Drenched | ✓

cuatro

I was too shocked to move for a moment, before I pulled away.

"Why did you do that?"

He took another cigarette from his pocket and lit it, inhaling deeply. "You'll thank me later."

I was about to ask what he meant by that when I felt a presence join us.

"Julie," Nicolás's voice was hard. He held his hand out. "Come dance."

I don't know what possessed me to take his hand, but I did. He led me toward everyone else. I chanced a glance over at Carlos and he just sent me a wink before turning back to the sea.

People seemed to move out of the way subconsciously as Nicolás and I approached, until we were slightly hidden away in the crowd. All around us, people were falling about all over the place and bumping into one another.

"Are you alright?" I asked when I registered that his stern face hadn't let up.

He looked down at me. "Why did you kiss him?"

"What's it to you?" I asked, not really sure why I didn't just tell him the truth. Maybe I liked messing with him?

He stepped closer so that I had to crane my neck to look up at him.

I could feel the heat radiating off of him. And his sultry scent assaulted my senses.

"Answer the question, Julie."

I rolled my eyes, but restored them to his a moment later. No way was I backing down from this one. I was just glad that I'd had a few to drink. Liquid courage really was my saving grace. "It was nothing."

"Didn't look like nothing," he said, looking over my head.

I was the one to move our bodies closer this time. "Maybe you shouldn't have been looking in the first place."

He looked down at me again, and licked his lips, our bodies an inch or so apart.

"Can't help looking at you," he murmured into my ear. "Can't help wanting you."

I was about to say something more when I received a hard push to my back. I stumbled forward, and because me and Nicolás were already close, I ended up slamming into him.

When our groins connected, I thought I heard him groan, low enough for only me to hear. I could feel the vibration of the sound, all the way from my neck to... lower. I must have imagined it.

"Mierda," he muttered lowly.

I had to swallow a moan.

I chanced a look around, grateful that no one seemed to have noticed what's just happened, and the person that had knocked into me was too busy laughing drunkenly on the floor a few feet's away.

I looked up into his eyes again, only to be met with thick, sweltering lust. He felt lust... for me? It was so intense my knees almost buckled right then and there, so I gripped onto his forearms, relishing in the feel of the muscle there.

"I—" I didn't get to finish my sentence as he detached our bodies and stared at me. Had he just realised who I was? Was he realising that maybe I wasn't pretty enough for him?

He paused for a moment, eyes indiscreet in showing his inner conflict. I must have looked just the same— flushed, a little tipsy and very turned on. But that didn't last long as he was working his way through the crowd again and had disappeared. I did the same, not quite as swiftly as he had, and went back over to where Antonia was standing, looking around with a glass in hand.