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When Lexi finally recovered enough to even think about chomping down on that offending tongue, Curtis pulled back. He ended the kiss, his warm breath like a caress along her jaw and chin, and floated back in the pool, to a safer distance and deeper waters.
There was a moment of stunned silence. Lexi shifted Austin to one arm and reached up with shaking fingers, to her burning lips. Another moment of silence.
Then, cheering. Noel let out a loud whoop and giggled. “Yay, Uncle!” She screamed.
Curtis James stared her down, heat flickering in his sea blue eyes. Eyes bluer than the pool or the sky or any ocean out there. Eyes so much bluer than her own, which were almost grey. Eyes she could drown in. Eyes filled with heat and desire and hunger.
Austin giggled in her arms like he enjoyed being sandwiched between the whole thing. He splashed the water and cooed up at her.
“Again!” Noel demanded on a giggle.
“I- I think that’s quite enough for now,” Lexi stammered. Her hand was still at her lips. They were still burning. Her fingers were trembling. Her entire body was on fire. It was lucky she was in the pool because her legs were suddenly little better than the rainbow slime Noel proudly showed her the night before.
“Really? I’d be happy to do it again.” Curtis grinned at her wickedly.
Did his lips have to be so perfectly sensual? Did they have to just be planted on hers? Did her whole body have to be in complete disarray?
“No! No, that’s quite enough.” Distraction. She needed a distraction. “Uh- time for a snack? I should get you both out and reapply the sunscreen too. Don’t want anyone turning into a sizzled piece of bacon out here.”
“Bacon,” Noel giggled. “That sounds yucky.”
“And painful. Sun burns are not to be messed with.”
Austin glanced up at her like he was calling her on her bullshit. They’d only been out for an hour. Not long enough for the sunscreen she so carefully applied to wear off. Snacks though, that was the real kicker. No one could turn that down, not even an hour after breakfast.
“Snacks sound like a great idea,” Curtis chimed in, suddenly Mr. Eager when it came to the kids. Really, he probably just wanted to get out of the pool and do more flexing, this time soaking wet.
Lexi gulped. She couldn’t let that happen. She couldn’t watch him get out of the pool, his trunks plastered against his edible body. Damn it to hell, he should not be edible. People are not edible. Jesus. What am I thinking? What the heck is happening to me? Oh right. Curtis James kissed her. Freaking kissed her, and now, she was as useful as a wet, limp noodle. Right. She was female. She had ovaries and a heart and hormones and apparently all of them were conspiring against her to diminish the disgusted loathing she had for her boss. He didn’t leave a bad taste in her mouth at all. Not. At. All. In fact, he tasted good. Like mint and- and… man.
Without stopping to think about it, she turned her back and stalked out of the pool. It shallowed out at the far end, to a set of concrete steps. Lexi made quick work of them. She wrapped Austin up in a towel and set him on the lounge chair well away from the pool before she turned back and extended her arms for Noel.
Curtis, because he could be a real master of dickery, walked straight to the edge so that she had to bend over, her naval and below pretty much level with his line of sight, to pick Noel off his shoulders. Bastard. By the time she had Noel wrapped up in a towel and seated next to her brother on the lounge chair, she’d realized something. Curtis James wasn’t just a spoiled, entitled, trust fund brat. He might have had the company handed to him, but maybe he did do some actual work after all, as he claimed. One thing for certain, he was a very good tactician. He was very, very good at getting his way. Maybe not everything in his life was handed up to him on a silver platter. Maybe he did have to work for some of it before it offered itself up.
That was not going to be her. She wasn’t going to be the one on that platter. Offered up. To be devoured. Even if the thought of Curtis James’ hot, sinful, wicked, spoiled mouth on her body did some very wicked things to her in some very wrong places.
“Watch the kids,” she snapped at him, without tearing her eyes from Austin and Noel. “Promise me? I’m just going in to get some- some snacks.”
She waited until Curtis nodded solemnly at her. She might not want to make eye contact, but she wasn’t moving a muscle until he promised to watch those kids around the pool. Satisfied that they weren’t leaving that lounge chair under their uncle’s watchful gaze, she turned and retreated back to the safety of the house.
