An Inconvenient Affair (The Alpha Brotherhood #1)(36)
Author: Catherine Mann

“Could you be serious?” She flicked a light spray into his face.

He tugged her in with him, and they pushed away from the float. Sliding deeper into the pool, she treaded water, face-to-face with Troy. She looped her arms around his neck and their feet worked below the surface keeping them both afloat.

“Do you want me to be serious?” His hands cupped her bottom, their bodies a seamless fit against each other. “Because I can be, very much so. Except I get the sense that the timing is off, and if I tell you exactly what I’m thinking, you’ll run.”

His perceptiveness surprised her. She’d spent so much time enjoying his lighthearted ways and trying to remind herself this was a fantasy that would end, she hadn’t considered he might be thinking of more after this week.

And he was one hundred percent right that the thought of life after Costa Rica scared her. “You’re a very wise man.”

Disappointment flickered through his eyes for an instant before his easygoing smile returned. “Then let’s get back to having an inconvenient affair.”

He sidestroked them to the edge of the pool. Her back met the tiled wall where his feet just touched the ground. He kissed her neck in the sensitive crook, paying extra attention to the place just below her ear that made her…sigh.

The hard muscles of his chest pressed to her br**sts. Heat tingled through her veins, surging and gathering low. She explored the planes of his shoulder blades, his broad shoulders and his arms that held her so securely. He hitched her legs around his waist and started walking toward the semicircle of concrete stairs, kissing her every step of the way.

Climbing the stairs, still he held her. The air washed over their damp bodies. Goose bumps rose along her skin, every bit as much from Troy as from the night air. She tangled her fingers in his hair, loving the unconventional, uncut look of him.

With her legs looped around his waist, he carried her into the spacious house. Through the living area where they’d made love on a chaise lounge with the windows open. Past the kitchen counter where they’d had breakfast and each other. And down the hall to his bedroom where they’d yet to spend a night under the covers together.

He lowered her onto the towering carved bed draped with mosquito netting, like another tree house inside the ultimate tree house. The rest of the room was sparse, with only a wardrobe and a mammoth leather chair by the window. He presented such a fascinating mix of wealth and Spartan living.

But right now, she didn’t want to think about his decor. Only feel. “This whole week has been a fantasy.”

“You like fantasies?”

“What exactly do you have in mind?”

He eased back to his feet and went to the wardrobe. He tugged out his tuxedo jacket and shook it. Something rattled in the pocket. He pitched the jacket to her and she fished inside to find…

“Handcuffs?” She spun them on a finger. “Do you carry these around as a regular accessory?” Her mind filled with sensual possibilities, games she would only play with someone she trusted, and yes, at some point she’d learned to trust him. A scary thought, if she let herself ponder it for too long. So she again focused on the moment, on Troy and on the pleasure they were going to give each other very, very soon.

“They’re from when I was auctioned off. I tucked them in my pocket and forgot about them until you mentioned fantasies.” He closed the wardrobe, the dim lamplight casting a warm glow over his lean naked body. “The cuffs would have ended up at the cleaners when my tuxedo went in to be dry-cleaned, but we rushed out of the hotel so fast I never got around to it.”

“The bachelor auction and the way you turned it around was quite a stunt.” She’d been drawn to him then, in spite of her frustration over how little he’d told her on the plane.

He knelt on the edge of the bed, moving up the mattress until he covered her. “The auction was uncomfortable as hell, but it worked out well.”

“I have to confess…” She stroked back his still-damp hair, the scent of mint and furniture polish riding the humid air. “I was jealous of your assistant, before I knew who she was, when I thought she’d won a weekend with you.”

“Jealous, huh?” He hooked two fingers in the other side of the cuff, tugging lightly. “Feel free to elaborate.”

“I was hoping plastic surgery chick would win.”

“She wouldn’t have,” he said confidently. A drop of water from his wet hair spilled on her overheated flesh, trickling between her br**sts.

Her ni**les tightened from just that one droplet. She shivered in anticipation of how much more there was in store for them.

“The bidding could have gone much higher.”

“I still would have won.” His eyes blazed with flinty determination. “My assistant was authorized to do whatever it took.”

“Just so you could choose me?” How far would he have gone?

“I didn’t believe Salvatore was doing enough to protect you.” He linked fingers with her, the handcuffs clasped in their joined hands. “I had to come up with a way to keep watch over you and that seemed the easiest way.”

His words about safety chilled her, reminding her of their reason for being here in the first place. While she didn’t doubt he was attracted to her, would they have ended up here on their own? Would he have pursued her had he just met her on the street? Old insecurities niggled.

“Spending eighty-nine-thousand dollars was easy?” She attempted to hide her unease with a joke like he did so often. “Why not hire a bodyguard? It would have been cheaper.”

“You know how you said you were jealous of my assistant?” He held both her hands, pressing them into the mattress, his erection thick against her stomach. “I felt the same at the thought of turning you over to some security guy.”

She arched up into him, enjoying the heat flaming hotter in his eyes. The scent of native flowers drifted on the breeze through the open windows, providing an intoxicating moment when she realized just how aware she was around this man.

A sense of power pulsed through her, and she embraced it, needing to feel in control of something here. “The attraction between us was pretty instantaneous.”

“Once the auction rolled around, I was so damn happy to see you out there in the audience.” He grinned down at her. “And then I was so turned on I had to keep my hands in front of me.”

Now that would have made headlines. “I thought that was just because of the handcuffs.”