“I mean, it’s my perfume. It’s got”—her voice trailed off as he kissed the sliver of skin revealed between the folds of her robe—“uh, vanilla, I think, and sugar, or maybe honey. I’m not sure. It’s new.”
“Hmm. Did you spray some here?” He licked the soft skin between her breasts. Her sharp inhale had his cock twitching.
“Y-yes.”
“Nice. Here, too?” He dipped his head and brushed his lips over her fluttering abdomen.
“No. I, ah…oh gracious…” She paused and swallowed audibly when he grazed his teeth over the yielding flesh.
“Really? The scent seems stronger here.”
“I sprayed the places I thought you might have your nose closest to. My neck, my chest, and my…um…well…”
“Sophie?” He slipped his hand into the folds of her robe and wriggled his way between her knees.
“What?” The single word came out pitchy as he slid his fingertips along her smooth skin of her inner thigh, closing in on the apex.
“Did you spray…here?” But before he could reach the spot in question, a familiar, insistent vibrating noise went off right by his ear. It took him a moment to realize it came from her.
“Oops. I totally forgot.” She pulled his phone out of the pocket of her robe and offered it to him. “This was on the counter in the bathroom. I think someone’s been trying to get a hold of you.”
A reckless, rebellious part of him wanted to chuck the damn thing off the balcony, but the responsible CEO inside him tamped down the urge. Instead he took the slim white device and looked at the screen.
Twelve voicemails. Fifty-seven emails, and bonus, the chairman of the board was texting him like a thirteen-year-old girl alone at the mall. For fuck’s sake, had the world gone to hell in a handbasket while he’d been enjoying the most gratifying wake-up call he’d had in God only knew how long?
The headache he’d warded off last night crept back and all traces of his hard-on disappeared. He dropped the phone onto the bed, rubbed his temple, and stood.
“Problem?” she asked quietly as she took a step back. She didn’t sound nervous now. Only concerned.
“Apparently.” He exhaled, rubbed the back of his neck where a knot of tension formed, and glanced at her. “I’m sorry, Sophie, but I have to go. There’s something important going down at work, and I need to return some calls right away.” Jesus, he sounded like a self-important jerk.
She took another step back and re-secured the tie on her robe. “Oh, well, sure. I understand. Will I, or, that is, will we see you at the scavenger hunt this afternoon?”
“Yes. Definitely,” he said with more confidence than he felt, and then strode into the bathroom where he’d hung his wet clothes last night. “But I might be a few minutes late. Will you tell Colt and Kady I’ll be along as soon as I can?” He hung the robe on the hook behind the door, grabbed his briefs off the shower rod and pulled them on, grimacing at the still-damp cotton. Thankfully, he’d only be in them long enough to get a new room key from the front desk.
“Of course. Don’t you want to shower or anything?”
“No time.” He hauled on his shorts, and then pulled his shirt over his head. “I’ve got to get going.”
“Okay.” She stepped aside as he headed out of the bathroom. “I guess I’ll see you later.”
He stopped at the door, turned and looked her in the eye. “Count on it.”
…
Sophie was late. Her shower had taken longer than she’d planned, because she’d kept imagining Logan in there with her, running his soap-slick hands over her. Washing her breasts…thoroughly…before moving around to her back, sending sudsy trails down her spine, over her butt, and then sliding those talented hands along her stomach and between her legs. At some point she’d closed her eyes and entered the world of make-believe, where her hands became his. Her body had bought into the fantasy—hook, line, and sinker. It had helped alleviate some of the frustration brought on by his sudden, incredibly disappointing departure. Some, but not all.
“Sophie?”
Surprise jolted through her body at the sound of a low, male voice calling her name, and she nearly stumbled over her own feet. She took a moment to push her extremely embarrassing shower thoughts out of her mind, and then turned and smiled at Tyler. She didn’t stop, but walked backward facing him, and forced a breezy note into her voice. “If it isn’t my future brother-in-law himself, in the flesh. You’re late.”
“So are you,” he pointed out, and took a bite of his blueberry muffin. Her mouth watered at the forbidden carb. “And you’re going to run into something if you don’t turn around.”
“Yes, father.” She rolled her eyes and spun around the right way, falling into step beside him. “I lost track of time. You?”
He grinned. “I kind of slept in.”
She checked the time on her phone. “I’d say so. Rough night?”
“You could say that,” he muttered, and she got the distinct feeling all was not right in Tyler’s world. Remembering the looks he and Christine had exchanged at the party the first night, she figured she might know the source of his irritation.
“You enjoying yourself so far?” he asked. “Fitting in with the girls, causing trouble, and breaking hearts along the way?”
That was her…Sophie Brooks, Trouble Causer and Heartbreaker. She lifted a shoulder and gave him what felt like a weak smile. “A girl never tells. How about you? Fitting in with the girls?”
He snorted. “Oh yeah. You know it.”
“Is that why you slept in? Were you fitting in with one a little bit too late?”
Tyler pointed his muffin at her. “That’s enough of that talk, little sister.”
Little sister? She couldn’t quite hold her brow down. “I’m not your little sister.”
“Might as well be after this wedding.”
She laughed. “I think I’ll pass. I heard how protective of the girls you are.”
“Who told you that? Let me guess. Kady?”
Sophie merely smiled and scanned the crowd in front of them. When she caught sight of Kady standing with the other bridesmaids, she waved good-bye to Tyler and headed toward the bride-to-be.
She squeezed in next to Kady and whispered that her bridesmaid’s dress was back safe and sound. With one ear, she caught Regan teasing Julie for assaulting Reed with the kind of scorching look Sophie normally only encountered in the pictures and video clips decorating the Eve’s Closet website. Her knee-jerk reaction to that piece of news was relief. If Julie had eyes for Reed, she probably wasn’t still fixated on Logan.
She spared a glance at Reed, saw him staking a claim to Julie from several feet away, and was shocked to realize he’d fallen for Miss Sunshine. He was Colt’s friend, not hers, but she’d spent enough summers tagging along with them to know Reed had a dark side—and exactly where it came from. None of those guys had a modest bone in their bodies, but there were weeks when Reed would always swim with a shirt on. Stretches of time when he wouldn’t come around at all, and then he’d finally show up with a faded bruise on his jaw, or a puffy eye. She’d overhead enough angry comments from her dad about Reed’s, usually laced with terms like “worthless drunk.”
Julie offered an unconvincing denial to Regan, and tried to pretend the palpable chemistry in the air didn’t exist, but Sophie read the tension hidden in every line of Reed’s not-so-casual stance. Maybe the match wasn’t completely counterintuitive. He’d had enough darkness in his life. He deserved some sunshine, and Julie practically radiated warmth.
“No, she’s right,” Sophie said. “I’ve only been here a couple minutes, but it was long enough to recognize first class eye-fuckery.”
Christine and Regan gave her shocked, it-can-speak stares, and then broke into laughter. What the heck. She knew eye-fuckery when she saw it, even if only from the internet. Besides, it could be Julie needed a bad boy, if the steamy glances she cast Reed’s way when she thought nobody was looking offered any in
dication. Sometimes, apparently, opposites really did attract.
Julie turned her pretty blue eyes to Sophie and lifted one blond brow. “Sophie, I don’t want to speak too soon, but I think you’re starting to come out of your shell.”
She shrugged. This wasn’t about her shell, and she wasn’t so easily distracted. “So…you and Reed?” she asked Julie.