Page 72 of Wilder at Heart
Nora extricates her hand and nudges me with her shoulder. ‘Go for it. I’ll go find the girls. We were being a bit antisocial, anyway.’
Jimmy and Eddie materialise behind Miles like they’ve caught the scent of a soon-to-be-lone female. Eddie winks at me. ‘Or we can keep her company.’
I stiffen. ‘Stay the fuck away from my girlfriend, you twats.’
Look. I know she’s not my girlfriend, okay? But she’s the woman I’m having a shitload of naked fun with right now, and no one else gets to touch her.
Or even look at her.
Eddie laughs. ‘I’m sure Nora can speak for herself. You’ll tell us where to go if you don’t like our chat, won’t you, Nora?’
My magnificent fake girlfriend tosses her hair over her shoulder. I gaze at her red mouth longingly. She looks incredible this evening. Her dress is simple—black, stretchy and totally strapless, ending halfway down her calves. It has some kind of gathering going on down the sides that shows off her knockout figure to absolute perfection. And don’t get me started on her skin. Lightly tanned, glowing from the body lotion I conscientiously applied to every inch of her beautiful body in our room, and so fucking lickable I can’t even?—
I won’t lie. I feel weird about leaving her with these douches, even for a few minutes. I’ve been dying to get my brother to myself, to bend his ear, but after the day Nora and I have had, I just want to keep her close. Especially because I know this little bubble we’re in, of being here together in one of my favourite parts of the world, will burst in twenty-four hours.
This afternoon in the sea was one of the hottest moments of my life. After all the sexual tension and aborted kisses and cat-and-mouse of the past few weeks, the mere fact of getting each other off so furiously, so desperately, was fuckingsmoking.
Not to mention, I had her shaking and moaning and coming apart on my fingers in the middle of the sea. She’s been so standoffish for the most part, up until now, so to be able to lure her into the sea with zero false pretences, only a straight-up proposition of what I wanted us to do to each other, was hot as fuck.
She’s ditched the games.
She’s given herself over to the inevitable between us.
She’s yielded to me.
And rather than making me run for the hills, it makes me want to stick to her like glue. To hold her tightly. To capitalise on this insane chemistry between us.
That’s what it is. Right? Chemistry. Pheromones. We’re drunk on each other’s bodies. On the way we can make each other feel.
It’s nothing more than that.
Anyway, if this conversation with Miles gets the ball rolling in my favour, and I uphold my end of the bargain and get her ex back for her, we’ll both be going our separate ways soon. So I’d better get used to it.
The idea makes my stomach heave.
‘I’ll tell you exactly where to go,’ Nora says now to the Percivals and pats me on the thigh. I relax. My girl can look after herself around these twats.
‘Let’s do it,’ I tell Miles. I brush my lips down the side of Nora’s face and drop a kiss on her jaw. ‘See you shortly, gorgeous. Don’t take any crap from these animals.’
‘Jesus Christ, leave the poor woman alone,’ Jimmy drawls as I follow Miles, sticking my middle finger up behind me.
‘This is a new side to you, mate.’ He hands me a G&T.
‘How do you mean?’ I know exactly what he means, but it makes me uncomfortable, for some reason.
‘Loved up. Attentive. Adoring. You’re like the Nora Wilder fan club.’
‘Fuck off.’
‘Don’t get me wrong. It’s cool. She’s a cracking girl, and I like seeing you like this. It’s how I feel about Saoirse, after all. It’s good to know my little bro is falling for a good woman, too.’
‘I’m not falling for her.’ I stick my face in the glass. It’s delicious—ice-cold and tangy, garnished with a huge wedge of pink grapefruit.
‘Could have fooled me. You can’t keep your hands off her. Or your eyes. When you guys crashed out on the loungers earlier, you had one big sweaty leg and one arm over the poor girl. She must have been sweltering. You can’t leave her alone for a second.’
This is news to me. We’d pushed our beds together when we came out from our sex-fest in the sea, but I didn’t know I’d draped my limbs all over her while I slept. And that’s having not even spent a night together yet as a couple. No pillow down the middle of the bed tonight.
I’ll probably glue myself to her all night.
