‘You didn’t want to study past school?’
She’d not had the luxury of that choice, but she’d recovered enough equilibrium to know she couldn’t tell him that. ‘I didn’t finish school, let alone get a college degree.’
She sat back, waited for the judgement to begin.
But he too eased back in his seat, a speculative gleam in his eye. ‘I dropped out of university.’
‘Really?’ She was startled.
‘Uh-huh.’ He nodded. ‘I could tell you I didn’t have time to waste studying because there was too much money to be made with my entrepreneurial brilliance.’ He eased the arrogance with a wink. ‘But that’s only the braggy bit, not the actual truth.’
She couldn’t help smiling. ‘Go on, then, what’s the actual truth?’
‘I was betrayed,’ he said simply with a shrug, looking down to veil his eyes. ‘Which, I guess, is partly why I was so touchy about you keeping Luke from me. I’d been lied to before about important things and I dislike the feeling immensely.’
Her curiosity bloomed. ‘Who—’
‘So, I guess our nanny has more qualifications than the both of us put together.’ He overrode her next, most inevitable question with a teasing smile. ‘Maybe we made a good choice with him?’
‘Maybe, yes.’ Emmy gazed at the water again as a sense of intimacy that had swirled for just a second was vaporised by his determined diversion.
That morsel of personal information had only intrigued her more and she’d wanted to ask about his own parents too, but he’d swiftly stopped that conversation from continuing. And perhaps that was a good thing? She was intensely drawn to him, but she still couldn’t trust him enough to let her guard down fully. If he knew everything about her—if he knew the criminal history of her parents and her brother, and her own lie? He’d use it all against her in the end. And there would be an end to this—in only eighteen months, which suddenly seemed awfully soon. She had to step back.
‘Am I allowed to go take that swim now?’ she asked roughly.
‘You need my permission?’
She lifted her chin, determined to put their dealings back to the bargain they’d struck. ‘These eighteen months are yours, isn’t that correct?’
His cocoa and coffee eyes lit with a challenge she refused to identify—yet she couldn’t turn away from it.
‘If that’s how you want to view it,’ he replied roughly. ‘For the next eighteen months, your presence is mine.’
CHAPTER SIX
EMMY DIVED BENEATH the water and emerged to take a deep breath but the cool didn’t calm her the way she needed it to. That fact was just crazy—she was swimming in a gorgeous lap pool on a luxurious superyacht in the middle of the world’s most beautiful destination and she ought to be able to relax. Instead she was more tense than ever, and she was angry—with herself and with him—for her curiosity and his reticence and that infernal, eternal wretched desire that couldn’t seem to be suffocated successfully by either of them.
She swam a few short lengths, anything to burn off some of her nervous energy. But when she stood to take breath again, she discovered Javier at the end of the pool—wearing nothing but black swimming shorts.
‘What are you doing?’ She glared at him in surprise. She’d only been away from him for five minutes and it really wasn’t long enough for her to cool down to safe mode.
‘What does it look like?’ he challenged. ‘Or are you the only one allowed to enjoy swimming in the water?’ Something familiar glinted in his eyes. ‘This isn’t a private beach today, Emmy. This is my boat and it’s my pool.’
‘And it’s your requirement that I’m here,’ she tossed at him. ‘So you’ll have to put up with me taking up half the space.’
But she knew the pool wasn’t big enough for them both. No pool would be big enough. He’d still be too near, with his bared, honed body—all muscle, strength and speed. He was built for physical dominance and endurance and her mouth really ought not to have dried at the sight of him. But it had. She felt tight and too aware, but she stretched her arms out wide along the edge of the pool and let her feet float up in front to pretend she was fabulously relaxed. She refused to curl into something smaller or escape the water entirely as she suddenly felt compelled to do. She couldn’t let him chase her away entirely. More precisely, she refused to let her own stupid, treacherous body chase her away. She could control her own urges, couldn’t she?
She was going to need to—she had Luke to consider.
Javier lazily walked down the steps into the water, his gaze unerringly on hers, a small smile curving his lips. Emmy’s core temperature soared higher with each step he took.
She released a pent-up breath when he finally submerged fully into the water and swam—it took a single stroke to propel him from one end of the pool to another, he was that powerful. But even so, she felt as if there were something leashed about his movements. He emerged with a flick of his head and water sprayed towards her.
Yes, this situation was intolerable. She waded towards the stairs.
‘You’re a liar.’
His low mutter halted her. She sank back into the water, turning to lean against the wall again. ‘What have I lied about?’
Of course he’d think something distrusting. He—like almost everyone in her life—would think her guilty of anything and everything. Eventually.
He took hold of her shoulders and stared into her eyes for a long time, and then his gaze lowered to her lips. ‘When you said this won’t happen again.’
He too was tense and the water cast a sheen over his burnished skin, magnifying the magnificence of all the muscles on show. He was a heady feast for every one of her senses. And every one of them clamoured for her to get closer. But the only thing she could actually do was freeze. She had the horrible feeling that if she went to move, it would only be to get closer to him. Not to escape his presence at all.
At that moment the truth slid free. She couldn’t resist her desire for him any longer. She didn’t ache
for his touch, she burned for it. Restless and hot, she was unable to control her thoughts, unable to calm that reckless yearning inside. She couldn’t think straight any more.
‘Emmy.’
His harsh growl melted her bones. She couldn’t swim away from him. Couldn’t stop staring at him. Still leaning back against the pool wall, she was barely able to keep herself afloat.
‘Will you just come closer?’ he muttered heavily. ‘Have mercy on me.’
She shook her head, her throat too tight to allow speech. She couldn’t seem to catch her breath, couldn’t control the pace of her heart, couldn’t resist.
And he knew it.
‘Have mercy on you?’ she echoed, thunderstruck.
‘Emmy.’ His warning was low and slow and his desire imperative.
Her lips parted but still sound failed to emerge. Instead she wanted something else. Her gaze locked on his mouth—it too was parted as he drew in a deep, steadying breath.
‘I’m going to kiss you, Emmy.’
He had to have felt the tremble that shivered through her body at his words.
‘Is that okay?’ he asked.
She couldn’t answer, she could barely nod her assent. But it was enough and his mouth was on hers at last.
‘It’s been so long,’ he groaned.
Because he knew, as well as she, that she wasn’t saying ‘no’ this time. This time, there was no stopping until they were both beyond satisfied. And so she sank into the kiss. Arms entwined, breathless, she pressed against him. He hoisted her up and sat her on the edge of the pool, parting her legs so he could stand close between them, his face now before her breasts.
She looked down in a heated stupor as he glanced back up at her before returning his attention to feast on her body. Her nipples strained tight and hard against her bikini. His shallow breathing teased her as he leaned closer to her neck. Her eyes closed and she fell almost into a delirium as his hot mouth stroked over her skin.
He pressed wide, hot kisses down her neck, across her collarbones briefly before plundering lower, across her décolletage to where her curves were swollen and waiting. Through the wet fabric he sucked her into the hot cavern of his mouth. She cried out, but it wasn’t enough for him, or her. He growled as he deftly pulled her bikini top away and her unfettered breasts swayed with newfound freedom. She gasped as he cupped them with wide hands, growling again with feral pleasure as her curves overflowed his hold. He pressed his hands closer, squeezing so her nipples were pushed up even more prominently, lifting them towards his hungry gaze.