I looked away, trying to forget how he’d felt inside me. Too hot, I took off my sweater and tossed it at him. He caught it and hung it over the shower door. I shimmied out of my panties and stripped off my camisole and bra, throwing the garments at him in quick succession.
My bra hit him in the face. His eyes were riveted to me. I glanced down to find my tight nipples above the surface. Quickly, I sank down in the water.
I swallowed hard when his fingers dipped below the waistband of his underwear. Held my breath as they fell around his ankles. Was it even possible for a man to be this beautiful?
I dropped beneath the surface. When I came up for air, he stood at the edge of the tub.
“Is it too late for bubbles?”
“Are you afraid to get in with me?”
“Anxious much?”
I flicked water onto him. It beaded on his stomach and rolled down the tight muscles.
He climbed in and sat opposite me. Once settled, he picked up my foot, massaging the pad.
“I should call somebody. Let them know where we are.” His fingers took away the sting of pain that jarred my chest when I realized I had no one to tell. My family hated me.
“I spoke to your father. They’re under strict instructions not to disturb us unless it’s an emergency.”
“How pathetic is it that you can talk to my father and I can’t?”
“You can. You just aren’t.”
I fanned my fingers across the water, staring at the ripples. “Am I really that awful?”
Heat seeped into my skin. That in combination with the way Patrick worked my feet had me more relaxed than I could remember since the last time he’d worn me out.
“Sometimes.” He kneaded my calves, and I moaned. “It’s odd, isn’t it? How we fight most with our family when we’re supposed to support one another.”
“You get along with everybody.”
“Except my family. They don’t speak to me. So I stopped speaking to them.”
I sat up a little. “Why not?”
“They didn’t have my back when I needed them most.” He switched to my other foot. “What do you want from your family?”
I dropped my head back and looked at the ceiling. He’d never spoken about his family with me before, so I was curious. But his question about what I wanted from my own family was a good one. Scary, but a good one. Yet my mind was blank. What did I want? “I don’t know,” I eventually settled on.
“Makes it sort of hard to get then.”
“When you make sense, it’s frightening.”
“Think on it some while we’re here.”
“They didn’t believe me. About my mother and Andrew’s wedding.”
“You get why they didn’t.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” I protested, still disappointed in them.
“I didn’t say you did,” he returned calmly. “But when you look at it from their perspective, you can see why they reacted the way they did.”
“You’re agreeing with them.”
He squeezed my foot until I looked at him. “I’m always in your corner.”
I cut my gaze out the window to the bright stars glittering above. Patrick was mercifully silent as I tried to clear my mind. I didn’t want to think about my family. About anything. I was tired of dealing with it all. Tired of everything.
Patrick’s movements slowed. He cradled my foot, his head against the ledge of the tub. I wasn’t the only one exhausted. But for the first time in a long time, I felt . . . content. Thankful. And it was all because of this man who had not only taken time away from his crazy-houred job, but had done it so I could relax. Who did that?
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Patrick
The time is coming . . .
I darkened the screen on my phone and dropped it on the lounger beside me. Multiple texts from an unknown number. With the kind of crimes I’d gotten people off for, the threats could be from anyone. I’d had my fair share from victims and their families.
“You look mad.” Marlow fell into the chair beside me.
“How’s the little dude?”
She looked at me like she saw my avoidance for exactly what it was. “Went right to sleep.”
“After all that fuss?”
“I’ll get him up in an hour or he really won’t want to sleep tonight.” She looked out at the ocean. “I can’t believe how warm it is today compared to yesterday.”
“Doesn’t get much better.”
We basically had the beach to ourselves. All morning we’d played in the sand with Blake. Wicked’s cheeks were pink from the sun. And I’d behaved myself despite that she had on a bikini.
“Thank you. For this.”
It was difficult to hide my surprised reaction, but I did a decent enough job. Those were rare words for her, and I was grateful to be on the receiving end, though I knew better than to make a big deal. “I could see you needed to decompress.”
She made a noncommittal noise.
“You’re staring at my stomach again.”
“I have on sunglasses. You can’t tell where I’m looking.” She lifted them off my face, saw she was right, and let them drop back to my nose. “Our gummy bear is in there. Sue me if I’m fascinated by that.”
“If I sue the best attorney who ever lived, I’ll lose.”
“Damn straight.” I flashed her a cocky grin. She had to look away. Wouldn’t be long before she fell for my charms. “Speaking of gummy bear, we need to talk about her.”
She rolled her head to the side. “We have six more days here. Can’t we have one to enjoy this place?”
“It doesn’t have to get ugly, Wicked.”
“It will, and you know it.”
“What if we get it out of the way so it’s not hanging over our heads the rest of the trip?”
“What do we really need to discuss? If you want to split custody fifty-fifty, I won’t fight you.”
I snorted at her indifference. “That’s it?”
“I told you this would get ugly,” she said.
“You’re acting as if we’re
