Cora Carmack - Seeking Her

MAYBE MY MIND had always been made up, but when I followed Kelsey to some kind of rave at one of Budapest’s famed thermal baths the following night, I knew I wouldn’t be able to stay away from her.

She wore this intricate black swimsuit that wrapped around her body, accentuating the slim circle of her waist before it tied onto her bikini bottoms at the hip.

She was stunning.

There was a lot to look at. Plenty of beautiful, barely covered women. Roman-­style columns. Colored lights. Live music. Sideshow acts like fire breathers and a trapeze artist.

Still, I only watched her.

She was there with some girl she’d met in the hostel. They’d gone out to a bar crawl together the night before, and I kept my distance. Kelsey had seemed reserved. When she went home alone, an ugly knot of tension in my chest had unwound. And if her going home alone made me relieved, the thought of her with someone else burned my blood.

So when I saw her talking to a guy in the thermal baths, I didn’t hesitate. I started making my way toward her. Her hand was on his shoulder, and even that drove me crazy.

She saw me, and then practically fell all over herself to put her back to me in the hopes that I wouldn’t see her.

She wasn’t going to get away from me that easily.

The girl from the hostel pulled her aside and then stared openly at me.

Did that mean she knew who I was? Did Kelsey say something about me?

The closer I got, the faster my blood pumped. Maybe it was her or maybe it was my secret, but the adrenaline rush was the most powerful one I’d had since I’d been discharged.

When I stood behind Kelsey, her friend was practically gleaming with excitement. I leaned down to her ear. A wisp of her hair tickled at my neck, and I said, “Nice to see you again, Kelsey.”

She turned around, and I relished seeing her off-­balance. More than that, though, her closeness was electrifying.

“How are your cheeks this evening?”

She cleared her throat. “Uh . . . good.”

She just stared at me, like she couldn’t quite believe I was there. I held back a smile. Reaching an arm out to introduce myself to her friend, I made sure to lean in close to Kelsey. Our skin brushed, and she sucked in a breath.

Chuckling, I shook her friend’s hand.

“Hello, I’m Hunt. It’s nice to meet you.”

“I’m Jenny. Likewise. ” She was pretty. She had a similar build to Kelsey’s, but with dark hair and eyes. She could have passed for a local.

“Is that short for Hunter?” Kelsey asked.

I let go of Jenny’s hand and looked down at Kelsey. I still wasn’t quite used to having those brilliant green eyes directed at me. “It’s not.”

She watched my lips long after they stopped moving, and I nearly forgot all about why I wasn’t supposed to kiss her. She made me forget a lot of things.

“So your parents just named you Hunt?”

“Not exactly.”

“God . . . Vague much?”

She was frustrated. Good. That meant I wasn’t alone.

“There you go calling me God again.”

She shot me an exasperated look, and who knew that would turn me on?

Then her guy-­of-­the night moved right next to her, and that cooled my reaction. What if she was more interested in him? Not that she needed to be interested in me when I’d promised myself I wasn’t going to act on it.

If this was going to work, we needed to be friends. Maybe she would travel with a friend. I only had the rest of our stay in Budapest, though, to convince her, because I couldn’t accidentally run into her in whatever city she visited next, not without arousing her suspicion.

I glanced at the guy at her elbow and then the rest of the group she was with. “I didn’t realize you were here with others.”

Lie.

“You scared of a little competition?”

I laughed in lieu of an answer and was glad when she didn’t even glance at the guy trying unsuccessfully to get her attention.

“What about your other friends?” I asked. “The ones from the other night?”

She shrugged. “We weren’t really friends. But this is Jenny.” She pulled the other girl closer. Was that nervousness that I detected? That was new.

“Yes. We met. A few seconds ago.”

She blanched, and I enjoyed it entirely too much.

“Right. We’re staying in the same hostel.”

She jumped slightly, and I realized that the guy had touched her back. It was irrational and inappropriate, but I wanted to break his arms and use them as chopsticks. “Because we’re sisters . And it makes sense for sisters to stay in the same place.”

I raised an eyebrow. Sisters? Kelsey didn’t need to try that hard to get a guy’s interest. Hell, she’d had my interest when I didn’t even really like her.

Jenny clapped her hands together. “Oookay, I believe it’s time for drinks. I know I could use one . . . Kelsey?”

Kelsey looked at Jenny like she was the Second Coming. But then she looked at me, and she hesitated.

What did that mean?

Was it so obvious that I didn’t drink?

She let out a slow breath.

“One drink,” she told Jenny.

She moved closer toward me, and I knew by the look on the dude’s face the second she passed out of his reach. Barely an inch separated her bare skin from mine, and I was buzzing with it.

“Come with me?” she asked.

There was a roar in my ears that shifted and settled in my chest. Despite my friendship plan, I liked it very much when she looked at me like that, her bottom lip caught between her teeth.

“I would have thought you had enough to drink the other night.”

She frowned, and there I was, being an asshole again. I kept forgetting that she wasn’t as familiar with me as I was with her.

“It’s just one drink. My first of the night. Come have a little fun.”

I hesitated. It had been so much harder to be close to her and alcohol at the same time. Like the temptation was magnified. If I kissed her, I could taste both of the things I’d forbidden myself to have.

She said, “Or I can just catch up with you later.”

She leaned away, and I got over my hesitation pretty quickly. Temptation, be damned. I gripped her waist and pulled her back to me.

“Okay, let’s go.”

I stifled my thoughts of concern and told myself that I could handle it.

Her. The alcohol. All of it.

“Your new friend seems a little reluctant to leave you.”

She looked ahead of us to where the other guy had now joined the group around her friend Jenny.

“He’ll get over it. We literally met like two minutes ago.”

“I know. I saw you when you came in.”

Her head snapped toward me, and her expression was worth admitting that I’d been watching her.

“I really enjoyed that little spin move you did while you were trying to hide.”

“I wasn’t hiding . I just . . .”

She floundered, trying to come up with something, and it was so damn adorable.

“Okay.” She rolled her eyes. “So I was hiding. It’s not every day I make a fool of myself. I wasn’t exactly excited about rehashing that.”

“It wasn’t that bad.”

I didn’t know why it was so much fun to rile her up. Call it payback for her unknowingly torturing me for weeks. Or maybe it was the fire in her eyes.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

I raised my eyebrows in response.

“It’s a room full of women in bikinis. What do you think I’m doing here?”

Her lips twisted into something resembling a pout.

“I meant what are you doing here ? With me.”

We reached the stairs leading out of the pool. She stepped up and out of the water, and seeing her slick skin, her suit clinging tight to her curves, was nearly the death of me. I was turned on, and there was no way she didn’t know it.