Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Sam
I take my time on the steps leading up to Dom’s house amazed at the boldness I feel showing up here, planning to set fire to my best friend’s wishes in his own home.
When Naomi doesn’t answer my knock, I let myself in. I find her in the kitchen, pulling a bottle of pink wine out of the chiller. “I see you found the wine stash.”
She jumps and turns at the sound of my voice. Caught in the act, laughing, she sets the bottle on the counter. “It wasn’t hard. There’s wine in just about every cupboard in this house. And a fancy temperature controlled cooler for it.”
There’s a pop as the vinyl cork slides out of the glistening bottle.
“This is a wine snob’s house.”
“Well, I hope he doesn’t mind me drinking all his Rosé.” Naomi pours a splash into the stemless glass waiting on the counter and takes a sip. “Perfectly chilled,” she jokes, grinning at me. “You want some?”
“I want you.”
Naomi’s eyes narrow seductively as she sets her glass down and closes the distance between us, pressing her chest right up against mine. I can smell her shampoo and feel the warmth of her skin through her thin tank top. I wrap my arms around her like I’ve been wanting to do for days and close my eyes, sinking into the essence of Naomi.
“I feel like it’s been forever,” she says, cheek still pressed against my collarbone.
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” I tease, holding her as tightly as I can without seeming like a madman.
“Honestly, those two days went so fast. In my mind, it’s like one long, amazing day.”
I smile, chin pressed into the top of her head. “I’m glad you had a good time.”
I didn’t get to see Naomi much over the course of the event, but I know she was at the resort working the whole time. I see the appeal for her, the lavish party and the thrill of getting to be part of it all. I know she needs some distraction right now from her own job drama, so I’m happy she was able to be included.
But now that it’s over, I’m even happier to be going back to Sam and Naomi, secret lovers. Sam and Naomi, kind of coworkers, gave me a bit of anxiety.
I let my arms drop and make my way over to a seat at the kitchen bar, where Naomi sets a small glass of wine in front of me. I take a sip gratefully, letting the cool, crisp liquid wash some of the stress of the day away. Unfortunately, the stress of being in this house won’t budge.
“I’m not going to lie, I do wish we were safe at my house.”
“Oh?” Naomi sets down her own glass and places both hands on her hips. “You want to wait until we’re all the way at your house?”
She already knows the answer, but I offer it anyway. “I don’t plan to make you wait.”
Naomi leans on the counter, mischievous smile on her lips. “ Besides, it’s perfect. Don’t you feel it? Completely forbidden. We’re going to be so bad.”
I’m still a bit uneasy about the idea, but the last thing I want is to deny her anything.
And I have to admit. She’s right.
Just being in this house, knowing all my friends are boarding a helicopter right now, being taken far away, does inspire some bad behavior in me.
I say nothing, watching as Naomi turns and walks out of the kitchen, toward the hallway where I know her room waits. I raise myself off the stool and follow her, my fate signed and sealed.
She’s sitting against the low, wide window ledge on the far side of the room when I enter, clothes miraculously gone already.
“How did you manage that?” I ask, eyes narrowed as I take in her body.
“I’ve been practicing this whole thing in my mind for days.”
“Oh, really?”
She nods, lip held tightly between her teeth.
“What happens next?”
“You come over here and pull me to my feet.”
I obey, crossing the room slowly and taking one of her hands in mine, pulling her body into my arms. Her fingers are cold and a bit shaky. I wonder if she’s as nervous as I am, doing her best to pretend—just like me.
“What happens now?” I whisper, grazing my lips down her neck to her shoulder.
“Now you run your hands over my body.” Her whisper is just as low, nearly masking the desire in her voice.
Luckily, I’m paying close attention.
I let my hands graze down her arms and slide onto her torso, breathing in her soft sighs as she lets them escape.
“Do you know how long I’ve been thinking about this?” My nearly whispered words cut through the silence.
Naomi just shakes her head, keeping her gaze angled downward toward where my fingers curl into the flesh of her hip.
“Since the moment I looked up at that bar in Austin and found you looking back at me from across the table. I was expecting just another stranger I would have to introduce myself to, but instead I found you.” I never expected to be telling her the truth about that moment, but now that I've started, I can’t seem to stop. “And you know what I felt right then?”
She shakes her head again.
“Relief.”
I slide my other hand up her back until I reach her neck, pulling her long hair to the side to expose the creamy curve of it. I trail my lips across her shoulder and up, allowing my nose to graze the shell of her ear. Naomi responds by melting more of her weight into my arms.
“I thought to myself, this woman already knows me. I can just be myself. Which is crazy, because I’m not sure that’s even how I feel about people who know me. Sometimes when I’m around people who know me, all I want to do is hide my true self.”
“But you didn’t hide from me?” Her question is barely audible.
“I didn’t hide. You never made me feel like I needed to. I felt safe with you from the first second. You took me home, and I still felt safe, even if I was a little nervous.”
I can feel her cheek shift as she smiles.
“I don’t know what to do with these feelings, Naomi.”
“What do you want to do?”
I shrug, even though she can’t see me.
Even though I know damn well what the answer is.
“I didn’t come to this island for Dom, you know,” she says.
I let the meaning of her statement hit me. I’m just about to say something, anything, to keep her from saying what I know she’s about to, but I don’t get the words out in time.
“Dom isn’t exactly the person I would choose to run to when I’m in trouble. There were money issues when I pissed my dad off, but I could have managed for a while. I just felt like I needed to be near you. I came here for you. When my life was crumbling down around me, the only thing I could think about was how safe I would be with you.”
“Naomi…” My heart is breaking for all the ways I can’t give her what she needs.
What I need.
“I know. I know that’s a lot. I shouldn’t have said it. But it’s true.”
“I want this to be different. You know that.”
She takes a step back, forcing my hands to drop. They hit the sides of my body as she stares up at me, eyes glassy but still fierce. “I know.”
I wait for her to call me out as the coward that I am. To tell me that I’m failing her and that she knows I’m living a lie. But she doesn’t.
When my lips touch down on hers, it ignites a fire in me that I’ve felt before.
The last time I had this woman in my arms.
I press into her as she opens easily, taking me in and giving just as eagerly. My hands are everywhere now, no longer moving softly or slowly, but greedily trying to touch every inch of her naked body at once.
I’m lost in the taste of her, the feel of her, spinning in my own internal universe, when she pulls me back to the present moment with a lift of my shirt. I reach down and take the hem from her hand, pulling it off and tossing it to the side.
Naomi’s warm palms run down my chest and across my stomach, curling around my hip bones and under the waistband of my jeans.
I’m not ready to take them off.
Not ready for what any of this could mean.
But when has not being ready ever stopped life from unfolding?