Page 167 of Alphas Like Us
Maximoff raises his phone to his lips. “Kendra,” he says. “You don’t need to come up with a manifestation on the meaning of the universe. Just send out a press release and explain that Farrow had to quit because he was a distraction in the hospital. That’sit.”
“It won’t help,” Kendra says. “But I’ll do it.” She hangs upabruptly.
“That was rude.” I bite into a sickly sweet pineapple slice. “On her part, not yours.” I lick mythumb.
Maximoff eyes my smooth movements. “I can’t blame her.” He places his phone on the bar. “This is the third press release in less than twoweeks.”
“It’s her job,” I point out, and I skim his taut muscles. “Regretting this trip?” I don’t want him to wish we stayed back. I’d love nothing more than for Maximoff to take pleasure in every moment of thisvacation.
No one else is in our private villa. We arrived five days earlier than the rest of his family, and the plan is to meet up with them later on their yacht, cruising around theMed.
Fancy shit doesn’t compare to being with Maximoff. Just here. Now, and I want to give him the most romantic getaway that he’s never had before. For five days, no kids running around, no siblings to worry about, and no meltdowns he needs to cleanup.
All of that mayhem, which we both love to face head-on together, will comelater.
“No, no regret,” Maximoff says strongly, standing up and swinging his right arm slowly like a pendulum. He’s allowed to stretch now, and he’ll do this fifty-five times aday.
As long as he’s not doubled-over in pain or puking, I’m in hiscamp.
He asks me, “Doyou?”
I stare up at the baby blue sky, tilting my head from side-to-side. “Never.” I eat another slice of pineapple and twirl the knife between my fingers, staking the blade in the cutting board. I almost start laughing at how much he’s staring at my movements. “You’re tooeasy.”
“You’re easier than me,” he counters. “I saw you checking meout.”
I smile into an actual laugh. Since we’ve been in Greece, only for five hours so far, I’ve made no effort to hide my attraction to Maximoff. Even if Wolf Scout’s ego could be brought down a couple pegs. “You are myboyfriend.”
Mylove.
He tries hard not to smile, and his brows bunch. “I could just be a figment of your imagination. Maybe I’m not even real. Maybe you’re notreal.”
My brows spike with a barbell piercing. “He wants us to be imaginary together.” I smile wider off his grimace, and I give him a hot once-over.
His form-fitting sunset-orange swim briefs display the cut and carve of lean muscles and mold his assets. But it’s his tough-as-hell confidence that magnifies his beauty, and there are times where I catch him shutting his eyes and soaking up thesun.
When he’s at peace, the entire world seems tostill.
I come around the bar, and his gaze glides down the ink along my muscles. My black trunks are above-the-knee length, the fabric looser than his bathingsuit.
Swiftly, I cup his face with both hands, and his chest elevates in a heady breath. “You feel very real to me, wolfscout.”
His hands ascend my abs, and he glances at the crystal clear pool behind us. Looking back to me, he says, “No paparazzi. No one knows we’re in Greece. It’s allprivate.”
I drink in the way he’s staring at me. As though I’m the only man on Earth, the only person he’d ever choose in the beginning and the end. And I toss his words around in my mind, figuring out what he’s leading me towards. “You want to walk around nakedoutside?”
“Kind of,” hesays.
“Kind of?” Irepeat.
“Maybe.”
“Gettingclearer.”
He smiles. “Yeah, I wantto.”
I love a good surprise, and Maximoff wanting to experience this uninhibited act is a surprise to me. I drop my hands off him, and I finger the waistband of my swimtrunks.
Maximoff tries to beat me at this, drawing down his orange briefs quickly. He steps out of them in under a second. Buck-naked outdoors. With so much confidence you’d think he does this everyMonday.
