Unravelled (Revealed #2) (38 page)

Chapter Thirty-one

Allie

The feeling of something tickling my jawline woke me up. Grumbling my complaint I tried to itch it away, only to discover it was actually Sean’s head as he lightly rubbed his stubble-covered chin repeatedly back and forth across my cheek.

‘Good morning, my gorgeous girl,’ he murmured, a smile clear in his tone.

A matching smile pulled at my own lips as I stretched and opened my eyes to find him perched on top of me, looking handsome as sin, but disappointingly fully clothed. Mmm … from the smell of my shower gel on his skin and the dampness of his hair, he was freshly showered too. Scrummy. Clean, fresh Sean in my bed. Perfect. Mind you, I didn’t mind him when he was dirty in my bed, either.

‘You off to work?’ I mumbled, sleepily remembering that he’d mentioned he needed to go to the studio today.

‘Yeah. Sorry to wake you, but I wanted to check we’re definitely OK after last night.’

Last night. The art gallery.
Savannah
.

Images of her pawing over Sean flooded my brain and I felt instantly more awake as my body tensed below his. The unpleasant thoughts didn’t last long though, as I replayed my arrival back at the bungalow and the angry, delicious make-up sex we had shared. Blinking slowly, I felt my cheeks heat at memories of Sean’s intensity. He’d been like a man possessed. Not that I had complained in the slightest.

Pulling in a long breath, I smiled and nodded. ‘We are.’

His shoulders relaxed before he lowered his head and nuzzled into my neck. ‘OK, good. I’ll leave you to sleep. Don’t eat, I’ll pick us up some breakfast on my way back.’

Sliding my hand into his damp hair, I pulled him down for a quick kiss and my smile transformed into a grin at the thought that he would be at the studio this morning smelling like my shower gel. Mine. He might like to get possessive, but it went both ways. This man was mine. After one chaste kiss he was gone, leaving me feeling sleepy, content, and brimming with happiness.

Sean really was a gem. He’d stuck to his word like glue, only being gone for a single hour this morning before arriving back with warm chocolate croissants, fruit salad, coffee, and the promise that he was now free to spend the rest of the day with me.

It was a pretty fantastic start to the day. The energy was palpable as the bungalow transformed from just being a luxurious suite into our own little bubble of happiness. Our spirits were understandably high: me thrilled by the prospect of some time with Sean, and him seemingly buoyant because of my good mood.

We lounged by the bungalow’s private pool, enjoying the heat of the noon sun, chatting, reading, and appreciating the fact that he had a rare day off. We’d breakfasted out here, not wanting to miss a minute of the warmth, and the remnants of our earlier meal were still beside us – empty coffee cups and a few missed flakes of croissant – but both of us were feeling too lazy to move.

Sighing contentedly, I reached the end of a chapter, put my book down, and glanced across at Sean. My breath hitched a little in my throat and a small smile curled the corners of my lips at the sight beside me – he was just gorgeous. He didn’t have any swimming trunks at the bungalow, so he was lying there in just his tight boxers – Calvin Kleins, which seemed to be his preference – which wasn’t a sight I minded in the slightest. This particular pair was quite small, and an incredibly good fit, making them, rather, er … well packed, shall we say. And not leaving a great deal to the imagination. Not that I needed imagination to know what was under the cotton – I had Sean’s body committed to memory.

One change since I’d last seen him in the UK was his chest hair, which had been trimmed down so it was shorter and neater. This just made his muscular chest look even more defined though, so obviously I wasn’t complaining. Apparently in the new season of LA Blue he’d have to get his top off quite a few times, and the producer hadn’t liked his untamed state – he’d called him ‘a hairy British bear’ – and immediately demanded the ladies in the hair and makeup department trim him down. I’m sure it made their day. Possibly their year.

I was very fond of Sean’s chest hair – his fur, as I referred to it. I saw it as manly and a huge turn on, and even in this trimmed state I still found myself itching to run my fingers across it.

Tilting my face toward the sun, I couldn’t help but hum happily to myself – this was blissful. It almost felt as if we were a regular couple again, sunning ourselves on a foreign holiday somewhere exotic, and I was loving every minute of it.

Thankfully, last night’s argument was now firmly behind us, although I’m fairly sure we’d both taken on board the points made, and learnt from our mistakes. Hopefully things would be a little smoother between us from now on.

‘You’re too far away. Come here,’ Sean grumbled, one hand patting the gap between us on the double lounger while his other held up an e-reader. This sunbed was amazing, it was like a four poster bed, with light gauze draped across it to cut out the glare from the sun, and a huge mattress big enough for two.

Rolling onto my side, I shuffled closer to his bronzing skin. His closest arm took hold of me possessively and I relaxed, allowing him to do his thing and tuck me close to his side with a contented sigh. ‘That’s better,’ he said, giving my waist a brief squeeze just above the ticklish spot at my hip.

Squirming under his teasing touch, I let out a small giggle and when he relented and moved his hand, I gave in and flopped lazily onto him. ‘It’s hot today, I didn’t want to get you sweaty.’ Resting my cheek on the sun-warmed skin of his chest, I now had a perfect view over his near perfect body and found a smile tugging my lips again. Possibly a slightly smug one too, because let’s face it, having this guy lying beneath me made me a very, very lucky girl.

‘You didn’t seem to mind getting me sweaty last night,’ he commented teasingly, his hand sliding back to my hip and resuming its earlier caress. He had a point, and I couldn’t help but smile as I recalled last night’s lovemaking. Once we’d gotten the talking part over with, it had been mind-blowing.

Sex with Sean had been great from the start, always intense and passionate, but it seemed that adding in the highly-strung emotions of anger and jealousy had made last night somehow even more explosive. I was still reeling from it.

Just thinking about how possessive he’d been got me hot under the collar and I felt a stirring of interest flutter in my belly as my libido began to wake up. To be honest, if Sean kept rubbing my hip like this I’d either pounce on him right here in the open, or need to jump in the pool to cool off my growing arousal.

‘By the way, you could have told me you decided to bring Cait along to the bungalow,’ he murmured, his e-reader lowering for a moment as he spoke.

Oops. He had a point there. Seeing as Sean was footing the bill for this luxurious accommodation I probably should have told him. Mind you, on the night I moved here and invited Cait along for the ride I had only just found out about the fake engagement and had been furious with him. It hadn’t crossed my mind since then. ‘I needed some company. Sorry, I didn’t think to tell you.’

My voice was a little weak, and in response, Sean placed his book down and gave me an understanding squeeze, as if he knew exactly what I was thinking, but didn’t want to mention it either. I felt his head twist as he dropped a kiss on my hair and I nuzzled closer.

‘I don’t mind in the slightest, but I walked out in my boxers this morning and nearly scared the shit out of Cait.’

Propping myself up on my elbow, I raised my sunglasses onto the top of my head so I could look at him properly. His eyes were shaded by a pair of Aviators, but he didn’t look overly bothered by his near flashing. In fact, judging by the way the corners of his lips were tweaking, he appeared quite amused by it all.

‘You did?’ Giggling, I placed a hand on his chest and trailed my fingers towards his belly button, watching in fascination as the skin tensed and rippled with my movements. ‘Sorry. Cait is quite shy so you probably did scare her, but I’m sure she’ll get over it.’

‘It could have been worse, I nearly walked out stark naked. That would really have given her a fright.’ Grinning, I decided not to tell Sean that Cait had probably gotten an eyeful of his tackle last night, just in case it made him feel uncomfortable around her. Not that he had any reason to be shy when it came to his privates – he had more than enough going on in the trouser department to make any man envious.

Gosh, with the heat from the sun combining with my wandering (and increasingly heated) thoughts about Sean’s lower anatomy, I was starting to feel like I might melt.

Peeling myself from Sean’s one-armed embrace, I sat up. Stretching out my arms, I yawned and eyed the tempting pool. ‘It’s so hot today. I’m going to cool off in the pool, you coming for a swim?’

‘In a minute, let me finish this chapter,’ Sean said, lifting up his e-reader again. He was a man after my own heart – I hated to leave a book mid-chapter, always getting to the end of one before putting it down. It was a small obsession of mine.

‘OK.’ Dropping a kiss onto one of his nipples I gave it just the tiniest nip with my teeth, enough to make him jerk and yelp, but as he went to reach for me I jumped up and ran giggling to the far side of the pool, towards the ladder. Seeing Sean giving me a rueful smile across the glittering water as he rubbed his abused nipple, I grinned and waved teasingly at him before approaching the side.

I’m a bit of a wuss when it comes to introducing my body to cold water. I never jump straight in, always choosing to climb slowly down the ladder until I have acclimatised enough to brave the act of immersing myself. As I lowered my foot onto the first step, I gasped at the chill that surrounded my skin. The sun was hot today, so I’d thought the water might have warmed slightly, but no, it was still flipping freezing.

It took me a while, and several loud gasps, but after a few minutes I was about halfway in, the water now lapping around my belly button. To my astonishment, I was suddenly hit with the most gigantic wave of freezing cold water splashing all over my back and head, causing me to scream, flail one arm wildly, lose my grip, and promptly fall from the ladder and under the water.

Plumes of bubbles surrounded me for a second as I sank down under the bright surface, before pushing off the bottom and popping up sputtering out a mouthful of water. To my embarrassment, I then briefly flailed around like a drowning hippopotamus before coming to my senses and swimming to the side to hold on.

Lifting a hand, I rubbed at my eyes to remove the water and then pushed my sopping wet hair away from my face to see, and hear, Sean laughing loudly as he trod water in the middle of the pool.

‘Cannonball!’ he said with a grin and a wicked wiggle of his eyebrows.

‘You’re supposed to shout as you jump into the pool, not afterwards!’ I scolded him, flopping my drenched hair over my shoulders in a decidedly huffy gesture.

‘Yeah, but you deserved it.’ Seeing my affronted look, he grinned even wider and shrugged. ‘After biting my nipple you proceeded to tease me by standing on the ladder and wiggling your delectable arse from side to side as you fannied about being too scared to get in the water.’

Faking outrage, I dropped my mouth open. ‘I was not fannying! And I wasn’t scared! I was making a ladylike and elegant entrance!’ I exclaimed, now struggling to hold back the laughter. ‘Or at least I was trying to,’ I muttered, feeling far from elegant, and more like a half drowned rat.

‘It looked like you were fannying to me,’ he said with a grin, giving a shrug which caused a chunk of his wet hair to fall across his forehead somewhat distractingly. ‘I was just being helpful and assisting you in your entry to the pool.’

He continued to tread water as he raised a hand and pushed his hair back from his brow so it was slicked neatly away from his face. Watching him, I felt my eyebrows rise in appreciation. What with his tan, the sun twinkling in his blue eyes, and his near perfect hair Sean now resembled something like a GQ model, and I couldn’t help but grin back. How could I stay mad at him when he looked like that?

I couldn’t, and I wasn’t really mad at him – we were in a swimming pool, it was designed for fun, so messing around and getting me wet was sort of expected.

Pushing off from the side, I swam out to him and found that he wasn’t actually treading water, but standing, so I lowered my legs to follow suit and immediately managed to dunk myself under the water again. While the water was shallow enough for Sean’s six foot something body to stand, my five foot six frame could not reach the bottom.

Warm hands enclosed around my upper arms, bringing me to the surface where I sucked in a shocked breath and locked my gaze with Sean, who was openly laughing at me, his blue eyes sparkling and making him look ridiculously boyish and handsome.

‘You seem to rather like it under the water,’ he commented as he helped me tuck my legs around his waist. Looping my arms behind his neck, I grinned back and blinked several times to clear the droplets of water from my eyelashes.

‘I like it here even more,’ I murmured, locking my ankles behind his back and squeezing my thighs to bring myself as close as possible to his muscular abdomen.

He hummed an agreement, adjusting me so I slid marginally lower on his body until I could feel the stirrings of his arousal developing against my bum. ‘Agreed. This is certainly an improvement on you trying to drown yourself,’ he replied in a tone which had suddenly dropped far lower than before, but with his lips still twitching with amusement.

His gaze lazily lowered towards my lips and stayed there, causing my heart rate to rocket as a familiar, and much missed, throbbing heat settled in my groin. ‘You have water on the tip of your nose,’ he murmured, leaning forward to kiss it away. ‘And your cheek.’ His sinfully soft lips trailed from my nose across to my cheek, licking and kissing as he went and eliciting a small moan from my throat. ‘And on your lips …’ His mouth finally found mine and I seemed to lose all sense of time as I happily gave myself over to his delicious attention.