Finding Mr. Write (Business of Love #5) - Ali Parker Page 0,82

on the bed. He let himself fall onto the mattress too, and the bottle did a little bounce before rolling against his stomach.

He patted the bed. “Join me.”

I settled down onto the mattress and leaned back on my elbows with my legs still dangling off the end of the bed. Wes shifted closer and lay down. Once he was comfortable, I got comfortable and used his shoulder as a pillow. I let out a contented sigh and closed my eyes.

Just hours ago, I’d believed I would never be able to do this again.

It felt so damn good to be this close to him.

Wes kissed the top of my head. “Are you tired?”

“Not really.”

“Want to do something crazy?”

I opened my eyes and lifted my cheek from his shoulder to peer suspiciously up at him. “How crazy?”

“We should go sneak into the pool.”

I giggled. “The pool is closed, Wes. We could use it in the morning?”

“When everyone else and their kids are there? Tell me, why would we do that when we could have the entire thing to ourselves tonight?” Wes had a dangerous edge to his gaze as his eyes raked up and down the length of my body.

Suddenly, my whole body started to hum of its own volition, like it was matching his frequency. I swallowed. “I don’t know.”

Wes got up from the bed. “Come on. Let’s do it. We’ll make even more memories tonight to laugh about later.”

I propped myself up on my elbows once more and peered up at him from beneath my brows. “Memories of what? Swimming in a Hampton Inn swimming pool after closing?”

“Woman, put your damn swimsuit on and live a little, will you?”

Much to our surprise, the door to the swimming pool was unlocked. The lights were all off in the indoor pool, save for the ones actually in the pool, so the large indoor solarium glowed a pale blue color. Strange shadows danced along the walls as we crept barefoot across the cool tiles to the nearest bench, where we put down our towels and the two other mini bottles of liquor we’d taken from the mini fridge in our room. It was a little cool in here and my nipples showed through the thin fabric of my royal-blue bikini. Luckily, he had picked up a few items before he came after me since he didn’t have luggage.

Wes nodded at the pool. “Shall we?”

“You first.”

Wes shrugged before rushing to the edge of the pool and not so gracefully chucking himself over the edge into the water. I held on to the delighted squeal that wanted to escape me as cool water splashed all along my right side. Wes emerged, his hair completely slicked back, and gestured for me to join him.

“What the hell,” I said before following suit and diving headfirst into the pool.

When I emerged, Wes nodded approvingly. “Nice form.”

“I took swimming lessons until I was twelve and then I competed for two years.”

“What made you stop?”

“I didn’t like the pressure of everyone watching me. I was more of a team sports kid rather than a solo sport.”

“Makes sense.” He walked slowly toward me before reaching out and pulling me close to him. “I have an idea of a team sport we could play right now.”

My eyes widened. “Wes! We can’t. Not here. It wouldn’t be—”

“Appropriate?”

“Exactly.”

Wes frowned and gently swept two strands of wet hair that had gotten stuck to my cheeks away. “Well,” he said slowly, “how about you tell me when you want to stop and we can head back up to the room.”

It wasn’t a question. I was certain of it. It was a statement.

My breath hitched in my throat as Wes leaned in and kissed me. His lips were covered in droplets of water and his skin smelled ever so faintly of chlorine. He kissed me like he wanted to eat me whole as we backed slowly toward the shallowest end so he could lean up against the wall of the pool and I could wrap my legs around his waist. We stayed there, wrapped up in each other, tongues halfway down each other’s throats, until the ripples of water we’d made completely vanished and the pool grew still and acted like a mirror capturing the reflection of the ceiling above.

Wes ran both hands down my sides until he gripped my ass. He squeezed hard and I smiled against his lips, willing him to do more. To take more. Sure, I’d talked a big game about how we