“Hi there. May I sit down?”

I opened my eyes to see a very nice-looking man standing next to me. He was holding another mai tai and he offered it to me.

“I thought I might buy you a drink,” he said with a smile.

“Thank you,” I said, smiling back as I took the drink from him. He sat down next to me.

“I’m Trace,” he said. “And you are?”

“Kathleen.”

Trace was tall, with a nice build, sandy-brown hair, and deep-chocolate eyes. And he was looking at me as though he’d like to eat me up with a spoon, which I decided wasn’t a bad thing. He was also easy to talk to and I found out he was in town on business, that he was from LA but currently lived in Seattle. He was just getting around to asking me to dinner when Kade reappeared.

Trace and I both glanced up at Kade and I sucked in a breath. His face was cold and hard, which I knew signaled dangerous territory on Kade.

“That’s my seat,” Kade said to Trace in a voice that managed to be calm and yet still reek with menace. “And that’s my girl.”

I opened my mouth to object to that last part, but Trace had already jumped to his feet.

“Sorry about that, man, she didn’t say.” Trace shot me an accusing glare before turning and walking away. Kade took his spot and sat back, sliding his sunglasses on again. Water droplets covered his chest and thighs while rivulets ran from his hair, trailing wet paths down his neck.

My jaw was still slack in astonishment at how quickly my potential date had been routed by Kade. Then I went from shocked to supremely pissed off in three seconds flat.

“What the hell, Kade?” I burst out. “He was asking me to dinner and you just scared him off! And for the record, I am not your girl. You made that pretty damn clear last night.” My fists were clenched tightly in anger and my fingernails dug into my palms. “Besides,” I finished snottily, “if you’re not going to be my revenge lay, then stop scaring off other candidates.”

I knew that last one was a low blow, but that didn’t stop me from saying it. A part of me that I used to know was shocked and dismayed at my behavior, how horrible I was being to Kade. But I couldn’t stop. It was as if I was daring him to do what Blane had done, reject me and leave me. Maybe him seeing the very worst of me would speed the process along so I wouldn’t be so devastated when it finally happened.

Kade stared at me, his face serious, though his eyes were still hidden from view. The tension between us grew during our stare-down until I couldn’t take it anymore. I swallowed hard and leaned back in the bed, my eyes stinging behind my sunglasses.

“I think it’s fuckin’ hot out here,” Kade mused.

I jerked my head around. “What?” Where had that come from and what, if anything, did it have to do with what I’d just said? He was talking about the weather?

“You need to cool off.”

Before I could say anything to that, Kade was up and had lifted me in his arms. I realized what he was going to do a split second before he did it.

“Kade, no—!”

He dropped me unceremoniously into the pool. I came up spluttering and spewing obscenities at him. He just laughed and slid into the water.

“You ruined my hair, asshole!” I cupped my hand and sent a spray of water his way. “And my shoes!” I splashed him again, but he just laughed and turned aside, which infuriated me more. I sprang at him, wanting to dunk him and maybe hold him underwater. Not for long, just maybe a minute… or three.

Kade caught me easily, holding my wrists behind my back with one hand and snagging me around the waist with the other.

“Those are four hundred–dollar shoes you just ruined,” I snapped, trying to jerk away from him.

“Worth every penny,” he retorted.

I managed to get free, then abruptly sank. I flailed my arms, realizing he’d moved us into deeper water where I couldn’t touch the bottom. My new sandals made it impossible for me to swim. Kade pulled me up and I clung to his shoulders, coughing.

“Damn you, Kade,” I gasped at last, blinking water out of my eyes. His shoulders were slippery from the sunscreen and I tightened my hold.

He took my sunglasses and perched them on top of my head. I was briefly glad the salon had used waterproof mascara on my lashes. Raccoon eyes was not the look I was going for.

“If you think I’m going to let you throw yourself at any man who buys you a drink, you’re sadly mistaken,” he said.

“What does it matter to you?” I retorted.

“If you want to go all self-destructive, be my guest,” Kade said. “You’re talking to someone who takes self-destruction to an art form. But I didn’t bring you here to watch you implode. You’re here on business, so destroy your life on your own time.”

“So suddenly sleeping with a guy is self-destructive?” I fumed. “Isn’t that a little judgmental, coming from you?”

“Absolutely.”

I stared at him, no quick comeback springing to mind, which was always frustrating around quick-witted Kade. No doubt I’d think of something in about ten minutes, but by then it would be too late.

Kade’s black hair shone like a raven’s wing in the sunlight, the water and my own face reflecting back at me from his sunglasses. I was suddenly acutely aware of our bodies pressed together, my legs drifting next to his. My anger drained away as my pulse quickened. He was hard everywhere. Literally. And I felt an answering ache between my thighs.

Kade turned, moving us to shallower water before lifting me to sit on the side of the pool. I wondered for a moment what he was doing, though it became clear as he lifted an ankle and began undoing the strap that held the sandal in place.

Hormones screaming in frustration, I popped my sunglasses back on and leaned back on my elbows, not bothering to keep my knees together. Two could play this game.

Kade deposited the sandal next to me and went to work on the other.

“How’s the ribs?” he asked.

I glanced down. The water had washed off a lot of the makeup, so the lovely black-and-blue marks were back in all their glory. I sighed.

“Looks like the makeup came off,” I said. “Now more people are probably going to think you beat me.”

“What?” Kade frowned and his hands had stilled on my ankle.

I shrugged. “The massage lady thought my boyfriend hits me. I tried to tell her the truth, but I don’t think she bought it. So I made sure they put makeup on the bruises. I didn’t really want to look like the battered girlfriend.” My tone was wry. I was the battered ex-girlfriend all right, but my wounds weren’t visible.

He resumed work on removing my shoe, placing it next to the first. When he was done, he stood between my spread knees, the water lapping at his waist.

“You realize that swimsuit is slightly see-through now,” Kade said, his hands resting on the backs of my calves. They slid slowly up to the back of my knees, then back down to my ankles, then repeated their journey. The touch was as maddening as it was intoxicating.

“Is it?” I asked. “I hadn’t noticed.” Compared to the scraps of fabric some of the barely clad women around me were wearing, even a see-through white swimsuit was tame. I’d seen enough naked boobs today to last me a lifetime.

“I like this.” Kade touched the thin gold chain the wardrobe lady had added at the last minute. It circled my neck like a loose collar, with a lone strand extending from the circle down between my breasts to stop at my navel, where it formed another loop that hung low around my hips.

His fingers lightly traced the chain as it lay against my skin, stopping just below my breasts. He tugged the chain and the gold strand pressed lightly into my skin. I obeyed the unspoken command and sat up, the collar suddenly having a different feeling to it than merely being pretty. And judging by the sudden rush of blood in my ears, it wasn’t a bad feeling.

I couldn’t look away from Kade, and the rest of the people around us seemed to fade away. His hands closed over my hips and he pulled me closer to him. With me perched on the edge of the pool, our height was about the same and for once I could look him directly in the eyes. My legs automatically circled his ribs.

He leaned forward, one hand brushing my hair back as his mouth settled near my ear. My breath caught somewhere in my throat as his lips grazed my skin.

“In a moment, I want you to look over my left shoulder to two o’clock.”

His whisper made my eyes jerk open and I would have pulled away, but his grip tightened on my neck, stopping me.

“What are you talking about?” I hissed.

“My target,” Kade said. “Do you see him?”

I glanced over where he’d said and sure enough, there was a man inside an open cabana, talking on his cell. He wore drawstring linen pants and a matching button-down shirt, left open at the neck. Two other men were in there with him. As I watched, he lifted his head and looked at me. I closed my eyes and leaned against Kade, running my fingers through his hair.

“I see him,” I breathed in Kade’s ear. My heart was still pounding, but now for another reason. “Are you going to kill him?” I had to force the words out. Yes, I’d always known what Kade did for a living, it had just never been as real to me as it seemed right now.

Kade pulled back until we were practically nose to nose. “What would you say if I said yes?”

I swallowed. “I’d ask you not to.”

“And you think just because it’s you who asks me that I’ll do it?”

“Why would I have any influence over what you do?” It was a valid question. Trying to persuade Kade upon a course of action was like trying to coax a tiger into obedience. He had a mind of his own.

Kade didn’t answer, and after a moment he cocked a half smile.

“He’s paying me to hack him, not kill him.”

“What do you mean?”

Kade’s shoulders lifted in a shrug underneath my hands. “A new business venture I started,” he said. “High-level security penetration testing. They hire me to make sure their business is really secure.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Well if he hired you, isn’t he going to know what you’re here to do?”

“Nope.” Kade’s smirk reminded me of a smug teenage boy who’d managed to steal a girl’s virginity before delivering her back home to her overprotective father. “They don’t know who I am or what I look like. They hire me through a representative, then get notified of the test results.”

“How?”

“If I make it in, I take double my fee.”

“Which is?” Tacky to ask, I know, but I couldn’t help it. Curiosity got the better of my manners.

Kade leaned forward and whispered in my ear a number that made my jaw go slack.

“You like me a little more now, princess?” he said.

I drew back sharply. “It’s been a while since you implied I was a gold digger,” I snapped, hurt.

“What else do I have to offer?”

Kade’s bitter reply made me frown and I wished I could see his eyes behind the dark glasses. His hands seemed to be touching me almost without conscious thought, one grasping the back of my neck while the other settled just above the top of my bikini bottom, his thumb brushing my lower back.

“Why would you say something like that?” I asked. “You’re a good man, Kade.”

“You make me wish that were true.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but Kade had discarded his sunglasses and now his mouth was sucking lightly on my neck. My nails dug into his shoulders, his chest brushing against mine and making the blood heat in my veins. My eyes drifted closed at the soft touch of his tongue against my skin.

“Hit me.”

My eyes fluttered open again. “What?” Surely I’d misheard him.

“My target. He’s been keeping an eye on you. The bruises gave me an idea. So in a moment, slap me as hard as you can.” Kade’s words spoken in my ear made me swallow hard.

“I don’t want to hit you,” I said. “I… can’t.”

“You’ve done it before.”

The reminder made me wince.

“Not a whole lotta time, princess,” Kade said. “Let’s fight. Make it look good. I’ll drag you out of here and we’ll make a nice big scene.”

“I’m not hitting you,” I repeated more firmly. I didn’t care if it was playacting. I regretted the times I’d struck Kade and wasn’t about to do it again.

Kade heaved a long-suffering sigh, his breath warm as it fluttered against me.

“Fine,” he said. “Then I promise I’ll pay you well if you make this look good and forgive me later.”

“What—” The word was cut off on a gasp as Kade’s hand fisted in my hair, tugging my head back sharply. It hurt. Not terribly, but it surprised me.