10. Matt #2
“You’ve also got exactly zero lifeguard certifications, and so do I. Margot’s not out here,” I said. “Back it up for me.”
He huffed in exaggerated defeat but turned around without protest, paddling weakly back toward the center. “I wasn’t gonna drown,” he muttered, pouting at me. “I’m like, half shark.”
“Terrifying,” I said dryly, sitting back again and taking a sip of my drink. God, okay, that’s good.
The sliding glass door opened with a muffled creak, and Zach’s face lit up like I hadn’t just scolded him for going beyond where I’d told him not to. I turned, looking over my shoulder, and dear God, I should have prepared myself.
Sienna stepped out in a black one-piece, the front of it plunging in a deep V, the sides high on her hips, like that wasn’t the most absurdly flattering piece of clothing I’d seen her in, and my brain short-circuited for half of a second.
A coverup hung over her shoulders and arms, gauzy and see-through and hiding barely anything.
I forgot how to breathe .
I didn’t hear what Zach said, but she was laughing at it, full and bubbly and stupidly distracting, her hair pulled back in a loose braid, her sunglasses resting high on her nose.
Effortless. Lethal.
She squatted down beside the edge of the pool, setting her glass of fruity-whatever-it-was on the concrete before shifting and dipping her feet in. “You want to learn how to float without the floaties?”
Zach nodded furiously.
She grinned and slipped the coverup off her shoulders, her skin still slick from the massage oil and what I could only assume was sunscreen, and I had to swallow the sound threatening to claw its way up my throat with another sip of my drink, my shorts suddenly feeling far too tight.
I lifted my leg to mitigate the damage as she slid into the pool.
She helped him out of his floaties and guided him through the water, hands careful and patient, her voice so effortlessly encouraging. She didn’t hover, and most of all, she didn’t baby him — she let him try, fail, try again.
And he loved her for it.
I’d never seen him take to someone so quickly. But Sienna was good with kids — I’d known that the moment I’d realized who she was. She was a teacher, and she loved her job. I shouldn’t have expected less.
But it still made my chest feel slightly too tight when she held him gently as he practiced floating on his back, his eyes squinting from the sun, and praised him. “You’re doing amazing ,” she said. “I swear, if you keep practicing, you could swim laps in a week.”
Zach beamed up at her, his little curls floating in the water around his head. “Maybe Daddy will get us a pool so I can swim more when we’re home.”
Sienna grinned down at him. “You could ask him really nicely and I’m sure he’d consider it.”
“I’ll text my contractor,” I chuckled, slipping my phone from my pocket.
I heard their exchange as I typed out my questions about in-ground or above-ground, square footage, and depth.
“Maybe we can swim together at home,” Zach said.
There was a brief pause—so quick that he probably didn’t notice, but I heard it. Heard the way she breathed in, the way the water sloshed around them as she hesitated.
“Yeah, maybe,” she murmured, her voice a little softer. “If your dad invites me.”
Zach didn’t miss a beat. “I’ll invite you.”
My heart thudded hard against my ribs. Fuck .
Sienna laughed, a little breathier than she’d been before. “Well, that’s hard to argue with.”
Later, when Zach was curled up on a towel in the lounger to my left with his iPad and a popsicle, I let myself look at her for longer than a few fleeting seconds.
I shouldn’t have.
But I didn’t stop myself.
She was lying back in the grass to my right, her body stretched over a towel, one leg bent just slightly, her skin lightly bronzed by the sun. Her sunglasses were off and discarded near her head, her arm flung across her eyes like she was shielding herself from more than just light.
Her one piece clung to her like a second skin now, damp and drying in the breeze, and I had to force myself not to stare at the little crease between her thighs.
Water droplets glinted at the edge of her collarbone, sliding down over her shoulder, over that same little freckle that had caught my attention when I’d been buried inside of her halfway over the Atlantic.
Her braid was starting to unravel at the nape of her neck, damp strands curling against her skin, and God , I wanted to brush them back, wanted to touch .
The rise and fall of her chest was steady, nipples pressing into the wet fabric. Her lips were parted like she’d dozed off mid-thought, pink and soft and maddeningly close to me, and I couldn’t decide what part of me I wanted them on most.
But then she moved.
Her fingers twitched first, then her arm, sliding down just enough to reveal her face. Her eyes blinked open, straight at me.
I didn’t look away. I didn’t want to.
————
Zach was sprawled across the living room’s rug, deep in a make-believe dinosaur battle with Margot, who was shockingly making some of the most convincing T-rex snarls I’d ever heard despite being in the tail end of nausea from what she’d eaten yesterday.
She sat cross-legged in linens, a warm blanket draped over her shoulders and a mug of peppermint tea in her hand. She looked up and gave me the faintest smile as I stood in the doorway, dressed in tailored charcoal slacks and a white button-down rolled to my elbows.
“You look handsome, Matt,” Margot deadpanned, “but the T-rex says you’re going to get eaten.”
Zach let out a vicious roar and body-slammed a plush stegosaurus into the carpet.
I shook my head, a grin tugging at the corner of my mouth. “You know you don’t have to do this,” I said to Margot. “I already ditched on golf. I don’t have to go to the rehearsal dinner, Sienna and I can stay back and let you get a bit more rest.”
Margot rolled her eyes. “I’m okay enough to watch him. I’d say if I wasn’t.”
The sound of a door clicking open down the hall drew my attention away from the living room. Heels sounded on tile, clicking one step, then two, three?—
Sienna rounded the corner, stepping into the space like it was just another Friday, and for a second, I nearly forgot how gravity worked.
This was worse than the blood red dress last night. This was worse than her in her oversized, thin shirt this morning, worse than seeing every part of her I’d wanted to drag my hands over in that black swimsuit.
This was downright torture .
She stood there under my gaze, her black dress hugging every curve, every line of her body like it had been designed with her in mind.
The faintest bit of shimmer, almost woven into the fabric, caught the light — and God , I nearly dropped to my fucking knees.
Thin straps, a neckline that tested every bit of composure I had in me, and when she turned to grab her purse from the counter, the low-cut back was almost enough to send me spiraling.
Her hair was pulled back again, a thick braid that wrapped around her head like a crown, little pieces framing her cheeks.
I swallowed my own saliva wrong. I choked .
“Jesus,” I muttered, coughing into my elbow.
Zach looked up at me. “Daddy? You okay?”
“Fine,” I rasped, my eyes still glued to her like I had no choice.
She tried to hide the smirk that was so clearly dying to break free.
“You look pretty,” Zach announced, telling her for the second time today, his teeth showing in a wide grin as he lifted his dinosaur high like it could somehow measure that on a scale.
“Thanks, tiger,” she said, and fuck , my heart stopped. She couldn’t call him that. I called him that. But I wanted to hear her say it again. “You’ve got great taste.”
I finally found my voice. “He’s right.”
Sienna glanced at me again, her brows raised. “You gonna survive over there?”
“Barely.”
The faintest shade of pink crept up her neck and into her cheeks.
“I’m Margot,” Margot cut in, extending a hand toward Sienna without rising from the floor. Sienna took it. “Since the walking hormone over there forgot his manners.”
I huffed a breath. “Margot?—”
“Sienna,” Sienna grinned. “Nice to meet you. You’re Zach’s nanny, right?”
“Only when he’s good.” Margot pinched Zach’s cheek, and he squealed, laughing as he squirmed back up onto the couch. “When he’s not, I’m apparently the devil.”
Sienna snorted. “Yeah, I’m a teacher, I know how that goes.”
I leaned down over the couch, grabbing Zach by either side of his head and pressing a kiss square in the center of his forehead despite his protests. “See you in the morning, yeah?”
He frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. “Why can’t I come?”
“Because tomorrow is the big wedding that we have to endure, and you’re gonna need a lot of energy for all that boredom before you can hit the dancefloor.” I ruffled his hair as I stood back up to my full height.
“Thanks for hanging out with me today, Zach,” Sienna added. “Same tomorrow?”
He beamed so wide at her that I almost worried another tooth would come loose. “Okay!”
I hooked an arm around her waist and led her out into the warm night, the sky above turning pink and orange above the palms. The other villas lining the path were coming to life, with groups of wedding guests dressed in formalwear heading toward the main building, soft chatter and laughter ringing out across the resort.
Sienna tucked her bag under one arm, watching the parade of rich idiots in flowing linen and silk wander past us. There was something I couldn’t quite place in her expression, something guarded, something stashed away like it was either treasure or a weakness.
I slowed as we reached the turnoff that would lead us toward the dining area, something clicking in my head.
I didn’t want to go.
Not because I couldn’t tolerate the guests. Not because I wasn’t capable of stomaching another night watching Ryan try to flourish in attention bought by my money.