Smoking Holt (10 page)

More so when Bella came bounding down the stairs and saw them standing next to each other in the kitchen. Her eyes narrowed.

Holt figured he’d better diffuse the situation and quickly. “So, who all’s coming this weekend?” A stupid topic, but the situation did not call for brilliance. Merely desperation.

“Drew for sure,” Cam said. “He and I are going to work on the boat.” He tapped his lips with a finger. “And Emily and Kaitlin.”

“Oh and Jamie,” Kristi added.

“Nice.” Yeah. Like it mattered. Only one person mattered, and she was glaring at him from across the room. It was going to be a bitch of a weekend, trying to stay across the room from her.

The microwave dinged and Kristi got her coffee, thankfully heading back to her boyfriend.  Cam took the mug and tasted it.

God.

Already?

They’d only been dating a couple
weeks and they were already sharing a coffee mug? That didn’t bode well for Cam’s bachelor status.

“Which room did you snag?”

Holt frowned at Cam. He knew why his friend was asking. The rule was, whoever showed up first got their choice of rooms. There were only two singles in the whole house.

Hell, that was why Holt had come early. To grab a private room. It was probably why
Cam and Kristi had appeared today.

“
I took Lane’s.” Hopefully he wouldn’t be sleeping alone.

Cam blew out a breath and stood. “
Okay. We’ll take the one in the basement then.”

Holt stilled. He quickly pulled up a mental image of the rec room as they’d left it. He had hidden all the toys. Hadn’t he? He shot a look at Bella. The same thought was playing over her face.

As Cam went to get his and Kristi’s suitcases, which they’d left by the door, Bella scurried over to the basement door and disappeared. He nearly laughed out loud. God, she was adorable.

And h
e loved that they shared a secret. As much as he wanted to bray it to the world.

She came back up a moment later, biting back a smile, and nodded to him
. His sense that they were bound together in an unholy—though very satisfying alliance—swelled.

Well, not as satisfying as it could have been, if Cam and
Kirsti would have waited for the next ferry.

“What do you say we go to Darby’s for lunch?” Cam asked and Holt nodded. Because hell, what else was there to do if he couldn’t fuck Bella silly?

“Great,” Kristi said. “We’ll just get cleaned up and then we’ll go.”

Cam and Kristi headed downstairs. Holt watched them go. When they turned the corner into the rec room, he stormed over to Bella and yanked her into his arms.

“Wh-what are you doing?” she squeaked, though her breath came out in a little ‘oof’ when her chest hit his.

“This,” he growled. And he kissed her.

It had only been ten minutes or so since he’d last touched her, but it had been far-too-fucking long.

He was gratified that her response was as feral, as hungry as his.
Clearly her passion hadn’t waned completely. He was glad to know it. Because she had come, several times today. He hadn’t. His cock ached like hell.

“Wow.” She pushed against him. Wiggled. “You are hard.”

He was, but she was pushing against the egg. That reminded him. He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to her, though he kept the remote. “Go clean this off, and then I want you to put it into your cunt.”

She gaped at him. “What?”

“You heard me. And you better hurry. Cam and Kristi will be back any second.”

“But we’re going out for lunch
, Holt. At Darby’s.”

“Yeah.
” He shot her an evil smile. “I know.”

“Holt. It’s a public place. You can’t ask me to wear that there.”

“Can’t I?”

She
fixated on the egg and paled. “But that would be torture.”

“I’m in agony, Bella,” he said. “Why should I be the only one suffering?”

The walk to Darby’s Bar and Grill was torture. Pure torture. Because as soon as she’d emerged from the bathroom with the evil egg tucked deep in her hoo-haw, Holt had reached into the pocket of his jacket and heinous vibrations had kicked into gear.

Oh, they were subtle and flutter
y, as though the egg was on the lowest setting, but she felt every one. She was still slippery and wet from their earlier encounter, and, with each step down the dusty road, she had to contract her kegels to keep the damn thing in.

It was absolutely impossible to follow the conversation between the other three, though Kristi kept trying to drag her into it.
Bella responded with one-word, clipped answers. She knew she was being rude—Kristi frowned at her more than once—but she really had no choice. 

She glared at Holt as they reached the edge of town. He grinned.

Good thing he was on the other side of Cam, or she would have punched him.

The
y reached Darby’s and Bella’s steps slowed as a waft of cigarette smoke reached her. Hunger whipped through her. A group of young men lounged on the benches in front of the bar smoking up a storm. Damn she wanted a cigarette.

Holt must have caught her mooning at them—the cigarettes, that was—because
the vibrator kicked up a notch. She stopped short. Winced.

“Bella. Are you all right?” Kristi asked.

It was all she could do not to snap back with something snotty. This wasn’t Kristi’s fault. Not in the least. Not the craving for nicotine. Certainly not the vibrating egg. She’d done both those things to herself.

“I’m okay,” she muttered, and forced her feet to move.

The interior of the bar was dark. It always was. It took a moment for Bella’s eyes to adjust. Honky-tonk music played on the jukebox. The crack of pool balls and laughter echoed through the room. She didn’t glance at the pool hall. She couldn’t. It would make her think of Holt, laying her down on the soft and scratchy felt and fucking her brains out.

Not that she had any brains left.

They turned left at the door into the dining room and headed for an empty table. Most of the tables were empty. Even though it was summer, it was Thursday. The real crowd wouldn’t show up until tomorrow.

Bella winced as she slid into the booth. She closed her eyes and focused on keeping that
stupid egg from slipping out. Holt slid in next to her because Kristi and Cam took the other side. The guys flipped open the menus Charmaine brought and scanned the offerings. Though they knew them by heart.

Darby’s was the only restaurant on the island, except for the little bakery on the corner
, and if it wasn’t breakfast, that place didn’t count.

“What are you going to have?” Cam asked the table. It was a rhetorical question
. Cam never cared what anyone else ordered. “I think I’ll have a burger and a beer.”

“Sounds good.” Holt
slapped his menu shut. “Bella? How about you? They’re still serving eggs.”

She glared at him.

“Eggs?” Kristi laughed. “Aren’t you vegan?”

“I’ll have a salad,” Bella
muttered. And, as an afterthought, “And a beer.” She was going to need one.

Charmaine came by and took their orders, looking bright and cheerful in her Darby’s Darlings apron. Charmaine would have
been beautiful in a gunny sack. Bella tried not to growl at her when the waitress set her hand on Holt’s shoulder as she chatted with them.

She was pretty sure they’d dated at one time. Or another.

Then again, if she growled at every woman Holt had ever dated, people would start thinking she was a rabid dog.

Something inside her shifted. Slipped. Nudged out. She paled. Her fingers tightened around her water glass.

“Bella.” Kristi studied her with a worried expression. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes,” she hissed through her teeth. She turned and glared at Holt. “I have to use the bathroom.”

He didn’t move quickly enough, so she pushed him out of the booth so she could escape.

She heard him chuckle as she hop-skipped over to the ladies’ room. And then the vibrator kicked up a notch.

Then two.

Bella was gone a long time.

Holt kept himself from shooting another glance over his shoulder at the back of the bar, but just barely. She’d better not have taken the egg out. He occupied himself thinking up scenarios where he punished her for that infraction while Cam and Kristi chatted about—whatever the hell they were chatting about. And then Kristi said something that snagged his attention. In a big way.

“Who’s that guy Bella’s talking to?”

His head whipped around like something from the
Exorcist
. He froze.

Bella was talking to a tall, blond
guy by the jukebox. Even as he watched, the guy reached out and touched a finger to her breast. Okay, not her breast. The douche was tracing the logo on her t-shirt, but still, his hackles rose.

He reached in his pocket and flipped the vibrator on to max. Just to get her attention.

She jerked, and then whirled around to stare at him. He made a tiny movement with his head, but it should have shouted volumes.
“Come back here,”
it said.
“Now.”

“Oh, that’s Ash Bristol.” Holt heard a buzzing in the back of his head that might have been Cam talking.

“What?”

“Ash Bristol. He’s our neighbor on the left.” He raised a hand to wave. Holt glared at him.
Because both Bella and Ash turned and headed back to the table.

“He’s kinda cute,” Kristi murmured. And then when Cam frowned at her, she added, “For Bella.” She didn’t have any response when Holt frowned at her.

But there was no more time for any frowning. Because Bella and Douche, um, Ash, reached the table just then.

“Scoot in,” she said, waving her fingers and he did. But he immediately wished he hadn’t.

“Why don’t you join us, Ash,” Cam offered. Cam was always offering shit like that. Why did he have to be so goddamn friendly?

Bella slid in next to
Holt on the banquette and nudged his hip to make room for Ash to slip in as well.

Holt didn’t like the way she was sandwiched between them. Mostly
he didn’t like the slice of bread on the other side of the sandwich.

He
glared at Ash and their gazes locked over Bella’s head. Holt bristled at the challenge in Ash’s eyes. He reached in his pocket to turn the vibrator up and realized it was already on max. Still on max.

Bel
la’s expression was wreathed in torment.
Shit.
With a grumble, more to himself than to anyone else at the table—as though they were paying him any attention—he turned it off. She collapsed against him in relief. “Thank you,” she murmured. And then—because why should only one of them be stewing?—she added a whispered, “Sir.”

Ash was a nice guy, and funny and Bella liked him, but she liked Holt’s warmth to her right even more. Though she engaged in the riotous conversation and laughed and chatted and pretended to be super interested in every word that dripped from his mouth, she was aware of only one thing. The steamy, sexy man on her right.

The egg swam in her juices—literally swam in them. She could feel the dampness in her crotch and hoped to God it didn’t look like she’d peed herself. Her body ached, throbbed with sexual tension. Because she was still wearing that halter, and her nipples were bare, they rubbed against her shirt incessantly. On the odd occasion when she moved wrong, they scraped against the table edge
, swamping her with agony.

If she weren’t here with her sister, she would drag Holt back into the bathroom, lock him in a stall and fuck him silly.

As it was, she didn’t think she’d be getting his cock any time soon. Even when they headed back to the house, Kristi and Cam would still be hanging around for hours—Cam never went to bed before ten. They’d probably try to start a game of hearts.

And Bella was horny
now
.

She
glared at Holt, annoyed that he was engrossed in a conversation with Ash and Cam about some stupid car race. It wasn’t fair that she should be suffering like this, while he was chattering on like a NASCAR squirrel.

So she decided to make him suffer too.

She opened her silverware packet and dropped her napkin into her lap. One of the things she loved about Darby’s was, even though it was a friendly, down-home kind of place, they still used cloth napkins.

Cloth napkins
would serve her well at the moment.

She eased forward—only wincing a little when her nipples scraped against the table—and put her
palm on his thigh.

He stilled. Stalled mid-
word.