“I can’t calm myself. I know there’s a hunk nearby. I need to at least see what we’re working with before I can get myself under control.”
“Maybe self control is something you need to work on. Remember puking in the bushes?”
“I will never forget that moment as long as I live.”
“You looked like a dolphin diving in there. With puke coming out, obviously.”
“It wasn’t my finest moment.”
I leaned back in my chair, smiling to myself, the sun reflecting off the suntan lotion I had spread all over. The pool moved in slow lapping circles from the light breeze as Lydie and I sat in reclining chairs along its edge. After that awkward as hell lunch, I had decided I needed a little buffer from the family, and Lydie had been more than delighted to come over.
Of course, she had her own motives. She wanted to meet my new stepbrother, which both annoyed me and made me laugh. She had no clue what she was getting herself into. Nate wasn’t like the guys she normally messed around with. She was used to being able to control those guys and to get her way.
But I really doubted anyone could control Nate. It seemed like he did pretty much whatever he wanted to do. He would definitely walk all over Lydie and then some.
“Whatever happened with those guys you brought into the VIP, by the way?” I asked her.
“Ugh, they were creeps.”
“What did they do?”
“The one guy, remember the tan one?” I nodded. “Well, he said he wanted to put his dick in my butt. Like, totally out of nowhere, he just said it.”
“What?”
“Seriously, Claire. It was so disgusting. He leaned into me right after we took a shot and whispered in my ear, ‘Girl, your ass is so fat I want to stick my dick in it.’ I started puking right there.”
I burst out laughing. It was the most absurd thing I had ever heard in my entire life.
“Did he think that was going to work?” I managed to ask through laughter.
“I have no fucking clue. He was so gross. I’m actually almost glad I started throwing up. Made it clear how I felt about him.”
“Got you away from them, too.”
“Totally. The second I told them I felt sick, they dumped me in the bathroom and ran out of there. Vomit is basically dickhead repellent.”
“Assholes.”
“Don’t even say that word.”
I rolled over, laughing again. I looked up toward the ocean, and suddenly the laughter died in my chest.
“I’m so sick of guys like that,” Lydie was saying, but I hardly heard her. I was too busy staring at Nate walking up the path toward the house, his shirt wrapped around his head like a turban, his chest glistening with sweat.
“Hello? Claire? I’m busy bitching about the finer points of the male animal’s psyche and you look like you just saw a ghost.”
“Oh, uh, sorry.”
“What are you . . .” Lydie started to say, but trailed off when she noticed Nate. “Oh damn. Hot fucking damn.”
Lydie dipped her sunglasses down, her mouth gaping.
“That’s my stepbrother,” I said sheepishly.
“He’s way hotter than I remembered.”
I had to admit that I agreed. He was an incredible specimen, to be totally honest with myself. The way he moved was smooth and serious, and his body was cut like steel. Every inch of him was sculpted and tough, and the tattoos that snaked up around his body were sexy and dangerous. He stopped a few feet away from us, grinning.
“Well, is this who I think it is?” he asked me.
“Nathan, this is my friend Lydie.”
He reached his hand out and she shook it. “I remember you,” he said to her.
“I remember you, too,” she answered, not even pretending like she wasn’t ogling him.
“What were you doing?” I asked him before Lydie started drooling.
“Went for a run.”
“In your jeans?”
“You can run in just about anything, it turns out.”
“Thanks. But isn’t it hard?”
“Not yet, but you girls are about to make it hard.”
Lydie giggled at his dumb joke and I rolled my eyes.
“By the way,” I said, “my dad wants me to take you out on our boat.”
“Just the two of us?”
“No,” I said, looking at Lydie. “You’re coming, right, Lydie?”
“Oh, uh, sure. Yeah, I’m totally coming.”
“Not to be rude, but do we really have to do this shit?”
“What do you mean?”
He sat down at the end of my chair, sighing. “I’m not the fond-family type, you know? I don’t really do afternoons on the fucking yacht.”
I made a face. What an arrogant asshole. “You can do whatever you want, but I won’t lie to my dad for you.”