AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Relaxing.
Growing used to the lifestyle my father’s money ensures.
Not chasing down a mass murderer and wearing a bikini while she does it.
It’s a hypocritical stance, I know. But I never said I was perfect.
“I was thinking we could take the Sea-Doos out after lunch.” I wrap her up tight and press a kiss to her neck. “Get a little swimming in before the day is done. I have a surprise for youtonight. Then it’s time to go to bed and prepare for the big day tomorrow.”
“A surprise?” She pulls back far enough to search my eyes. “What kind of surprise?”
“The kind where I don’t tell you what the fuck it is before it’s time to give it to you.” Chuckling, I steal back the space she took and press a kiss to her lips. “But I promise, you’ll love it.”
“Is it diamonds or something equally expensive and unnecessary?”
I drop my hands, but only to wrap my palm around hers and turn us back to wander the deck. “I’ve only ever bought you one diamond. You’re wearing it.”
“Will this surprise annoy me?”
I swing my arm over her shoulders. “Potentially.”
“Does it glitter when the sun touches it?”
I snort. “Sometimes. But it’s not jewelry, I promise.”
“Is it?—”
“Stop asking questions.” I drag her closer and kiss her temple. I don’t care that I pull her off balance. That her feet tangle and she would trip if not for my grip. I don’t care that she grunts, or that her elbow hits my ribs. Because we’re getting married tomorrow, and our night’s plans make me happy. “Swim?”
“Fine.” She sighs, as though put out by my request. But already, she steps out of the flip-flops she wears. Her bikini strings—the polka dot pair I picked out back before we left Copeland—peek out from the top of her tank. She shakes her hand free of mine, but only so she can reach up and whip her hair into a ponytail. “I don’t like surprises, just so you know. They make me anxious.”
“I know.” I slow my walk, all so I can watch her peel her shirt up to reveal her trim back. The indent of her spine. Her clear, tanned skin, kissed by a week of sun in the Caribbean. I drag myshirt off and fist the fabric in my hands, then I stop on a skid and grin because Minka unsnaps her shorts and wriggles them down to reveal her perfect, peachy ass in a barely-there pair of bikini bottoms.
“Stop staring at me, pervert.” She glances over her shoulder, catching me in my ogle. But her eyes dance anyway, her lips curling into a smirk that has my blood running faster. “Last day as a married-single man, Detective Malone. What are you gonna do about it?”
I drop my shirt to the deck and start forward. “Remember that first night we met?” I don’t stop until my chest touches her back and my teeth latch on to the column of her neck. “In the airport? When you got in my way and ruined the case I’d been running?”
She rolls her eyes, just like I knew she would. “That’s not how I remember it. I recall an arrogant, handsy man who was rude, sexist, and pushy.”
So to oblige her, for nostalgia’s sake, I get handsy, sliding my palm along her abdomen and into her bikini. “You were unobservant, unkind, and prickly.”
“You considered yourself a woman’s hero,” she bites back. But she ends her sentence with a breathy sigh. “You assumed I was a damsel who needed help.” She leans against me as I lead her down the steps at the back of the boat and onto the deck where our toes touch the water. “In reality, I got my damn bags on the plane, I could get them off again.”
“You wanted me so bad,” I tease, shivering when cool water laps up to my ankles. “I was your hero, Mayet. I helped you with your bag. I bought you dinner. Then I ate your pussy and started the best damn relationship either of us will ever know.”
“I paid for my own dinner.” Twisting in my arms, she scowls and looks up into my eyes. “Excuse me, Detective Malone. But I left my credit card with Tim. I paid for my meal.”
“Did you though?” I duck lower and take her lips with mine. “Did he ever charge you for that burger? Or have I been spending mafia money on you since the start?”
“Ugh!” She leans back and smacks my shoulder. “If I knew then what I know now?—”
“What?” I challenge. “If you knew then what you know now, what would you change?”
She looks into my eyes, defiance and dare beaming in her chocolate expression. Then she smirks. “I’d have stayed engaged to Tim.”
I don’t want to be this guy. I loathe to be an asshole.
Mostly.
