“Oh my God, Marlee, what have you done?”
I frowned. Valerie was the perfect one in the family, the older sister with the happy marriage and the house in the suburbs and the husband with the high-paying job that allowed her to become a stay-at-home mom to their baby girl. She had her shit together and was usually happy to brag about it. That was why we weren’t especially close, despite only being two years apart in age.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, but I already knew. She must have somehow found out about the damn pictures. I couldn’t escape the nightmare of this situation even for a single evening.
“I’m talking about thesmutthat you have posted on the internet. What are you thinking? Do you have any idea how embarrassing this is for me?”
I ground my teeth together and took a deep breath. She was making the worst humiliation I’d ever suffered abouther, and I felt like I was about to snap.
“How did you even find out about this?” I asked, hardly able to believe that it was spreading around so quickly.
“James found them. He recognized you immediately.”
“Yourhusbandtold you about my pictures online?”
“Yes,” she replied impatiently. “How could you do something like this? It’s disgusting.”
I knew that I should probably explain the situation, make her understand that I was the victim in all of this, but her scathing tone got under my skin and the last thing I wanted to do was share what I was going through or apologize for it. I didn’t need even more judgement coming my way.
“You know that the pictures are on a free porn website, right?” I pointed out. “If James ‘found them,’ how do you thinkthathappened?”
There was a moment of stunned silence, and I was sure that she hadn’t put the pieces of the puzzle together herself before now. It was probably a punch in the gut to realize that her husband must have been scrolling on a porn website in order to come across the pictures in the first place.
“D-don’t try to turn this around on us,” she stammered, and I could tell that her confidence was shaken. It didn’t really make me feel any better though. “You’re the one that’s acting like some kind of cheap slut.”
With that insult, she hung up the phone. I sighed. Her words hurt, but I knew that they weren’t true. I just had to hold on to that. I wasn’t the bad guy here. All I did was trust the wrong man.
As I tucked the phone back into my pocket, I felt an awareness rush over my skin. I looked around, sure that I was being watched. Across the lobby, I could see the hotel’s restaurant and beside it, the bar.
Bowen was sitting at a table in the bar, and when our eyes met, I felt a shiver run down my spine. Even from this distance, he had an effect on me. There was an intensity in his eyes, and he didn’t look away, even when he raised a beer bottle to his lips and took a sip.
Then, he lifted his hand and beckoned to me. I hesitated for a moment.I should probably get back to the party, right?I could still hear music coming from behind the closed door, and I decided that no one would really miss me. Faith had plenty to keep herself busy.
Biting my lip, I smiled at him and headed that way.
CHAPTER4
Bowen
My eyes greedily ran over Marlee as she approached. Her blue dress was long, brushing the ground as she walked. It didn’t cling to her body, but her slight curves were highlighted and her arms were bare, which allowed me to see that she had an athletic build.
Her long brown hair fell in waves around her shoulders, and those hazel eyes held mine, captivating me. She was pretty, but in an understated way. There was nothing flashy about her, nothing that demanded attention, and I liked that.
I was used to spending my time with actresses and models, women that usually had much of their self-worth tied up in their appearance. That was fine, but I’d discovered over the years that it required a lot of maintenance, and there was almost always something fake about it. Fake nails, eyelashes, tans, and hair color. Sometimes even fake breasts.
I could already tell that there was nothing fake about Marlee. She was a natural beauty, and that made the confidence she had sexy as hell. It was obvious in the way she didn’t shy away from my gaze and the little smile on her face. She kept her chin up and there was a sensual sway to her hips as she walked.
By the time she reached me, I was rock hard for her.
I hoped she didn’t notice as I got up and pulled out a chair for her across from me at the table. She had just sat down when the waitress came over to get her drink order.
“Oh, uh...I’d like to have a sex on the beach,” she said, and my erection throbbed.
“I’ll take another beer,” I said, hoping that it would help cool me off. I couldn’t remember the last time I was so immediately attracted to a woman like this.
“You know, I suspected that I wouldn’t run into you again,” she said, leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs. “I figured you’d lay low.”
There was a split in the side of her dress that allowed me to see her long, smooth legs up to her thighs. It took massive willpower not to think about her wrapping them around my hips.