Were we about to be caught?
I stayed silent as he glanced around before ushering me toward a door. It didn’t lead into the main house—we were still a few hundred feet from the mansion itself—but it was a huge building all the same. He picked the lock with practiced ease, poking his head inside to look around before herding me through.
The room was humid and warm, a stark contrast to the crisp evening outside. A rectangular pool filled the space, with lounge chairs surrounding it. My heels clicked on the tiled floors, and I kept a hold of West’s arm in case there was water waiting to slip me on the pool deck.
“Why are we?—”
“I heard someone.” West answered my question as he rushed me through the wide-open room.
He hauled open the door to a small storage room, full of inflated pool floaties, towels, and lounge chair cushions. With us inside, he closed the door.
His scent blockers still masked most of his scent, but there was enough breaking through to comfort me as he pressed me up against the shelving, facing the storage room door. I rested my hands on his hips, calming my breathing and trying to hear what he heard.
There was nothing.
The night was silent—whoever had been out and about hadn’t realized we’d hidden in here.
West stayed tense, keeping his protective stance in front of me. I leaned forward, pressing my cheek to his back. My hands slid from his hips to his stomach, and I hugged him tightly.
He grabbed one of my hands in his, trying to unwind me from around him. “Talia, if someone comes in, I need to be able to protect you.”
“They didn’t follow us in here, though. Did they?”
He paused, then sighed. “I don’t hear anything. If they’re gone, we need to keep going.”
I didn’t want to keep going. The sooner we got back to the Residence, the sooner I’d have to face the reality that my cheating, lying scent match was an O’Connor.
Here, I could ignore it.
I could get caught up in the thrill of the moment.
My hand slid down his stomach to palm at the front of his pants. He hissed as his cock grew hard, but he grabbed my wrist roughly and stopped me.
“Fucking hell. We’re not safe here.”
He stomped out of the storage closet, leaving me behind. I followed out after him, grinning. His black jeans had a massive bulge in the front, which he adjusted in annoyance.
“Let’s keep going,” he said.
Ignoring him, I sat down on a poolside lounge chair and shrugged off my jacket. Next, I undid the straps on my heels andslipped them off. He finally noticed as I reached for the strap of my dress, pushing it off my shoulder.
“What are you doing?” he demanded. “There might be cameras in here, and this is no time to take a break.”
I let the strap fall down my other shoulder, then reached around to undo the zipper of my dress. “I don’t see any cameras. Do you?”
He cursed and darted forward, grabbing both my hands and lifting them above my head. My core tightened, slick pooling as he manhandled me.
“I don’t see any, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any,” he growled. “Can you stop being a brat?”
A brat, huh?Only with him. I loved to push and antagonize him, because I’d learned from experience that when he gave in, it made it all the more delicious.
“No one’s here. We could take a little break.”
He was never going to go for it. Unless…
I eyed up the pool behind him.
Releasing my wrists, he ran a hand through his hair. “No breaks. I’ll give you whatever you want once we get back, alright?”
