Page 48 of Inside the Maelstrom: Part One
“I’m surprisingly okay, considering. I know you want to think that I’m some innocent little virgin, but I promise, I’m not.”
He rubbed shampoo into my hair, his hands more gentle than mine ever were. “Have many orgies?”
I tensed. Did he think less of me now? Like I was a slut? “Would it matter?”
Otto snorted, one hand slipping around my waist to pull me tighter to his body. “Viva, I love Hendrick, and that man is a bona fide manwhore who’s had more orgies than a rockstar in the eighties. Trust me when I say your body count means less than nothing to me. Turn and rinse.” I spun again, and he was staring down at me with his deep blue eyes. “But even if we were your hundredth, that doesn’t mean that sex can’t mean something different each time. It isn’t like building up a callus until you feel nothing.”
I let out a shuddering breath. “I’ve felt nothing for years, Otto. Feeling nothing wouldn’t be the problem.”
Now it was his turn to still. Fuck, I’d said too much. “Do you feel something?”
I shook my head beneath the water, my hair longer when it was wet and flowing straight down my back. “I didn’t say that either. I barely know you guys.”
It wasn’t a no either. I just hoped Otto would let it drop. He continued to look at my face, searching it for the real answer, but I tilted back my head and kept my eyes closed, rinsing out my hair for longer than necessary.
“If you do feel un-okay, tell me?” He tilted my head down so I was forced to look at him.
I met his eyes with a frown. “You’re a dangerous man, Otto.”
He leaned forward, kissing me gently. “Never to you, Viva.”
He was wrong, of course. Especially to me.
It was late afternoon by the time I emerged from the bedrooms, completely starving. The guys were all sitting around the apartment, even Evan, who was sitting on the couch cleaning his gun.
“So, the Librairie Jules Verne?”
Hendrick froze. “You still want to look for Nemo?”
I raised my eyebrows and ignored the slight note of hurt in his voice. “Newsflash, Hendrick, but your dick isn’t so magical that I’d forget any other hopes and dreams I’ve ever had.”
He pointed a finger at me. “That’s because you’ve actually never had my dick, Viva. Just you wait. You’ll be so dick-possessed, your head will spin 360 degrees like that kid inThe Exorcist. You’ll basically be a cock zombie.”
I snorted a laugh, and somehow, I found his insane confidence more humorous and less grating today. Otto was right; he did grow on a person.
I looked at Sampson, who was watching me with that unnerving intensity again. Finally, he nodded, standing. “Let’s go. We’ll grab something to eat while we’re out.”
He left the room, and I watched him go. Had I hurt his feelings? Did he want the sex to mean something more? Or maybe it was the opposite. I’d met guys like Sampson before—once the chase was over, the shine wore off.
While the guys went into the bedroom to get their stuff, I walked over to Evan, who was reassembling his gun. “Did you see anything cool while you were sightseeing?” I asked, plopping down across from him.
He slipped the gun back into the holster under his arm. “No.”
“Oh. Okay.” I thought we’d bonded after our drinking session in London, but maybe not. Maybe he was just doing his job, returning me safely to Sampson like I assumed he was ordered to do.
Maybe I was entirely wrong—maybe his opinion of me had changed somewhere between England and France, when we were speeding through a tunnel and Sampson was, uh, speeding through my tunnel.
I stood, turning away from Evan so he couldn’t see the hurt on my face, and walked over to look at the Eiffel Tower, right there in front of me. It was amazing. A hundred days ago, I could never have imagined that this was where I’d be right now. I’d been drowning, and now I was finally coming up for air.
Otto appeared beside me, dressed in a duffle coat with his hair still slightly messy from his shower. He kissed my temple, and I got the feeling that perhaps Otto was the touchy-feely type. It was… nice. My parents weren’t huggers, my ex-boyfriend had been extremely against PDA’s—except after sex—and everyone else had been a ‘hit it and quit it’ kind of setup.
This casual intimacy was new, but not entirely unwelcome. I leaned into his touch, and he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “What do you want to eat?”
I shrugged. “French food?”
Hendrick laughed. “You’re the cutest basic bitch I’ve ever met in my life, Viva. Luckily, I have just the place. I found it last time I was here in Paris.” He hesitated in front of me and Otto, then leaned forward and kissed me quickly. Then he kissed Otto, very much not quickly, and grinned.
Probably laughing at my stunned expression.
