“Okay, fine. You’re hot. Does your ego need a boost that much?” The shot had me feeling bold, and I ran my fingers over his muscles. “I could spend hours on your body, and I’d bet money you know how to please a woman.”
He sucked in a breath when I traced his nipple and dragged my nail around his belly button. “Daniella,” he said, his voice husky and full of want. “Careful.”
“Of what?”
I stepped back and grinned, crossing my arms over my chest and admiring the first time I had seen Cooper flustered like this. “Why should I be careful when I’m playing the game you started?”
“You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Don’t I? I’m not a fourteen year old girl anymore who got kicked out of her only friend group because of her brother’s asshole best friend. So, I ask again, Cooper, why warn me off when you startedallof this?”
His eyes darkened. He took a couple of deep breaths before a woman walked up to him in a revealing suit. She was one of the women he talked to at the bar earlier, and I used her arrival as my escape.
I went up the stairs to get my cover-up and drink and was thankful for the reprieve. I hated Cooper Swanson and had no business teasing him like that.
But the same thing kept repeating in my mind.
He started it.
Chapter Four
Showered and a little sobered up, I had my hair styled and down to go with my backless dress for the fancy dinner. Juliet wanted one nice night out with the four of us, andEmiliano’srequired patrons to dress up. My black dress dipped low in the back, making me go sans bra, and it was the perfect combination of sexy and dressy. I bought it for a charity function at work and never got to wear it.
Only a tiny part of me was excited to see Cooper’s reaction. He had yet to return to our small room, and we were supposed to meet at the place in thirty minutes. While I wasn’t stupid enough to think he wouldn’t be hooking up with one of the gorgeous women here, a part of me didn’t want him to.
That part wasn’t large enough for me to analyze, because no world existed where Cooper and I got together. We fought, bickered, and most importantly, hated each other. I put on an extra layer of mascara and my brightest matte lipstick and had just spritzed perfume when the door opened.
His skin was tanner with bright red patches on his shoulders.He’s been outside all day.
“We’re meeting the lovebirds in twenty-eight minutes.” I lifted my hair and rested it over my shoulder as he trailed my movements with an intensity I hadn’t experienced from him, ever. “Can you be ready by then?”
“Yeah, for sure. I wouldn’t have been hanging out at the pool alone if I knew I’d be late.” He looked down my body toward my legs, and I swore his breathing picked up. I retrieved my keycard from the top of the nightstand and tried not to feel relief at the fact he hadn’t slept with anyone else, because that wasn’t my business.
The second I took a step toward the door, he snapped at me. “What are you doing?”
“Leaving? Letting you get ready?”
“Wait.” He reached out and gripped my wrist, stopping me from going any further. “Please.”
“Wow, did that hurt to say?”
“Don’t push me, Daniella.” His eyes flared, and my panties dampened from that look alone. His eyes narrowed with a crazed expression on his face.
Call me wild, but I wanted to see how far I could tease him.
“Or what?”
“Fuck,” he muttered, running a hand over his face. When he finished the gesture, his demeanor shifted. I wasn’t leading our game anymore. He was in charge, and there was nothing I could do about it when he pressed my back against the door. “Are you telling me you haven’t thought about that almost-kiss all afternoon?”
“While you were with other women? No. I haven’t,” I said through clenched teeth, not wanting to give anything away. My heart tried to escape out of my chest, and I was aware of how close his mouth was to mine, but I kept my face passive. “Are you saying you’ve been thinking about my mouth on yours?”
“Goddamn it.” He leveled his gaze as he put one hand on the door beside my face, caging me in and surrounding me with his smell of sunscreen and sweat and him. “Tell me to stop.”
“Stop what?”
“This.”
He trailed one finger over my jawline, down my neck, and right into my cleavage. I sucked in a breath, and my legs shook when he traced the outline of my pebbled nipple.
