“But it would be fun, I need fun.”
I sighed heavily and looked at my feet. When the hell had I ever looked away like that? “That makes both of us.”
“Great!” She walked ahead of me into her penthouse suite, which matched mine even in color. I suddenly wondered what she did for a living. I mean I could afford it because I had been the highest paid soccer star in Europe for the last ten years. I could literally wipe my ass with hundred-dollar bills on a daily basis and still have money to burn.
The place was around three grand a day.
I eyed the large master suite as she ran around and then held up her hand. “One sec, I’m going to change into a suit, alright?”
“Great.” I smiled reassuringly. It would give me time to look around, not that I was stalking her, but I could never be too careful. I was still surprised she didn’t recognize me. And I knew when she did, this little facade, this freedom I felt in my chest, the easy way she let me breathe around her? It would go to hell, and I’d need another escape.
I thumbed through a few of the magazines on the table, and dropped the last one down just in time to hear the sliding bathroom door open and see a goddess emerge.
A one-piece swimsuit covered her body. It had a plunging neckline that showed off two generously sized breasts, and I immediately regretted not telling her who I was.
Because clothing tended to get pulled off, not put on, when I was in the room.
I eyed the scrap of material she called a swimsuit, my eyes raking over her muscular legs, her curvy body.
“Unless you’re jumping naked, you should change too,” she pointed out, then cleared her throat and looked away like she was insecure. Damn, the woman could make a man cut his own heart out for a taste of her special brand of sin.
I peeled my shirt off over my body and shrugged. “Ready.”
Her eyes went so wide I had to fight not to laugh.
I knew what she saw.
I had fucking Instagram pages dedicated to my eyes alone, don’t even get me started on my abs.
Eight.
Tight, packed abs, all tanned and golden like I was the sun god himself.
“Uh, right.” Her cheeks brightened as she clasped her hands together. “Let’s go!”
I checked her ass out the entire time she walked ahead of me, and when she caught me staring I just shrugged and said, “Next time wear more clothes if you don’t want me to look.”
“You should talk,” she fired back.
“Misunderstanding.” I grinned. “I wanted you to look.”
She slapped a hand against my bare chest.
I laughed, and then grabbed her hand and kissed her fingertips. “You ready to jump off a cliff with a stranger you’ve kissed three times?”
“Once,” she corrected with a whisper. “I kissed you, you kissed me, we’re even.”
The doors to the elevator opened as I whispered under my breath while her ass swayed back and forth. “Not for fucking long.”
“Are you sure this is safe?” Ashley squeezed my hand and peeked over the edge.
My gaze followed hers. Below, sparkling blue-green water beckoned. The target area reflected darkly, but nearby, dark-gray rocks dotted the surface, their presence giving a bit of an ominous feel.
“Hell no, you’re the one who suggested it!” I hated heights. Fucking hated them, but she’d suggested the jump, and I wanted to spend time with her. There was something magnetic about her, something that made me want more even though I knew anything short term was crazy, especially for a guy like me. I loved her strange mannerisms that didn’t match her words at times. Like she was an old soul trapped inside a younger, hotter body. I peered over the edge again. “Hell, that’s forty feet.”
“Are you sweating?” She laughed.
“It’s forty feet!” I repeated. “I’d be concerned if I wasn’t sweating over this. That’s high. Shit, I think I’m seeing double.”
Her laugh carried through the breeze.
I closed my eyes and inhaled the way it wrapped around me, the way that her presence took away every ache and pain, every worry I’d had these past few weeks, and just silenced them all.
“Hey.” She grabbed my hand. “We jump together.”
“Deal.” I squeezed her palm. “And if we die, at least it wasn’t in a crash.”
“And when we live . . .” She leaned in, her lips tasted like bubblegum as they covered my mouth in a slow, sensual kiss that drew out every primal instinct in me to lay her across the cliff and claim her.
“If we live, what?”
She winked. “Jump and find out.”
“Tease.”
“Hah, I don’t think anyone’s ever called me that.”
Impossible. The woman was a walking hard-on—I would know.
“Jump on three?” I offered.
She nodded. “One.”
“Uno,” I added.
She just laughed harder as I counted in Spanish.
On three, we jumped.
The wind caught us as we gained velocity, and I wasn’t sure which one of us was screaming louder.
But once I hit the warm water—felt it close over my head—and survived, I surfaced and caught the look of joy on her face. In that moment, I realized I would do anything to make this stranger smile at me like that again.
One. Day. In.
Chapter Five
MACKENZIE
I found a part of myself in that jump. I experienced so many things simultaneously.
The freedom of being alive.
The terror of still not knowing who I was without Alton.
Feeling okay to do something spontaneous because of the man holding my hand.
I knew it was stupid . . . to fall for someone I barely knew, especially so soon after Alton, but part of me wanted to just jump in with both feet and see what happened, and being around Hugo had me laughing and smiling nonstop.
Add that to his devastating good looks, and I was ready to grab his phone number, email, Instagram account, and beg him to move closer to me.
See? I wasn’t ready to date if I was turning into a stalker so soon.
“So, was it everything you thought it would be?” he asked, swimming over to me. He ducked his head under and shook off as he came up, then ran his hands through his choppy long hair, which had darkened, reminding me of rich Colombian coffee.
If this was what Spanish pirates used to look like, no wonder they had all the gold.
“Everything and more.” I splashed him. “I’m curious, though . . .”
“What?” He spit out some salt water.
“Was that high-pitched scream that sounded like a goat getting sacrificed coming from you or did we actually hit a goat on the way down?”
He threw his head back and laughed. “Very funny, I guess I deserved that. I hate heights.”
I frowned. “Then why did you say yes?”
“Because,” he said, pressing his hands on either side of my face, “any man would be insane to say no to you.”
I fell a little harder as he pulled me into his arms, his lips teased mine in a way that made me breathless, made my chest ache, like he was afraid I was a mermaid that was going to disappear into the deep-blue depths of the ocean. He tugged my lower lip with his teeth, then deepened the kiss as we treaded water. I gripped his biceps, letting myself drown in his embrace. If this was what attraction was supposed to feel like . . .
Then I was completely out of my element for once in my life.
Out of control.
And in such need of more of his warmth, his taste, that I found myself whimpering when one of his hands brushed across my breast. My body jolted against his in response.
He chuckled darkly against my mouth. “I knew you’d taste like this. Everything about you is . . . on fire.”
I opened my eyes.
His intense gold orbs seemed to swirl before me.
A wave crashed over us and against the rock wall, ruining the moment as he g
rabbed my hand and dove under water.
I followed him.
And swam to the nearby beach.
By the time I made it to the shore, I was exhausted. I lay back against the warm sand and looked up at the clear blue sky as the sound of waves crashing against the shore filled me with peace.
And then Hugo was blocking the sun with his body as he hovered over me. “This is crazy, right?”
“Crazy,” I agreed.
“Tell me to go back to the hotel. Make me go back to my room—anything, Ashley—”
It wasn’t my name.
I almost winced.
Instead, I kissed him again, and with a hungry growl, he pressed me down against the sand. I could feel his arousal press against my thigh.
I wanted more.
I wanted him.
I wanted to be the woman I saw reflected in his eyes.
Our mouths met in a frenzy as he pulled the string to my one-piece and shoved it down to expose my breasts, his mouth hot, punishing, as he sucked one nipple, then grazed his teeth across it.
Anyone could see us.
And for once, I didn’t care about what people thought.
All I cared about were the sensations he awakened within me.
And the way he made me feel in his arms.
His wet hair slid against his forehead as he moved his mouth, and then kissed up my neck to my jawline. I reached for the string on his shorts . . .
And then he broke the kiss.
We stared at one another.
I was being impulsive.
And stupid.
I didn’t even know him.
I’d known Alton my entire life, and he’d touched my boobs maybe a dozen times.
But this guy? This guy I was ready to just strip and lie down for?
He bit back a curse and blew out a rough exhale. “We should get back.”
Disappointed, I quickly tied my suit back up and nodded.
I could still see how painfully aroused he was.
How much he wanted me.
And I knew it wasn’t a lack of attraction that had him stopping.
But probably because he had more self-respect than I did.
Which seemed to be the problem with the men in my life.
Not that I was complaining.
It was chivalrous.
But sometimes, a girl just wants wild.
Chapter Six
SLADE
Self-control was not something I lacked. It had been an essential part of my training since I was a child. My father, a soccer coach, now retired, thanked God when he discovered my skill with the ball.
And ever since then.
It’s been soccer above all else, even family.
It was everything.
Until it stopped making me happy.
Until it became a job.
Until the money became meaningless.
Until I was betrayed by those closest to me.
So maybe my self-control was frayed and well on its way to snapping, and at the worst possible moment in time, alone, on a beach with the most tempting woman I’d ever met.
I don’t know how I stopped.
I just knew I needed to.
Because I was seconds away from being the guy that has random unprotected sex in Mexico like every spring break gone wrong.
And she didn’t deserve that.
Even though I was in physical pain as I pried my body away from her.
By the time we made it back to the resort, night had fallen. I walked her to her door and leaned against the frame. “Dinner?”
She tapped her chin. “Dinner, hmm?”
“Dinner and drinks.”
“In an hour?”
“Of course.” I kissed each of her cheeks, wanting to do more, then pulled away and made sure she made it safely into her room.
When I opened my own door, loneliness descended.
I hadn’t planned on this.
To be thirty and without a wife, kids. Family was important to me. The only thing that rivaled that was soccer, and that was because my father had made it so.
I took a quick shower then checked my cell.
Ten missed calls.
All from my mother, who had been expecting me this week in the States, and one from my dad.
She was worried.
And lonely now that she and my dad were separated and living in different countries.
I was supposed to be in Seattle by now, relaxing before the season.
Instead, I escaped to the first place that caught my eye on the search engine. Maybe it was fate?
I sent off a text. I’m fine, something came up, I’ll see you in a few days.
The next phone call was from my father; he’d left a voice mail. “Look, I know this decision did not come lightly, you love soccer, I love soccer. I don’t want to see you throw your life away, but you’re old enough to make your own choices. I talked with Philamena, and we decided that I will visit for the holidays, but I’ll do the cooking, God knows that woman burns rice because she knows it drives me crazy.” I snickered and kept listening. “I just want you to be happy.”
The voice mail finished.
And the guilt descended.
He wanted me to be happy, and he’d sacrificed everything in order for me to get it, and even though I took care of him financially, I still felt like I’d abandoned him when I took the job with the Seattle team.
I brushed the thoughts away and quickly dressed in a pair of white linen pants and a button-down blue linen shirt.
With five minutes to spare I was knocking on Ashley’s door. She opened on the third knock. “Ready?”
“Is it on purpose?” I asked, casually eying her tight white dress and the way the straps disappeared in a crisscross pattern down the small of her back as she did a little turn. Her tanned skin was like a homing beacon, I couldn’t look away.
“What?” Her lips were brushed with something shiny that my mouth decided it was going to sample later.
“Did you dress like that to torture me?” I hit the elevator button. “You look . . .” I shook my head and exhaled. “Like cake.”
“Cake?”
“Before you get offended, I want to make you aware of the very serious relationship I have with cake. Get between me and cake and you’re taking your life into your hands. And you?” I leaned in and sniffed her neck, then pressed an open-mouthed kiss below her ear. “You’d be chocolate sin filled with molten lava spilling out onto the plate, waiting to be slowly licked up. I think I’d savor you for hours, days . . .”
She shivered.
I almost hit the up button to take us back to our suites and our two empty beds.
And I knew how to make use of both of them with finesse.
Instead, we walked to dinner. Her blushing, me lusting.
Football was huge in Mexico so I wasn’t sure if I would be recognized. I’d seen posters of myself on the streets on the way in. So the minute we were seated, I excused myself and sought out our server. I took out my wallet, grabbed a few hundreds, and handed them to the surprised young man. “Make sure nobody disturbs us or recognizes me. If people want autographs, I’ll sign everything later.”
“Sí, senor.” He shook my hand.
By the time I returned to the table, Ashley had ordered wine and was giddily pointing to my glass. “Okay, honest opinion, go!”
“Something of a wine connoisseur?” I asked her.
“Something like that.” She glowed, her confidence in her own skills was sexy as hell.
I sniffed, swirled, and then tasted as the dry Cab ran down my throat and exploded into a sensation of blueberries and something tart. “That’s . . . perfect.”
She did a little mock bow. “My calling in life.”
“Drinking?”
She laughed then shrugged. “Cheers, I guess?”
Our glasses clinked together. “So what is it you do, then? You’ve got me curious.”
“Oh, um . . .” She shifted in her
seat. “I actually used to work for a wine company, I was a sommelier. In layman’s terms, a wine taster.”
“You need to have the perfect palate for that.” No wonder she had such a perfect mouth.
“Yup.”
“What do you mean was?”
She looked away. “Long story, let’s just say I’m taking a much needed break from life. And you? What do you do?”
“Ah.” Her job explained her extravagant spending, tasters were paid well. I suddenly felt comfortable sharing more. “I’m an athlete.”
“No shock there.” She smiled sweetly. “What kind of athlete?”
“The kind that gets paid.” I shrugged the question off. “Nothing too exciting, trust me.”
Her voice lowered. “Would people here recognize you? Are you that kind of athlete?”
I grinned and whispered back, “Do you see people rushing our table?”
She scrunched up her nose. “I guess not. But still, professional, that’s huge. I bet your family’s proud.”
“Yeah.” I started to feel more guilty that I hadn’t yet called my father back. “They’re very supportive. Family is everything, you know?”
A shadow crossed her face.
I knew there was a story there.
But I didn’t push.
Because I still didn’t know how to define what was happening.
“Are you ready to order?” Our server arrived. And all thoughts of sharing our pasts vanished between bottles of wine and savory food, and when we made it back to her room four hours later, a bit drunk, and laughing, I swept in and kissed her again.
This time, she clung to my shirt with her hands like I was her lifeline. I didn’t realize how long it had been since I’d been truly wanted.
For me.
Not for what I did.
How much money I made.
Or how many Olympic medals I had.
Her tongue tasted like wine and the chocolate soufflé we’d shared for dessert. I slid her key card against her door and we stumbled through. I slammed it behind me as I pulled her into my arms and then slowly lowered her dress over her breasts, down her stomach, and off her curvy hips.
She was completely naked underneath.
“Fuck . . .” I captured her mouth again as she kicked off her heels and pulled the string to my linen pants. They fell to the carpet, exposing me completely. Apparently we’d both had sex on the mind, sex and the least amount of clothing possible between our sweltering bodies.
Risky Play Page 3
