Nik released me, pushing me away from him and I felt instantly cold from the loss of his body. I scowled and made my way to the edge of the pool and climbed out, pushing my long hair back from my face.
“I see you two are getting on like a house on fire still,” Alex laughed.
Marisha grabbed my towel and handed it to me, and I smiled gratefully and dabbed at my body. I was loathe to cover myself up when I knew Nikolai was watching me so intensely, and I’d noted that he still hadn’t made a move to get out of the pool. His trunks didn’t hide much, and there was much that needed hiding in his pants right now. Desire unfurled in my lower belly at the memory of him nudging between my legs, his strong hands on me.
“You know me, Alex,” Nik said from the pool, “always trying to protect your little sister from heat stroke.” His gaze slid to me. “And she did look exceptionally hot.”
There it was again.
The edge to his sarcasm that teased at more than just trying to piss me off.
Did he find me attractive? He’d have to be blind not to, but he’d only ever faked coming on to me.Fakekisses.Faketouches.Fakeheated gazes.Fakedirty comments. Nikolai had made it very clear that I wasn’t his type and yet that kiss in the pool and his hard length pushing at me wasn’t something that could be expressly faked...right? It was too genuine, too physical, to be a lie.
God, he was the most frustrating man on the planet.
“I was hot actually,” I snarked, slipping my sunglasses back on. I grabbed at the sides of my bikini and made a small adjustment, loving how his gaze watched my every move, and I made sure to make more of a show of it. Turning to adjust the string against my ass. “Thanks for cooling me off. Nothing likethe helpto assist a woman,” I said as I turned back to face him and found his heated gaze on my ass. He looked up at me immediately, glaring dangerously.
The help… he hated it when anyone called him that, especially me.
His smirk fell.
“You should watch your mouth, Kitty Kat,” he said bitterly, his eyes narrowed.
Finally, I’d hit a nerve. I hadn’t completely lost my touch then.
“And you should learn to keep your hands to yourself,” I bit out. “Or I’ll have them cut off.”
The air turned icy between us, a standoff as we returned to our more normal ways of hating one another. Nik swam to the edge of the pool and climbed out, no signs of an erection now. He stalked towards me, Alex and Marisha watching his every move. Alex didn’t budge, he trusted Nik, but I felt him watching us, his expression curious. I stayed exactly where I was, refusing to back down as he stopped in front of me and reached for a lock of my wet hair, wrapping it around his fingers.
“You should learn to be more polite, Katya,” he said, and something about his tone was dark.
“As if I’d ever take advice from a man like you,” I smirked.
His eyes narrowed. “A man like me?”
I pulled my hair from his fingers and lifted my glasses so I could look into his eyes, almost wishing I hadn’t, because looking into Nikolai’s eyes did something to me that I couldn’t explain.
“Yes, a man like you. You’re just a soldier, nothing more than a glorified bodyguard, so to speak. You’re not royalty like me and Alex, are you? You’re just the help. Now go fix me a drink.” I’d said it again, the thing I knew Nik hated most, and my stomach twisted, knowing that it truly bothered him. The dig wasn’t lighthearted or sexy.
Anger and hurt flashed across his face.
His jaw twitched, his eyes darkening further. If Alex was dark as the night, then in this moment Nik was the precursor to dawn. When things are so blackened that you wonder if the sun will ever wake again.
I worried that I’d gone too far.
Alex must have sensed it too and came towards us quickly. “Okay you two, time to cool off, again.”
But Nik and I were still staring at one another and if looks could kill…
I swallowed, my skin going cold from his angry glare and I opened my mouth to speak, to say something to break the tension.
And then it was gone, and Nikolai’s face broke out into a handsome sheepish grin as he tore his gaze from mine and looked at Alex with that devilish expression on his face that I loved.
“You’re right,” he said, his tone filled with amusement, “it is time to cool off.”
He grabbed Alex by the shoulders, and they tussled for a moment before both of them fell into the pool laughing boisterously. All personas of hardened mafia men were gone for the moment.
“Are they always like this?” Marisha asked, her tone soothing.
