Say You’ll Stay Read online

  “I’m getting in the pool.” He had to cool off. His body was on fire, every nerve aflame. He sensed her watching him as he unbuttoned his shirt and removed it, draping it over a chair. Then he did the same with his pants. Beneath them he wore a bathing suit tenting out embarrassingly. Hence the sudden need for a dip.

  The cool water was a good antidote. Not perfect. His erection didn’t subside immediately, but the water helped. In another world—one where his parents hadn’t been running a business, one where they’d been more familiar with American school sports—he might’ve been a competitive swimmer. He cut across the pool to Alyssa and pulled himself out of the water. “You brought a suit, right?”

  “Yeeees.” She drew out the word, eyes riveted on him, which didn’t help his problem in the least. “But I’m not wearing it. I’ll need a place to change.”

  “There’s tents beneath the statue of the dolphin,” he said, pointing across the roof. There was a shower back there, too.

  She glanced over. “Back in a minute. Meet you at the hot tub.”

  * * *

  It was impossible to hide her amazement that Marc had given her this rooftop experience for nothing. Where Zach had floundered, trying to figure out how to spend a few hours together without falling back on his money crutch, Marc approached the challenge with a sense of adventure.

  Alyssa padded back out to the pool area. It was also impossible to feel bold when her swim top was headed for her bellybutton. Her B-cup-at-best boobs weren’t up to the task of filling out Janelle’s green strapless bikini top. The cool night air wafted gently over her skin.

  Marc sat on the edge of the hot tub, his rugged form outlined in black, lower legs in the bubbly cauldron. “Hey.”

  Alyssa held her top as she stepped into the frothy water. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been in one. Her body warmed quickly, surrounded by countless bubbles. This was much more in line with the hot vacation fling she’d needed.

  “Feel better now?” she asked, kicking one foot forward, then the other. Blue light from below turned her body into a shadow.

  “Now that you’re here, I do.” He slid into the water. It came up to his mid-chest. He sank lower, but kept his distance.

  Clouds hid the stars above them. “I wanted to ask you, Marc…”

  Alyssa licked her lips, her cheeks warming, and not from the hot water. “How do you use the stars to navigate? We didn’t get very far into your explanation before we were...”

  “Distracted?” His voice was smooth with a little edge to it, like the whisky she hadn’t finished at the bar last night.

  She nodded, the curls pinned to her head dipping into the water and dripping down her neck. The jets caught the loose top like a wind catching a kite. Alyssa yanked it up over her floating boobs. It promptly began slipping again.

  Oh, the hell with it. She couldn’t be the first woman to go topless on this roof deck, and the bubbles would conceal her nudity from any security cameras.

  “You use a nocturnal. Now you can use GPS, but when I was getting my captain’s license, I learned how to navigate the old-fashioned way in case the equipment malfunctions.”

  “What if you get lost or the ship sinks? How are you not terrified by the idea of sailing across the ocean alone?” Alyssa kicked her feet in unison, like a mermaid.

  “I always figured I’d have company.”

  “Oh.” Of course he’d have company. The female variety. This was Marc.

  Yet he said he’d stopped playing the field after last summer. It would’ve been around the time she’d first brought Zach home to meet her family. She believed him now, or she wanted to.

  He pushed off the wall and came to rest beside her. The water whirled around his pectorals, his nipples just out of sight. “What’s ‘oh?’”

  “Nothing. I have another question.” She kicked her foot out again. His shot out and hooked around her ankle.

  “Ask anything you want.”

  “How do you see this working?” The words came hard, though she spoke them softly. “Us, I mean. After I go back. You’ve hinted at that a few times.”

  “Do you have to go back? I assumed the details will sort themselves out.”

  Not a good answer. “I either have to make the job I have work for me or find a new one.”

  “Why have a job at all?”

  “Because I’m not independently wealthy like you are, Marc.” She splashed him.

  “I think of it as being retired before thirty.” He splashed her right back. “So what? Your biggest expense is probably rent, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “I have nine apartments to choose from.”

  “I though you owned four properties?”

  “I do. One is a four-unit rental and another is a duplex. There’s the project house, which will have four bedrooms and a studio apartment in the back when it’s done, and the single-family.”

  “I—” Alyssa reached behind her back. The green bikini top drifted to the bottom of the pool and covered one of the lights briefly before disappearing. She’d find it later. “Now I want to ask you rude questions about how you financed it all.”

  “Slowly. Julian and my parents invested early. I just finished paying them off and refinanced the last property into a loan that doesn’t require a cosigner. Now I’m free to plan my sailing trip, or I will be as soon as the new house gets permits.” A confused expression crossed his face as he reached down and pulled up her bikini top. “Are you naked?”

  She grinned. “Maybe.”

  “You’re trouble.” The fabric strip hit the concrete with a wet plop. Then Marc reached over and pulled her onto his lap.

  “Aly. Wow.” He ran his hands up her back and over her naked breasts, then up over her chest and around her neck to pull her in close. His mouth demanded she open, and she didn’t pretend to resist. Alyssa pressed her tongue forward to kiss him deeply while arching her back.

  The deck below flooded with light as the door swung open to admit a more people to their rooftop paradise. They froze. Then, Alyssa scooted off Marc’s lap and pulled him in front of her. The top splashed into the water as she tried to feel how it went on. It was astounding how such a simple device could be both complicated and ineffective at its job. Marc took her legs and wrapped them around his waist.

  “I thought you’d reserved the deck for us,” she whispered in his ear as she tried to stifle a giggle. What an embarrassing situation.

  “I got us access. I didn’t shut down the whole deck. Play it cool,” Marc whispered, tickling her trapped feet. Alyssa stuck the bathing suit under her bottom and relaxed against his broad back.

  Five older women in thick white spa robes brought their wine glasses to the side of the hot tub. One discarded her robe and stuck her feet in the pool. “Mind if we join you?”

  “Not at all,” Alyssa assured them, running her hands over Marc’s muscular chest. She caught one of the women give him an appreciative once-over and winked. The woman smirked and turned back to her friends.

  The past week with Marc had pushed her far beyond her comfort zone. She’d never had a one-night stand; been on a sailboat—much less had sex on one; climbed a balcony to break into someone’s apartment; sat topless in a rooftop hot tub; or been on a helicopter before. Yes, the last one had been with Zach, but he wouldn’t have felt the need to impress her if she hadn’t moved on so quickly to Marc.

  But the hardest barrier she’d crashed through was intangible. She’d held her ground when Zach pleaded and cajoled and groveled. He couldn’t buy her heart with closets full of luxury goods, fancy vacations, and a social status she cared nothing about. This week, she’d stopped listening only to her head and started listening to her heart. It was telling her to trust Marc. Maybe they could wing it and the details would take care of themselves. But his impromptu offer was exactly what she didn’t want. However generous, she couldn’t accept being dependent on anyone.

  She needed her job if she was with Marc, fo
r the same reason that she’d needed it with Zach. She wanted a partner, not a savior. He’d asked her to abandon her responsibilities, and that was something she’d never do.

  17

  Marc sensed Aly brooding against his back. Her hands were busy exploring his chest, which was making the prospect of getting out of this cauldron ever more difficult. He caught her hand in his as she traced one finger up and down the indentations of his abdominal muscles. It tickled. Pulling her forward, he murmured, “Let’s get out of here.”

  “Okay.” Her arms disappeared, though his arousal was here to stay. It didn’t help that her tits rubbed across his back as she tried to get the bikini top on without attracting the notice of the older women. What a pickle.

  “Can you hold it together in the back long enough to get out?”

  “Think so.” Her skin glistened in the low light. Moisture from the pool curled the fine tendrils around her face.

  He got out first to retrieve a thick towel from the nearby stand, holding it out for Alyssa as she stepped out of the water like a nymph. Marc shook his dripping head. She was turning him into a pathetic, love-struck fool. He didn’t mind a bit.

  If it hadn’t been for their audience, he’d have joined Aly as she rinsed off in the rooftop shower. By the time they were dressed and headed back down to the lobby, he’d mostly regained control over his body.

  The elevators closed behind them. “How much time do we have left?”

  Marc didn’t need to check his phone again. “A little less than half an hour.”

  She took one very sure step forward. “This is a hotel.”

  “Yes. It is.” Another step. A third and she leaned in, her breath against his skin. Soft lips closed over his. Damn, he loved these shoes. Anything that put their faces this close together was all the fashion he needed.

  “We ought to be able to find a room somewhere.”

  His hand landed on her low back. Fine. It was the top of her exquisite ass. Who was he kidding? His thumb traced the indentations of her spine while his fingers splayed over the round muscles below.

  “No sex on dates,” he growled.

  “You get one rule. What’s it going to be? Punctuality? Or no sex?” She licked her way down his throat. Marc was suddenly lightheaded as the blood in his body hightailed to parts south.

  The elevator stopped with a ding sound. The door opened to the lobby. Alyssa stepped back and leaned against the opposite wall with a smirk.

  Marc leaned over and smashed a button on the console.

  “I’d been hoping not to use this.” He pulled a plastic key card out of his back pocket. His cousin had handed it to him with a grin. In case of emergency. The only reason he’d taken it was to avoid being rude. He’d flinched at the insinuation embedded in the offer, but he’d damn well earned his reputation, and the room was about to come in handy. His entire body tingled with anticipation.

  “You are a fucking boy scout, Marc. Always prepared.” Alyssa’s smirk widened into a grin.

  This woman was too much. He loved seeing her let go of her reserve, and watching her push her own boundaries did weird things to his stomach. He’d heard the term butterflies, but he’d never felt them before. His were prehistoric giants. Maybe everyone’s were.

  The door dinged open again. He trailed her gorgeous legs into the carpeted hallway. She glanced at her phone. When they’d finally peeled themselves out of bed that morning, Marc had taken her back to the bar, where she’d found it stuck between the bench and the seat of the booth.

  His hands shook as he slammed the plastic card into the slot. He’d be lucky to last five minutes. “How do you want this?”

  “Like you did with the necklace. Hard. Fast, obviously, as we’re short on time.” She tossed her sweater and bag onto a chair.

  “Rough, you mean.” Bullshit. Whatever Aly had read or watched, she didn’t have any real idea what she was asking for.

  “Yes.” She swallowed.

  If she was asking for it, she wanted to try. “Take your hair down.”

  Alyssa reached up to comply. A long, fat tail, dark from the pool, tumbled down her back. He raked his fingers through the cool strands, separating her hair into damp tendrils. The necklace dangled below, near the curve of her waist. A large mirror stretched along the wall above a heavy wood bureau.

  Marc gathered her hair and the necklace into a single long strand. Then he wound them around his palm until the jeweled knot at the front pressed into the base of her throat and her hair tightened against her scalp. “Too hard?”

  She shook her head, a fractional movement. Her eyes followed him, uncertain.

  “Tell me if you want to stop. At any point.”

  She nodded a little. The muscles in her neck softened.

  Marc took her arm and bent it uncomfortably behind her back until she gasped. “Walk to the dresser.”

  Alyssa stumbled forward. Having her completely under his power made him drunk with lust. He tugged her hair, pushed her forward, and bent her over the dresser. He let go of her arm in time for her to catch herself against the glossy wood.

  He pulled her head up. “You were naughty tonight. Wearing this dress with no bra. Going topless in the pool.”

  Aly’s eyes were dark. Her lips curved up. “You liked it.”

  “I loved it.” He kicked her feet apart and ground against her so she could feel exactly how much he’d enjoyed her risqué tease. “Pull your dress down.”

  He pulled on her hair hard enough to make her lean back against his chest. Aly’s attention riveted on his reflection in the mirror. Slowly she tugged the red fabric down over her breasts. One taut nipple appeared. The other popped out of its prison.

  The longer he stared, the harder his cock tried to escape his trousers. He let it out, fumbling awkwardly with his left hand, the right still wrapped in her hair with the beads biting into his palm.

  “Touch them.”

  Aly traced the outline on one areola with a painted nail. He nudged her legs wider apart and ran his hand up her thigh. “Harder.”

  She cupped her breasts like an offering. Marc shoved the skirt over her hips and reached for the vee at the shadowed crest. Found only skin and a small nest of soft hair.

  “You were really naughty tonight.” His voice sounded like gravel.

  “Terrible,” she agreed, unapologetic.

  “I should punish you.”

  “I deserve it.”

  Did she fucking ever. But they only had a few minutes, and he wasn’t letting her out of this room without a satisfactory resolution. Instead, Marc rubbed the tip of his penis along her sex. Back and forth.

  “Inside,” she begged, squirming hotly against him. “Please.”

  He yanked her hair, not hard enough to hurt but enough so she felt it. “Who won the contest, Aly?”

  “You, Marc.” Her breath a gasp, a whimper.

  “Me. That’s right. I own you.”

  “Nobody owns me.”

  “You’re going to give yourself to me, aren’t you? You’re mine because I won you.”

  “There was never any competition. It was always you,” she panted, grinding against him as he slid the head of his cock up and down her sex.

  “Say it again,” he ground out.

  “I always wanted you, Marc.”

  He rewarded her with the tip of his dick. Aly gasped and tried to tilt pelvis backwards, but the angle was wrong and he slipped out. Her frustrated gasp nearly made him come. He took his cock away and pulled her tight against his body. “Say my name louder.”

  “Fuck me, Marc.”

  He did as he was asked. She was so slick that he slid all the way home with a single thrust, taking every inch. He locked his hands around her hips and slammed hard and fast, like she said she wanted it. But he wasn’t going over the edge without her.

  “Show me your treasure,” he ground out, his breath hot against her ear. “I want to see your clit.”

  He pushed her against the edge of the desk.
The heels put her at the perfect height to shove her hips forward. Alyssa’s hand trembled as she reached down to part her groomed sex. The nails of her other hand dug through the cotton of his shirt and left grooves deep in his skin beneath.

  God damn. She was so pink and glistening, the pale nub glistening at the apex of her bright sex. Below, the underside of his cock was barely visible where it intruded into her rosy core. The rude sight wrenched him. It was base. Animalistic. Explosively hot. “Touch yourself.”

  Aly moaned and frantically complied.

  Oblivion beckoned. Marc took her with long, deep strokes, until her back locked, and she screamed his name as he followed her.

  * * *

  The back of her left hand accidentally brushed Marc’s as they exited the elevator. Instinctively, she curled her fingers around his. Alyssa was back in the white cardigan and fully dressed, still shaking from the massive orgasm that had rocked her five whole minutes ago.

  Happy, though. Especially when he locked his hand around hers. Who would’ve thought she’d be holding hands, out on a date with Marc De Luna?

  Alyssa idly watched the palm trees sway in the night breeze as they waited for the valet to return with Julian’s car.

  “Something nice for the lady?” A street vendor carrying a white bucket with individually wrapped roses approached a nearby couple, who shooed him away.

  “I’ll take one.” Alyssa fished in her clutch for money, the plastic bag holding Janelle’s wet swimsuit squishing coldly. She gave the man her money and chose the biggest red rose in the tub.

  When she turned, Marc was holding the BMW door open. “What’s that?”

  “For you.” She stepped in like the lady she most certainly hadn’t been tonight and relaxed against the leather seat.

  “Really.”