Ah hell.
Kye would freak when he found out the guy who'd given him another chance was her dad.
"Which makes me wonder …" Dani tapped her bottom lip with a crimson manicured nail. "If you slept with the bad boy, it means you like him. And presuming the sex was phenomenal by the glow and goofy grin you can't wipe off your face, you want a repeat. But is loverboy happy doing the boss's daughter?"
That's what I intended to find out.
I grimaced and Dani clapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh my God. You didn't tell him!"
"It didn't come up," I said, knowing that wouldn't cut it with Kye.
I'd deliberately omitted my last name when I'd introduced myself to him because I knew he would've ditched me the second I uttered Cresswell as my surname.
It had happened too many times before, unless the guys trying to chat me up were Dad's suck-ups, jocks who'd do anything—including play nice with me—to get in the good graces of their boss and idol.
"I bet that's not what you said to the bad boy later." Dani winked and downed her doctored OJ in four gulps. "I'm sure he got it up—"
"Stop it." My rebuke came out harsher than intended and Dani's over made-up eyes for this hour of the morning widened.
"What's biting your ass?"
"I just don't want to dissect what happened with Kye, okay?" And particularly not in the lewd, crude way Dani expected.
I loved my best friend, I really did, but after not seeing her for a few semesters, her brash, in-your-face innuendo for all things sexual really grated.
I thought Kye and I had really connected last night. And I wanted to see him again. If anything, to have a chance to explain why I didn't tell him who I was. But it was more than that. Simply, no guy had ever made me feel how I felt with him.
Kye may be tough on the outside but I'd seen glimpses of an inner softness that drew me to him on some weird, intrinsic level.
"Fine," Dani said, but I glimpsed the fleeting hurt in her eyes and damned if I didn't know how to make it better. "Though this guy isn't one of your fixer-uppers. Sounds like he's way past that."
I bristled. "You don't know anything about him, bar a few shitty rumors."
"And you do?" Dani arched an eyebrow, managing to look superior and condescending at the same time.
I bit back my first response of 'I know a lot more than you.'
Like how he liked his ass gripped when he was inside me. Like how his eyes turned almost black the moment before he came. Like how he made me feel like a woman for the first time in my life. A feeling I'd give anything to recapture.
"In case you hadn't noticed, I'm here on vacation," I said, doing my best to remain cool when I wanted to leap from the table and stalk back to my villa. "So I'm having a little fun. No harm in that."
Dani tsk-tsked. "Sweetie, I've known you a long time. Long enough to have seen you want to nurture wounded birds, stray dogs and moody dudes." She tapped me on the nose. "You're a fixer upper. It's what you do. It's sweet but delusional, because with some guys, no matter how many hard yards you put in, they'll never change."
"You make me sound like a gullible idiot," I muttered, twisting the napkin in my lap to prevent from wringing my BFF's neck.
Her expression softened. "That's not what I'm saying."
"Then what?"
"You're a pushover, sweetie. Too soft-hearted for your own good and I don't want you investing time and effort in any guy who doesn't deserve it."
I could've accepted Dani's advice if not for one salient fact. She was the queen of wasting time on guys who didn't deserve her attention let alone anything else.
I nodded. "Wise advice." I tempered what I was about to say with a smile. "You should adhere to it some time."
She waved away my statement. "Doesn't apply to me, because I don't feel anything for the douchebags. Not in here." She pointed to her heart. "You, on the other hand?" She picked up the butter knife and pretended to stab it into her chest. "Broken heart just waiting to happen."
I shook my head. "You're wrong."
Now if only I believed it.
Chapter 10
KYE
After whipping Miles' arse on the practice court, I went in search of Mia.
We had to talk.
And she sure as hell wouldn't like what I had to say.
I didn't have to look far. When I headed back to my villa to change out of my sweaty gear, I saw her perched on the back step. And damned if my heart didn't give a betraying leap.
My heart? What the fuck was wrong with me? So we'd had sensational sex and talked a bit. Didn't mean I had to go all loopy.
The sooner we cleared the air and got things straight between us, the sooner Daddy's little princess could go back to her chino-wearing jocks and leave me the hell alone.