'm being practical. I wouldn't know what to do with a man likethat."
"Honey, nobody knows what to do with a man like that. That doesn't mean you can't lay back and let him take you to heaven," she giggled. Hugo groaned his frustration at our side, drawing a laugh from even me despite my anxiety. "You can't stay a virgin forever."
"Who the hell said I would want to?" I took another sip of my wine, fortifying my decision with every swallow of the bitter cherry flavor. I hated it instinctively but couldn't stop drinking. Not when I had a feeling my life was about to be turned upside down. "I just think someone a little less…” I paused, chewing the corner of my lip as I thought of the right word, "intense would be a good start."
"You don't want to lose your virginity like me with someone who fumbles around and doesn't know what he's doing. You want the mystical unicorn who looks like he could make your vagina implode with alookand make you one of those rare lucky as fuck women to orgasm when you lose your virginity. Just go talk to him," she urged, her smile turning reassuring as she studied the panic in my face.
"I can't," I told her, shaking my head. Her eyes filled with disappointment, and I hated knowing that my friend worried so much about the seriousness of my life. Chloe was one of the few people I'd ever told about the accident and how it had unraveled Odina, even though we were too young to understand what it would mean one day.
"I don't think you'll have much choice," she blurted, her tone changing to a sharp excitement. Grabbing my head, she spun me to face the pool. The man stood from the lounge he'd laid on in a graceful unfolding of limbs. He stepped off the lounge ledge and into the shallow end of the pool, making his way up the steps slowly.
His eyes held mine as he moved, and Hugo and Chloe had to use their hands at my shoulders to turn my body to face him as he slowly made his way through the water. Water dripped down his broad shoulders, over the rippling muscles of his torso, and my breath caught as I watched it trail over his olive skin. He smirked when my eyes traveled back up to his face, his gaze knowing as he studied me intently.
His concentration never left my face, something so unnerving about the single-minded focus as he prowled toward me like a predator in the night. With his impossibly beautiful face and striking eyes, he looked like something from another world.
From somewhere meant to tempt women to their deaths.
One of the attendants handed him a towel as he emerged from the pool, but he never even glanced at her as he took it and held it at his side.
"I should have worn a potato sack," I whispered to Chloe. She burst into laughter at my side, stepping away as his long gait closed the distance between us. The faintest hint of stubble covered his face, his dark hair dry and parted to the side in a half-styled, tumbled in bed kind of look. As his face filled my vision, he leaned further into my bubble than was comfortable.