“I don’t think I could drink another drop after all that wine. Your uncles were not holding back tonight.”
“It was a special night,” she said, shrugging.
“It was.”
“Well, we could sit—”
“Can I ask you something?” he cut her off.
“Anything. Always.”
“What’s going on with the Brig guy? Are you into him?”
“Brig? Oh hell, no,” she answered, half laughing. She moved around the couch and plopped down on it. She pulled her legs up underneath her and grabbed a pillow to hold in her lap. “He just kept appearing. And since he’s a guest I didn’t want to be rude. He just wasn’t picking up on any of the clues I was dropping, or at least that I thought I was dropping. This afternoon he asked if I wanted to have drinks with him and before I could let him down easy, Uncle Gray told him that if he retracted the question he wouldn’t be banned from the resort,” she giggled. “So, pretty sure he’ll go away now.”
Kyle felt relieved that the meathead had turned out to be harmless. Although that still didn’t answer why she had been so upset last night. He came and sat down on the couch, turning so he was facing her, his shoulder leaning against the back of the couch. “So, what about Dalton?”
“Dalton? What about him?”
“What did he do to upset you?”
“Why on earth would you think I was upset with Dalton?”
“I saw you last night…at the bonfire. You were crying, and Dalton was holding you. I thought...I thought he did something to upset you.”
“No, no, it wasn’t Dalton. He was just trying to help.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.” She lowered her gaze to her fingers, which were picking at the seam on the pillow in her lap. “Can I ask you something?”
“Always. Anything. Whatever you want, sweetheart,” he answered, reaching out to still the hand picking at the seam.
“What’s the deal with Staci…‘with an i’?” she said, raising her voice mockingly on the ‘with an i’. “You, um, into her?”
She was still staring at the pillow. He released her hand, putting his fingers underneath her chin, raising her head so she met his gaze. He’d never, ever seen her this shy, and was having a hard time understanding it. The uneasy look in her eye told him that she was anxious, waiting to see if his answer was going to crush her.
“Not in the slightest.” Her exhale was audible, and he could see her body relax as he spoke the words. “Is that why you were so upset last night?”
Drea looked away suddenly, biting her bottom lip nervously. “Um, well, it’s just that, I saw you two last night, and she was hanging off you and rubbing up against you.” She paused, swallowing hard. She turned back and looked at him, tears welling in her eyes.
“Oh, no, no, no,” Kyle said. He reached for her and pulled her close. She curled up in his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder. He raised his hand to her hair and stroked her curls slowly, trying to comfort her.
“I know it’s stupid, but she was all over you and the bonfire is kinda our thing. And then today she was asking me all about what you like and your favorite sexual position. Then she told me I was too nice to get involved with you and I just wanted to die.”
Favorite sexual position? Why would Staci have wanted to know…? It hit him suddenly and he burst out into a laugh. Drea looked up at him, tears still running down her face, now with anger flashing across her face. “It’s not fucking funny!” She shoved his chest.
“Oh, baby, no, no. She was asking about Dalton.”
“What?!”
“The reason she leeched on to me at the bonfire was because she was hoping to get Dalton’s attention. What you saw was her trying to use her succubus powers to try and entrap our first mate. So today on the boat, she was asking about his favorite sexual position, not mine.”
“I’m so embarrassed,” she whispered, swiping at her tears with her fingers.
“Oh, Dre, don’t be. I get it, I would have been just as upset if the roles were reversed.” He held her face in his hand, wiping at her cheeks with his thumb.
She looked deeply into his eyes, hers going dark with an emotion he couldn’t place. “You, you would?” she asked, breathy, pulling out of his hands and looking down.
He shifted her in his lap so that now she was full-on straddling him. She traced the outline of his pec muscles through his tee, trying to distract herself. She wanted so badly to kiss him, to grind herself against him and show him she was better than Staci. But she couldn’t bring herself to look up at him. She couldn’t bear to see the pity she just knew was in his eyes right now. For as much as she wanted more, she wasn’t willing to risk what they did have to get it.
“Drea, look at me,” he said softly. She raised her head slowly, finding his eyes. His hands found her face again, making sure she was looking at him. “Yes. You have no idea how much it killed me to watch you flirt with that meathead these last couple of days.”
She let out a huge breath, relaxing her tensed muscles in the process. She leaned forward, resting her forehead against his. She was so relieved to hear that Staci meant nothing, but the part that came after that had her heart still racing. He’d gotten jealous over her talking with Brig. What exactly did that mean?
Just as she was about to pull away, he tilted his head slightly, moving his lips closer to hers. She did the same until their lips were all but touching. She could feel his breath on her lips, like it was whispering a secret to her.
“Drea…”
“Kyle…”
No sooner had she uttered his name than his lips were on hers, moving slowly, testing the waters. She slipped her arms around his neck and returned his kiss, enjoying the feel of his lips against hers. They were just as soft as she had imagined and yet somehow strong. He parted her lips with his tongue, slowly sliding it in her mouth and finding hers. He caressed her tongue softly, sweetly, like it was the only thing he had to do tonight. She let out a soft moan, urging him to continue.
His hands left her face, finding their way to her waist, toying with the hem of her tank top. She wiggled a little in his lap, deepening the kiss. He slid his hands up her sides, underneath her top, finding the bottoms of her breasts. Sliding his hands up over them, he gave a little squeeze once again, testing the waters. His thumbs found her nipples and swiftly brushed over them, which sent a lightning bolt of lust straight to her core. She whimpered, still not backing away from his mouth. She ground against his now-prominent erection, feeling it hit her clit as she did, now fully confident she would not be let down with whatever he was packing down there. Wanting to urge him on, she arched her back, pushing her chest into his hands. She could feel herself getting wetter as he continued to kiss her and play with her nipples.
As soon as he reached down into the cup of her bikini and pinched her nipple, she lost it. She pulled away from the kiss, and groaned out his name. “Kyle...shit…”
As if saying his name broke some spell, he pulled his hands out from under her shirt and shifted out from underneath her. She fell onto her side as he quickly pushed up from the couch.
“Drea, I’m sorry, I…” he stammered, covering his mouth with his hand. “I should go.”
“No, Kyle. Please, please don’t.”
“I’m sorry, I should have, shouldn’t have done that.” He turned and headed toward her front door. Opening it, he paused. “I’ll, um, see you tomorrow. I’m sorry.” He walked out, closing the door behind him, not bothering to turn around and face her.
Chapter Eleven
Sprawled out on the couch in Leona’s office, Drea tried to steady her breathing, her left arm flopped over her face, covering her eyes and blocking the light. She felt like shit, there was no other way to say it, and not just because of the headache she had from the almost-no sleep she got last night. After Kyle had made his lightspeed exit, she had just sat there on the couch for a few long moments, frozen in shock f
rom what had just happened. He kissed her—kissed her good. Inside a part of her was so excited, it had been her fantasy come true. But then he ran away. Had she done something wrong? Was saying his name out loud as he played with her nipples the wrong thing to say?
She had texted Leona as soon as she was able to function, but knew it was already too late and that she was probably asleep. She’d considered calling Dalton, but what exactly was she gonna say? Hey, your bikini got him to notice me, but how do I get him to take it off? She couldn’t do that. Not to mention, who knows what he was doing up at Paradise Point. As long as he was keeping Staci occupied, she didn't really care. She’d tossed and turned all night, replaying the whole evening in her head over and over. He had told her that he’d been jealous, right? Or had she imagined that? When her phone dinged with Leona’s response at six am, she sprang to her feet and rushed off to meet her best friend, skipping her run on the beach in hopes that Leona could help her make some sense of it all.
“Here,” Leona said, handing Drea a cup of coffee. “Before we get any deeper into this, this is gonna require caffeine.”
“Thanks,” she muttered, sitting up enough to take a sip. Leona sat at her desk, cradling her own coffee in her hand.
“So, just to recap, he walked you home, holding your hand like fucking Prince Charming, held you in his lap and told you he wanted to go all He-Man on gym bro and then he kissed you? Then he just all of a sudden up and ran away? Just like the lawyer dude in Jurassic Park who ran into the toilet.”
“That’s not the reference I would have come up with but, yeah, that’s pretty much exactly how he ran away. Although I’m assuming he didn’t get eaten by a T-Rex on his way out.”
“Well, how was it?”
“Confusing. I have no idea what made him just stop all of a sudden.”
“No, I mean the kiss! How was it? Everything you’d thought it’d be?”
“Lee, there aren't words,” she sighed. “I have wanted to kiss him since the moment I saw him working on that yacht in Florida all those years ago. How many times have I gotten lost in thoughts of what his lips would feel like? Every time I would read one of those romance novels you give me, I would picture him doing all those dirty things to me.”
“Well, that must have made for a hell of a collection in the old rub tub.”
“You have no idea. But last night, with his tongue twisting with mine and his hands all over me, it was better than those books, better than anything my imagination has ever conjured up.”
Just then the door to the office opened swiftly, but just far enough for Dalton to squeeze himself inside.
“Morning, sugar,” he said, taking the cup of coffee out of Drea’s hand and taking a sip. “Wild night?”
“Ugh!” she exclaimed, flopping back down on the couch and throwing her arm back over her eyes. “What are you even doing here?”
“Leona texted, said to get my ass over here, so I peeled myself out of bed and here I am.”
“You said he knew,” Leona interjected.
“He does know. Well, he knows about my feelings. The rest, well, the rest is his fault. His and Staci’s.” She shot back up and pointed at him. “She’s not still in your bed, is she? Wait, I don’t wanna know, she’s a guest.”
“I slept alone last night, in my own bed. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he smirked, taking another sip out of her mug. “So, my bikini worked, huh? Had I known that was all it would take, I would have thrown that thing at you a long time ago.”
“But it didn’t work!”
“Did he or did he not kiss you?”
“He did. But then he ran away! Muttering he was sorry and that he shouldn’t have.”
“Okay, so that’s not ideal.”
“Not ideal? Dalton, I texted you to help, not to provide mediocre commentary,” Leona said. She shot a glare at him as if to say, fix it now.
“Start from the beginning, sugar. What exactly went down?” he drawled, shooting a look right back at Leona.
Drea reached over and grabbed her coffee mug back from him and took a long, slow gulp. She sighed as she started to relay the story, not sure just how much detail she should go into with Dalton. It was one thing to get graphic with Leona—they’d talked about sex since they were girls, reading romance novels and looking up things on the internet when they didn’t know what something was. When she got to the part involving her boobs, she opted for a simple “felt me up,” figuring Dalton had enough experience for all three of them combined and would get her meaning just fine.
“And he initiated the kiss?” Dalton asked when she was finished.
“Yes. We were both hovering right there, but the final push was him.”
“And he was into it?”
“He was certainly acting like he was. He shoved his hand into my bikini top and he was sporting what seemed like a decent hard-on.”
“Okay, okay,” he said, waving his hands for her to stop. “I don’t need details about another’s dude’s dick.”
“But why did he run away?” Leona asked.
“I don’t know.” Dalton shrugged.
“You don’t know?!” Leona squeaked. “You’re here as the resident expert. I could have provided insight such as I don’t know. Start proving yourself useful, or Carmella stops cleaning your bathroom.”
“Carmella cleans your bathroom?” Drea asked, looking at Dalton, confused.
“What? I pay her.”
“And that is technically against her employment contract, so I can make it stop at any point,” Leona said, looking smugly at Dalton.
“Look, I really don’t know. I know he likes you, any idiot can see that there is something between you two, and from the sounds of it, he was enjoying himself. So my guess would be that he got up in his own head and freaked himself out.”
“So, now what?” Drea asked, feeling the knots in her stomach multiply.
“Now, you leave it to me. I told you I would help and I did, and I will continue to until it’s either happily ever after or you’re a puddle of heartbreak and tears, in which case I’ll supply the ice cream and booze to Leona over here. Can you continue to trust me, just for a little longer?”
“Is it going to involve another bikini?”
“Oh, absolutely, because that apparently worked significantly better than I thought! Just trust me, okay?”
“Okay, I think.”
“I’m not so sure,” Leona interjected, crossing her arms and looking skeptical.
“Well then, it’s a good thing I don’t require your trust, Lee, because then we’d never get anywhere. Now, shall we go get food? Because if I have to be up this early on my day off, then I deserve magic muffins that are straight out of the pan.”
Kyle had checked pretty much all the places he could usually find Drea in the morning. She hadn’t answered her door, she wasn’t on the beach where she normally ran, and the gym was empty. That only left either Leona’s office or the kitchen. Please let her be in Leona’s office, please let her be in Leona’s office, he pleaded in his head. At least in there they could be alone; Leona would excuse herself and give them the privacy they needed. In the kitchen, they’d have to deal with the staff, or worse, her family. He wasn’t ready to face them, not after last night. He needed to talk to Drea first, needed to see where her head was at. He knew he was an idiot for running out the way he did, and he knew that she had to be all kinds of pissed at him. She had every right to be—it was a dick move on his part.
He just needed time to think. He certainly hadn’t been thinking when he pulled her into his lap last night while they were revealing their green-eyed monsters, or when he allowed himself to lean all the way into her lips or when his hands had taken a field trip up her tank, exploring all those beautiful, soft curves she’d been unknowingly taunting him with all day. Even now, he was getting hard just reliving the memory of her slowly moving her core against him. If it had felt that good with clothes on, man, the real thing would be out of th
is world. But he needed her to know he wasn’t just after her for sex, that it was her that he wanted. Her kindness, her giggles, her knowledge of sailing and the islands, her sense of adventure.
Leaving last night the way he had might have just been one of the biggest mistakes he’d ever made. He’d realized that before he was even halfway back to the staff dorms. He’d heard Grayson’s advice loud and clear on that walk back. “At some point, consequences be damned, you just gotta go for it.” This was that point. He just hoped Drea was still on the same page.
Making his way around the front desk and down the little back hallway that led to Leona’s office, he was feeling pretty confident. He was just about to the office door when it flew open and Dalton walked out with his arm around Drea.
Kyle stopped dead in his tracks, his hackles coming up. What the fuck was this? He knew he screwed up in leaving last night, but had she really run to Dalton? That was low—so, so low.
“Morning, dude,” Dalton said, removing his arm from Drea.
“What the fuck are you doing here? You’re never up this early, much less on a day off.”
“Kyle, we were just—” Drea started.
“Just what?” He crossed his arms and stared at them both.
Leona came bounding out of her office, bumping right into Drea and Dalton. “I thought we agreed on food. Why aren’t you moving? Oh, hey, Kyle.”
“They were just about to explain to me why they were coming out of your office all snuggled up together.”
“Dude, moody much?” Dalton said.
“It’s my fault. Somehow word got out about Dalton's little cleaning arrangement with Carmella and someone else asked me if they could have the same arrangement and so I had to remind Dalton it’s against policy so he needs to shut his trap about it, since we don’t want the uncles finding out, and I asked Drea to be here as a witness so Is are dotted and Ts are crossed, all that,” she spat out.
Can't Fight This Feeling (Indigo Royal Resort Book 1) Page 8
