Ares wasn’t sure how he was managing to command his motor skills because every functioning brain cell had migrated to his pants ever since he’d watched Cassie emerge onto the deck of the boat in a silk jumpsuit that bared her practically from throat to navel.
He’d hardly taken in the coloured lenses in her eyes or the glitter along her cheekbones making them stand out even more. The dark kohl around her eyes. Hair up in a braid and pinned to her head, making her look like a beautiful bohemian art student, exposing her graceful neck and that spectacular bone structure.
They were walking into the beach club now, famous for its legendary full moon parties that spilled onto the beach. Ares sent silent thanks up that it wasn’t a full moon tonight. He felt feral enough as it was.
He steered Cassie over to a roped-off VIP area and ordered drinks. They were looking over the dance floor—heaving with lithe bodies and arms in the air as a world-famous DJ worked his magic at the decks.
When champagne had been delivered, Ares handed her a glass and said, ‘Well, is it everything you’d hoped for?’
Cassie was staring around her, taking it all in. Ares hated the lenses dimming those blue eyes but it did make her blend in more.
She nodded. ‘Yeah, it’s pretty cool.’ She looked at him, ‘This is nothing new for you—I saw pictures of you coming out of places like this with my brother.’
Ares made a face. ‘It was more your brother’s scene than mine, to be honest. I’m not a dancer.’ Or a charmer, like Caius.
Cassie laughed and it sounded so light and joyful that it had a physical effect, rippling along his nerve ends.
‘Believe me, Caius cannot dance.’
Ares gestured with his head towards the dance floor. ‘They’re not exactly dancing, more like jumping around.’
Cassie rolled her eyes. ‘OK, Granddad, I’m going down to dance, or jump around, coming?’
Granddad.Ares swallowed down the urge to put her over his knee for her cheekiness. He’d enjoy it way too much. He shook his head. ‘You couldn’t pay me to go down there.’ And yet he’d pulled her close and danced with her in that bar the other night.
She stood up, long legs even longer in the spindly heeled sandals she’d brought with her in a little backpack from the boat. He watched her walk down onto the dance floor, golden and lithe and beautiful. Graceful. Regal. She was used to people parting to let her aside—he watched as it took her a moment to realise she’d have to push through the crowd and it made him feel something very protective towards her, because she wasn’t standing there stamping her foot. She was adapting to being a normal person.
She took such delight in things that he knew most people would have a fit over. Making her own food—sharing it with him, it had to be said—steering the boat. Living with no frills. If he’d thought she wouldn’t hack it on her own on a boat, he’d been sorely mistaken. He had to face the uncomfortable fact that even if he weren’t here, it wouldn’t have dented her enthusiasm for experiencing all of these littlefreedoms.
Finding a man to have sex with for the first time. Hot, acrid rejection at that thought filled Ares. And yet what could he do? He couldn’t forbid her to bring a man back to the boat if she so wished. Or to go off with a man and spend the night with him.
Was he prepared to stand outside some door while inside she was laying herself bare for some other faceless, nameless man to touch her and glory in all that stunning innocent sensuality?
Noway.
Ares looked down at the dance floor and it took a second to realise that he’d lost sight of her in the crowd. He kept searching for that distinctive blonde hair. The golden limbs. Glitter. Nothing. He cursed. He was losing his touch. This was the woman who had managed to evade her own security team after all.
Ares stood up and went to find her.
Chapter Seven
CASSIE WAS HAVINGa bad case of the ‘déjà vu’s. Two guys were standing in front of her and trying to ply her with drinks.
‘Come on,’ wheedled one. ‘They’re nice.’
‘Look, I’m here with a friend and—’ The déjà vu hit even harder when a large shape appeared behind the guys and an arm reached in, a hand wrapping around Cassie’s arm. ‘There you are.’
Cassie didn’t even bother to feign that she was annoyed Ares had sought her out. She said to the guys as she walked away, ‘By the way, it’s not cool to go after a woman and isolate her in a corner. It’s creepy, OK?’ They just looked at her, mouths falling agape.
As soon as she’d hit the dance floor, she’d known that there wasn’t one man there who could match Ares and then she’d been cornered before she’d realised what was happening.
Ares was dressed in faded jeans and a plain white T-shirt. Messy hair, bearded jaw. He made everyone else look as though they were trying too hard.
He brought her back up to their seats. In spite of being grateful he’d come to get her, she didn’t want him to know that. ‘Would you not do that, please?’
Cassie sat down. ‘I told you before, I can look after myself.’ So much for sneaking off for her very first tryst. She wouldn’t get as far as the door.
Ares’s expression was dark—surprise surprise. He said, ‘Some time I’m going to get you to show me exactly how proficient you are at self-defence.’
