Chapter One
“Stop it,” I growled as I lay motionless with my eyes tightly shut.
Shades of translucent crimson dashed with violent yellows filtered through my lids as waves of heat beat relentlessly against my body.
My arm fell over the side of the lounger, searching blindly for my sunglasses. Grasping the warm plastic ends, I slipped them onto my face. Ah, sweet relief. The large designer lenses cast a strip of cooling, protective shadow over my eyes.
It was scorching hot, and I felt like I was in danger of melting. Yet through the baking sun – rays that were slowly burning me to a crisp – I felt a more persistent and penetrating gaze fall upon me.
“You’re doing it again,” I said as I shifted my body slightly and turned my head towards my onlooker. I could sense each and every passing glance, and under his prolonged stare, my skin prickled uncontrollably. Just thinking about him watching me made me tingle down below.
I dared to crack open one eyelid a fraction, allowing in a tiny slit of light. My vision was hazy, but through my long lashes it was unmistakable; he’d been openly staring at me, and I’d caught him in the act again.
“Lex!” I shouted, catching him off guard, and in a quick instant he slammed his eyes shut. I stifled a giggle; I loved him looking at me, but there was no reason to tell him, now was there?
“What?” he replied nonchalantly, a smile creeping onto his lips as he tilted his head up towards the cloudless sky.
“You keep staring at me!” I said and sat up. I grabbed for the lose straps of my turquoise bikini top and retied them into a bow behind my back.
“You’re delusional, making things up now. Too much sun for you perhaps?” Lex’s face creased with mischief.
I was surprised to see Lex was propped up on his lounger, no longer next to me where he had been when we’d first come up on deck of the yacht. Instead he was angled off to my right, no doubt so he could take in the whole length of my body. I must’ve dozed off, I thought, and it had given him the perfect opportunity to rearrange the furniture for a better view.
I grinned and pulled my sunglasses down onto the tip of my nose and looked over the frames at him. “There’s no denying it. I saw you.”
The Pearl was anchored just off the coast of Monaco in the south of France and the yacht soothingly rocked back and forth; swaying on the surface of gentle waters. I took another deep breath of salty air; I would never get tired of that invigorating smell and savoured the sweet tang.
“Can’t get anything past you, huh? But are you really trying to tell me I can’t look at my wife–to–be?” he replied. His bare, golden, washboard abs rippled as he leaned forward, and droplets of sweat found their way to his navel. My tongue twitched in my mouth, wanting to lick him, to run all over his stomach.
I nibbled at my lip. “You weren’t looking, you were ogling, Lex!” I laughed. “Anyway, don’t you think you’re being a little too presumptuous? I haven’t even said yes yet!”
Lex sighed and rested back into the lounger.
“Oh, but you will. Time’s ticking, though. I am a very sought after bachelor, you know?”
I pushed his words to the back of my mind, I had no intention of complicating the perfect afternoon with tangled thoughts, and pawed at my skin; it glowed under the sun with a pearlescent sheen. I was so happy that I’d finally gotten the tan I wanted so long ago… there was no way I was going back to being milk–bottle white again. Not if I could help it anyway.
“Come here and make yourself useful,” I teased as I waggled the slippery bottle of suntan oil at Lex.
He tutted playfully. “Oh, so now you want me to touch, but I can’t look, is that how it is?”
“Hurry up before I change my mind,” I said.
Lex shuffled over and sat behind me as I handed over the bottle of oil. He flipped the lip open with a pop and the scent of sweet coconut wafted between us.
With a soft hand, he scraped the hair that dangled loose down my back away and over my shoulder, the tips of his fingers touching the base of my neck as he did so. And in the heat, I shivered delightfully at his touch.
He traced his hand down my shoulder blades, and all of a sudden, with a quick yank on my bikini, he undid the fastening. I managed to press the rest of the material against my breasts, keeping it from falling, keeping it pinned, making sure I didn’t flash passing boats… maybe I’d save that for another day, but for now I was content enough lazing in Lex’s arms.
I heard the sloshing of the oil as he squirted it into his palm, and I waited for him to touch me again. As soon as I felt his hot hands, greased with boiling oil, against my skin, I melted, relaxing into the moment. With nimble thumbs and gentle presses, he kneaded my muscles, and I moaned.