She scanned me from top to bottom and then back. “Have you looked in the mirror?”
“Yes, I have.”
“Then you should know, you’re like sex on a stick. A woman would have to be stupid not to want a taste of you.”
I nearly choked on my drink, coughing a little. That wasn’t the response I expected. “I don’t think I’ve ever been referred to as sex on a stick.”
“Women may not verbalize it, but we’re definitely thinking it.”
“You’re nothing like you seem.”
She laughed. “Hagen, I may look like a good girl, but it doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a walk on the wild or dark side.”
“Which am I?”
“A little of this and a lot of that.” She batted her lashes in an exaggerated flair.
Until this woman, I’d never enjoyed this type of teasing banter. There was something about her that drew me to her, made me want things I could never have imagined a year ago.
“You’re a shameless flirt.” I resisted the urge to cup the back of her head and pull her in for a kiss, knowing a move like that would probably get me a punch in the throat. “If you keep this up, I may decide to keep you.”
“Then, are you turning down my proposition?”
“I thought it was a hypothetical proposition.”
“No, Mr. Lykaios, it was very real. The decision is up to you. Am I going back to my bungalow with or without you?”
This woman was going to be the death of me. No sane man on earth would resist an offer like hers. But she wasn’t the kind of woman anyone could walk away from. She was the type to keep, the type to grow old with, the type of woman a man like me would never deserve.
“I’m waiting.” She tapped her sandals on the footrest of her chair.
I shot back the rest of my whiskey and turned her stool to face me. “If we do this, know that I will own you, possess you, and you won’t ever want any other man again.”
She swallowed and said in a voice that was much more confident than I expected, “Is that a threat?”
“It’s a promise.”
“Good.” She slipped from her stool and then looked over at me with a seductive smile. It was a move that had me wanting to throw her over my shoulder and claim her. “Then I expect you to deliver.”
2
Penny
What the hell was I doing? I’d never seduced a man before. My experience with men, in general, was limited at best.
But then again, this was the only man I’d ever had such a visceral reaction to. From the moment our gazes touched, I wanted to lick every tattooed inch of him. He wasn’t the type to ever be tamed, to ever let anyone control him. I should be scared, should know better than to tempt the caged beast I sensed while at the bar.
But there was something about the way he watched me as if he were a man starved and waiting for me. I was drawn to him and couldn’t help myself. And I knew without a doubt, with him I was safer than any other place in the world.
I’d come to this resort to relax, explore a different side of myself. To be carefree, uninhibited. To leave the planned, regimented girl at home. To do what my mood decided.
I guessed telling a man I wanted him to show me a night I wouldn’t forget counted.
“You still with me?”
The deep rasp of his voice washed over me. It eased the nerves dancing up and down my spine. Then, when he set a gentle hand on my lower back, not only to calm me but to claim me, I almost sighed.
“Yes.”