Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
She couldn’t deny that she felt a strange connection to him, but his hasty exit cemented the fact that this was just a wild affair, one time with a bad-boy bartender to help break her good-girl ways and keep her mind off matters for a few days. This wasn’t about love or commitment or happily-every-after, and he had every right to leave. They lived completely different lives, and she knew—hell they both knew—what they were getting into when she practically threw herself at him down at the beachside bar.
Okay, so why did his hasty exit make her feel all weird and lonely inside? Was it because she wasn’t the kind of girl who could love casually, or was it something more?
She shook her head, wondering if she’d ever stop believing in fairy tales. She loved and missed her late parents dearly, but damn them for buying her all those Disney movies and filling her young, impressionable mind with flights of fancy.
Chloe stood and paced her room, her body humming and savoring the effects of Jared’s skilled touch. A warm tingle raced through her in remembrance and brought on a shudder. Even though Jared had just made sweet, passionate love to her until day bled into night, with his mouth, his fingers and his cock, she still craved him, craved him with a bizarre intensity that had her head spinning and her body aching. What the hell was it about him that called out to her like a beacon in the night? His gentle hands? The soft, sexy tone he used when talking to her? Or the way he took such painstaking care of her needs?
God, maybe it really was for the best that he’d run off before she wanted more. If she didn’t already. Oh boy. Yeah it was definitely time to put Jared out of her mind, despite the fact that he made her feel the way no man had ever made her feel before.
Chloe took a quick shower and pulled on a pretty red-rose print sundress, hoping a walk along the water would help clear her mind, as well as her libido. She grabbed her beach bag and headed for the elevator. She nodded a greeting to the night concierge and noted just how quiet the lobby area was, not to mention the rest of the resort.
A moment later she found herself outside, inhaling the fragrant air. Stars glistened high overhead as the warm night air fell over her like heavy blanket and moistened her body. She glanced around, searching for something, anything to help keep her mind off Jared. A noise near the water pulled her focus and she followed the sound.
Her sandals snapped against her heels as she sauntered down the wooden boardwalk. When her feet hit the sandy beach, she pulled off her footwear and stuffed them into her bag. She drew a rejuvenating breath and squished the gloriously warm sand between her toes.
Off one end of the beach, at the foot of the majestic mountain, strategically positioned torches provided sufficient light for her to see a cluster of the guests gathered around a cozy bonfire—despite the warm tropical air—boiling shellfish, while other vacationers frolicked in the surf. Chloe’s stomach rumbled, a reminder that she hadn’t eaten in hours.
As she moved closer, a few of the guests noticed her and waved her over. The two men she’d seen at the bar earlier that day, the same two who’d been pumping Jared for dragon information, made room for her on the wooden bench between them.
“A rose between two thorns,” one of them said glancing at her rose print dress, and everyone joined in the laughter. After a round of introductions she learned that the shorter man with the light blond hair was Blair Thorne, and the taller one, Blair’s cousin, the one with the cute grin, smoldering bedroom eyes and short hair similar to Jared’s, was Trey Thorne. At least now the thorn comment made more sense, she mused.
Chloe made small talk for a few moments then sat back and inhaled the burning lumber. Blinking her eyes to adjust to the moonlit night, she followed the fiery embers as they took to the sky and burned to a crisp. The ashes sailed away on a breeze, drifting over the tall wooden fence and landing silently on the lush mountainside. Chloe’s gaze surfed over the thick foliage and for the briefest of moments she thought she saw movement. She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again, but her glance only met with tall trees and foliage.
A trick of her tired eyes, maybe? Or a dragon perhaps? She shook her head and practically scoffed at the ludicrous thought. Trey handed her a plate with warm buttery lobster, bringing her attention back around to him.
“Mmm, yummy. Thanks.” She tossed Trey a grateful smile.
“My pleasure.” Trey licked his lips, but with the flirty way he was looking at her, she’d hazard a guess that it wasn’t the lobster that had him salivating.
Just this morning she would have welcomed such attention. After all, hadn’t she decided a lot of hedonistic sex was exactly what she needed to take her mind off matters? But after being with Jared, intimately, and feeling his mouth and hands on her body, she had no interest in flirting with Trey.
Cripes, had one time in Jared’s arms ruined her for all other men?
Chloe bit into her succulent lobster and sat back, pulling herself away from conversation and only half-listening to the light-hearted chatter around her. As her mind wandered, her thoughts raced to Jared. Where the heck had he run off to? She glanced around, looking for the staff sleeping quarters.
Suddenly the hairs on the back of her neck began
