Chapter 12 #2
She looked up slowly, then shook herself as if realizing she was checking me out in plain sight. I held her gaze stubbornly until she looked away.
“Umm, I’m thirsty,” she said.
I decided not to put her on the spot. “What do you want to drink?”
“Orange juice.”
She licked her lips as I poured her a glass, which she downed right away. The yacht was moving ahead at a pleasant speed. I glanced in the captain’s cabin. Emma and Jude were concentrating on the wheel, or perhaps the screen in front of them.
“I don’t think we’re going to have company anytime soon,” I said.
“I agree,” Phoebe said, then took a huge spray bottle of sunblock out of her purse. “I need to put this on or I’m going to get burned. The sun is already so damn hot.”
“I never use sunscreen.”
She stared at me. “Griffin, that can’t possibly be true. Do you know how many risks you’re incurring?”
I shrugged. “I’ve always had good skin. I never get burned.”
“That’s not the point,” she said. “Sun damage is… Oh, you’re not going to get away with that today. You’re putting on sunscreen.”
I grinned, leaning into her. “I accept on one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“You put it on me,” I said, emphasizing the words.
“You and y-your b-bargains,” she said, stuttering the words a bit.
This was something fun I hadn’t anticipated.
We stepped farther away from the snack table so we didn’t risk any of the spray drifting over it.
She put sunblock on herself and then rubbed her hands vigorously.
Watching her was a form of torture, and yet I couldn’t look away as she spread it on her arms and belly, then up her chest. She was very thorough, applying it along her bikini top and even dipping her hands slightly beneath it.
Watching her fingertips disappear behind the fabric was almost too much. I had to look away.
Damn! It was eleven o’clock in the morning and I was already sporting a hard-on. How the hell was I going to survive the weekend?
When I looked at Phoebe again, she was spraying her legs, having put one foot up on a lounge chair and then carefully massaging her calf.
When she touched her buttock, I nearly lost it.
I wanted so damn badly to help her, but if I touched her right now, I’d make a spectacle of us, pretend relationship or not.
After she finished applying it on her face, she waved the bottle at me. “Your turn.”
I grinned lazily.
She lowered the bottle. “You weren’t serious earlier, were you?”
I shrugged. “Dead serious. I won’t wear any if you don’t spread it on me.”
“You play dirty,” she said but walked closer to me.
“Phoebe, you haven’t even seen anything yet.”
She sucked in a breath. I sat down on the chair as she sprayed a generous amount on my shoulders and started spreading it with her delicate hands.
Fuck my life. What was I thinking, asking her to do this? Feeling her hands on my back and arms was far too much. I was making a conscious effort to breathe in and out.
I needed to focus on anything else. On business, yes. Today was all about getting in Jude’s good graces.
She was touching my chest now.
If I could convince him that I could apply my strategies to the age groups he wanted—
She was at my navel. I wasn’t just sporting a semi at this point, I was completely hard.
Come on. You had a pitch, Griffin. Remember it. What was it?
She went down my lower abdomen and then brushed her fingers against the waistband of my trunks. I groaned, gripping her hand.
“No,” I said in a dangerously low voice.
She looked at me with a sly smile. “You talk a big game, don’t you? This is payback. Besides, you can easily get burned there.”
“No,” I repeated.
Something in my eyes must have tipped her off that I was losing control, because she didn’t insist. Her smile widened, and she went behind me, spreading the lotion on my lower back.
“Thanks for doing that.”
“It was my pleasure, darling,” she said in a sassy voice I hadn’t heard it before.
It was precisely at that moment that I realized she hadn’t actually just done it for my benefit.
“You wanted to maul me,” I concluded.
She laughed softly. “Took you long enough to catch on.”
“Damn, and here I was thinking you were worried for my well-being.”
“Well, I was. But I realized there were also benefits to giving in.”
I smiled, satisfaction growing inside my chest. I’d felt a bit guilty about roping Phoebe into this weekend, but not anymore.
She was enjoying herself, and she clearly loved spreading that sunblock over every ridge of my muscles.
Wasn’t that the whole point of this, to have some fun?
Get her out of that funk she’d been in for months?
I thought she might be done after finishing with my back, but then she sprayed some more liquid on my legs. If I felt her hands anywhere on my inner thighs, I really was going to lose it.
“I’ll do this part,” I said. I barely recognized my voice.
“You really can’t play at your own game, can you?” she said as I spread it on my thighs.
“I didn’t realize you’d be so good at it,” I admitted.
“Oh, I didn’t think I was. But you’re making me discover new things about myself, Griffin, and I like them.”
Fuck me.