6. Chapter Six
Chapter Six
Luna
“Why are you on your computer?” my brother whines at me from the pool. “You couldn’t pay me to check my emails right now.”
“I’m relaxing,” I say. “People relax differently.”
“Yeah, man.” Cass stands by a table filled with fruits, cheeses, and other snacks and pops a shrimp into her mouth. She levels Aaron with a playful but challenging stare fueled by sibling rivalry. “Why do you care?”
“We’re here, all together, in this unreal place, and Lou’s doing what?”
“Relaxing,” I reply, annoyance surging in my voice.
“Alright.” My dad has a way of warning us with one word. He and my mom rest in loungers on the opposite side of the villa’s pool, snacking on a plate of food.
Aaron drops whatever bone he wants to pick with me, and I focus on work. Catching up on projects so that I can continue to be my own boss and not crawl back to the agency isn’t so bad. I’d love to not have to make logo mock-ups right now, but I’ll take sitting by a rectangular infinity pool by the Indian Ocean over a crowded coffee shop in Wicker Park any day.
Working also distracts me from Finn. He spent the afternoon swimming, staring at the water beyond the villa, and resting on a lounger with a shirt over his face. Anytime I catch his eye, he looks elsewhere, so maybe I’m back to best-friend’s-pesky-sister status.
That doesn’t explain the kiss last night, though, which wasn’t one-sided. The vibration of him grunting with lust against my mouth sent me straight to bed with my hand between my legs. But between the two of us, I took our interaction to the next level by rubbing against his erection like a cat in heat. The reminder of his hardness makes me slick in my bikini bottoms.
Fucking Tanner getting in the way from half a world away.
As fun as it would be to turn up the heat on my Finn crush, I shouldn’t have a vacation fling with my brother’s best friend. My parents and siblings view him as part of the family, so who knows what they would make of me dating him, much less sleeping with him on our father’s cancerversary trip. And what if something became more serious between us? Finn would see the real me—the one who’s juggling heaps of projects at work and trying to hold her life together, the one who likes to spend Saturday night curled up on the couch, makeup-free and cuddling her cat. He’d tire of me, eventually.
Finn pushes himself up and out of the pool, water dripping from his mop of hair and down the mountains and valleys of his skin. I would pay to lick him dry. I grant myself three seconds to stare at the defined V-shape at his hips—okay, five—before looking back at my screen, which has gone dark from inactivity. Finn takes a lounger near me, leaving one empty chair between us.
You’re my best friend’s little sister. I just don’t know what came over me.
He seemed taken aback that we kissed—no doubt wondering how I could betray my not-boyfriend. I came dangerously close to confessing the ugly, shameful truth, but I’d rather Finn hold on to his false suspicion than know how my ex tossed me aside once he got bored with our relationship. So, I offered the quick and easy option to pretend it never happened.
But I enjoy kissing Finn. I should know, because I’ve been lucky enough to kiss him twice.
For him, all those years ago, it was probably just another night out drinking with some work buddies. Finn never mentioned the evening to me, not once. He must have forgotten it.
I never did, though.
“So who’s it gonna be?” Genevieve asked as our group huddled around a sticky table in the corner. She’s one of my best friends now, but at the time, I had only moved into the same apartment complex as her a few weeks earlier. She and a few other friends had dragged me out and bought me three shots of tequila already, determined to lift my spirits.
“This is ridiculous,” I muttered.
“What’s ridiculous is you crying over a guy on a Friday night. You’re too young and beautiful to not be sucking face this weekend. So pick.”
With a straw, I stabbed the ice in my drink as my eyes scanned the space. I skimmed over the obvious couples and double dates until I landed on a coed group taking up some sofas at the other end of the room. A man facing away from us got up, tall, lean, and confident as he strode to the bar and waved to the bartender. When I caught his profile, my pulse picked up.
Finn.
I jutted my chin his way without thinking. “Him.”
They gave me a hushed chorus of agreement. “Yes, girl,” and “So hot.”
We’d all had plenty to drink, so my friends who had met Finn before didn’t recognize him from behind. The dim bar lighting did me a favor in keeping his identity hidden too. If I had to play this game, at least I could have a partner I trusted.
In the past, I’d sometimes imagined what kissing Finn would be like, like when I saw him sweaty and worked up from a challenging soccer match. Other times, he would bring a girlfriend over for the holidays, and she’d fawn over him at the dinner table. The sight would send a shot of curiosity straight to my brain.
But Finn had always been off-limits in my mind. He tolerated me since I was his best friend’s sibling, but there was no possibility he’d find me attractive in a sexual or romantic way. Not to mention how dating him would throw off the balance of the family dynamics.
I wouldn’t pursue him, though. This wasn’t dating. This would be a kiss and just a kiss.
My roommate gave me a pat on the ass, and I stalked over to where Finn stood handing off some drinks to a coworker.
“Hey,” I said, steadying my wobbly feet with a hand on the sticky bar.
“Wow, hi Lou.”
“Don’t hug me.” My words blended together in a rush. “Act like we’re meeting for the first time.”
“Um. Okay. Come here often?”
I held back a snicker, the corner of my mouth twisting.
“Sorry,” he said with a shake of his head. “Inappropriate.”
As I was rendered speechless by those gorgeous blue eyes, a beat passed. Has Finn always been this handsome?
One of my friends meowed in our direction, causing everyone in the group I came with to laugh. Finn twisted to see who I was glaring at.
“Ignore them,” I said, pulling his attention back to me. “They’re being dumb.”
“What’s going on?”
“Would you kiss me?”
“Excuse me?” he sputtered. His coworker returned and Finn handed off the rest of their drinks. “Be there in a sec.”
“So…” I lowered my voice and leaned toward Finn. “My friends and I are playing this game. We’re supposed to go out and pick a person to talk to and then we have to get them to kiss us.”
“I see.” His jaw ticked. “This a usual Friday night activity for you?”
“No. First-time player over here.” I held up my hand in a Guilty! gesture, but rather than laugh at how adorable I was, he scowled.
“And you win by kissing as many guys as you can?”
“Wrong. I win by kissing a guy and getting my friends off my back because they think I’m hung up on someone.”
“Ah.” Finn slid me a glass of water I hadn’t even noticed he’d ordered, and I took a big, refreshing sip. “Are you?”
“Hung up?” I pointed to myself, and Finn nodded. “No. I’m cool. Me and Tanner aren’t girlfriend-boyfriend, anyway.”
“Tanner?”
“Yeah.” I swooned into my cup. “He’s dreamy.”
“Dreamy?” This elicited a chuckle from Finn.
“Don’t laugh.”
“Sorry. So…tell me about him. What’s so great about Tanner?”
“He’s funny. Charming. Super hot and athletic. He has this scruffy beard-mustache thing going on.”
Finn rubbed his whiskered chin, his expression indecipherable. This was before he’d started growing out his facial hair, giving him a more grown-up, sexed-up look.
“Whatever. Makes total sense he wouldn’t text or call. He’s got other stuff happening tonight.”
“Like what?” Finn asks.
“Dunno. Don’t care.”
“You been seeing him long?”
“A few months.”
“Months?” He almost did a spit-take, then composed himself. “Lou,” he went on, his voice tender, careful. “You deserve everything. To be the one a guy wants to contact on a Friday night, that’s the bare minimum.”
My eyes stung. I wanted Tanner and me to be official, but the man couldn’t bother to send a quick text or make plans for the weekend. What hurt the most, though, was that Finn had such clarity on my situation in a matter of minutes. I felt like a fool—pathetic and pining over Tanner, pathetic and found out by Finn.
“You deserve better, Luna.”
Hearing my full first name from Finn’s mouth sent a shock to my system, sobering me up. “I can be the judge of what I deserve, Finley . And if you won’t help me win this game, then I have to go find someone else.”
After pushing my empty glass toward the bartender, I sashayed past Finn. His hand, large and demanding, latched onto my biceps and reeled me back to where I stood before. “Fine,” he said through gritted teeth. “I’ll kiss you.”
“Really?”
“But promise me something.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”
“Th-that’s not what I was going to say.”
“Oh.” I adjusted my stance and allowed my eyes to flit down to his mouth, a mouth that, at any moment, I’d know the taste of. I wondered what his lips felt like, not just on mine, but on my neck, my shoulders, and the curve of my breasts.
“Got that?” he asked. While I’d zoned out over Finn planting kisses on my body, he’d said something. “Swear to me you’ll do that.”
“Mhmm.” I readjusted my stance so my friends wouldn’t see who I was talking to and make up a stupid rule like that a kiss from Finn doesn’t count. Because I do want to kiss him. “Cross my heart and hope to die.”
“Okay. Ready?”
I nodded up at him, his frame already crowding my personal space in the most energizing way. I felt like a circuit board coming to life. A zesty, citrusy scent overtook me—an aura I could bathe in. One of his hands cupped the back of my head like one might hold a breakable object, but when his lips met mine, they communicated a confidence and a power I’d not witnessed in Finn before. Recklessness. He took kisses from me like each one was the last, and a subtle moan from him was the only sign I needed to open my mouth and let his tongue in.
I’d never had a kiss quite like this.
The hoots and cheers from my friends sent a smile across my lips. I pulled back and peered up at Finn, expecting to find him unfazed and ready to return to his coworkers, and maybe aggravated that I approached him in the first place. But his intense gaze lingered on my mouth.
“That work for you?”
“Uh.” In a daze, I talked to his mouth because I couldn’t focus on anything except that kiss. “Yup.”
This was supposed to be a silly throwaway game at a bar, not a scorching hot kiss that shook me to my core. My mind flooded with excuses.
He’s just doing you a favor.
You’re here because of someone else, remember?
He’s known you since you were a kid—no way he wants you like that.
“Thanks,” I said, using my thumb to wipe a smudge of red lipstick away from the corner of his perfect mouth.
“Anytime, Lou.”
The plop of the sunscreen bottle on my chair lures me back to our resort in the Maldives.
“You should reapply,” Melissa says before jumping into the pool with a splash.
I slather the cream over my legs, arms, and stomach, and use the pads of my fingertips to massage some into my face. Like I’m doing some kind of strange interpretive dance, I wiggle around to smear some on my back, knowing full well I’ve missed a large spot in the center. Helpless, I look to see who can assist. Mom and Dad have passed out, Aaron is taking a photo of Melissa on the edge of the pool, and Cass has made herself comfortable in an inflatable tube that looks like a donut. Carmen has reclined fully, one hand on her belly, the other busy with her Kindle. That leaves Finn, who’s already peeking out from under the shirt he’s using for sun protection.
“You mind?”
He sighs and walks over. Not a “Sure, Lou.” No “Happy to help.” Just heavy breathing into my spine, so I don’t know if he finds me sexy or unbearable.
Finn’s hands on my bare skin make me aware of everything—every corner that he touches and every place he dedicates time to. His fingertips brush my bikini bottoms, and I forget what breathing is. When his touch wraps around my ribcage and my waist, I fight the impulse to press into his caress.
When he’s done, he sits down by my chaise, facing the other way.
“Mind doing me?”
I don’t, although if I wanted to convince Finn that I’m not the type of person who would cheat on my partner, should I? My hands all over him will only remind him of how I took things too far last night.
That’s a risk I’m willing to take.
I scoot to the edge of the chair, my smooth shaved legs brushing against his arms. With a dollop of sunscreen, I start at his shoulders, massaging down his shoulder blades. When I scratch my fingertips against his skin, he sucks in a breath. The sound causes me to bite back a wicked smile. My hands work more lotion into his taut muscles, admiring the lean strength Finn has developed from years of soccer.
This act of caring for him sends a jolt of need straight to my core.
“Can you take a pic of me and Mel?” My brother sets his phone by Finn’s feet, then hops over to his wife. If Aaron notices anything unusual about our poolside behavior, he doesn’t say a word. No one does.
Finn sits still, even once I’ve gotten comfortable in my chair again. “I’m done,” I tell him, ignoring the tightness in my nipples and the soaking wet sensation between my legs.
“I know.” He may as well have growled at me. “Give me a minute.”
So I do, waiting for him to say something else to me, which never happens. Instead, after a long pause, he gets up without a word and dips straight into the water. That’ll be the last time he asks for anything from me, I’m sure.
And I should be fine with that. I want this vacation to be wonderful for my family, Finn included. If that means he wants to ignore me now and forever, he can do that.
But when he crawls out of the pool after playing photographer, I can’t help wondering why he looks my way before blocking the sun with his tee.