“What are you doing?”
Instead of answering, I splash him.
He splutters. It’s the most undignified sound I’ve ever heard him make, and I’m cackling before I can stop myself.
He wipes his eyes. I splash him again.
“Sierra.” It’s a growl, but there’s a grin tugging at his mouth. The predatory gleam in his eyes makes my pulse kick.
I squeal and try to escape, but he’s faster. So much faster. His hand closes around my ankle and drags me backward through the water. I thrash and kick, but it’s useless. He dunks me with zero ceremony.
I come up gasping and immediately dive under again, trying to knock his feet out from under him. I might as well be trying to move a concrete pillar. The man doesn’t budge.
When I surface, he’s smirking. That smug, infuriating, devastatingly attractive smirk.
I splash him one more time, just on principle.
His hands find my ribs, and suddenly I’m shrieking with laughter as he tickles me without mercy. I’m twisting and writhing, trying to escape, but he’s everywhere.
“Let me go!” I gasp between laughs.
The sound that rumbles out of him hits me right in my core. Deep and rich and so rare that it feels like a gift. His laughter.
Our eyes meet, and everything shifts.
The playfulness bleeds into something else. Something hotter. I feel it the moment he feels it too, because his hands still on my ribs, and his eyes darken, and the air between us goes thick with wanting.
I throw my arms around his neck. Wrap my legs around his waist. His hands slide down to cup my ass, and his mouth finds mine in a kiss that tastes like chlorine and desire.
I open for him. Let his tongue sweep against mine. Press myself closer until I can feel exactly what this is doing to him, hard and insistent against my center.
His grip tightens. I make a sound that might be a whimper, and?—.
“Matteo? Hello? Are you here?”
I jerk back so fast I nearly drown myself.
A woman’s voice. Coming from the side of the house. Comfortable enough to just show up.
Jealousy slams into me with enough force to steal my breath. Acidic and ugly and completely irrational. The water that felt perfect seconds ago now seems to press against my skin, cold and unwelcome.
We never talked about this. Never discussed fidelity or exclusivity or what this fake engagement actually means. I assumed we were only seeing each other, but assumptions make idiots out of everyone.
Would Matteo invite another woman here?
Of course he would. He’s gorgeous and dangerous and probably has a different girl for every day of the week. I’m just the one he’s using to get to Viktor. The one who was stupid enough to catch feelings?—
“You look like you’re about to commit murder,” Matteo says.
I blink. “What? No. I’m just surprised.”
“Me too.” He pulls away from me and climbs out of the pool, grabbing his towel and wrapping it strategically around his waist. “I didn’t know she was coming, and now I have to hide my erection from my mom.”
I nearly choke on my own tongue.
His mom.
Hismom?
