Page 146 of Love Among the Ruins
It was true.
He was tense, so jacked up and ready to erupt from the sexual tension simmering beneath his skin, that he needed another outlet for his fizzed up frustration.
“Why do you feel tense?” Innocence poured from her gaze. “I thought ... I thought we were getting along fine.”
And that was the problem. They were getting on fine.
Too fine.
He had feelings for her he couldn’t extinguish, and that was a problem as huge as his erection.
“You should have gone back to the party, Dominic. You don’t have to babysit me. I’m not a child you need to take care of.”
“I’m not babysitting you. I’m only taking a goddamn swim, Eleni. Don’t be so dramatic.” The struggle to stop thinking about her, the constant fight in trying not to desire her, was killing him. It had turned him into an ungrateful prick, and he wished he could take his words back, but it was too late.
She had climbed out of the water and no matter how much he tried tonotlook, he couldn’t shift his gaze from her tiny black panties or the slim span of her waist. He wanted to bite that pert little bottom. Lick her all over, explore every nook and cranny of her body.
Jesus, no.
He squeezed his eyes shut.
Don’t be a douchebag like Ioannis.
He climbed out of the water, thankfully with his back to her, and grabbed a towel to cover the tentpole extending from his shorts.
* * *
ELENI
He’d had made it bitterly clear to her that he didn’t want to be around her.
She got the message.
She’d seen him surrounded by beautiful women earlier.
His world. His people.
She’d believed him when he’d reassured her and told her she looked beautiful, that she would be fine. She was fine, by his side,with him. Dominic made her feel special. Dominic had made her believe she belonged, but now, all of a sudden, he no longer wanted her company.
He’d tired of her.
She’d accomplished what she’d set out to do, what he’d paid her to do, to be his fake date. And now he didn’t need her anymore. She’d noticed it from the get-go, as clearly as if he’d given her the middle finger.
As soon as she’d jumped into the water, he’d backed away. Something had twisted in his emerald green eyes as he’d held her gaze; something she couldn’t grasp.
Had it been fear? Or something else.
He moved away from her each time she walked towards him and in doing so had made her feel as worthless as that guy had.
Maybe she had imagined it all—the tender way in which he’d unhooked her corset and the way he’d gently tended to her wound. And maybe she had crossed a line jumping into the water like that, then taking off her shorts.
You charge by the hour?
Ioannis might have been vile and repugnant in the way he put her in her place, but he’d been upfront about who he was. He’d reminded her of who she was, in the same way that Dominic was doing now that he no longer needed her help.
She didn’t have to stick around and suffer the humiliation.
This is what men did. It was true what her mother had said; men used you and when they were done, they discarded you.
