Taryn Belle - In Too Deep / Matched

“You look incredible,” he finally breathed, getting to his feet. He had meant to pull her chair out, but she beat him to it and sat herself down.

“Thanks,” she said with what seemed to be a touch of self-consciousness. She gave him a small smile that made the blood rush straight to his groin, and then she lowered her eyes again.

“Thank you for coming,” he started, feeling suddenly tongue-tied. When it came to women, they came to him. He wasn’t used to pursuing them, and even though he’d had a couple of longer relationships, they’d always been underlain by a feeling of temporariness. A mere distraction from a career that took nearly all of his time and energy to maintain. The woman sitting across from him was giving him the closest thing to a case of full-blown nerves that he’d ever experienced. “Like I said today, I never meant—”

“Forget it. Seriously. The lengths you’ve gone to to apologize have shown me you’re sincere. I’m ready to move on.” Nicola met his eyes again briefly, then she plucked the cocktail menu from between the salt and pepper shakers and started studying it. She replaced it and used her hands to sweep her hair off her neck and to one side. As he watched her, he imagined kissing the skin at her throat, trailing his mouth downward—“What is it?”

“Hmm? Oh, just…”

Fuck. He needed to pull himself together.

Thankfully, their waiter appeared just then, so they placed their order. After he left Nicola sat back in her seat, making no move to converse. Alex cleared his throat. “Can I ask you a rather obvious question?”

“Sure.”

“Why Moretta?”

Her expression changed immediately into one of…what? Retreat? “What do you mean?”

“I just mean that you’re obviously not from here. So what made you choose this island in particular?”

“A few reasons,” she replied, ripping the edge of her cocktail napkin into vertical, evenly spaced lines. “I moved here from LA, but I’m from Hawaii. I guess it reminded me of home.”

“Hawaii. What was it like growing up there?”

She seemed pleased by his question. “Do you know you might be the first person ever who didn’t react to that with, ‘Hawaii? Wow, nice! ’”

“I try to stay unpredictable.” He raised an eyebrow. “But since you brought it up…was it?”

She laughed. “Yes and no. Mostly no.”

He waited. There was a story there, and if there was anything she wanted to share, then he very much wanted to hear it. But she smoothly changed the focus to him. “How about you?”

He shrugged. “LA born and raised. Westwood. I’ve tried to fight my way out a few times, but it seems to have its claws in me pretty deep. My brother escaped to London a decade ago, and he takes a lot of joy in reporting how much better it is.”

“A rock-star brother. What’s that like?”

Alex shrugged. “Weird. Normal. Mostly all I’ve ever known—I was fifteen when he first hit it big.”

“I can’t imagine what it must be like to go through life in someone’s shadow like that.”

Alex looked at her in surprise. Nicola had just voiced what everyone else seemed afraid to, as if his ego couldn’t take such a frank observation. And it was true, of course—he had grown up in Dev’s shadow, and however successful he may have become in his own right, it could never compare to the brightness of his brother’s rare and phenomenal star. His parents had never tried to pretend otherwise. “Rarely fun,” Alex admitted. “I guess the only blessing is that I didn’t try to follow in his footsteps. I mean, have you ever heard of the younger brother of a rock star hitting it big?”

Nicola grinned. “Can’t say as I have. So what career path did you take instead?”

“I headed an import business until four years ago, when I took over the family company. It wasn’t really on my radar, but…my mother died unexpectedly and my father needed help.” Of course, this was only the abbreviated version of his father’s path to ruthless ambition. Alex’s parents started Echelon Media thirty-five years ago, and with a few failed businesses already under their belt, they worked their asses off to make it successful. Eventually, they expanded and gained momentum, even adding print media to their holdings. Then, right after his mother died, the company almost fell victim to a hostile takeover. Losing his wife and then nearly his company had lit a fire in Devin Sr. to buy up everything they could to ensure Echelon’s legacy…regardless of the constant strain on Alex to keep up. “My father wasn’t dealing well with his grief, so he basically put me at the helm and watched to see if I’d sink or swim.”

“Kind of the way you learned to swim?” Nicola’s voice was gentle.

“Yeah. Kind of like that.”

The waiter arrived with their drinks, so they both stopped talking. Nicola picked up her margarita and took a sip, then she laid her hand down on the table inches from Alex’s. He stared at it. Her nails were unpolished, but still long enough to taper to five perfect points. He watched as she bit her lower lip and released it again. Beneath her dress, he could see her nipples straining against the fabric. Had they been that hard before? No—he definitely would have noticed. He felt the blood in his extremities rushing toward the center of his body, creating an unmistakable heat there that only one thing could possibly quell.

Her.

God, he wanted her, and he wanted her right fucking now .

Nicola’s eyes met his and didn’t waver.

An electric jolt shot through Alex’s body. Then she lifted her fingers and lightly trailed them along the top of his hand. He shivered.

“I was just wondering,” she said, lowering her voice as she leaned in toward him. “If you felt like getting out of here.”

He was on his feet and signaling the waiter for the bill before the last word was out of her mouth.

OUTSIDE THE RESTAURANT there were a few people lingering at the entrance as they chatted or smoked a cigarette. Nicola still couldn’t believe she’d been as forward as she had been two minutes ago, but any possible regrets she might have paled in comparison to the urgency she felt to be alone with this man. To put her mouth on that spot right under his jaw she’d been watching all night, to take those fingers she’d finally gotten the nerve to touch and put them on the part of her that was already aching for him.

And he hadn’t even touched her yet.

“Over here,” Nicola said, taking Alex’s hand and pulling him around the side of the building toward the beach. He happily obeyed, falling in step beside her as they hurried along the wooden walkway until their feet hit sand. Once on the beach she tugged him up the shore a ways until they were concealed from view of the restaurant by a stand of palm trees. By that time they were both breathing hard, and it was only partly because of their brisk walk.

Alex turned to face her. It was almost dark out, but still light enough for Nicola to see her own eyes mirrored back to her. He reached out and brushed his hand against her cheek. Just a simple touch, but to Nicola it felt electric.

“I’ve been wanting to do that since the moment I saw you on the road,” Alex said softly. “And so much more.”

His hand slid to the back of her head, tangling into her hair. Nicola’s pulse raced with the anticipation of the unknown. Would his kiss alight her as much as his touch had?

Alex tipped her face upward and brought his mouth down on hers.

Oh, yes.

A helpless little moan escaped Nicola’s throat as she felt his tongue find hers. Slowly, their kiss deepened until it wasn’t enough anymore. Nicola wrapped her arms around Alex’s hips and pressed into them, feeling his cock stiffen. The rush of wetness she felt made her own feelings obvious. She wanted nothing more than to back up into a tree, have Alex lift her up and fuck her against it right then and there, but was she really doing this?