Billionaires Dollar Series

Her smile is half timid, half brave. “So as long as we establish that this is… consensual and fun and entirely without expectations… there shouldn’t be an issue?”

“You’re approaching this very logically,” I point out.

She smiles. “Engineering student.”

“I get it,” I say. “Engineer, here.”

“So what do you think?”

“If I had to approach this logically?”

Bella moves closer, nodding. I lose the fight with my self-control, reaching up to slide wet fingers over her cheek. It’s just as soft as it looks. “I’m having a difficult time thinking at all,” I confess.

And damn it, but Bella flushes again, her smile a beautiful thing. “You could, you know, not,” she breathes.

“Not think?”

“Mhm.”

I bend my head and savor the moment-the sight of her lips opening for me and her eyes fluttering closed. Just like I’d tried to in the kitchen, I kiss her softly. Properly.

The taste of her lips is like honey, sweet and overwhelming. It draws me in. Soon, cupping her cheeks isn’t enough, and my hands venture down under the surface to close around her waist.

Bella sighs into my mouth. It’s a soft, trusting sound, one that speaks of surrender, and damn if my body doesn’t ache to receive all she might have to offer.

“See?” she murmurs, stepping close enough that our bodies are flush below the surface. “Look at me having no expectations. I’m doing it so well.”

I pull back long enough to chuckle, my fingers digging into her hips. “I don’t want you to have none.”

Heat flashes in her eyes, brief and fiery, and then a shy smile spreads across her face. It would take a far stronger man than me to resist. I can’t, it’s that simple. So I kiss her again, luxuriating in the feel of her against my lips. The taste of her against my tongue.

It’s nothing at all to lift up her up and tell her to wrap her legs around my waist. To reach under her, gripping her thighs to keep her secure.

Bella twines her arms around my neck like I’m all the support she needs, like she trusts me. And damn it, for so long I’d thought I was tired of being the one people leaned on-in my business, my family, my relationships. But here with her, it makes me feel like I can do anything at all, just because this beautiful young woman trusts my strength.

“Damn,” I murmur, breaking off long enough to kiss her cheek. “I came over for a dip in your pool.”

Her smile widens and I hear my own words back, groaning. “That’s not how I meant that.”

“It’s okay,” she murmurs, pressing warm, open-mouthed kisses to my neck. It’s making it very, very hard to focus on keeping my hands where they are and not sliding them down. The desire to tug her bikini out of-no. That’s not me. Shouldn’t be, at least.

“Bella,” I breathe, my fingers digging into the supple skin beneath my hands. “The last time I had a moment to myself was years ago.”

“I know,” she murmurs again, her hands now buried in my hair. She does some sort of sorcery with her fingers, twisting and tugging, and I lose all train of thought. No one has touched me like that in a long, long time. Perhaps ever. “This is good though, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” I groan. “Very.”

There’s a smile in her voice, speaking between soft, feathery kisses. “We’re adults. We can make adult decisions.”

“God help us, yes we can.”

Her hands rake down my back and the shivers that explode over my skin are heavenly, they’re magnetic, and it’s impossible to not take control of the kiss. I can’t resist sliding a hand down to her ass and squeezing.

The water might be cool but there’s a fire raging below, in the space between our bodies, pressed so close together. Bella bites into my lower lip and holy shit, I don’t think a woman has ever done that before. I palm one of her tits through the thin, flimsy fabric of her bikini top.

Somehow, the string tie comes undone, and then my hand is the only thing covering the soft swell. A taut nipple tickles my palm.

My poor, shattered self-control frays further.

“Sorry,” I murmur. Bella glances down, her chest now bare as the top floats uselessly between us. I look down, too, and she’s fucking perfect. “So much better up close.”

Bella laughs, leaning in to hug me. It hides her tits from view, but now they’re pressed tight against my chest, and that’s definitely not less distracting. “Whoops,” she breathes.

I smooth a hand over her back. Had that been nervous laughter? “Truly unintentional,” I say. “I can close my eyes while you cover back up.”

Another chuckle, more genuine this time. “Nothing you haven’t seen before.”

“At quite some distance,” I point out.

“That’s true.” Her lips briefly touch my shoulder. “But I did notice that you put a window in the treehouse facing this way.”

I grip her tightly and wade toward the edge of the pool. “A construction error,” I say. “I’ll make sure it has shutters.”

Another laugh. “Don’t worry. I’ve started covering up.”

“Practically a crime,” I tease, and she relaxes entirely in my arms, leaning back again. I don’t look down at her chest again. It takes willpower, and probably gives me a few new gray hairs, but somehow I manage.

“So,” she says, knotting her fingers behind my neck. If the kisses hadn’t already, the look in her eyes alone would break down my resolve. It’s soft and shy and kind, all at once, as she gazes at me like I’m a man without baggage and burdens, a man she likes.

“So,” I echo. “Clearly, I want to spend time with you, despite not having much time at all. Do you think I can manufacture some? Invent a machine for that?”

“You’d make a fortune,” she says, “but I think we’ll manage without it, too.”

“Somehow,” I say. “Because I do want to eat a proper dinner with you. Just the two of us. Though God knows when we’ll manage that.”

“Tonight?” she asks, glancing toward my side of the hedge. “Your mother still has the girls, right?”

I frown. “She does. But I promised to have dinner with my brother.” Could I cancel? Liam never came to town, the bastard, but Bella is warm and half-naked in my arms…This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.

“Oh, of course you should do that. I’ll be here.”

“That doesn’t incentivize me to go,” I say, releasing my hold on her. I close my eyes and keep them that way.

Bella laughs. “You can look, you know.”

“Not if we’re going to get out of this pool and go our separate ways I can’t.”

“Right,” she says. “As if I’m irresistible.”