Page 53 of When You're Home
Rhett scanned her body from head to toe, possessively doing inventory of the woman he had woken up next to that morning. She was wearing flip flops and a short, thin dress, probably a cover-up for whatever she had on underneath. Her hair was down and wavy, the way it got whenever she let it air dry, with a little braid trailing across the front. Her green eyes looked gorgeous, and she was wearing bright red lipstick that was guaranteed to command everyone’s attention.
He took another swig from his bottle as he tried to catch her eye. There was no way she didn’t know he was staring at her at this point. She was avoiding him on purpose.
“Hello, boys,” she greeted the group as the newcomers congregated around the steps of the hot tub. The same steps where he had made her come and she had sucked him off the last time they were in here together. Rhett let out a long sigh, but he knew no one heard him. It was drowned out by the guys’ response to her.
She smirked, looking around at the all-male occupants of the hot tub.“Mind if I join this sausage fest?”
“Come on in, gorgeous!” Cole replied. She walked over to one of the pool loungers and set down her cell phone and key ring. She made quick work of pulling off her dress and slipping out of her sandals before walking back toward them.
Of-fucking-course. She was wearing the same blue bikini she had been wearing last time they were in the hot tub together, the one that came completely undone when you pulled the strings at the sides.One of the other guys let out a wolf whistle. He felt his blood pressure rise to match the temperature of the water as she carefully lowered one foot into the hot tub.
“It’s not a total sausage fest. There’s more people in the house,” Fielding explained to her as he shed his own shirt and folded it next to Tori’s. He followed closely behind her, not leaving nearly enough space for Rhett’s liking.
“Oh yeah?” Tori asked innocently, slowly sinking her body below the water and floating toward the middle as she looked around. “Who else is here?”
Jake was the last one in. He lifted his chin at Fielding to indicate the other man should move down a spot so he could take his usual place at the left side of the steps.
“Lia, Tiff, and Cory are all in the sunroom,” Jake explained, reaching behind him for the Gatorade bottle he had mixed before he went on his self-proclaimed Tori Recon Mission.
“Yeah, and Wheeler’s girlfriend is in the living room watching TV,” Fielding shared. The idiot thought he was being helpful. He had no idea he had just tipped off a landmine.
Rhett had hoped Chandler would fall asleep and stay asleep when he brought her back to his house that afternoon. Things were going according to plan until Jake started blasting music through the sunroom speakers around nine. Chandler appeared downstairs and introduced herself as “Rhett’s longtime girlfriend” to each and every person at the party.
Tori smiled at Fielding as she bobbed up and down in the water, still floating around the middle of the hot tub instead of taking a seat along the perimeter. She finally turned her attention to Rhett, looking directly at him for the first time that night.
“Hi, Rhett.” A ripple of emotion coursed through him as he swallowed hard. Their bodies were always so attuned to one another, and tonight was no different, even if they were surrounded by six other dudes. Her gaze cut him deeper than normal. He knew she wasn’t here with good intentions.
Tori kept her eyes locked on him as she slowly moved through the water. It took him another breath to realize she was swimming toward him. He felt his dick twitch with the recollection of the last time they were in these same positions. What he wouldn’t give to reach out and possessively pull her body into his now…
“Whatcha drinking?” she asked flirtatiously, lifting her chin toward the Gatorade bottle in his hand. Rhett didn’t respond to her question. He was desperate not to give in to her games.
Now that she was in his space, he could see the glassiness in her eyes. By the looks of it, she had already had a drink or two. He silently cursed himself for not handling things better today. If Tori had been drinking, it was because of him. He did this to her.
“Are you gonna offer me some?” She pouted, sticking out her lower lip for emphasis. Rhett pushed down every urge in his body to pull her face toward his and bite down on that pouty red lip. She may have been tipsy, but she knew exactly what she was doing.
When he didn’t respond, she moved even closer. She reached out one hand and rested it on his leg, right above his knee. Her fingers ran back and forth along his thigh, teasing the hem of his swim trunks. Rhett flinched at her underwater touch, but he didn’t push her hand away. Instead, he shook his head slightly, sending her a silent but desperate warning. He was trying not to react to her. He couldn’t let anyone else see just how affected he was by her. He felt his heartbeat in his throat as he swallowed hard and opened his mouth to finally respond.
“I’d be happy to go inside and make you a drink, Tori,” Fielding offered, snapping them both out of the spell they were under. He had obviously been watching the scene unfold.
“No, she’s fine,” he growled toward Fielding while maintaining eye contact with Tori.
Rhett knew the valet guys well enough. He had gone to school with Teddy, Anwar, and the Haas brothers, and he remembered Cole was in all the same art classes as Tori at Hampton High. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust them to not pull something. It was more like he didn’t trusthernot to lead one of them on in her current frame of mind. Tori knew the power she could have over men—the power she had over him—and Rhett knew she was angry enough tonight to flex that power. Fielding was transfixed by her every move, but he didn’t realize he was just a pawn in her game.
“I’m fine? But I don’t have a drink in my hand, and I thought this was a party?” She tilted her head slightly so the ends of her hair dipped into the water. Rhett’s nostrils flared at her challenge. He had spent the entire day trying to navigate through this convoluted situation, and he just kept fucking it up. Why had he expected tonight to be any different?
“Fine. Here.” He thrusted the bottle into her hand, pissed at himself that it was still half full. “But you’re not going to like it,” he added. Giving her his drink was better than trusting Fielding or anyone else to give her something.
“Thanks, Ev.” She smiled at him again before closing her teeth around the tip of the bottle to pull it open. She took a long draw and swallowed, her face expressionless as the whiskey slid down her throat.
“So it’s a Jameson kind of night.” She sneered at him before taking the bottle and retreating back toward the waterfall across from the stairs.
Rhett glanced over at Jake, curious to see if he had witnessed their exchange. Jake met his eyes, and the look they shared told him that his best friend hadn’t missed a damn thing. Tori wasn’t herself; she was reckless, and she was looking for trouble tonight, whether that meant making it, finding it, or being it.
He looked back at Tori and studied her. Why had she come over here after all? Where was her head at? She still wasn’t sitting down, instead bobbing in front of the stone waterfall in the most enchanting way. She was shifting her weight from leg to leg in the water and taking regular sips from Rhett’s bottle. Every few seconds, she would move or laugh hard enough to rise up above the bubbles and expose the peaks of the bathing suit triangles stretched her over breasts.
She was engrossed in conversation with Teddy and Cole, but that didn’t stop her from glancing over at Fielding every so often. Haas hadn’t taken his eyes off of her since they’d gotten into the goddamn hot tub. If only that asshat knew Rhett had been inside of her less than twenty-four hours ago.
“Everhett,” a high-pitched voice carried from the door of the sunroom to the hot tub.
