“I’m going to taste you,” I said, dropping my gaze to her legs. “There. Over and over.”
She gulped and blinked a few times before nodding. “Goodnight, Will.”
Without thinking, I leaned toward her and dropped a kiss on her mouth. I could taste myself on her and loved how fucking soft her lips were.
We had to talk, but after that, I was going to show her how sexy she was.
Chapter Seven
Lexi
This couldn’t be happening. Flirting with him, kissing him, being with him had to be a dream or something, because Will Slate was not into me. There was no way. Yet...Will sat a little too close at the cafe while Charley shopped at the next store down.
“You’ve been avoiding me. I’m surprised you’re not shopping with her,” he said, bringing his hand down on my thigh and squeezing. He released my leg just as quick, and my breath caught in my throat at the way he looked at me, warmly and tenderly.
“I haven’t been avoiding you, per se.” I took a sip of water and used the couple of seconds to gather my thoughts. “It’s...I don’t know, Will. This is a lot. Like, we’re fooling around for three more days, but we’ve shared things that have a bigger impact than this trip.”
“How so?”
I blushed cherry red and scanned the crowd walking by the cafe. Thinking about Charley seeing us touching like this got me sweaty. She wouldn’t understand what was happening at all, and while I hated keeping this from her… it was necessary until the trip was over. Then we’d go back to seeing each other five, six times a year, and Charley could keep me in the loop about his life.
My chest felt tight and heavy thinking about our situation that way, but it was the truth and I needed to remember that. This was him helping me out with my hang ups, not him being into melike that.“We’ve done stuff, seen each other naked. Kissed.”
“Yes, I’m aware. Thank you for reminding me.” His eyes flashed with desire, and he ducked his head as a couple of girls walked by with their phone pointed at him. The brief humor left, and instead, his expression was set in stone. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, and I glared at the two girls.
“Have you seen the photos? He’s huge.”
“God, I’d like to ride him.”
“She tried to get pregnant to keep him--hell, I would too.”
“Fuck off,” I said, my body humming with anger as they talked about him like he wasn’t even a person. The playful, joyful man I knew disappeared, and I hated that. “Go. Stop looking at him.” I stood up, the chair making a loud horrible sound as metal dragged on cement, but the two women ducked their heads before walking faster down the sidewalk.
Every person at the cafe looked at us now, and my skin was redder than a lobster as embarrassment made my knees weak. I shoved the flush of shame down though and sat next to Will, needing to check on him. I could overthink my outburst later. “Hey, you okay?”
When his gaze met mine, worry and vulnerability poured out of him. “It shouldn’t feel so dirty to hear them talk about me like that. I slept around early in my career, hell, I loved the lifestyle. But the camera, their laughter, it makes me sick.”
“I’m so sorry, Will. That woman broke your trust and deserves a fist in the face.” I reached over and put my hand on his shoulder. “No one deserves to hear that or to go through this. I’m furious thinking about the invasion of your privacy.”
“How the fuck can I trust someone again, you know?” His jaw tensed, and he stared toward the beach, the weight of the world on his shoulders. “It’s one thing to have crazed fans, but this womanplayedme. We were together, dating even. She met Charley.”
I felt like someone gripped my heart and squeezed with all their might. “You’ll trust again, Will. You’ll find someone who won’t hurt you.”
His razor-sharp eyes landed on me for a second before he parted his lips. Whatever he wanted to say remained unspoken because Charley came back and had enough emotional intelligence to read the room.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Fans started saying shit to Will,” I said, gritting my teeth. “I got them to go away.”
“Lex told them tofuck off,actually.” He barked out a laugh as Charley nodded and looked up and down the sidewalk. “You won’t find them, don’t bother.”
“I thought people wouldn’t pay attention here or care who you were. I’m sorry, Will. This shit shouldn’t be allowed.”
He sighed. It felt weird having my hand still on him, so I took my fingers off and made a fist in my lap. He let out a small grunt, but that couldn’t be from me moving my hand, since his sister wasrightthere.
“Let’s head back to the condo,” he said, standing up and waiting for me to do the same. He put a hand on my lower back and led us out of the cafe to join Charley on the path, and two things crossed my mind.
She didn’t think him touching me was inappropriate or give any indication that she knew I was into her brother. The second realization was that Will always put his hand on me like this when we got lunch or saw each other at Charley’s. This gesture wasn’t new, but his touch felt different. Maybe it was the way he dug his fingers into my skin or yanked my shirt back when I tried to walk faster.
