Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Henry
W e made it back to the apartment an hour later, two different people to the ones who’d left hand in hand.
If I’d had my way, I’d have stayed in that ocean all day and night with her, taking her over and over again, letting the waves guide us along the coastline without even bothering to look up and see the sun go down.
If sex with her had been that good in the ocean, I couldn’t wait to lay her on my bed and see how her body reacted to me when we had hours to play. When I’d be able to lose myself in her arousal without the water washing it away.
Those thoughts ran rampant, like a trap door to my dreams had been opened, and now all I could think about was touching this woman by my side, kissing her, running my tongue over every inch of her insanely smooth, coconut-scented skin.
I wanted to pack up my shit, tell the boys I was going home, then book Phoebe and me another hotel miles away, where we could spend the next nine days and nights losing ourselves in each other without giving a shit about what awaited us back home.
Unfortunately, reality didn’t play along with my fantasies, and when Phoebe and I came to a stop by her favourite bougainvillea flowers, I cast a quick glance all around us before I pushed my hands into her hair and kissed her one last time.
She hummed into it, her eyes closing, her body falling forward, waiting for me to catch her. When I reluctantly pulled away, I let my forehead rest against hers and took my time to breathe her in.
“You okay?” I dared myself to ask.
Her lashes fluttered as she pressed her lips together, tasting us there, before she looked up at me and nodded.
“You’d tell me if you weren’t?”
“I’m good, Henry,” she assured me. “Better than ever.”
I pressed a kiss to her forehead, then stepped away, wondering if this was how addicts felt whenever they tried to walk away from the one thing they couldn’t give up.
Phoebe shook out her arms, closed her eyes again, and blew out a breath as though rebalancing herself.
When she eventually looked back up at me, those eyes had the potential to make me fall to my knees and tell her the game was over.
Tell the whole fucking world what we’d just done as far as I cared. I already needed more.
But I couldn’t do that to her.
Couldn’t do that to anyone I cared about, including Andy.
For now, this was all I could have. I’d known the rules of the game I’d created from the start. It had been my choice to play. Now I had to deal with the consequences of that decision.
“Okay.” She smiled brightly. “Game face on?”
I pushed my hands into my pockets and forced a smile to my face that matched hers, hoping she didn’t catch the way I swallowed down the weird emotion that tried to claw its way up my throat. “Let’s do it.”
She inhaled a deep breath, blew it all out, then turned and marched away from me angrily, clutching the strap of her bag to her the way she always did whenever she became frustrated.
I waited a minute before I took the same path she had. When I turned the corner to the pool area, I watched as Phoebe threw her bag onto her sun lounger, then dropped down onto it, too, as though she’d had anything but a good time.
“Hey, Bee,” Bailey said, walking around the pool with a cocktail in hand. “What took you so long? You’ve been gone ages. I thought you were just going for lunch?”
Without even acknowledging my presence behind her, Phoebe thumbed over her shoulder as though she didn’t have time for anyone anymore.
Especially not me. “We’d have been back ages ago if he hadn’t been so stubborn and refused to ask for directions.
We got lost, just going around in circles, trying to find this little tavern he insisted we eat at.
Because apparently, the other four hundred and seventy-three taverns we passed weren’t good enough. ”
Bailey chuckled and took a sip of her cocktail through her straw. “Was it at least worth it when you got there?”
Phoebe shrugged as she flicked off her sandals. “I’ve had better.”
She’d had better, had she? I highly fucking doubted it, but I’d be sure to bring that up with her later, some way, somehow.
Before I could stew on her convincing performance a second longer, Phoebe cast a quick glance over her shoulder.
When she knew nobody but me could see her, she flashed a cheeky smile and a small wink my way, making it almost impossible for me to keep my face straight when I walked past her like she didn’t matter, all while my cock throbbed, begging to go to her…
begging for more of what it would never forget.
I was in big fucking trouble.
She wore goddamn plaited pigtails and a black string bikini top with those denim shorts that invaded my wet dreams riding high up her thighs.
Around one eye, glitter in the shape of a half-moon made her face sparkle as she looked at me from across the room of the club we were in later that night, silently inviting me closer while everyone around us remained clueless.
Those pigtails, though.
I imagined slowly unravelling them and running my fingers through her plait-induced curls before grabbing her hair and pulling it all back to?—
“It’s almost here!” Bailey bounced up and down on the balls of her feet, one arm wrapped around Andy as the two of them looked up at the balloons encased in nets attached to the ceiling.
“The balloons won’t be released until after the foam, babe,” Andy told her, shouting over the remix of Rudimental’s “Waiting All Night” that blasted out around the place, letting everyone know the foam was about to fall down on everyone.
A nineties fucking foam party.
Of all the things I never thought I’d take part in, this had to be high up on the list. No prizes for guessing who’d convinced me to join in the fun.
One look at Phoebe standing outside her apartment in her party outfit, bouncing on the soles of her white trainers, and I’d been a goner for the night ahead.
Wherever she went, I was sure to follow.
I couldn’t risk a repeat episode of the night before and some handsy motherfucker getting his hands on her.
Especially not wearing those clothes.
The only person holding any part of Phoebe from now on would be me.
I didn’t share.
“Get ready, guys,” Andy said, making everyone look up at the foam jets on the stage being aimed our way as the beat of the song kicked in.
My attention remained on Phoebe bouncing around on the dance floor in front of me, her eyes trailing up and down my body as she licked her lips, with Rhea dancing beside her, oblivious.
“Five… four… three… two…” the DJ counted down, and all at once, the crowd turned into chaos as gallons of white foam poured out onto the dance floor, over the heads of everyone there. Screams erupted around us, mixed with laughter that shook the floor beneath our feet.
Bailey and Andy turned to one another, her arms going around his neck as they lost themselves under the foam in a kiss.
I watched Jace make a quick beeline for Rhea, too.
He grabbed her waist from behind and spun her round.
She turned to face him, already soaked in foam, her hands on his shoulders as the two of them bounced together, lost in the euphoria of it all.
My gaze drifted to Phoebe.
Beautiful, glorious Phoebe.
Her eyes were closed as she ran her hands up over her foam-covered body, losing herself to the sensation, dancing on her toes as her arms flew up into the air as the beat to the track kicked in faster.
The foam poured down onto the dance floor even harder, turning the neon lights into a blanket of white.
She stood only a few feet away from me, and once I knew the others were fully occupied, I made my way to her, keeping my eyes on our surroundings, knowing I was risking everything by being so bold.
I just didn’t have the strength to stay away from her when she looked like a foam-coated candy-cane standing there, ready for me to suck her clean.
The foam fell and fell, rising high on the dance floor, creating barriers to those around us until no one, not even our friends, could see more than a foot in front of them.
That’s when I moved in, circling my arm around Phoebe’s waist from behind her, pulling her back against my chest and sinking us both farther into the foam, away from prying eyes.
“Henry,” she gasped, followed by a giggle.
“Trust me,” I rasped before I dropped my mouth to that pulse point in her neck, and I kissed the shit out of her while my hands roamed over her barely-there bikini top and her stomach, sliding the foam all over her skin, making her wet and sticky, just the way I liked her.
“You look so fucking good out here,” I said against her ear.
“Do you know how badly I want to take you in front of everyone?”
“I wish you could.” Phoebe leaned into my touch, arching her back as my palm slid over her breast, rubbing her hard nipple over the material of her bikini. “All my wishes belong to you tonight.”
“What else belongs to me?” I ground my hard cock into her back, making her feel what she did to me.”
“Everything I have.”
“Say more things like that.”
“I will. When you find a way to kiss me.”
I glanced up as I kept walking us backwards, away from our friends as the foam continued to fall, building wispy walls and penetrable cloaks around us that allowed us to explore our little secret without anyone realising.
Once I knew we were clear of being discovered, I spun Phoebe around in my arms, cupped her face, and I brought her in for a kiss so desperate and needy, I didn’t care if this was how I died.
Here, surrounded by foam, giving all my oxygen to her.
Giving all I had to her because this was the freest I’d felt in almost a decade, even when I wasn’t really free at all.
She held onto my wrists, rising up on the balls of her feet, desperate to get closer. “Henry,” she moaned against my mouth, pleading.
“Tell me what you want,” I moaned back. “You want me to take you right here?”
“More than you know.”
“Christ, I wish I could.”
“But… I want it.”
I smiled against her. “Such a brat.”
She blinked rapidly, and her face fell. “Don’t leave me.”
The song switched to another track, and for just a beat, the foam jets slowed, allowing the whiteness around us to begin to fade away.
I looked all around, barely able to make out Jace and Rhea in the distance, their attention on each other, no longer aware of anyone else around them.
When I glanced back down at Phoebe, that need burned in her eyes.
A need for me.
For this.
For us .
“If I ever leave, I’ll always come back.”
I pulled her in for another desperate kiss, making sure the lingering effects of it lasted long enough to keep her head spinning until I found a way to sneak her away later with a guarantee of roaming hands, erotic touches, and orgasms galore.
I hadn’t even started breaking her apart the way I wanted to yet.
When I pulled back again, I stared deep into her eyes.
“Until I can touch you again, I’ll be eye-fucking you all night.
Remember that. Every time you see me staring, know that I’m imagining all the ways I’m going to peel you out of these wet, sticky clothes, only to make you even wetter once you’re naked. ”
“You shouldn’t say things like that to me,” she breathed. “They make me need it now, not later, and that’s not fair.”
“Who said anything about playing fair?” With one last kiss that felt more like a promise, I spun her back around and guided her forward until the foam cleared enough for me to have to step away from her.
We parted not long after, our hands lingering together for a beat too long before I turned and walked back to my place not far from Andy and Bailey, just in time to see them coming up for air.
I hated how they could do whatever they wanted so freely, but the more distracted Andy became with the woman in his arms, the easier it would be for me to sneak Phoebe away whenever the need took over.
Andy turned to me as if suddenly remembering I was there. “Cohen,” he called, smiling my way while Bailey peppered kisses along his jaw. “You mind if Bails and I get out of here?” He laid a look on me, letting me know exactly what he meant with that statement.
It seemed the time had come for them both to consummate their holiday fling.
“Couldn’t give a shit what you do,” I told him, sounding completely disinterested.
“Cool. Tell Jace he doesn’t need to stress about, you know… logistics. I’m heading to Bailey’s room.”
Logistics. That’s what the kids were calling it these days.
I gave him a nod and a flat smile anyway.
If they were going to Bailey’s room, that meant Rhea and Phoebe would be out on their arses with nowhere to stay until Andy and Bailey’s sex-a-thon ran dry.
From the look in Bailey’s eyes, something told me that could be quite a while, which played well into my hands.
I couldn’t stop my smile from growing when Andy and Bailey began rushing away, desperate to enrage their flames of passion, not knowing that by leaving us behind, they were allowing me to stoke my very own fire all over again.
Only this time, I wanted to make Phoebe scream.