Deciding my best course of action was to say nothing, I turned on my heel, about to hightail it back to my room, the one sharing a wall with the man now coming for me. Well, not coming for me but…after me. There would be no scenario in which Solo would be coming for me. Not now, not ever.
“Panther?”
I knew I should keep walking. Get inside, shut the door, and lock it for good measure. But what did my dumb ass do? I stopped and turned around—and immediately regretted it.
Solo was now up on the sidewalk standing opposite me. His gorgeous eyes locked with mine as though he were waiting for me to respond. But all I could do was look at those full lips that were so close, all I’d have to do was reach out and grab him to get a taste.
If we’d been any other people in any other place, I would have; there’d be no way I could resist. But the distant rumble of a plane taking off reminded me of who we were and where we were currently standing.
“What?”
“Can you at least admit, for one second, you were just as hot for me last night as I was for you?”
I eyed him for a beat, wondering what his angle was, because with Solo there was always an angle. “Why? It’s not going to get you anywhere. Certainly not past this door.”
Solo’s lips, those sinful lips, curved, making my dick throb a little harder. Christ, he was easy on the eyes. He made it difficult to look away.
“Now that’s where you’re wrong. It’s totally going to get me off. But guess what?”
Fuck, I was so not equipped to handle someone like Solo in my day-to-day life. Outside of work, hell yes. He’d no doubt be the hottest fuck of my life. But here at work, he was a temptation that would land me in a world of trouble.
“Tonight when I shout out your name, you’re gonna be able to hear, Grant.” With a wink designed to make my cock ache, Solo sauntered over to his door, unlocked it, and glanced back over to where my stupid self remained in front of the door. “Feel free to call out Mateo if you like, ’cause when it comes to…coming, I really don’t like to be Solo.”
12Solo
“YO, SOLO! GET your ass over here.” Gucci’s voice could be heard over the music blaring as I headed down the beach toward where my fellow trainees were gathered for tonight’s bonfire. With the first week of training under our belts, it was time to let loose, and the party tonight was our first chance to really hang out outside NAFTA’s walls. Personally, I was more interested in checking out a half-naked Panther, but I’d humor the others for a few hours.
I dropped my towel near a cooler and walked over to where Gucci was setting up long red sticks in the sand.
“I need you on my team,” he said, pushing one of the sticks deep and covering the base so it stood upright.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Gucci grabbed a couple of plastic cups and rose to his feet. “So, the game’s called Flick n Sticks. These suckers go on top of the sticks face down. Our opponents try to knock ’em off, and if they do, they get a point, but only if we don’t catch the cups before they hit the ground. Make sense?”
I glanced over to where Houdini and Whiplash were setting their end up just like ours.
“And what are we using to knock the cups off?”
“This.” Gucci held up a Frisbee, and I snorted.
“Please tell me this is a drinking game.”
“It’s whatever the hell we want it to be.”
I grinned and slapped a high five before heading back to where I’d dropped my towel, and then I dragged the cooler over to where we’d set up. A couple of the guys were busy building the bonfire for later, a gaggle of girls beside them; some of the others were in the water or grabbing the last of the sun. I didn’t see Panther anywhere at first, but then I saw someone rise out of the waves, black hair glistening, and felt my mouth water.
Shit, a dripping-wet Panther might be too much for me to take, at least in front of the others.
Before my dick could react to the sight of him, I grabbed a beer out of the cooler, popped the top, and drained half the bottle. Tonight was going to be a test of restraint. I could feel it. Panther had made sure we were never alone after our first day, so I’d had to settle for ogling him from afar, banking mental pictures to use at night. And while that was seriously hot, I was looking forward to a time when I’d get a taste of the real thing.
“Y’all ready or what?” Houdini called out.
I set the beer down and stripped out of my shirt, leaving on only a pair of board shorts.
“All right, let’s do this.” Gucci gave me a fist bump and we readied ourselves behind the sticks.
“Ladies first,” Houdini said, handing Whiplash the Frisbee, at which she rolled her eyes.
