“But what?” She stifled a laugh at his use of ‘hokey.’
“To cross the ship and watch it pass over you while you’re walking. I hear it’s better than acid.”
Laney snorted a laugh and covered her mouth. “Excuse me.”
“So.” Tristan regarded her, a curious quirk to his mouth.
“So?” she repeated.
He leaned in and spoke low and serious. “I have to know, after everything you’ve seen and heard about what goes on here, do you still want to get with Jonathan?”
“From a practical standpoint,” she said, shrugging. “Him being here means he’s up for meaningless fun.”
“I guess you can call it that,” he replied, his narrowed golden eyes on her.
“I want...” Laney lost her breath, not believing what she was about to say.
Three years of frustration and Nikki’s encouragement all coalesced into one hell of a devilish plan.
Tristan
TRISTAN WATCHED UTTER enlightenment paint Laney’s features. Her eyes opened wide like she’d seen an alien spaceship land in the water.
“What do you want?” he asked, frightened and concerned if it was something he could deliver, or die trying.
“I want in,” she said, low and husky.
He swallowed thinking that should have been his line. “In where?”
“This. This game you play every year. Teach me.”
“Teach you what?” he asked, horrified, gripping the arm of his chair.
“To have meaningless sex.”
While it wasn’t something he could teach, if he were her teacher, though, he’d have access to her. She’d be his, for a short while anyway. Until he had to set her free to find that dickhead. A growl swirled in his chest.
“Tristan,” she said his name, and it sounded different, like that thought planted in her head already changed her.
He glared cautiously at her. “You want me to help you?”
“Loosen me up. I’m rusty.”
“Guys like Jonathan don’t notice rusty.” He pushed away a few hairs that fell in his eyes. “It’s about getting off. No points for style or grace.”
“You’re polished and classy.” She leaned across the loveseat to smooth her fingers against his shirt and his chest burned underneath. “You don’t seem like one of those ‘just wanna get off’ guys.”
“Not at home. But here...” He chose not to elaborate on how gritty he could be on this cruise.
“Show me,” she whispered.
“Show you?” He scrubbed the back of his heated sweaty neck.
“What it’s like. To just give your body away.” Her chest pitched forward brushing against his.
“I don’t even know where to begin.” He sat there stunned, reeling from her touch.
“Pretend I’m one of the women here.”
He scoffed at that. “You could not be any less like the other women here. You’re different.”
“That’s the problem.” She slumped back.
“No. Don’t you dare change who you are.” He wouldn’t be drinking a beer with Laney and chatting about her job if she were part of his group.
He would have pinned her on that balcony sofa, gotten off, and left. Whoa, am I that cold? He felt anything but cool and detached with Laney. He wasn’t Tris, the alpha god at that moment. He was just Tristan.
Freaking the fuck out, he asked, “Laney, when was the last time you had sex?” She had devoured him with a kiss like he was water and she just stumbled from the desert.
“Um,” Laney answered and glanced away, her teeth gnawing on her fingernails.
“If it doesn’t immediately crash into your mind when the last time a man made you come so hard you screamed...” And he thought he needed sex.
“It was never... Like that.” She flushed and her voice got all shaky. “I’ve been stupidly saving myself for Jonathan.”
Yet, she just asked to be with Tris, the monster. “You want me to pretend with you?” He leaned forward.
“Yeah. This is all a game, right?” She wanted to play. Her body sang loudly for him, her nipples got harder and taut round peaks busted through her loose-fitting dress.
“Out there.” He pointed to the door. “Yes. It’s not real.”
“What about this?” She fisted his shirt and pulled his mouth down for a kiss, deep and wet.
Her tongue slid past his dry lips looking for his, wanting his. The little moan she released when he gave it to her, hardened his cock like a metal pipe growing in his pants. Not jeans, which meant she’d see and feel him. Very real.
Laney’s rising tensions got to him, made him anxious and afraid if Jonathan agreed to sleep with her, she’d lose control. Tristan wanted her to lose control with him and only him. He could handle her. But could he hand her over to her boss after he’d had his way with her?
Was she pretending? It was hard to imagine she thought of that asshole the way she went at him with her mouth. She felt so warm and kissed so damn good. There was no kissing on this cruise. Just straight sex.
Was there a happy medium between his two worlds? He hadn’t imagined he’d find a woman who wanted both sides of him. His Dr. Jekyll and his Mr. Hyde. Damn, he just may have found her.
Laney’s tongue tasted sweet and as much as he wanted to touch those gorgeous breasts he’d been blessed with seeing, cradling her head satisfied him. After three years, that woman needed sex more than he did at the moment.
“You know, Laney,” he said, breaking the kiss gently. “You’ve been going a mile a minute since you got here.” He twirled the strands of her glossy dark hair around his fingers then brought their heads together. “You’re a little too wound up to just start...pretending. Let me help you relax.”
“That’s what my Cosmos are for,” she whispered playfully.
“Not the same thing.” Did I just agree to do this?
“I’ve been holding down my own fort.” She smirked.
A woman who not only pleasured herself, but admitted to it fascinated him. Made him want to make her come even more. “Oh, sweetheart, we have to change that.”
“Yeah?” She leaned back, her knees knocking softly together, but hesitantly, too. Her dress was short enough for a finger stroll up her thigh to find the place sending out heat signals.
“Oh, yeah.” Her body wanted him, he knew the signs.
“Nikki’s passed out in her bedroom.” She glanced behind her then faced him again licking her lips.
After checking out her other neighbor’s darkened cabin, he worked her mouth again with his. Deep and invasive.
Tristan felt the tension roll of Laney in hard crashing waves. Everything else about her was soft and elegant. When tendrils of hair fell over her shoulder, he reached out to enjoy the silk, accidentally brushing against her breasts. Her breath hitched sharply, the profound reaction making him hard as steel.
“Can I suggest something?” His throaty, needy request drew a curious chin nod. “I think you need to come, right now.”
“I never had an orgasm under the stars.”
“Take your panties off.”
“Take them off for me,” she groaned into his mouth.
The command choked him, all the feelings he swore he didn’t have couldn’t be ignored. Without thinking, he kneeled before her on the loveseat, worshipping her. He reached under her dress, startled by the heat between her legs and holy shit, her thong felt soaked. His fingers brushed the fabric right above her core, pulling a gasp from her as her hips started to roll. Man, he wanted to taste her, but she might explode instantly in his mouth.
He wanted her to enjoy his hand. The edges of her panties rolled smoothly down her hips and she widened her thighs. Shit, he was almost afraid to look. Instead, he stared back at her beautiful glowing smile. His mouth watered, brushing against the smooth plump skin under his fingers, committed to his promise to get her off.
“Tristan, please.” Her begging weakened his resolve not to do something selfish.<
br />
“You want this?” He slid a finger inside her tight, liquid heat.
She bared her teeth and growled. Her hips bucked as she fucked his finger. “More,” she mumbled, her eyes rolling back in her head.
“I want to give you more, trust me,” he confessed, sliding a second finger in, but kept his thumb available to circle her clit. Swollen and throbbing. “Enjoy this. This is for you.”
With his other hand tight around her waist, he pressed his face into her chest to bite at her nipples raging through the thin cotton dress. But Laney’s greedy hands were there pulling the straps down. What perfection. So round and perfect and real. Her erect nipples begged for his mouth.
She felt like goo at the moment. And his mind had gone wild with too many thoughts, none of them sane or rational. If he took his dick out, he’d go all apeshit on her. Turn her around and take her from behind while she held on to the cushions. His fingers were enough to make this woman come undone for him.
The one-sided nature of bestowing pleasure on this cruise was foreign to him. Tristan was a giving lover. Tris... Not so much. He was all Tristan at the moment. And loving it. Laney deserved the best part of him. That thought startled him, as he whined softly against her skin.
His tongue swirled around one erect pink nub while her tiny moans and gasps drove him crazy.
Laney leaned back, her arms stretched out over her head, her hair wild and dangling in her front her face. Her hips swayed up and down, in synch with his fingers. She bit her lower lip, her narrowing eyes locked on his. Peering into him. Seeing him. Seeing who he really was.
Wet heat coated his fingers as he swirled them over her clit and the clenching began. Laney let out a moan that crashed through him. Took him over. The slit he invaded tightened around his fingers, warm and wet, and pulsating as her orgasm arrived. Like a tornado touches down and destructs everything in its path. She could wreck him the same way.
Next, she bolted forward and wrapped her arms around him. “Hold me,” she whined, shivering.
Not thinking, he did just that. Held her until she stopped shaking. The moment leveled him out, had him questioning everything. Including that possible flight back to New York.
“Wait. What about you?” She smoothed his hair back.
Her touch ignited a firestorm zinging through his veins.
“That was for you.” His dick was screaming for her, but holding her felt so nice. “I’m fine. This is nice.”
Lost in the torrent of confusing emotions storming through him, he missed that Laney’s hold on him loosened. Only because she’d fallen asleep. He made her come so hard, she passed out!
A fucking first.
He only wished he could get a tee-shirt made up.
Tristan lifted Laney and carried her back into the bedroom via the door he witnessed heaven through earlier. Gently, he laid her on the bed, carefully letting her head float down to the pillow. “That Jonathan is going to need a helmet when you finally get a hold of him,” he whispered.
She smiled and breathed deeply even though she was out of it. A thought to completely undress her crossed his dirty mind, but he quickly dismissed that. Instead, he slid her dress back up over her shoulders and dragged one of the blankets up to cover her.
Another moment passed as he took it all in.
“What are you doing to me?” he whispered, looking down at her.
He bent down and laid a kiss on her lips, so soft and innocent. Like her. The real Tristan’s first-date goodbye kiss.
Leaving quietly, he made sure the girls’ cabin was secure. Tristan swayed down the hallway to his cabin and locked himself inside. Night Three on the cruise and still no sex. Instead, he took a wonderfully long hot shower, imagining making love to Laney.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Laney
“You did what?” Nikki asked Laney, biting into a Belgian waffle the next morning.
“If you repeat what I said loud enough so they’ll hear you in New York, I’m gonna make you swim back.” Laney sipped her coffee sitting at Tristan’s table in the outdoor breakfast patio.
It was open again, so she grabbed it. The weather had also warmed up, so she broke out her halter dress.
“Sorry. We’re from New York. We’re loud.” Nikki waved her fork.
“Anyway, he’s going to help me. Get my sea legs. It’s perfect, right?”
Her assistant stared, dumbfounded. “Who are you?”
“I’m on vacation.” She leaned her right arm against the railing.
Nikki picked up her coffee and took a sniff. “Have they put something in the water in this place?”
“When on earth would I ever have a chance to sleep with a man as good looking as Tristan?”
“Every night in Manhattan if you’d look for a man other than Jonathan.” Nikki shook her head and went back to her waffle.
Was that true? Had she been so blinded in her desires for Jonathan that she’d lost all perception around her? Sure, in the last few years she’d dropped the last of her baby fat. And she finally found a great colorist who put just the right tone of gold in her brown hair to brighten her face, while still keeping her a seductive hot raven.
Had it all been for Jonathan?
“Should I be concerned that I haven’t even seen our boss since the other night?” Laney asked.
“Now that I know what he’s here for. No,” Nikki answered with her mouth full. “I always knew he was a bit of a dog.”
“I still want to be with him, but now that I see he’s somewhat of a professional at one-night stands, I worry I’ll come off just awkward and horrible. I don’t want a relationship, but I don’t want him laughing at me.”
Nikki nodded and caught a napkin before it blew away. “I get that.”
“I want to rock his world. I want him to think I’m the one that got away. I want him salivating when I leave our office with all my shit packed up and he knows he’ll never see me again.” She leaned in. “Am I crazy?”
“That does sound pretty awesome.” Nikki wiped her mouth. “When is your first swimming lesson with Tristan?”
Laney had woken up snuggled under a blanket. The last thing she remembered was Tristan holding her. He must have put her in her bed. And left. Like a gentleman and not at all like the salivating men in that meeting room the other night. “Tonight, I guess. Maybe.” I hope.
Nikki cleared her throat. “I don’t think he wants to wait until tonight.”
Laney took in Nikki’s gawking stare and turned around.
Tristan marched in her direction. Morning casual meant dark jeans and a forest green Henley. Yu-um. His face full of lustful determination damn near startled her. Her mouth twitched to form a smile combination that said both ‘hello friend’ and ‘wanna get naked?’
When Tristan got closer, he frowned. “You like my table, don’t you?”
Smiling, she said, “We’re keeping it warm for you.”
His eyebrows arched behind his shades. “I appreciate that.” He laid a hand on her shoulder that felt protective and possessive. “I’m gonna make a plate. You staying?”
She looked over at Nikki who nodded. I am now. “Yes,” Laney answered with an easy grin that got one in return.
Maybe she’d been trying too hard. After all, she’d taken two huge falls in front of this guy and one moment alone, his tongue was in her mouth, and the next his hand was up her dress.
“I’ll be right back.” He squeezed her shoulder and left, taking all the eyes on the patio with him.
Wow.
The furious banging of metal on ceramic turned Laney’s head. “What are you doing?” she asked Nikki, who started inhaling her food.
“Making myself scarce so you two could...you know.”
“We’re not gonna do it right here on the table.” She sized it up anyway, checking to see if it would rock or creak.
“I want you and Mr. Gorgeous to get to know each other.”
“I think I know him pretty well.” Laney caught a gl
impse of him in the buffet area. “He’s a nice man. This is just his yearly thing.”
“And you want to be one of his things?” Nikki asked, slurping down the rest of her coffee.
She shrugged. “Why not?”
“Because you totally have a real shot with a man like that.”
Laney looked at her assistant and her astonishingly empty plate. Not wanting to argue anymore, she said, “Let me get this whole Jonathan thing behind me. It’ll be a few days before Christmas when we get back. I’ll give notice and start the year fresh.”
“I’m gonna check out the casino again.” Nikki packed up her tray. “That place is open twenty-four-seven.”
“There’s a reason for that.” She did her little hand circle.
“This cruise was free, so why not gamble?”
Laney thought about what she was willing to lose. Her heart? Her soul? Her panties were already a goner around Tristan.
Watching him shuffle toward her, she sighed in happy content to just look at the man. Yes, please.
Nikki stood holding her cluttered tray. “Incoming. I’m out of here.”
“You don’t have to leave,” Laney repeated.
“Why are you leaving?” Tristan asked and put down two plates of food. How many calories did a man that tall need to sustain himself each day? And how many did he burn?
“I want to win some money back at the casino,” Nikki said, sliding her shades on.
“The house always wins,” Laney warned.
“You’re still staying, right?” Tristan asked her with a hesitant smile.
“Yes,” she said, pushing her chin forward to act like she adored him.
Live the fantasy and enjoy the attention, her inner devil whispered.
“Good.” He sat in Nikki’s seat and pushed one of the plates toward her. “You didn’t have any food.”
Most men want their women thin as a reed, yet this one brought her a plate full of...pancakes.
She wanted to cry, except her heart began pounding hard and fast in her chest. Her throat swelled realizing she could easily fall in the love with Tristan Hart by the end of the cruise.
Alpha Billionaire Page 8
