Chapter 14

fourteen

Wrenlee

I decide on the white bikini for two reasons. One: I still have a little summer glow in my skin, so I don’t look like a ghost quite yet. And two: Cash picked it.

In my mirror, I feel a lot exposed, but I figure any bikini will make me feel exposed, so there’s no getting around that. I still have the sweater Cash gave me, so I pull that over my head and head out the room. As I climb the stairs to the second level, I hear the group laughing. Candace lets out a scream and I smile even as my heart thunders at the sound of a splash. They’re having fun.

Fun, I admit, isn’t something I’ve had since I left home. From the moment I moved here, it’s been nothing but work. I’ve existed entirely in survival mode, so letting lose—not worrying about how I’m going to make rent or afford to eat—it feels good. Like a weight has been lifted off my chest.

“Hey, pretty girl,” Kane is the first to catch sight of me, and I give him an awkward wave and a blush I can’t keep contained. Kane, I’m realizing, is a flirt.

Water drips from Cash as he lifts himself from the pool and it’s all I can do to keep my jaw from unhinging. The man is hot with clothes on. Without—he’s another thing altogether.

The man is ripped. Muscles bulge from—every inch of him—as he moves closer to me.

In my chest, my heart knocks. My stomach flips as he gets close, dropping his mouth to my ear to growl. “That’s mine.”

“W—what?” Is he mad I’m wearing his sweater?

“Your blush.” His hand comes up, and I feel the wet of it against my hot cheek. “You don’t give him this,” he warns. “You don’t give any man this. It’s mine.”

I blink, confused and a little alarmed. “You’re crazy.”

“You make me crazy.”

Is he playing with me?

He’s playing with me.

I shiver. It’s because he’s staring at me so intensely, but I blame it on the cold. “It’s cold out here.”

“Pool is heated.”

Is he for real?“Are you serious?”

“Yep. And the hot tub is hotter. But I’m hottest.” He finally gives me his crooked grin. “You won’t be cold.”

I peer up at him, not sure if he’s telling me he’ll be keeping me warm with his body. I don’t find Cash easy to read on a regular, but tonight, he’s especially hard.

Stepping back from him, I start to remove his sweater, entirely aware that his eyes are on me, waiting. When I drop it onto the chair next to me and look at him again, he’s biting his fist in a way that has my stomach twisting hard. A wrench of hot need.

I’m struck. Breathless.

“Beautiful,” he rasps.

The moment is ruined when a splash of water hits us both and I shriek, eyes darting to the pool where everyone laughs, but Kane stands. “You two are so wrapped up in each other, I’m almost jealous. Keep it up and I’ll be looking to adopt my own stray kitten.” He smirks wickedly. “Much as I like pussy, not sure I’m ready for just one.”

“Wow,” Candace says with an eye roll. “With words like those, it’s a wonder you get any pussy at all.”

I can’t believe she speaks like she speaks sometimes. She’s been around the guy’s way too long. I don’t even think I could say ‘pussy’ if there was money on the table.

I’m so focused on the group; I’m not paying attention to Cash. So I’m unprepared when he lifts me bridal style in his arms and runs for the water, cannonballing into the deep. My scream doesn’t have time to pierce air before I’m entirely submerged.

I break away from Cash as I swim to the surface, gasping in air when I do. He follows instantly behind me, reaching out and pulling me into his body as soon as he can touch the bottom, which is well before me. The man is a lot taller.

“Easy,” he orders when I try to push off him again. “I’ve got you.”

“You dunked me!” I accuse, warning, “I’m a vengeful creature.”

“I accept all forms of punishment but one.”

Twisting in his arms, I narrow my eyes at him. “What’s the one?”

“Distance.” He holds me tighter, pinning my body to his.

My heart skips and my breath snags. Tav makes a sound of protest. “It was bad when it was just Ian and Candy. Now that it’s you—” he groans. “Fuck, I need a woman. This shit ain’t fair.”

Candace laughs. “I thought Cash would be the last to fall, if it ever happened at all.”

“Really?” I ask, looking her way. “Why?”

“Bro doesn’t lock em down,” Kane says seriously, his accent coming through a little thicker than usual. “Scared they all want him for his money.”

I glance around, bewildered. “I’m pretty sure every penny has gone into this place.”

Candace snorts. “Do you even know who your boyfriend is?”

I stiffen, feeling Cash do the same behind me. When I shoot him a look over my shoulder, I see him shaking his head at his friends. Instantly, I feel like a fool.

“Um.” I swallow, trying and failing to disconnect from the band of his arms. “Apparently not.”

“Well.” Kane swims to the edge of the pool, hoisting himself up. “I think we need more drinks.”

Ian gives Candace a gentle push, and she swims to the stairs, following Kane inside. I feel like rocks have been dumped inside my belly as I settle against the prison of Cash’s chest. Tav and Ian start talking about a new song they’re writing as Cash swims us to a private corner of the pool.

When his arms loosen around me, I start to push away from him only to feel his hands on my hips, twisting me so my back is to the wall of the pool. The water is still too deep for me to touch the bottom without my head going under, the water lapping at Cash’s chin as he hooks me under my thighs, forcing his body between my legs to pin me there against the wall.

I’m angry and feel foolish, but even still, heat swarms my core and wet pools between my legs. My breasts brush against his chest and the friction in the water is enough to have my nipples getting hard. Painfully hard.

Why do I react like this to him?

“Don’t do that,” Cash warns, voice low and rough.

“Do what?” I pout.

He grinds his hips into me when I dare to look away from him, pulling an unwilling gasp from the deep of my throat as my eyes snap back to land on him. “Don’t be pissy.”

I glare at him. “I don’t like being made a fool.”

“You’re not.”

I scoff and his finger-points are like iron in my thighs as he grips me, shifting his hips against mine. That’s when I feel the hot, hard length of him pressing against me there. He grinds, letting me feel as much of him as our swimsuits will allow. I shudder, entirely unable to stop myself.

“Cash—” I let my eyes drift closed, trying to center myself. He’s doing everything he can to make me lose control in front of his friends, but I won’t. I can’t.

I can’t lose control with this man, not ever again. Look how far things went last time.

This man doesn’t know I’m a virgin. He doesn’t know that my experience is nowhere close to his. He doesn’t know that this means everything to me. Everything.

I open my eyes again, grateful for the buffer of his friends as I steel myself against the only man capable of melting me.

“What was Candace’s comment about? Who is my,” I lower my voice even more, but even I can’t miss the sarcastic lilt, “boyfriend.”

He stares down at me for a moment, slowly stroking the length of his desire against me. He can’t possibly feel how affected I am. We’re in a pool, after all. Still, the idea of him knowing how totally wet I am by this small act is sobering.

“I come from a wealthy family,” he explains simply, never taking his eyes off me. “That makes me a wealthy man.”

“That makes you the child of wealthy people.”

He smirks. “Wealth comes as it comes, Kitten. Either way, I’ve got it.”

“You weren’t kidding when you offered to let me out of this deal—and that you’d still help me—were you?”

“Got a change of heart?” His eyes search mine, brows bouncing in a way I’m sure is supposed to be enticing. But it isn’t. Not at all. Because past the flippant way he asks, there’s a dangerous undercurrent waiting to pull me under. “Want to leave now that you know I’m good for it?”

I shake my head slowly at the ice I see in his gaze. “No. I don’t want to leave.”

Fire chases the ice. He leans closer, his lips moving along the line of my jaw before he gets to my ear. I feel the point of his canine sliding against the shell, his voice edged with threat. “Good. I wouldn’t let you leave now, anyway.”

“Cash.” I try to pull back, try to look at him. He doesn’t let me.

“Mine, Kitten.” His fingers nip into my flesh in the sweetest, most dangerously possessive way. “Mine.”

I swallow hard. Then, feeling like I’m damning myself to certain heartbreak, I whisper, “Yours.”