The Rivals - Dylan Allen Page 0,327

enough condoms. Do you know where I can get some around here?”

She gives me an acidic, contemptuous smile. “No, I don’t, asshole.” She yanks out of my grip.

I bite back a cackle and take hold of her arm again.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, feigned confusion drawing my brows down.

She doesn’t buy my act for one second and her lips curls in disgust. “I hope you and whoever you’re taking with you get a flat tire in the middle of the desert and have to walk for miles while coyotes chase you. And, I hope your dick falls off.”

I can’t hold my laughter any longer. It’s shitty of me to be so giddy about it. But I am. She’s jealous. And I’ve teased her long enough.

“It would be a shame if that happened because we’d miss swimming with the dolphins, bungee jumping, me eating your pussy when the sun rises, fucking it while it sets…”

“Wait, what?” She stops squirming and puts two hands on my chest and shoves me away.

I grin at the skeptical suspicion on her face.

“Are you teasing me?” she asks, clearly affronted.

“Yes. Captain Obvious,” I say.

She narrows her eyes and frowns in disapproval.

I drop a kiss on her sweet, puckered mouth. “You’re coming with me. Unless you want to stay here, staring out at that amazing view, instead of being part of it.”

I pull her into my arms, and she struggles, but when I nuzzle the soft skin of her neck with my nose, she melts a little before pulling away again.

“It’ll be great.” I press a kiss to her cheek, and she scowls.

“I haven’t said yes.” She stares at her linked hands resting in her lap.

“If you say no, you’ll regret it as soon as I’m gone.”

“Maybe, but I’m very adept at living with my regret,” she says.

She needs the trip worse than I thought. And my attempts to cajole her aren’t going to work, so I drop it and give it to her straight. “Listen, you have a lot going on. I’m not saying that I have the answers. But I think you need to really get away. Not just to bury your friend and lay around this boring resort. Let’s have an adventure.”

Her eyes dart to me and then back to her hands.

“It’ll be fun.” I nudge her, keeping my voice casual and free of the hope growing in my gut.

“When would we be back?” she asks. It’s only tinged with tentative exuberance, but a smile curves the corners of her full mouth, and I have to stop myself from pumping my fist in the air.

“On Friday, when the rest of my family is due.”

Her eyes bulge. “Your family? Like…your brothers? They’re coming here?” Each sentence is louder than the one before it.

“Yeah. My brother’s fiancée is throwing a surprise wedding here, and so, my whole family, except my mother, thank God, will be here on Friday.”

She covers her face with her hands and groans into them.

I knew this was coming. “They’ll be here Friday, and we’ll be discreet. It’ll be fine.”

She moves her hands from her face and eyes me with a skeptical frown.

“So, let’s say we do this. Then, what?”

“We go our separate ways,” I answer with the obvious.

“And, what happens when you move back to Houston, and we run into each other, and I’m with my husband.

I envision the moment she’s just referenced, and it makes me feel like my skin is too tight.

“It’ll be fine,” I say, ignoring the sensation.

She winces and looks away. Her shoulders hunch. “Maybe… we shouldn’t have sex while we’re away.”

I shake my head in vigorous disagreement. “I think that is a terrible idea, and I’m sure your vagina would agree.”

She doesn’t smile. “I think we should be clear about what this is. I may or may not leave my husband. I don’t want us to get confused…and, I would hate to hurt you, Stone. The way I did back then.”

It pricks my ire to have this compared to that. “I’m not that boy either, I don’t think I’ve got one foot in the grave, but relationships aren’t my thing. I used to think you’d be mine--.”

“You did?” She asks wide eyed with surprise.

“--when I was too young to know better.” I finish.

“And now?”

“Now…” I turn my gaze away, caught off guard by the direct question. I run a hand through my hair while I pick my words carefully. “Now, there’s some nostalgia for the past. But 99.5% of this is just a man who is insanely attracted