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“Got it, Buffalo Bill. It will put the lotion on its skin when it gets home. So, what happens next?” I asked.
“You come back to the club and we keep moving through the list, or I get your share of the hotel.”
I was immediately reminded of why I definitely shouldn’t have enjoyed his little “blow job.” In an indirect way, I was trying to ask if everything that happened here meant we were some kind of item. Like a couple, even. I felt too silly to say it out loud, though. Apparently, Landon wasn’t wondering the same thing. “It doesn’t bother you at all?”
“What?” he asked.
“Trying to seduce me one minute and then practically blackmailing me the next?”
Something passed across his face. Sadness? Hesitation? Whatever it was, it was gone as quickly as it came.
He let out a chuckle that didn’t sound entirely genuine. “No. I don’t feel bothered about reminding you why we’re both here. You’re here for your grandfather, and I’m—”
He trailed off, looking suddenly uncomfortable.
“You’re what?” I prompted.
“Trying to do the right thing,” he said.
“So today was just an act?”
“No,” he said with a sigh. “For some reason, I seem to enjoy spending time with you.”
I smiled. “See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“No. But I’m not the only one who has trouble admitting the truth.”
I tilted my head. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“You and I both know you are excited about finishing the list with me. But you’re trying very hard to pretend you’re not.”
“Speculation,” I said, as if I was in the middle of a courtroom drama. The issue was that the prosecutors probably could’ve pulled out plenty of damning evidence to support his claim—especially if they had access to my brain.
“If you say so. When can I expect to see you again?”
“I’m going to go get a good, healthy dose of normal. And then, maybe I’ll consider moving on to item number three on the list. And just so your already big head doesn’t get any bigger. I want to be crystal clear about something. I’m willing to have fun where I can in all of this, but I still don’t trust you. In fact, I’m pretty sure you’d find some way to break my heart and suck the life out of it if I ever did.”
“Wow. Anything else?” he asked.
“Yeah, do you know how to open these stupid combination locks? I can never do it right.”
Landon asked for my combination, and then opened the locker. “A lacy pink thong?” he said, lifting it out of the pile of my balled-up clothes. “Was this for me?”
I snatched it out of his hands. “It was for the dream guy I hoped would come in and sweep me out of this nightmare.”
Landon grinned wickedly at that and leaned closer. “I could get used to being your nightmare.”
Something about his tone made my belly fill with heat.
Once again, I thought he was going to kiss me. No. The look he was giving me was more like he was about to strip me bare and devour every inch of me. I shuddered at the thought, and not because it was unpleasant. All I would need to do is lean in, to reach up and pull his face down to mine. I could feel it so strongly I knew it was true. He was just waiting for permission—permission to take me.
It didn’t help that he was still topless from our dolphin encounter, or that I’d barely been able to tear my eyes off the way his muscles corded and flexed with every movement. Every inch of his body was so full of power that I knew he could hold me down and keep me right where he wanted without even straining.
God. Why did that thought make it feel like glitter was trickling across my skin.
I took a shuddering breath. Not yet. Landon was hiding something from me. I knew that much, and I also knew that almost everything good that had ever entered my life had either wound up buried and dead, or gone up in flames.
Trust wasn’t something you gave away without serious, serious thought. And I trusted Landon enough to keep participating in this little dance of ours, but not enough for more.
“My nightmare?” I said, inching backwards to give myself more space to breathe—space that wasn’t occupied by him and that ungodly good smell of his. “Well, don’t look so pleased with yourself. I always have nightmares about really nasty public restrooms. So you can try to sound all sexy if you want, but, yeah.”
Landon straightened, but still looked like his mind was racing with dark, dark ideas. “If I don’t see you soon, I’ll come find you. William’s orders,” he added, as if it was an afterthought.
I grabbed the rest of my clothes, thought about saying one more smartass comment, and then decided it was better to just leave. Landon had a way of turning my sarcasm and attempts at humor into twisted sexual perversions. Worse, it felt like the more I resisted him, the more I could see some kind of growing, ravenous desire for me welling up inside him.
