Not helping...
But I do need to tell her, and I do need to put a firm end to anything more. Because this week is about Dani and not the complicated mess I could get myself ensnared in if I pursue this attraction further. A mess that would detract from what is important: Dani and her wedding day.
Si, I’ll tell her...once I have a towel wrapped around my waist and my nagging erection under control.
Cazzo.
I swim harder, losing track of the number of lengths as I focus on taming my uncooperative body so I can stand before her and not succumb to the offer so brazen in her gaze. Part of me hopes she will tire and leave. Another part hopes it’s enough to exhaust my overactive organs into neutral. And another part, so determined to rear its head, wants me to say to hell with the consequences and dive right in.
But she’s not leaving, and eventually I’m forced to cave. I swim to the pool edge closes
t to her, sink beneath the water and rise up, flicking my hair out of my eyes as I look to her.
‘Could you do me a favour?’
She cocks a grin and I sense her mind racing with the many, many favours she could do...each of them as tantalising as the ones my mind is too eager to offer up.
‘Sure.’
She rises onto her knees, that sheer robe clinging like a second skin and dragging my eyes south. I swallow the swell of desire and force them back to hers. ‘Could you get me a towel from the pool house, per favore?’
Her smile lifts to the side. ‘You mean to say you had access to towels all this time?’
I can’t help the grin that forms. ‘I did.’
‘And you didn’t think to get me one.’
‘And spoil my view?’
Cazzo, Rafael. That’s hardly playing it cool and giving her the brush off.
‘Well, in that case, I think it only fair you do it yourself...’
She lies back down and rolls onto her back, her eyes on the heavens now as she trails a hand down her front. From this angle all I can see is the tip of her head, the peak of her breasts and her nipples taut against the fabric as her fingers trail between them.
‘You can get me one while you’re at it...per favore.’ She teases with the Italian and I know she’s smiling even though I can’t see her face.
A chuckle erupts; I can’t help it. I like her confidence, her easy tease. Not many people dare tease me. I’m too cold, too controlled, too severe—labels I’ve been given plenty of times in the past—but not now, not with her, not with someone who doesn’t know me from Adam.
And it’s liberating. I don’t have to be Rafael Perez.
Only, you do...
She runs a hand beneath her neck and flicks her hair up, sending water droplets my way. ‘I’m still quite wet.’
My body tightens over her double entendre and her fingers cease their exploration of her front as she shifts her head to eye me. One second, two...she rolls back onto her front, her smile wicked, her eyes sparkling. ‘Problem?’
‘No. No problem.’
Unless you count an unhindered erection.
‘Sooo...’ she drawls, her eyebrows gesturing towards the pool house.
I give a tight smile and launch myself up and out. I watch the play of emotions flicker across her face, the way her eyes brazenly fall to my hardened length, and my ego takes a good, long stroke. I turn and walk away, unhurried, practically strutting as I enjoy her eyes on me and, hell, if my smile doesn’t relax and grow...
‘I take it you swim naked a lot?’ she calls after me.
I pause and turn my head just enough to see her. ‘What makes you say that?’