Captivating You (How to Marry a Billionaire #2)

Episode 45

EPISODE 45

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

Ariel

As we stand on the veranda outside the front of the mansion, Alex kisses me slowly like he did before. A simple sliding of lips and tongues together. I touch his cheek, scrape my fingers over his stubble. He groans into my mouth, making me shudder.

The kiss deepens, and sparks shoot through me as he holds me tighter.

Against every instinct, I break away.

“Ariel? You okay?” His eyes are wide beneath his glasses.

I nod. “More than okay. I just want to get farther away from the house.”

“Of course. I understand.” He takes my hand, and together we walk off the veranda and onto the lush green grass.

Flowers—red, yellow, pink, and white—frame the lawn, and of course in front of us the white sands and the blue ocean glitter against the setting sun. Palm fronds sway gently in the warm evening breeze and cast speckled shadows over a stone pathway leading to the sea.

I tug Alex toward one of the gardens. “Do you know what these are?” I ask, gesturing to the small white flowers that look kind of like the pinwheels I used to get during our Independence Day celebrations back home when I was a kid.

He walks toward the flowers, picks one, and brings it to his nose. “Mmm. Jasmine. Here.” He pulls me toward him and slides the small stem behind my ear. Then he picks another and hands it to me.

I bring it to my face and inhale. It’s sweet, almost like raspberry honey drizzled over the gardenias in Mama’s small flower garden.

“You like?” Alex asks.

“Yeah. It smells...perfect.”

“It also looks perfect against your beautiful hair.” He trails a finger over my cheek. “Want to walk down to the beach?”

“I’d like that.” I sigh, looking toward the ocean. “It’s a gorgeous evening.”

“It is.” But he’s looking at me, not at the ocean.

I squeeze my legs together. I’ve been horny for him since I stole that first kiss. But I’m determined not to go overboard like I did with Brett last night. Besides, Alex hasn’t offered.

“Did you enjoy your time with Heather this afternoon? You know, on the boat?” I regret the words as soon as I utter them. What he and Heather did on the boat isn’t any of my business, and I already know what he and Sienna were up to last night. I mean, we all know they came back without their clothes.

“I did,” he admits, “but that was just a... I hesitate to say it, Ariel, but it was a game, devised by Brett. You know that already.”

“Yes. I shouldn’t have asked.”

“No, you have a right to know if someone has caught my eye. I enjoyed my time with Sienna and with Heather. But to be honest, Heather isn’t really my type.”

And Sienna ? I want to ask.

But I don’t. Instead, “Do you have a type?”

He smiles, steps closer, and touches my lower lip. “I love a sexy mouth.”

Funny. That’s what Brett said attracted him to me first. My mouth. Even Evangeline noticed my lips and said I should play them up. They’re full and naturally dark, but I never thought they were anything special.

“Thank you.” Though he didn’t actually give me a compliment. “But what I mean is the kind of woman you like. Why isn’t Heather your type?”

He sighs. “She has a harder look about her. Don’t get me wrong. She’s beautiful, and I enjoyed getting to know her better, but I like the natural look.”

Right. Heather’s blue-tipped hair. What would he think if he knew my reddish locks were actually mousy brown? The highlights were also Evangeline’s idea.

“You, though”—he caresses my bare shoulder—“are all natural. A lovely young woman from the deep South.”

I have no idea how to reply to him. I’m wearing a sequined tube top—totally something Heather would wear. But I don’t think he’s talking about clothes.

He thinks I’m some sweet and innocent southern angel, and I’m totally not. I did wait until adulthood to lose my virginity, but Nelson stripped it from me without any bells or whistles, and after that, I was more discriminating. But I’m hardly some Southern belle.

“Tell me what makes you tick, Ariel.”

I wish an intelligent—or at least a funny—answer would come to me, but it doesn’t.

“I love animals,” I finally say. “I like to fish. At least I did when I was a kid. I haven’t been in a while.”

His hazel eyes sparkle. “I love fishing.”

“You do?” My heart leaps.

“Yeah. Nothing better. Sometimes when I have writer’s block, I head over to Bayou St. John. It’s right in New Orleans. I grab a good spot and cast my line and take in the beauty of the surroundings. It refreshes me, and it never fails. I go home, and the words flow. In fact, I wrote the climactic scene in Love’s Dark Promise right after a fishing excursion, and it turned out to be my best-selling book of all time.”

“That’s so cool!”

“It kind of is,” he agrees, his eyes crinkling.

“What else do you like to do? Besides fishing?”

“Hiking, swimming, traveling...” He narrows his gaze at me. “Wait a minute.”

“What?”

“I asked what made you tick, but I’m doing all the talking.” He laughs.

He figured me out. It’s not all my fault, though. Evangeline told us to let the men talk because men love to talk about themselves. Of course, she also told us to be forthcoming, answer their questions, so they could get to know us.

“I told you. I love animals. I like fishing.”

“What else? Tell me what you do on a weekend in your hometown, Ariel.”

Getting drunk with Jazz probably isn’t the answer he’s looking for, and I don’t do that as much anymore anyway. I work six days a week most weeks to get the overtime. Probably also not what he’s looking for.

I sigh. “On weekends? I usually work one day. And then I relax, help Mama around the house. But it’s not like I need to live there. I pay rent, and I help her. She was in a car accident a few years ago and she has some pain. She has a desk job, but housework is hard for her. She still gardens though. It’s her passion.”

His lips curve slowly upward into a smile. A sincere smile. His entire face lights up. “Ariel Tanner, you are an astounding woman.”

“I am?”

“You are. Working so hard, helping your mother. Hasn’t anyone ever told you that?”

Has anyone? I get told I’m pretty. That I’m hot. Even the occasional beautiful. I get a few amazings after sex. But astounding? Not once.

“I don’t think so,” I say honestly.

“I’m proud to be the first.” He takes my hand. “Let’s take that walk to the beach.”

We don’t talk much, and it doesn’t seem odd at all. The silence is nice, with the ocean waves crashing in the distance. Some kind of bird makes a high-pitched call as the sun finally eases past the horizon in the twilight.

When we get to the sand, I kick off my silver sandals and Alex removes his flip flops.

“You want to walk to the water?” Alex asks.

Do I? Not really. I want to kiss him again. I want his firm lips all over me. I want him between my legs, the way Brett was last night.

I want...

Infatuation isn’t love.

But also...

Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want.

Lying on the beach with Alex would only remind me of last night with Brett, and I don’t want that. I want tonight to be about Alex and me. Alex—who isn’t anything like I thought he’d be.

I like him. Truly like him as a person. He makes me smile and laugh. And he makes me feel good about myself. Not about my beauty—though he does that too—but about me . About Ariel.

“You know what?” I say. “I’d like to invite you back to the house. To my room.”

He slides a finger across my chest, almost going under my tube top. “I’d like that. I’d like that very much, Ariel.”

I melt into him and give him a hug. A warm hug. Because as horny as I am, I’m also feeling the bud of something else. Something...more. I don’t know if Alex is feeling the same thing, but perhaps I’ll find out.

We walk the few steps back to the stone pathway and retrieve our shoes. “Let’s walk around to the back,” Alex says. “I want to enjoy looking at you in the moonlight a few moments longer.”

I warm all over and slide my hand into his. Again, the silence between us isn’t even slightly awkward. We walk together, our hands slightly swinging, and when we reach the path that leads to the courtyard, Alex turns and gazes into my eyes.

“I’m looking forward to this,” he says.

“So am I.” I melt into him as he lowers his head. I tip my chin to meet his kiss, my pussy aching, when I glance over Alex’s shoulder as two figures rush past.

“Hmm...” I murmur, touching my lips to his softly.

“What?” he mumbles, his lips tickling mine.

“River,” I whisper. “And Emily .”

But that’s the last thought I have as I part my lips and disappear into Alex’s kiss.