Dani who didn’t turn Theo’s head because he couldn’t ever bring himself to look away whenever she was near.
Despite the pool around them, her skin was warm. And soft. With one arm underneath her thighs, the other wrapped around her back, reaching around under her armpit—with his fingers grazing ever so slightly below that spectacular side-boob.
“Shit,” she said, wrapping her own arms around his neck and shoulders, seemingly oblivious to their skin-to-skin contact. “Do you think they saw me?”
Theo’s mind went blank. What was she even talking about? Oh right…the boat. How could her mind be on anything other than what was happening between them in the pool?
“I doubt it,” he said, more disappointed by the fact that she had a boyfriend than the fact that they’d missed a possible opportunity to get out of this mess.
“What’s going on out here?” Maurice asked from the edge of the pool. How long had he been there? “I heard splashing.”
“Oh, you know, two lovebirds taking an evening swim,” Dani said. “Hey, know where we can get something to eat?” she asked, releasing her hold on Theo.
Physically speaking, at least.
“Kitchen’s that way.” Maurice pointed.
“Oh good. You coming, honey?” she asked Theo, swimming over to the stairs and slowly walking out of the pool like a Bondgirl. Theo watched Maurice’s eyes practically bulge out of his head, staring at Dani as she strutted over to her towel.
Theo rushed to join her, glaring at Maurice when they finally made eye contact.Don’t even think about it, Theo’s eyes told him.
But as his eyes fixated on Dani’s swaying hips, Theo wondered if maybe he should be saying the same to himself.
Chapter
Six
Dani
“I told you, that’s never goingto work,” Dani whisper-growled once they were back in the bedroom, frustrated by Theo’s absurd insistence on what she was now referring to as “the bathroom bit.”
Why didn’t he want her help getting out of this mess? When had he become a solo strategist? They’dalwayshatched plans together.
“It will work,” he said, whispering into her ear from behind, still irrationally worried about recording devices despite his already having turned over the entire room unsuccessfully searching for one. “All you have to do is say you’re going to the restroom while they’re docking the boat back in Heraklion, and then slip out the back of the terminal building and run to the consulate.”
“You don’t think they will have wised up? What if they follow me into the bathroom?”
“They’re not going to followyouinto the bathroom. Besides, everyone has to use the bathroom. They’re not going to be too suspicious. Now maybe thenexttime I have to use the bathroom…” he joked.
She turned her head and glared at him. “This isn’t funny, Theo,” she said at full volume.
“Keep it down!” he commanded as forcefully as one could do at whisper-volume.
And Dani’s body instantly succumbed to his tone, like her insides suddenly turned to Jell-O. Theo stood behind her as he spoke into her ear, sending a delightful titillating sensation down her neck to her chest, buzzing through her nipples, tingling her stomach, and ending straight in her core. He was so close.
Too close, to be honest.
Could he feel her body clench or see her fists tighten around the hem of her shirt? Did he notice the hitch in her breath at the tickle of his beard brushing against her ear?
His hands gripped her waist, reminding her of how his hands felt when he caught her in the pool. They’d been so much larger than she remembered, wrapping from her back around her side, with his fingers grazing dangerously close to her breasts.
Now that she knew what his hands felt like on her bare skin, well, fuck. How was she supposed to sleep in the same room with him all night?
“I’m only saying,” she whispered, trying to steady her breath and fighting to keep from pressing her backside into him, “there has to be a better way. I can stay here and help.”
“Stick with the plan, okay?” he said.
Dani closed her eyes, imagining her arms floating above her head and reaching around his neck, pulling him toward her own. She could almost feel his soft lips planting delicate kissesalong her neck. For the slightest moment, she felt his fingers press into her hip bone and the pads of his thumbs graze the sliver of bare skin where her shirt rolled up at her midriff. How easy it would be for his palm to flatten against her stomach and dip below her waistline. Or for one hand to skirt between her skin and her panties, and the other glide up her shirt and cup her breast.
