CHAPTER10
LARISA
As I changed into the bikini I’d brought along, I gave myself a mental high-five for deciding to bring it instead of the one-piece I’d considered. Obviously, I still wasn’t planning on anything happening this weekend, but I wanted to look good while I was out there.
Tanner had been a perfect gentleman so far, going out of his way to make sure I was comfortable and had everything I needed. I’d definitely judged him too harshly at the auction. He wasn’t some cocky asshole who thought his money could buy him anything he wanted—women included.
In fact, he hadn’t bragged about being rich or casually tried to work in any mention of expensive things he owned at all. I liked that about him, the modesty despite being a billionaire. He was also surprisingly easy to talk to, as well as surprisingly candid about stuff. He’s just a surprise, really.
He definitely wasn’t the unnecessarily broody type who kept shit to himself just because he wanted to maintain an air of mystery. Laughter came to him easily, whether he was chuckling at my incessant ability to keep sticking my foot in it this weekend or whether it was at himself for how nervous he’d been before the auction.
I liked that about him, too. Despite all the successes he’d had, he didn’t take himself too seriously. My misgivings about this weekend were quickly evaporating thanks to him and the way he was handling things.
Thank God Brit had bid on him and not on some other guy. I still think it could’ve ended up being such a freaking weird weekend.
Even so, for as much as I was starting to enjoy myself with him, it had only been a few hours. Hopefully, my foot-in-mouth disease would be completely gone by the morning. If things kept going with him the way they were, I was sure it would be.
It was usually only this bad when I was nervous, and while my nerves were obviously still flaring up around him every so often, I was also starting to think of him as a friend. A friend I was insanely attracted to—hence the flare-ups—but a friend nonetheless.
I looked myself up and down in the mirror one last time before heading out, and I took a deep breath. I’d bought this bikini months ago at a sale at the end of last summer, and this was the first opportunity I’d had to wear it.
The gold material looked good with my darker complexion, and it had a faint shimmer to it. Straps tied into cute little bows fastened the bottoms on either side of my hips, and the triangles over my boobs were big enough to keep the girls in check. No accidental nip slips for me.
After pulling my hair into a loose, messy bun on top of my head, I went to meet him on the deck. He was standing next to the hot tub with two glasses in his hand. He filled them with champagne from a bottle he was holding in the other.
The drinks were a nice idea, but I couldn’t formulate the words to tell him that. I was too busy trying to keep my eyes in my head and my jaw from dropping, because holy. Hot. Damn.
Tanner was built.
I’d suspected he took great care of his body, but seeing it without layers of clothing covering it more than confirmed that suspicion. He wasn’t bulky by any means, but every muscle was cut into hard, defined lines, and the blue swimming trunks he wore showcased a sizable bulge beneath them.
He looked up and our eyes met. A jolt raced through me and tingles exploded all over my skin. I saw the moment his gaze dropped to look at my body in the bikini, and since I’d just done the same thing to him, I stood still and wondered if it would be super obvious if I sucked in my stomach or stood up a little straighter.
His perusal didn’t last long enough for me to make up my mind, though. When his gaze came back up to mine, he smiled and raised the glasses in his hand before setting the bottle down. “I thought we could have a toast to a successful first day.”
“Great idea.” I walked toward him and took one of the glasses. I shivered and became aware of the cool night air, now that the heat that had flared through me at the sight of him had passed.
“I was just waiting for you before I got in,” he said. “Go on. I’ll be right behind you. Jeremiah said there were towels over by the grill. I want to get them before we get in, or I’ll freeze my balls off looking for them later.”
“We wouldn’t want that,” I said jokingly. “I’ll test the water temperature.”
He turned and started walking toward the grill. I lowered myself down at the edge of the hot tub. Then I set my champagne down within reaching distance and slid into the water before he came back. I wasn’t a small girl, but despite the fact that I had no issues with my size, no one would want a guy who looked like him to see the collection of rolls that inevitably formed while they were bending over.
The hot water welcomed me with open arms, and a soft moan slid out of me once I was submerged all the way to my shoulders. I rested my head against the edge and looked up toward the stars, but Tanner’s face appeared above me instead. He had a huge grin on his face and his eyes were sparkling again, this time from the reflection of the light in the hot tub.
“It’s that good, huh?” he asked.
I frowned for a moment, then remembered the moan and laughed. “Yeah, it’s that good. Did you find the towels?”
He nodded, dropping two fluffy-looking, snow-white towels on the deck before sliding in beside me. Echoing my reaction, he let out a low groan and closed his eyes. “Yep. Yes. It’s definitely that good. I’m glad you didn’t want to go to bed just yet. This might just be the best part of the house, and we almost missed it.”
With him no longer above me, I looked up at the blanket of stars twinkling in the inky sky overhead. “I don’t know about it being the best part, but it’s a damn good one. Everything about this house is the best part. You don’t think Jeremiah might be interested in letting me have it for a weekend a month if I volunteer to come check up on it for him, do you?”
“He has a whole staff of people to do his bidding,” he replied, and his voice was suddenly much closer to me than I was expecting. “We can always ask him, though. I’m sure we might be able to work something out.”
I sat up and turned my head. He was right next to me—like mere inches away. With my head no longer on the edge, he snaked his arm around my shoulders and my gaze caught on his. There was an intensity in it I hadn’t seen before. It drifted down to my lips before it came back up again.
He leaned in closer to me and I tensed. A surge of desire swelled in me when I noticed a hint of a spicy, masculine scent in the air that had to belong to him, but the irritation that bubbled up in me when he pulled closer with the obvious intention of kissing me was stronger.