“Wow, Tess, if I had known that the swimsuit was so revealing I would have bought another one.” Dash said.
They both turned.
“Hey, I think Tess looks smashing in the bikini, but you’re right. It shows a lot more of her than the one-piece she brought with her.” Elena said.
Tess looked up at Dash and smiled. “You’re both being silly. It’s very conservative for a bikini.” She said.
And it was. The tank style top showed the barest hint of her cleavage and the hip-hugging short bottoms didn’t reveal anything like the thongs she’d seen on the local beaches, or even the high-cut brief bottoms. On her figure, it was perfectly decent.
“Not conservative enough,” Dash muttered in a driven undertone.
“If it bothers you so much—” Tess began to say.
“Don’t offer to change it. You must start as you mean to go on,” Elena exclaimed. “If you let him dictate your clothes now, it will never end.”
Dark flags of color accentuated Dash’s sculpted cheekbones and warning lights blazed in his deep dark eyes.
“I was going to say, no one was forcing him to look, Miss Smarty Pants.” Tess said. She smiled up at Dash. “You’re back earlier than expected.”
“Yes. We have been invited to a pool party. My friend, Stefan is celebrating the close of a business deal that has given us some trouble. I told him there was no need for that, especially as Matt isn’t around but it was of no use. When Stefan decides on something no one can make him change his mind. The guy is just so stubborn”
“Stefan is having a pool party?” Elena’s interest was definitely piqued. She had always liked Stefan. Maybe had a little crush on him.
“He is.” Dash replied.
“Am I invited?” she asked.
“Of course.”
She jumped up from her lounger. “I’ll go get ready. When do we leave?”
“In less than an hour, Elena. Do not make us late applying makeup and effecting an elaborate hairstyle your first dive in the pool will wash away.” Dash said.
Elena turned to Tess and rolled her lovely brown eyes so like her brother’s. “Men. Don’t you go changing your swimsuit to make him happy.”
“How could I? It was a gift and it would undoubtedly offend your brother for me to reject it in favor of my old swimsuit.” Tess said.
“Do not bet on it,” Dash growled.
Tess laughed. Would a man who did not want her be so affected by her conservative suit? She hoped the answer was no, but she was definitely leaving the suit on. If she could tempt him, at least a little, maybe he would reveal some of his feelings regarding her.
That optimistic belief seemed in vain as Dash treated her to yet another dose of the courteous, non-touching companion of the past few days at the pool party.
Feeling desperate to provoke some kind of response, Tess took off her swimsuit cover and dug in her bag for a bottle of high-factor sunscreen. She turned to Dash. Wearing only black swim shorts, every rippling muscle in his body was on display and it was all she could do not to drool.
Or trip him and beat him to the ground.
She extended the lotion to him. “Would you do my back? I think what I applied earlier is wearing off and I don’t want to burn.” She said.
Dash took the bottle, a strange expression on his face. “You cannot reach your own back?” he asked
It wasn’t her back she found impossible to reach. It was him! She tried for a nonchalant shrug. “It’s easier if you do it.” She replied.
She turned and presented her back to him, pulling her hair from the nape of her neck.
Then two things happened.
Elena dropped gracefully on the lounger beside Tess. “Isn’t this great?” she asked.
And Stefan waved from the other side of the pool, catching Dash’s attention.
He dropped the sunscreen in Elena’s lap with more speed than finesse. “Put some of this on Tess’s back, Elena, while I go see what it is that Stefan wants.”
Tess watched him go with despair. It wasn’t working.
Elena looked at Tess. “Didn’t you slather yourself in this stuff before we left the house?” she asked.
Tess frowned. “Yes.”
“Then why does my brother want me to put more on you? Not only are you limber enough to reach your own back, but you bought the lotion that lasts for hours, even in the water.”
Tess hated admitting that she’d tried one of the oldest tricks in the book and it had failed, so she shrugged and reached for the bottle. “Let me put that away.” She said.
Elena was looking quizzically at her, then her expression cleared. “I get it.
You—” she began
“Never mind, just hand me the bottle,” Tess said shortly, interrupting Elena before she could put voice to Tess’s idiocy.
Elena handed her the lotion, her expression curious. “You know. I noticed that Dash never touches you.”
“I am aware of that.” Tess sighed and shoved the plastic bottle back in her bag. Short of making a blatant request, she wasn’t going to change that state of affairs either. Even then, she had her doubts.
“That’s weird for a guy who wants to marry you.” Elena said
Tess didn’t need the reminder. “I know.” She glowered at Dash where he stood talking to Stefan.
“What’s she doing here?” Elena said.
She sounded outraged.
Tess turned her head to look where the younger girl’s gaze was directed and felt her heart skip not one, but two beats. This was just what she needed.
Olivia Baker.
She and Dash had been photographed together several times for the society columns and scandal rags the year before. Rumors of a relationship between the two of them had been rife. Which was a lot more understandable than his name being linked with Tess’s.
Olivia was beautiful and blond, even if it came from a bottle. Taller than Tess by at least six inches, she had a body that was centerfold material.
A little too blousy for a Vogue cover, but just what a passionate man like Dash Black would find attractive.