Finding It

6

STANDING FACE TO chest with a glorious set of pectorals, I couldn’t make my mouth form the appropriate greeting. God bless Bowflex and free weights and whatever other magic gave him that body. Jen was right … it was a work of art.

He said, “How are your cheeks this evening?”

Oh, you know, flaming.

“Uh … good.”

Good. My cheeks are good.

He stood there, tall and silent and nodding, with that perpetually clenched jaw. The tension between us grew thicker than the steam, and I just couldn’t understand why in the world this guy was standing across from me.

He’d seen me at my worst, and then he’d rejected me. Why come back for round two?

He slid closer to me, and I felt the flow of the water around me change. My body instantly responded to his closeness, and his cocky smile told me he could tell. His arm brushed my chest, and the tips of my breasts tightened. I made a strangled sound somewhere between the wheezing of a fat asthmatic and the squeak of a dog’s chew toy. In other words, the noise that came out of my mouth was light-years away from being sexy. He chuckled and kept reaching past me to extend his hand to Jenny. With his body invading my space, and my face close enough to him that I could see close-up the stubble on his jaw, he focused on her. “Hello, I’m Hunt. It’s nice to meet you.”

“I’m Jenny. Likewise.”

Even his name sent tingles down my spine.

“Is that short for Hunter?” I’d been wondering.

He pulled back from Jen, but stayed firmly inside my personal bubble. His face tipped down toward mine, and he murmured, “It’s not.”

“So your parents just named you Hunt?”

“Not exactly.”

“God, vague much?”

He smiled, and that smile reached into my chest and rearranged everything in me.

“There you go calling me God again.”

Where was a desk when I needed to slam my head against it?

Lukas chose that moment to reappear at my side, and one desk wouldn’t have been enough. I needed a whole fucking classroom.

Hunt glanced briefly in his direction, then at Tau and John standing nearby, before focusing back on me. He said, “I didn’t realize you were here with others.”

I grinned. “You scared of a little competition?”

He laughed, and the sound unrolled down my spine on a shiver. He looked at me like the idea of him having competition was absurd. And damn it if he wasn’t right.

He asked, “What about your other friends? The ones from the other night?”

I shrugged. “We weren’t really friends. But this is Jenny.” I latched on to her like she was my lifeboat.

He smiled. “Yes. We met. A few seconds ago.”

I would welcome Armageddon if it would shut my stupid mouth.

“Right. We’re staying in the same hostel.” A hand slid across the small of my back, a large male hand that didn’t belong to Hunt. Lukas. Damn it. “Because we’re sisters. And it makes sense for sisters to stay in the same place.”

Foot … meet mouth.

Jenny stood next to me, a peculiar look on her face. And I could imagine it was odd … watching me self-destruct. No need to visit Mount Vesuvius, I was my own natural disaster.

Jenny clapped her hands together. “Oookay, I believe it’s time for drinks. I know I could use one … Kelsey?”

Oh God, yes. I could use a vodka IV drip right about now.

But then I looked at Hunt, and remembered where alcohol had gotten me the night we first met. If I hadn’t been so drunk, things could have gone very differently. He wouldn’t have rejected me, my brain wouldn’t currently be a disaster zone, and I would have gotten him out of my system that first night.

But I also needed to relax. He had me wound so tight, that my normal cool, sexy demeanor was nonexistent.

I took a long, slow breath.

“One drink,” I told Jenny.

Then I was going to get things back under control. Life was giving me a mulligan, and I was going to take advantage of that faster than a quarterback on prom night. That is, me taking advantage of the quarterback, not the other way around.

I slipped sideways until Lukas’s hand fell away from my back, and I stood close enough to Hunt that I could feel his warmth even over the heat of the water. I said, “Come with me?”

“I would have thought you had enough to drink the other night.”

I frowned. “It’s just one drink. My first of the night. Come, have a little fun.”

He hesitated.

“Or I can just catch up with you later.” I moved toward Lukas, whose hand was already reaching for me.

I didn’t make it more than a few inches before Hunt’s hand was at my waist, pulling me back toward him.

“Okay, let’s go.”

Lukas frowned, but I wasn’t about to feel bad. Not when I was getting what I wanted. Just the touch of Hunt’s fingers on my waist had my heart sprinting, so I could only imagine what more contact would do. Lukas went to join Jenny instead.

She smiled. “Well, then, to the bar.”

I almost laughed. John was up ahead, no doubt trying to ignore the fact that his sister was now juggling the interests of three men, Tau included.

We followed behind them, and I took a steadying breath. I had no idea what Hunt wanted from me, but I knew what I wanted from him.

One night. Enough to erase the crazy in my brain, and get me back on track.

“Your new friend seems a little reluctant to leave you.”

My brows furrowed, and I followed his gaze not to Jenny but to Lukas, who kept looking back and forth between Jenny and me.

“He’ll get over it. We literally met like two minutes ago.”

“I know. I saw you when you came in.”

My head whipped toward him so fast, I was in danger of pulling a muscle.

He what?

“I really enjoyed that little spin move you did while you were trying to hide.”

I couldn’t catch a fucking break.

“I wasn’t hiding. I just …”

The words evaporated from my tongue. God, that sexy smirk was going to be the death of me.

“Okay.” I rolled my eyes. “So I was hiding. It’s not every day I make a fool of myself. I wasn’t exactly excited about rehashing that.”

“It wasn’t that bad.”

Those are always the words you want to hear from a guy you’re trying to sleep with … not that bad.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

His eyebrows lifted, and it drew my attention to his eyes, the color of a thunderstorm.

“It’s a room full of women in bikinis. What do you think I’m doing here?”

I tried not to let the sour taste of those words show on my face.

“I meant what are you doing here? With me.”

We climbed the few steps that led out of the pool, and as gravity pulled the water back down to the earth, my swimsuit clung tight to my skin. I turned to see him standing still on the top step, his eyes cascading down my skin along with the water. He shook his head, and this time he didn’t force himself to look away from my body like he had the night we first met. His eyes traveled down my frame, and then up again. The tips of my breasts pebbled, either from the cool air or from his gaze, but his eyes stuck there for a few moments before skipping up to my face. His voice rough and raw, he answered, “What was the question?”

I wanted to smile, but I was so turned on just from the way that he looked at me, that I couldn’t seem to remember how to command all my muscles to work.

“I asked what you were doing here with me.”

He stepped up out of the bath to tower over me, and he didn’t seem to have any issues controlling his facial muscles because his sexy smirk was back. “Oh, you mean you asked a stupid question?”

God, he thought he was so adorable.

And he was. Ugh.

“You still haven’t answered it.”

“Yes, well.” He reached out one finger, and collected a drop of water off my collarbone. “You make it hard to think straight.”

And that was an answer I would take any day.

Feeling a bit more in control, I turned to follow Jenny, looking back at him over my shoulder as his eyes trailed down my body again. I held back a smile and said, “Come on, soldier. You can finish staring at me at the bar. I promise I’m not going to disappear.”

His eyes flicked up to the ceiling, and he mumbled something I couldn’t catch under his breath. Whatever it was, I had him on the ropes. Point, to Kelsey.

There were three bars set up around the bath, which was good considering how many people were here. The group had managed to snag a few barstools at the nearest one and were ordering when Hunt and I caught up. I leaned over the bar, simultaneously allowing the bartender a good look at my cleavage while also giving Hunt a clear view of the ass that I had promised him as he sat on his barstool.

“Gin bitter lemon,” I ordered for myself, then looked at Hunt. “What do you want?”

“Nothing. I’m good.”

I rolled my eyes and said, “Make that two gin bitter lemons.”

In comparison to last night, I felt completely in control. Or I did, until I felt two fingers dip under one of the strips of my swimsuit that wrapped around my waist. Then I was tugged backward away from the bar into the space between Hunt’s knees. His hands rested on my hips, and my eyes fluttered closed.

This put every other night of my so-far glorious vacation to shame.

The stubble on his chin grazed my shoulder and he said, “Whatever happens tonight …”

Whatever. Whatever? Please let us be thinking of the same whatever.

“Yes?” I breathed.

“Don’t throw up in the pool.”

Damn it.

Point, to Hunt.