Page 35 of Settling the Score

‘I don’t have bathers,’ she said, after a beat. ‘So, I’m going to swim in this.’ She gestured to her outfit of short shorts and a shirt.

He shrugged, like he didn’t care. Like he wasn’t relieved as all get-out that she wasn’t merrily stripping off her shirt and shorts and getting down to just her underwear.

‘Sure,’ he said. ‘I presume you won’t be offended if I take off my shirt?’

‘I’ve seen naked chests before,’ she pointed out, in a way that cut him like a mother trucker. ‘I’ve even seenyournaked chest before,’ she added as a reminder, with a hint of a wink that made his stomach feel all lurchy and weird.

He was pretty sure he made something like a growling noise as he lifted the shirt off over his head and dropped it down onto the sand, but it was totally eclipsed by the soft rush of breath he heard escaping Sienna’s parted lips. When he looked at her, those enormous eyes were firmly locked to his torso.

She might have seen it before, but not for a long time, and he’d done a lot of filling out since then courtesy of the monumental workout sessions he drove himself to complete every day, sometimes twice a day. He’d also done a fair bit of time in a tattooist’s chair.

‘Oh,’ she said, eyes quickly flicking to his before dropping lower. ‘That’s quite some ink.’

‘Yeah.’ A nonsensical, stupid response, because the way she was staring at him was making his mouth all dry and his stomach hollow, not to mention his head as empty as a deserted attic.

She took a half-step closer, one side of her lips tugging into a smile that made it impossible to look anywhere but at her face. ‘The Titans,’ she said, pointing – and carefully not touching – the team’s logo he wore just beneath his left pectoral.

He nodded, not trusting his voice.

‘And an eagle?’ Her gaze flicked to his and flames seemed to leap against the soles of his feet.

He nodded.

‘And this one?’ Her hand shifted to the side a little, just above his hip. He didn’t need to look down to know what she was pointing at. The red love heart, about the size of his thumb.

‘I lost a bet.’

Her lips quirked. ‘With who?’

‘Who do you think?’ he grunted. ‘Blake.’

Her laugh was only soft, but she was close enough that her breath buzzed his jaw, making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

‘Is that all of them?’ She glanced back up at his face.

His heart thumped into his ribs. It was a straightforward question but the answer took them a step closer to a path they’d be idiots to follow. Slowly, activating full idiot mode even when he should have known better, almost against his will, he shook his head.

‘Oh.’ Her voice was quiet. As though it was just dawning on her that the only part of him that was concealed from her view was the flesh from low on his hips to mid-thighs. ‘Never mind,’ she rushed, her eyes troubled when they met his, her cheeks flushed pink.

Heat started low in his abdomen, as though a match had been struck, and shot right up his spine.

‘You don’t want to see?’

It was a challenge, a dare, and a plea. A plea for her to remember and pull away from this; a plea for her to have some common sense.

Her lips parted on a soft breath and her eyes stayed latched to his. He was dimly aware of the sound of crashing waves, the heat of the sun on his back, the sea breeze ruffling his hair. But mostly, he was hyper fixated on Sienna, on this moment, on the humming and buzzing that was flooding his body and brain.

‘Okay.’ Her voice trembled a little. ‘Show me, cowboy.’

Something panged in the very centre of his chest. A memory, slamming into him, hard and fast.

‘Come on, cowboy!’

She’d called him that, back then, always with a teasing smile, because Aiden had been wearing a broad-brimmed hat the first day they’d walked home from school together. The hat had been retired long before the nickname.

He half-turned, so she had a better view of his back, and moved his hand to the waistband of his shorts, his fingers brushing low down before sliding the elastic lower, incrementally, until the text was visible.

‘Ad Meliora,’ she said, halting a little over the unfamiliar words. Or maybe it was because half his butt was exposed. That was probably just wishful thinking, though, because Sienna hadn’t given him any hint that she was as affected by him as he was by her. He swallowed over a lump in his throat, ignoring the way his gut seemed to drop to his feet as he acknowledged that. ‘What does it mean?’