He smiled at me, the smile that made my bones turn to jelly and made my knees want to cave in. He leaned in close again, but this time there was nothing sexual about it. This time he ran his thumb across my check, pushed the wild strands of hair that were hanging in my face aside, tucking some behind my ears and trying to push some back into my ponytail which had definitely come asunder somewhat.
“I’m really sorry you’ve had such a bad time with sex and dating.” He said it with such sincerity.
“Well, you know, what can you do?” I said sarcastically and flippantly, trying to make light of something that had not been light at all. He pushed the last strand of hair out of my face and then ran his finger over my lips. I closed my eyes and fell into the feeling of it, the slow, sensual feeling of him dragging his thumb across my bottom lip.
“You and I could practice a little more if you want?”
“Practice?”
He took my chin in his hands and tilted my face up to him. “Maybe we can break this curse together,” he said with a smile.
“Don’t joke—that’s exactly what a psychic told me to do once. Have sex with you again to break the curse. And of course all my friends are telling me to do that too.”
“I think I like your friends already. And I also think they’re right, because there are still so many things I want to do to you, if you’ll let me.”
“Hahah,” I laughed nervously. “A lot of things?”
“A lot.”
“Like how many?”
He actually looked as if he was counting now.
“Only six or seven come to mind right this very second, but there will be more.”
“Six or seven!” My words came out a little too loudly and he pulled back from me.
“Think about it. It’s up to you. But I know what I want . . .” He moved backwards, eyes locked on to mine with an intensity that made me shiver and then he ran both his hands through his slightly damp hair, pushing it back out of his face, slowly, deliberately. “You.” It was only one word, but I was sure there had never been a single word in existence that held as much meaning.
“I . . . um . . .” I tried to speak, but it was totally pointless. That one word had rendered my jaw too loose to move and my tongue too thick and swollen to form shapes around any words. So I just nodded at him. He nodded back and smiled at me.
“All right, then.” He reached for the door. “I’ll give you some privacy to message Sarah and your friends and discuss all of this in great detail, although this time, I’m pretty sure the messages are going to be a little different.” He gave me the sexiest smile before walking out of the closet and leaving me all alone.
I didn’t do dinner after that—my stomach was in too many knots. And, of course, as soon as he’d closed the broom-closet door, I messaged the group immediately. And, of course, there it was also apparently no longer up for debate: I was to have sex with him now.All-the-way sex.
And I don’t think there was any part of me left that was still arguing over that.
CHAPTER 37
Max
I woke up late the next morning. I’d barely been able to sleep, as thoughts of Ash and what had happened in the broom cupboard last night kept me awake, and hard, for most of the night. I jumped out of bed and climbed into my clothes. I was almost running late for a meeting with one of the lodge’s marketing team members, Beverly, to discuss all the elements of the boat and also the various lodges they’d partnered with, and to be honest, I was not looking forward to it. Before working here, Beverly had worked at an exclusive resort in Namibia, where some years back I’d booked it for a large energy-drink commercial, and one thing had led to another with her.
Technically, more than one thing. Several things might have led to several other things with her, several times. I’d only found out it was her a few days ago when we’d chatted on the phone, where she’d gotten somewhat flirty and suggestive. And had I not been consumed with thoughts of Ash, I can guarantee that I would have been equally flirty and suggestive, and would have probably been expecting one or two things to lead to one or two more when I saw her today. But that was certainly not going to happen now. In fact, since Ash, I had not thought of another woman at all.
I walked onto the deck. The sun felt particularly bright and hot today. The boat had stopped at a dock so Beverly could board. I ran a hand through my hair. I probably looked very disheveled this morning. Ash was running around working, and if I thought I’d liked watching her work yesterday, well, I really loved watching her work today. Especially now that I knew what she looked like when she came. She bent over to take something out of a bag and I couldn’t help but stare. She must have sensed me looking, because she turned and looked straight at me too. My chest tightened, my cock tightened, and I looked down at her T-shirt to see her nipples had hardened too and she did not pull the gaping neckline of her T-shirt up either. In fact, she locked eyes with me and bit her bottom lip and, God, that was it. I grabbed the banister and squeezed hard, trying to remind myself I had a business meeting now and I could not run down there, pull those shorts of hers down and bend her over the side of the boat railing. Her eyes drifted down to my shorts and then widened. I tried to adjust the hard-on in my pants to make it look less obvious, while Ash watched me with a smile. Moments later, Beverly was onboard, though, and I could no longer stare at the object of all my desires.
“Hey,” I said awkwardly to Beverly, who was already looking at me like a piece of meat she wanted to sink her teeth into.
“Hey, long time. You look great.”
“Uh, thanks.” She looked at me expectantly, clearly waiting for me to compliment her too.Shit this was not good at all.I was going to have to give off a very professional vibe today that would hopefully make it very clear to her that things were leading nowhere without having to actually say it to her face. The assumption most women made about me, because I was perpetually unattached, was that I was always game for anything. And that assumption would have been correct, right up until Ash had walked back into my life.
“You look . . .” I searched for the words. “Botswana suits you,” I said, and had no idea what the hell that meant. It was a compliment, though. Wasn’t it? She looked at me oddly.
“Insane heatwave we’re having,” I said, trying to steer the conversation away from physical appearances. But she did not give up that easily. The meeting took far longer than it should have: her eyes lingered on me when she spoke; her arm brushed mine a few times. She kept me as long as she could, explaining the most unnecessary details. I kept trying to make her hurry up, which she clearly misinterpreted.
“Looks like you want this meeting to be over as quickly as possible,” she’d said, twirling a strand of hair round her finger. “Have some otherplansfor when this is over?” She smiled coquettishly and I felt utterly stuck in something I did not want to be in, and knew that I was going to need to tell her soon. When the meeting was finally over and I walked her to the exit, I could feel an expectation boiling in the air around us.
