Kissing another man.
Claire blinked again, focused on the dark-haired guy whose lips were glued to Dylan’s. She couldn’t see his face, but his body was equally hard and incredible, and the two men were going at it like they had one minute left to live and they planned on making every last second count.
The punch of lust that hit her was completely unexpected. But…oh sweet Lord, shock and confusion aside, this might actually be the hottest thing she’d ever seen in her life.
“You sleep with anyone else this summer?” The question came from Dylan’s visitor. Or, Dylan’s…lover?
Her thighs clenched at the thought.
“Yes.” Dylan’s raspy voice sent a shiver running through her and shot Claire up to a new level of arousal.
She shrank back into the shadows, ordering herself to walk away, to respect their privacy, to duck into her room and make herself come like right now, but she couldn’t tear her gaze off the two men. Their voices lowered for several moments, making it difficult to hear, so she studied their body language instead. The stranger had one hand on Dylan’s broad chest, the other behind Dylan’s neck. Dylan’s right palm rested on the other man’s shoulder, his left one idly stroking the man’s hip, and when they kissed again, the flash of tongue she glimpsed made her bite back a moan.
That moan damn near slipped out when the man spun Dylan around and pressed his groin against the SEAL’s ass.
A second later, Claire’s entire body went up in flames as she watched Dylan reverse positions so the dark-haired man was the one facing the wall now.
Her senses went on overload. She had no idea what to focus on. Their words? Their mouths? Their bodies?
She was so close to exploding she could barely think straight. She couldn’t believe she was watching her fiancé’s brother making out with another man, and suddenly a hundred questions started buzzing through her head.
Was Dylan g*y?
Did Chris know?
Why was she so turned on?
The sound of a door clicking shut jarred her back to the present.
Dylan’s friend—lover?—was gone. The blond SEAL flicked the deadbolt, then turned around with a grin on his face.
A grin that dissolved the second he spotted Claire.
Their gazes locked. She could see the wariness swimming in his eyes.
Claire gulped. “I…”
Her gaze swiftly dropped to her feet. Oh man. What did one even say in a situation like this?
She opened her mouth and tried again. “I…” After a beat, she raised her head and met his gaze head-on. “I won’t say anything to Chris.”
Then she darted away before he could respond.
I won’t say anything to Chris?
She wanted to kick herself as she hurried back to the guest room. That was the best she could come up with?
In her defense, she was still too stunned to hold any sort of coherent conversation at the moment. Her heart continued to beat in a frantic rhythm, her mouth was drier than the Sahara, and her clit was actually aching. Pulsing. One touch away from orgasm. If she brought her hand between her legs right now, she would literally self-combust.
The bad girl in her wanted to let it happen. To picture Dylan’s tongue in that hottie’s mouth, slide her hand inside her panties and enjoy the results, but she forced herself to derail that train of crazy.
This was Chris’s brother. Chris’s g*y brother? The same questions flashed through her mind again, but there was one in particular she couldn’t seem to let go of.
Why didn’t she and Chris have that? The passion. The intensity. That need to consume each other.
Dylan and his dark-haired stranger had craved each other on a primal level Claire had never experienced—or dreamed possible.
She sucked in a shaky breath, unable to erase those dirty images from her head. She wondered if she ought to go and talk to Dylan about it, actually talk instead of blurting out a random promise and sprinting away. But she couldn’t force her legs to carry her to the door. She and Dylan might have called a brief cease-fire tonight at the carnival, but they weren’t friends, and she got the feeling he wouldn’t appreciate her poking her nose in his business.
The best thing to do was pretend she hadn’t seen what she’d seen. Never mention it to Dylan again. Never think about it.
And never, ever masturbate while thinking about it.
A shudder racked her body, and it took Claire a moment to realize that her hand, of its own volition, had slid beneath the waistband of her Capris. And her fingers were already sneaking their way inside her panties…
After a beat of indecision, she decided to give her fingers permission to continue. One time wouldn’t hurt, she assured herself.
Just one little indulgence.
And then she’d pretend tonight never happened.
Chapter One
Present Day
“You have to tell her I can’t marry her.”
Dylan Wade gaped at his older brother. Okay. Well. That was not what he’d expected to hear when Chris had summoned him to the elegant suite of the sprawling mansion that housed the Marin Hills Golf Club.
It took a second for him to snap out of his shock. “Yeah, right. Very funny, Chris.” He managed a hasty laugh and clapped his brother on the arm. “Come on, pal, it’s time to go. The ceremony starts in—”
“The ceremony isn’t going to start,” Chris interrupted with frazzled green eyes. He shoved Dylan’s hand away and made a wild dash for the wet bar across the room.