ly thing that made

soft garden lights and pristine white tile. The Blake Wolfe estate had plenty of ca

when the staff were gone and Vanessa

too small, too tight, something her mother would've calle

she th

see Damie

muscles stretch and burn. The water felt perfect cool against her heated skin. Her thought

d, slicking her hair back wi

hand. The lights behind him were off, but the glow from the pool illuminated just enough to rev

g back under and preten

e her something rec

of the pool, and let her body float. Her bikini top clung wet and tight

directly. But she could feel hi

ence st

own, smooth and low. "Yo

move. "Care

ght get the

d up at him through soaked la

n't re

eflected the pool's lig

nked again,

didn'

hair soaking into the pi

d she j

what that was a game?

had been something in the way he watched her something that

Damien had alwa

and controlled about him. He never tried to play "dad," never even tried to get close

done if Vanessa h

ld she h

er body still ached from the pool not from swimming, but from holdin

't going to

the reason her mother

erself that, she knew

awkward the

rolling on her iPad. Damien sat across from her, reading the finan

t and granola like it ha

ll?" Vane

" Sier

ve a deep tissue appointment, and I swear this

e," she

but Sierra felt his pre

ery breath, was to

r and said casually, "Did yo

on froz

ed up. "She loves t

good habit. Though some swims ar

t her bowl, blood th

taunt

dn't r

Not looking at her body this

ecti

heek and a reminder to "be charming if anyone calls." He walked her to the front doo

ay when he passed. Neit

look he

id ever

her an ho

, reading a novel she couldn't focus on. She didn't h

d," he murmured. "A

d up slow

we're not just playing wit

ghtened. "You

w I was

out marking the page. "I

tepping closer.

tay a

To understand what h

tched. "What

his fingers. It wasn't sexual. It was... possessive. Like he was

for that answer,

dered in her c

her gaze,

steppe

le

the doorway long

kin t

. From someth

cipa