Chapter Eighteen
Simon
I frowned as I spotted Raina and Chuck in the hallway just outside the restaurant while I was talking with Alexander.
Her back was to me, so I couldn’t see her expression, but I had a clear view of Chuck’s face, and the smirk curving his lips set my teeth on edge.
Something about the way he was looking at her, the predatory gleam in his eyes, made my protective instincts flare hot and immediate.
I excused myself from my conversation with Alexander, who was eager to rejoin his family anyway, and made my way toward them. Raina turned away from Chuck just as I approached, and I caught the flash of irritation tightening her features before she smoothed it away.
I slipped an arm around her waist, acutely aware that Chuck was watching.
The gesture came naturally now—these casual touches that had started as performance and evolved into something I craved.
She fit perfectly against me, her body molding to mine like we’d been doing this for years instead of just a week.
But she was stiff. Tense in a way that had nothing to do with me.
I guided her away from Chuck, keeping my pace unhurried even as questions burned on my tongue. Only when we were well out of earshot did I lean down to murmur near her ear.
“Everything okay?”
Raina exhaled slowly. “Just Chuck doing what he does best. Trying to undermine things.”
Vague. Deliberately so, I suspected. But while annoyance still lingered in her eyes, she didn’t seem shaken, just irritated.
I knew Raina well enough by now to trust that she could hold her own against someone like Chuck.
Whatever he’d said, she’d diffused the situation, so I didn’t press further. For now.
“It’s still early,” I said, changing the subject. “Want to check out the hot tubs?”
The tension in her shoulders eased, replaced by a small smile that made something warm unfurl in my chest. “That sounds perfect.”
We returned to the suite to change, and now that we were alone again I was very aware of the sexual tension that was still so evident between us.
It had been almost an entire week since I’d touched her—really touched her, the way I’d been dying to.
I’d kept my hands to myself deliberately, wanting to prove that what I felt went beyond physical attraction.
Wanting her to understand that she was more than a woman to warm my bed.
But God, I still craved her.
Raina disappeared into the bathroom with her swimsuit, and I changed in the main room, pulling on board shorts and trying to steady my breathing.
This was fine. We were just going to relax in a hot tub.
Nothing had to happen. Then she walked out and my body responded instantly, blood rushing south so fast it made me dizzy.
She was wearing a one-piece. Not the most revealing swimsuit I’d ever seen, but it clung to her curves in a way that left absolutely nothing to my imagination.
The sleek material was a deep sapphire blue that made her eyes brighter, with strategic cutouts at the sides revealing the smooth skin of her waist and hips.
She reached up to pull her hair into a messy bun, and my gaze traveled over her slowly—the graceful line of her arms, the delicate column of her throat, the way her breasts strained against the front of her suit.
Fuck. My erection ached behind my shorts.
Before I did something stupid like cross the room, pin her against the wall, and fuck her like an animal, I tore my gaze away and retreated to the bathroom to grab towels. I needed a moment—several moments, actually, so I didn’t walk out in public with a boner.
Jesus Christ. Get it together, Powers.
* * *
The hot tub room was empty when we arrived.
Glass walls offered a panoramic view of the night sky, where stars scattered across the darkness like diamonds on velvet.
A nearly full moon hung low on the horizon, casting silver light across the space.
The lighting inside was dim and intimate, and the scent of eucalyptus hung in the warm, humid air.
Four hot tubs were set into the floor, each one bubbling gently, steam rising in lazy curls. The setting was undeniably romantic, the kind of place designed for couples to relax and reconnect.
Raina took a deep breath and released it slowly, some of the day’s tension melting from her frame. “This is beautiful. But I doubt it gets much use.”
“What do you mean?” I asked curiously.
She stepped to the edge of the nearest hot tub and dipped her toe in, testing the temperature.
“Look around. This is the kind of thing couples enjoy together. It’s quiet, intimate, and an adult setting.
But almost everyone we’ve seen today is part of a family with young kids.
” She stepped down into the water, sighing as the warmth enveloped her.
“I doubt most parents want to leave their children alone in a hotel room just to have a nice soak.”
I followed her in, settling onto the built-in bench beside her. The heat seeped into my muscles immediately, loosening knots I hadn’t realized I was carrying.
“So you think we should consider doing away with the hot tubs when we build the second resort?”
She chuckled, a low, warm sound that did dangerous things to my self-control. “You sound pretty confident Alexander’s going into business with you.”
I was confident. And it was largely because of her.
Raina was effortlessly charming in a way I could never be—warm where I was reserved, approachable where I was distant.
I’d watched her win over Alexander at the gala and again tonight, and by extension, she’d made me look better than I ever could on my own.
“I’m a confident guy,” I said with a shrug. “You don’t get far in business with self-doubt. So is that what you think? Should we do away with the hot tubs?”
She caught her bottom lip between her teeth, and I had to force myself not to stare at her mouth. “You really want my opinion?”
“Of course. You’ve got a good mind for this.” It was true. I’d come to rely on her insights more than I’d ever expected. “I value your perspective.”
She leaned back against the side of the hot tub, looking thoughtful, her hands skimming idly over the surface of the water.
“It’d be a shame to get rid of the hot tubs entirely.
Maybe offering some kind of short-term childcare could work?
Parents could book a couple hours of supervised activity for their kids and have time to enjoy the adult amenities.
It would depend on the cost and whether it’s worth the investment, but… ”
“A market analysis might help make that decision,” I said, liking the idea. “It’ll take time and a ton of research, though.”
Her grin was playful, her eyes sparkling in the low light. “Good thing you have such a dedicated assistant.”
I chuckled, relaxing more fully against the side of the hot tub.
We sat in comfortable silence for a moment, both of us gazing out through the glass walls at the star-scattered sky.
The heat of the water was doing wonders for my tension, and having Raina beside me felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
“You know,” she said, her eyes drifting closed, “I’ve always loved hot tubs. I even had one for a while.”
“But you don’t anymore?”
She shook her head, water droplets catching the light. “I lived with my boyfriend at the time. He already had the hot tub when I moved in.”
The words landed like a punch to the gut. Jealousy—immediate, vicious, completely irrational—coiled through me. “You lived with someone?”
She must have heard something in my voice, because her eyes opened and she turned to look at me. “For eleven months, yes. But then Eli got a job offer in Detroit about two years ago. We split up, and I got my own place.”
Eli. Even his name irritated me.
It was little comfort knowing he lived in another state. Had she loved him? Had they talked about marriage? What had she seen in him that made her willing to share her life, her space, her bed?
I’d never cared about a woman’s past before. Not like this. Never felt the urge to dissect every previous relationship, to measure myself against the men who came before. But with Raina, I wanted to know everything. I needed to understand who this person was that she’d once chosen.
It felt like sizing up the competition. Which was absurd, because she was here with me now. But one question burned hotter than all the others.
“Are you still in contact with him?”
“Just randomly.” She said it casually, like it was nothing. “But he reached out recently to tell me he’s moving back to New York.”
My jaw tightened while something cold and sharp twisted in my chest.
“In fact,” she continued, seemingly oblivious to the storm brewing inside me, “he’s moving into his Manhattan apartment this weekend. He wants to meet up on Sunday.”
“You’re going on a date with him?”
The words came out harsher than I intended, but I couldn’t help it.
Raina and I had agreed to see where things between us went, but we’d never explicitly discussed exclusivity.
We hadn’t defined what we were. And the thought of her sitting across from some ex-boyfriend, smiling at him the way she smiled at me, letting him remember what it felt like to have her—
It made me want to break something.
Raina’s lips twitched, like she was fighting back a smile. “No, it’s not a date. Just a friendly catch-up. We’re getting coffee at Beans and Brew in the afternoon.”
A friendly catch-up. For her, maybe. I didn’t see any eager anticipation in her eyes, no lingering attachment softening her expression.
But what about this Eli dude? Was he viewing their meeting in such platonic terms?
Or was this his opportunity to remind her of what they’d had, to try to win her back?
Not if I had anything to say about it. The foreign surge of possessiveness made me think of what I’d witnessed downstairs after dinner.