“From a distance—it doesn't count.” His sigh is heavy. I can sense the strain this investigation is having on him. “I need this time to regroup, and I want you with me.”
I drop back on my bed and slam my eyes shut, forcing the reservations aside and opening myself up to this world and the reality of living in it with Cain.
“Okay.”
“Good. Open the door. I'm on my way up.” I spring up from the bed and rush down the hall, leaning to peer out of the peephole as a hooded figure walks towards me.
“Cain?” I double-check he’s still on the line.
“It’s me. Open up.”
Yanking the door open wide, I laugh in surprise when I take in his dark attire: baggy joggers and a hooded jumper. He looks so far removed from the suited man I love to watch that I begin to giggle. “How did you get here?”
“Deeks.”
Swooping down and swinging me over his shoulder, he kicks my door shut and propels us towards my bedroom, flopping me down and grinning wickedly. He reaches back to pull his jumper off in one sexy movement, throwing it away carelessly and advancing on me.
“That was hot.” I grin as he crawls over me and slants his mouth across mine in a greedy, deep moan.
Chapter29
Cain
I’m floating in the pool when Lauren steps out of the villa—a pale pink bikini on and her endless legs on show. She’s carrying a book and a large sun hat. She drops her things on a lounger, walks to sit on the side of the pool, and dips her feet in, toes swishing below the surface as she picks at the platter. “This is something else.” Resting back on her forearms, she tilts her face to the afternoon sun, her lips teasing a smile.
Large leafy trees cast dappling shade over one end of the decking, but the infinity pool is bathed in sun. I swim over, hooking my elbows on the edge and leaning to kiss her thigh. “Beats a boardroom,” I comment.
“I bet.” Her smile is wide, lips stained from the berries. “Did you really just buy a place in Aspen? I always wanted to go there,” she muses, reaching for another strawberry and biting into it. Her comment reveals some of the idiocy in the article she’s read.
“No.” I bite at her skin.
“Oh.”
“I already have one.” I grin, and she laughs throatily. “We should go.”
Her laughter tapers off, and she eyes me before she licks the juice from her finger. “That’s not why I’m with you. This is all really beautiful, and I'm so grateful you asked me to come, but I can't just drop everything.” Her lips twist wryly. She was reluctant to come away with me, scared to get caught, and worried about how she would be perceived if our relationship came out into the open. “People are already suspicious of me suddenly going on holiday. I agreed to this for you.”
“Just me?”
“And my own selfish reason.”
I slide the tray out of the way and lean in at my full height, running my hands up her thighs and wetting them. “How selfish?”
“Sinful.”
“As sinful as when I saw you on your knees in the lobby, and I wanted to tan your arse in front of all my guests,” I confess.
Her eyes widen at that little revelation. “Thereabouts.” Breathless, she stares at my lips.
“Something on your mind, pretty girl?”
“You know there is, Cain.” She smirks as she leans closer, her eyes full of quiet heat, the kind that begs for attention. It sways in her gaze, anticipating my next move. Waiting. Wanting. She’s such a good girl.
I keep her waiting, moving to close the gap at an agonising pace. Her breath catches, and my mouth pulls, satisfied. I’m torturing myself. Torturing us both towards something no amount of money could ever buy me. I have the entire week to keep us on the precipice.
“Cain,” she rasps.
“Yes?” My eyes follow the line my thumb draws over her lower lip and the way she swallows her moan.