Read Online One Night in Paradise by Maisey Yates - Free Book Online Page B

scrambling onto the sandy ground, her feet picking up grains of dirt, clinging to her toes. She shook her foot out, grateful to have something else to concentrate on for a moment.
    She looked back up and saw Zack, his eyes on her, his jaw locked tight.
    She swallowed hard and grabbed her sarong. “So we’re having dinner out tonight?”
    “Yes,” he bit out. “I have to go and pick up a package down in town and then I’ll meet you back up at the villa. The car will be by around seven.”
    “Okay.” She wished she could come up with something better than the bland, one-word answer, but she just couldn’t.
    Something had changed. The air around them seemed tight, the way Zack looked at her new and strange. And for the first time, she felt power in her beauty, in her body.
    And she wondered if maybe he could want her. If she could be the sort of woman he wanted.
    Maybe tonight she would actually try.
    It was criminal. The dress that Clara was wearing should be illegal. She certainly shouldn’t be allowed out in public. It was tight, like that black, second-skin swimsuit, accentuatingcurves that, until this afternoon, he hadn’t realized were quite so … lush.
    Breasts that were round and perfect, firm looking. They would overflow in his hands. And her hips were incredible, nothing like the androgynous, straight up-and-down supermodels that were so in style. Not even like Hannah, whose image he was having trouble conjuring up.
    Today, at the river, with her body pressed against his, wet and slick, soft and feminine, he’d had a reaction he really hadn’t counted on. He hadn’t counted on touching her like he had, either. Exploring the elegant line of her back. Holding her to him. It had been a big mistake.
    Getting out of the water, in front of his best friend, sporting an erection inspired by her, hadn’t really been his idea of a good time.
    He put his hand in his pocket, let his fingers close around the velvet box that was nestled there. The one that Hannah had had rush delivered to the resort. Because it was the right thing to do, or so she’d said. He hadn’t really cared whether he got the engagement ring back or not. But he could use it.
    The thing with Amudee, his assumption, had been unexpected. But Zack was good at reading people and the older man’s delight at the thought had been so obvious, there had been no way he would disappoint him. Not with so much riding on things going well this week.
    His other plans had all gone to hell. He wasn’t sending this one there with the rest of them.
    “What exactly is that?” he asked. They were in the car, being driven up to the main area of the resort, and being closed in with her when she looked like that and smelled, well, she smelled sweet enough to taste, was a bit of torture.
    “What?” she asked.
    “What you’re wearing.”
    Her cheeks colored. “A dress.”
    “But do you … call it something?”
    “A dress,” she said again, her voice low now, dangerous.
    “It’s a nice dress.”
    She looked straight ahead. “Thank you.”
    The car stopped in front of an open, wooden building that had all the lights on despite the late hour. There were people sitting at a bar, musicians set down in the center of the seating area, and dancers out on the grass, candles balanced on their hands as they moved in time with the music.
    He opened his door and Clara just sat, her posture stiff. “What?”
    “Now I’m not sure if I should go back and change.”
    “I don’t even want to understand women,” he said.
    “Why?”
    “You just changed into that dress, so clearly you thought it was a good choice, and now you want to change back?”
    “Because there must be something wrong with what I’m wearing. Although, you didn’t seem to have a problem with my bathing suit, and it showed a lot more than this.” She put a hand on her stomach. “It’s too tight.”
    His body hardened. “Trust me, it’s not. Every man in the bar is going to give himself