The Bargain (16 page)

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Ignacio plans to release me tomorrow,” I said when he reached the end of the pool. Drops of water glistened like stars on his tanned skin.

His muscles tensed, but he didn’t acknowledge me. He dove back under the surface of the water, going back and forth at least six more times. Desperate for him to acknowledge me, to talk to me, I shrugged off my sundress, exposing my white bikini. I lowered myself into the pool, waiting by the edge for him to finish his laps.

“I wanted to say goodbye,” I said when he surfaced again only inches from me.

“You need to go.”

I ignored him. “You haven’t said one thing to me in five days.”

“That’s by design.” He sidestepped me, moving toward the steps exiting the pool.

“Stop.” I wrapped my hands around his biceps, refusing to let him walk away from me again, refusing to let him do anything but look me in the eye and talk to me. “Why won’t you talk to me?” He kept his head turned, not meeting my gaze. “You can’t even look at me.”

The awkwardness between us was palpable, and I hated it. For some reason, I had deluded myself into believing he cared about me. I shouldn’t have tried to talk to him. I should’ve stayed in my room and waited for my last hours in captivity to expire. I had read too much into the time we spent together, which was ridiculous on my part, given the circumstances of how we met.

I shifted nervously from one foot to the other waiting for him to say something…anything.

“Hattie,” he said, his gray eyes finally locking on mine. “Why’d you come?”

“You’re right, I should go. This was a dumb idea. I don’t know what I was thinking. If you wanted to talk to me, you had many opportunities to do so. I’m forcing you—”

“Shut up, Hattie.” He pressed a finger to my mouth holding it there. “I don’t know what you’re thinking.”

“That I should’ve stayed in my room. That I don’t belong here.”

“Neither do I.” He dropped his hands to my shoulders, and he had this lost look on his face. My heart twisted. “I’ve never felt comfortable here. I hated the summers I spent in this house. I hated my dad’s life, and I hated Rever. We were close in age, but we were never friends…more like polite enemies with an unspoken agreement to tolerate each other.”

His eyes looked translucent in the moonlight. I couldn’t tear my gaze from his face, and he didn’t look away either. My body soaked up the attention. Physical awareness zipped between us like a live wire, and a warm glow shimmered through my nerve endings. Instantly, I tamped it down, doing everything to stop it. I couldn’t go
there
again…for so many glaringly obvious reasons, not the least of which was my dignity.

I took a small step back, but he moved forward, and before I knew it he had me pressed against the wall, his legs tangling with mine beneath the waist-deep water. His arms circled my waist, shackling me against his chest. My insides jolted the minute our bodies made contact, and with that small touch I was already aroused, my body wanting his. My breasts ached. Liquid desire pooled between my thighs, and my heart raced frantically inside my chest, echoing wildly in my ears.

I buried my face in the crook of his neck, unable to look at him for one more second. I had wanted him, craved him, for the last five days, and now that his arms were around me, I was scared. “I’m going to leave,” I murmured against the side of his neck. “I just wanted to say goodbye, and now I did.” I took a deep breath, drawing his now familiar scent into my lungs for the last time. Then, I wedged my hands between our slick bodies, pushing him away from me forever.

Binding my wrists with one hand, he lifted my chin, forcing me to look at him. Really look at him. What I saw robbed me of thought and buckled my knees. It was too much. I squeezed my eyes closed. “No. You should stay.” He brushed a kiss across my lips, my forehead and my eyelids. With four sultry caresses, he tore down all my walls, crumbling any lingering resistance. “Don’t you want me?” He nuzzled my ear and tremors danced down my spine, setting me ablaze. “Isn’t that why you’re here?”

Want him?
I had never wanted anyone as much as I wanted him, and not just in the physical sense. How could he think otherwise? Panic warred with desire at that realization, and I froze. I didn’t know what to do. How did I move forward?

Then he kissed me—fully, deeply, desperately. I was cast adrift, senseless to anything around me but the push and pull of his mouth and the delicious swirl of his tongue as it chased mine in a circle of lust. If I didn’t know everything between us ended tonight, I would’ve have wept from the beauty of the moment.

I slipped my legs around his waist, locking my ankles behind his back, whimpering as my core collided with the hardness of his erection. His hands cupped my breasts over the small triangles of my swimming suit. I arched, inviting him to do more.

Not waiting a second, he unknotted the ties holding the back of my top together and slipped it over my head. He tossed it on the side of the pool and then his hands were back on my breasts, roughly toying with my nipples until I was breathless and aching with the pain of emptiness.

“Ryker,” I moaned, recklessly grinding my pelvis against his, against the thickness of his erection beneath his swim trunks.

He pulled the tie on one side of my bikini bottom and then the other, and they floated away from my body. His finger slipped inside of me, moving with wicked intent, in and out and back again. We were on a rollercoaster of desire and everything was moving too fast for my mind to process it.

“I missed this. I missed you,” he whispered, nipping the delicate edge of my earlobe. His confession spiraled through me, and my heart skipped a beat, even though I knew I should ignore his words. Pretend I didn’t hear them. Pray I unheard them.
It’s only tonight
, I reminded myself. Wanting more, claiming this meant anything, was insane. It would destroy me. Destroy my life. Destroy me for anyone else.

I unlocked my ankles and shoved his swim trunks down his legs, not wanting to wait another second before he slid inside of me. I didn’t want him to stop…to pull back. He’d done it before and I couldn’t bear it if he stopped. I needed it. I needed him. I needed closure to whatever we had over the last three weeks, and this was the way I intended to get it.

He anchored my legs around his waist again, but this time I felt every inch of him, skin on skin, solid and pulsing with unfulfilled desire. I lifted my arms, wrapping them around his neck, pulling him closer, begging him with my body to take what we both needed…what we both wanted.

Then, he drove inside of me, stilling for a second, not moving. We both blew out a long, exaggerated breath of relief, our foreheads touching, our eyes connecting, our hearts beating together in perfect synchronicity. I didn’t know what it meant. I didn’t want to know. I was afraid the knowledge would kill me.

“Ryker,” I murmured, sounding more than a little lost.

He nodded. “I know.”

He pulled out, pushed in again, and then slid out once more. I tightened my legs, pulling him closer, hating the split second where I lost that primal connection to him. He slid his hand around my hips, cupping my backside, and then he moved fast and hard. My back pounded against the walls of the pool, scraping my skin, but I hardly noticed.

Distantly, I heard the slapping of the water as it lapped over the tiled ledge of the pool, and the small noises of birds and insects in the jungle surrounding us. But most of all, I heard the sounds of us.

Skin slapped against skin.

Exhalations mingled into one solid stream of desire.

Moans chased moans.

I curled into him, trusting him to keep me afloat, not just physically, but mentally too.

Hot, glowing fire blazed through my body coalescing in my core. I was close. So close. My nails raked his back. An answering shudder wracked through his body. Our pleasure climbed to completion in unison, coiling tighter and tighter with each thrust and roll of his hips.

Then, I climaxed, fast and hard. I screamed, not caring about anything. Not the cameras. Not Ignacio’s security team. Not tomorrow. Not my freedom. Nothing except the feel of Ryker inside of me.

His mouth captured mine, drinking the tortured sounds of my pleasure as spasm after spasm rocked through me, each one milking him to his completion. And then he came, following me into oblivion.

I swallowed his strained growl as his body stiffened against mine, and then he bucked with the force of his orgasm, slamming me into the wall one final time.

Neither of us moved for a prolonged second, basking in the warm glow of a shared release. Then, his body sagged against mine, his chin resting on my head, and his weight nearly pulled us under the water. I reached back, bracing my arms on the ledge of the pool.

“Sorry,” he chuckled, taking a step back.

A satisfied smile on my face, I leaned against the wall and tipped my head to the sky. The sky was a maze of brilliant, shimmering diamonds on black velvet.

“It’s beautiful at night here,” I whispered without meeting his eyes.

“You’re beautiful at night,” he answered immediately.

Happiness, exhilaration, and exhaustion collided inside of me. I didn’t know if I wanted to swim a hundred laps or crawl back to my room and sleep.

He scooped me up in his arms, carrying me out of the pool.

“Where are we going?” My arms circled his neck, and I buried my face against his damp chest.

“To your room.”

“The cameras,” I whispered. Ignacio said he didn’t care what happened between Ryker and me, but I still didn’t want him to have any evidence to use against me at some date in the future.

“I turned them off.” He pushed the door to my room open.

“When?”

“Earlier tonight. Before I got into the pool.” His wet feet slapped against the terra cotta tiles.

“Why?”

“Because if you didn’t come to me, I planned to go to you.”

I tipped my face up so I could see him. “But you told me to go away and that we shouldn’t do this anymore. You didn’t want me.”

A grin lit the shadowed planes of his sharp-angled face. “I wanted you. I’ve always wanted you, but I needed to give you the chance to say no if that’s what you wanted.”

He let my feet drop to the floor, next to the bed. He stripped back the covers. “Get in.”

“Wait,” I said as I sat down. “Our swimming suits.”

“I’ll get them before morning.”

“Are you leaving?”

“No.” His eyes flashed to the clock, glowing with red numbers on the nightstand. “We still have five hours and forty-five minutes until you leave, and I intend to put every minute we have left to good use.”

My eyes widened, and he chuckled. “Make room for me.”

I scooted back, my eyes never leaving his.

Almost instantly, his body covered mine, his lips drinking me in, demanding all of me. And we were right back where we started, touching each other, devouring each other, taking more than either of us had the right to give.

Each frenzied kiss and wild touch tumbled into the next. His mouth consumed me. His teeth marked me, but I didn’t complain. I wanted him to claim me even if it was only for a night…less than a night.

Then, he slid inside of me for the second time that night, claiming me like I’d never been claimed before. Like I’d never be claimed again. Every thrust stole more of me than the previous one. Every wave of pleasure swallowed my regrets and any lingering ‘what ifs,’ because Ryker and I could never be anything except what we were in this fragment of time.

Then, like a perfectly orchestrated dance, we climaxed in unison, the agony and beauty of the moment making me delirious—deliriously happy and deliriously sad.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“Hattie.”

I rolled onto my side, pulling the sheets over my head.

“Hattie,” the voice said again. “You need to wake up. You’re leaving in twenty minutes.”

My eyes snapped open and then I shut them immediately, blocking the blinding sun streaming through the windows.

“Close the fucking curtains,” I grumbled.

“No. We overslept.”

“Ryker?” I said, opening my eyes again, squinting to bring him into focus.

Ryker was fully dressed in his usual black pants and black shirt. His hair was wet and his face was clean-shaven.

“I moved your suitcase to the car. Everything is ready for you to leave.”

“Crap,” I said, sitting up, the sheet falling to my waist, making me uncomfortably aware of the fact that I was still naked while he had dressed and showered.

“You don’t have time to shower.”

He handed me a stack of clothes. I stared at them, unseeing for a few moments.

“Let me help you.”

“No,” I answered reflexively. I needed to put some distance between us.

He ignored me. Instead, he snagged the clothes out of my hands and within seconds he started dressing me. First, he slid on my panties, then my bra and finally, my dress. The protectiveness and intimacy in his gesture made the corners of my eyes burn with tears I could never shed.

“You look beautiful.” He trailed a finger down my neck and along my collarbone. Our eyes locked, exchanging words and thoughts better left unspoken. Misery boomeranged through my body. Whatever we had was over, and I’d never see him again.

“You should put some makeup on your neck.”

I shrugged because I didn’t care about my neck.

“And comb your hair. It looks like you spent the night rolling around in bed.” He smirked as he handed me the comb from the nightstand. I ran it through my hair before tossing it on the bed.

He glanced over his shoulder.

“Wait.” I snagged his arm. “Are you leaving? Is this it?”

He smiled, but his eyes looked dull and flat. “Not yet. First, I’m going to kiss you. Then, I’m going to walk you to the car, say goodbye, and you’re going to drive away.”

“Okay.” My body swayed with the impending loss.

He swept a strand of hair behind my ear. “You’re going to meet Evan where highway 307 intersects with the road leaving the villa. Then, you’re going to forget about me, about what happened between us, and you’re going to give Evan his second chance.”

“No, I can’t.” I shook my head from side to side, nausea rising in my stomach.

He pressed to fingers to my lips. “You can, and you will.”

“But…” I protested.

He cradled my face with the palms of his hands. “But nothing, Hattie. What we had or didn’t have is over. Wanting or wishing for something else won’t change the future.”

Tears leaked from my eyes, and I didn’t bother wiping them away. I simply stood there waiting for the kiss he promised. I didn’t have another option. What he said was the cold truth.

His lips brushed across mine for the hundredth time in the last seven hours, but unlike last night, this kissed wasn’t frenzied or an invitation for more. It was goodbye. I followed his lead, tasting him, memorizing him, and absorbing the beauty of the end of us.

And then he released me, and it was over. Forever.