Blooming in the Wild Page 0,51
I need your help here.”
She pasted on the fake smile that made him want to snicker. “I don’t know what you’re up to now, big shot. But go try it on someone you haven’t insulted multiple times in the last two days.” She tried to wriggle away.
“Oh no,” he whispered, wrapping his other arm around her. “I’m not letting you go until you listen to me.”
Tanah scowled at them across the fire, and the others stared. Camille watched the two of them with a little smile playing on her face. Frank gave the two of them a searching look and continued to play.
“Quit squeezing my waist so hard,” Bella said through her freaky smile. “You’re going to leave bruises, and then I’ll have to grab your lilikoi and twist.”
His grip gentled instantly, although he kept his arm around her little waist. She could move fast, and she’d fly off the log in a Honolulu minute if he let go, he was sure of it.
“Try it,” he warned softly, inhaling the warm scent of her hair, “and I’ll throw you over my shoulder and take you somewhere I can spank your ass. That will be embarrassing for a corporate drone like yourself, yeah?”
She cast him one swift, fulminating look, her smile flat-lining. “Yeah, you’re a real sweet-talker, aren’t you, Girand? No wonder you have to beat the women off with a stick.”
“Aww, I’m sorry, Princess.” He stroked his thumb soothingly on her ribs. “You’re right. That was uncalled for.”
She shrugged, folding her arms across her middle and pushing at his hand under her other arm where the others couldn’t see. “Fine, what is the point of all this?”
“Oh, I’ve got one,” he crooned, turning his face so his mouth was close to her ear. “You know how your boss told you to keep me happy? Well, I’ve found the way, baby.”
She froze, and in a nanosecond, Joel realized how that had sounded. He chuckled, unable to help the deep sound of amusement. “Not that. Jesus, Bella, I can get women without threatening them.”
“I’ll believe that when I see it,” she muttered.
“Take a look across the fire,” he said drily. Tanah was pouting now, curled in a camp chair by Matt, her arms and legs crossed. Beside her, Cassie held up her phone and snapped a picture of Joel and Bella, and then winked at him.
“Well, why don’t you just take her up on it?” she asked, sounding genuinely perplexed and grouchy at the same time, but she relaxed, her back curving to match the hollow of his groin and belly.
“I don’t appreciate the feeling that I’m in danger of being molested any more than you did with your buddy Kobe.”
She snorted. “She’s a lot smaller than you, Girand.”
“‘The female of the species,’” he quoted under his breath.
The soft notes of the ukulele filled the dusk as she considered. He shifted, enjoying the warm weight of her in his arms.
“So you want me to pretend that we’re…we’re—”
“That we’re hot for each other,” he finished for her, grinning against her hair. “That we’re banging bones every chance we get. Exclusively.”
“Eww,” she muttered. “So romantic. And what on earth do you mean ‘exclusively’? Does she think you’d…go back and forth?”
“Ah—not what I meant. Those two girls are a bit more sophisticated than you may think. Seems they aren’t averse to a threesome now and then.”
She gasped, and Joel chuckled again, giving her a little squeeze of amused affection. Damn, Ms. Hawaii had led a sheltered existence. She was getting a fast education with this bunch. Kink and ménage.
He stilled for a moment, wondering suddenly if she could possibly still be a virgin. The deep, visceral thrill that flamed in his groin caught him off guard as he imagined being her first, her only.
Just like that, he was hard. And from the peculiar stillness that took her, he knew she felt it. Joel gritted his teeth, fighting the urge to flex his hips, and drive himself hard into the softness of her warm, feminine ass. He’d started this, to avoid a catfight, but he also wanted Bella. To get her, he had to go a little slower. She might have kissed him on impulse, but she was nowhere near as sophisticated as Tanah, or the much younger Cassie.
“Does that turn you on, hotshot?” she asked. She didn’t look at him, but her fingers tugged at his agitatedly, pulling them up, then pushing them flat on her waist. He wondered if she even knew she was