Chapter 10 The villa was quiet, save for the sound of eggs sizzling and the soft hum of cartoons drifting from the living room. Zach was curled up on the couch under his favorite blanket that he'd insisted we bring with us, totally absorbed in a show about time-traveling dinosaurs. He was still in his pajamas, hair a disaster, one sock on and the other missing, half a banana in his hand. My kid, through and through. I slid the egg off onto a plate before cracking another into the pan, flipping it a moment later with practiced efficiency. Cooking grounded me - it always had. And God knows I needed it. It was something easy, something I could focus on with understandable inputs and predictable outcomes. Unlike my brother's wedding, or the woman sleeping at the end of the hall. The soft pad of bare feet on tile told me she was awake as I slid another egg onto the plate. I didn't turn immediately - just listened, waited until she was close, heard her as she stepped into the kitchen. "Morning." I looked over my shoulder. It hit me like a freight train. She wore a loose t-shirt, one that was clearly thinned from years of use, that hung around her upper body and hips with an ease that shouldn't have excited me - but her fucking nipples were jutting into it whether she knew it or not. Her shorts were tight, spandex little things that barely peeked out of the bottom hem of her shirt, her hair still a little messy from sleep, and there wasn't a speck of makeup on her face - just a faint flush on her lightly tanned skin. She was beautiful. Not stunning in the way she'd been dressed last night in red silk and prepared for war, but real, unfiltered, and effortless. Comfortable. That was the word pinging around in my brain. She looked comfortable, here, with me and a five-year-old she hadn't even met yet. "Morning," I said in return, my voice far steadier than I felt. She moved toward the kitchen counter, eyeing the eggs on the plate. "Christ. Who are you, Gaston? That's a ton of eggs." My lips quirked upward. "They're not all for me." Her brows knit. "Are you trying to bulk up your kid?" "Zach's got bananas and cartoons," I smirked, dropping the skillet into the sink and pulling another plate down from the cabinet. "These are for us." She bit her lip, clearly trying to hide the slow grin creeping across her cheeks. "Do you cook for all of your fake girlfriends?" I stabbed the edge of a couple of eggs and shifted them onto the other plate, popped a slice of buttered toast beside it, and held it out for her. "Only the ones who lie convincingly under pressure." She stared at it for a second, blinking, before taking it with a half-hearted chuckle. God, her laugh was pretty. "Thank you," she said, setting it down at the breakfast bar. "Coffee?" "Please." I poured her a mug and slid it across the counter to her. "You want creamer? Milk? Margot had some groceries delivered last night," I said, opening the fridge. "I don't really take either, but Margot might collapse if she doesn't have her Coffee Mate." "Black is perfect, actually," she grinned, wrapping her fingers around the mug and pulling it toward herself. "Didn't realize you were a man of taste, too." I flashed her a grin as I leaned back onto the counter, cutting an egg with the side of my fork. "What was it you said last night? Life's full of surprises?" She huffed a laugh into her mug of coffee as she lifted it to her lips. "Definitely hadn't been rehearsing it in my head the whole car ride down," she said, her cheeks heating just a tad. "So, what's the plan today? More awkward small talk? The wedding isn't until tomorrow, right?" "Yeah, it's tomorrow." I shoved a bite of egg between my teeth and leaned around the edge of the wall, checking on Zach. Still engrossed, still a quarter of a banana left. I turned back to her. "I was supposed to go on some kind of golf outing with the groom and the rest of his entourage. Apparently, he thought I'd enjoy that." "Ah. Bonding time with Ryan. That sounds delightful." I snorted. "Yeah, well, Margot's not feeling great, so I'm not entirely sure what the plan is anymore. She's lying low. Might take him with me." She picked up a piece of toast and popped part of her egg on top. "I can stay with him." I blinked at her. What? "You don't have to do that." Sienna shrugged as she took a bite. "I know. But he sounded sweet on the phone. And you'll probably only last, what, ten minutes with Ryan before fantasizing about golf cart homicide? So, I'm an out." I should have laughed, should have joked back with her, but I was just confused. "You're offering to babysit my son?" "Mhm," she said around a mouthful of toast before swallowing it down. "I teach twenty feral preteens every weekday. One kindergartener with a good vocabulary who hasn't made a peep this morning is practically a vacation." I studied for a second, egg stuck in my mouth like sand. Not because I didn't believe her, but I just hadn't expected that from her - it didn't fit into the sharp-edged version of Sienna I'd built in my head. But she meant it. And the idea of watching her spend a whole afternoon with Zach, relaxed, soft, real... I didn't want to pass that up. "I'll stay," I said, swallowing down the egg that tasted like ash now. "We can hang out by the pool. Unless you have other plans." "You're going to skip golf?" she asked, her brows raising. "I hate golf anyways." I shrugged. "Consider it self-preservation. Besides, a masseuse is coming in..." I checked the time on the stove, "...twenty minutes, so you'll be preoccupied for the next hour." She blinked at me. "What?" Play it off. "Comes standard with this villa. You might as well use it," I lied. "Oh," she said, her fingers wrapping loosely around the mug again. "You don't want to?" "Honestly? I had a massage two days ago in preparation for this weekend. You could probably use it more than me," I lied again, taking a bite of toast and crunching it between my teeth. "If I change my mind, I'll just request another one later." "Thank you⁠-" The sound of urgent little footsteps pattering across the tile had me crouching down on instinct, toast forgotten. A second later, Zach rounded the corner at full speed and launched himself straight into my arms with a "Daaaaddddy!" so loud it echoed off the villa walls. I caught him in time to keep us both from going down, wrapping an arm around his legs and the other across his back as I lifted him clean off the ground. My grin stretched wide, automatic, and unstoppable. "Hey, bud. Finished your banana?" "Uh-huh." He nodded and held up the empty peel in front of my face like it was a medal before carefully laying it on my shoulder like a sacred offering. "Can I have another?" I plucked it off my shoulder and dropped it in the trash can. "Manners?" "Pleeeeease," he drawled. I pressed a kiss to his tiny, too-soft cheek and pulled another banana off the bunch before depositing it in his eager hands. "Of course." "Thank you," he grinned, one little tooth missing from his bottom row from when he lost it last week. "Also, also, also, the dinosaurs ended, and I don't know how to do the buttons here." "Sounds dire," I chuckled, straightening and shifting his weight to my hip instead. "Want to meet someone?" I flicked my gaze to the breakfast bar, where Sienna sat frozen, halfway through a bite of toast like she wasn't quite sure if she should interrupt. Zach followed my line of sight, perking up immediately. "This is Sienna," I said. "Sienna, this is Zach." Zach blinked at her, his head tilting slightly like he was deciding whether or not he approved. "You're pretty," he said, finally, like he was letting her off the hook. I rolled my eyes as he wiggled in my arms. "Can she fix the TV?" Sienna laughed, a genuine one and not one of the for-show ones from last night, and set down her toast before sliding off her stool. "I might have some experience with pesky remotes. I can try." "Okay!" He wiggled again, his legs kicking out on either side of my body-his way of requesting being put down-and I let him slide down my body before his little feet landed square on the floor. He clutched his banana in one hand and rounded the corner of the breakfast bar, taking her hand in his other like it was the most casual thing in the world. "It was on T-Rex Time Jam and then it stopped and now it's on boring people." "Tragic," she said with a completely straight face, letting him lead her toward the living room. "We can't let that stand." I watched them go, my son chattering non-stop and Sienna wholeheartedly listening like every word was important, and tried not to let the itching feeling in the back of my head take over at all. ---- The sun burned harsh and golden overhead, filtered through palm trees swaying and the occasional cloud. The villa's private pool sat beneath a pergola covered in vines and white gauzy curtains that fluttered in the soft breeze, and Zach splashed happily in the shallow end, his floaties strapped to both arms, squealing every time he managed to send a wave high enough to hit the tiled edge. Poor kid didn't get to play in a pool nearly as much as he wanted to. I made a mental note to get a quote on getting one installed at home as I sat back in the lounger, sunglasses on, some kind of fruity mixed drink in my hand that Sienna had insisted on making a batch of after her massage for "sun time." Zach started to inch his way toward the deeper end, one hand trailing along the edge of the pool like that somehow made it safer, and my stomach knotted. "Hey, bud," I called, sitting up a little. "Let's stay in the shallow end, okay?" His head flopped back in exasperation. "But I got floaties," he whined. "I won't sink." "You've also got exactly zero lifeguard certifications, and so do I. Margot's not out here," I said. "Back it up for me." He huffed in exaggerated defeat but turned around without protest, paddling weakly back toward the center. "I wasn't gonna drown," he muttered, pouting at me. "I'm like, half shark." "Terrifying," I said dryly, sitting back again and taking a sip of my drink. God, okay, that's good. The sliding glass door opened with a muffled creak, and Zach's face lit up like I hadn't just scolded him for going beyond where I'd told him not to. I turned, looking over my shoulder, and dear God, I should have prepared myself. Sienna stepped out in a black one-piece, the front of it plunging in a deep V, the sides high on her hips, like that wasn't the most absurdly flattering piece of clothing I'd seen her in, and my brain short-circuited for half of a second. A coverup hung over her shoulders and arms, gauzy and see-through and hiding barely anything. I forgot how to breathe. I didn't hear what Zach said, but she was laughing at it, full and bubbly and stupidly distracting, her hair pulled back in a loose braid, her sunglasses resting high on her nose. Effortless. Lethal. She squatted down beside the edge of the pool, setting her glass of fruity-whatever-it-was on the concrete before shifting and dipping her feet in. "You want to learn how to float without the floaties?" Zach nodded furiously. She grinned and slipped the coverup off her shoulders, her skin still slick from the massage oil and what I could only assume was sunscreen, and I had to swallow the sound threatening to claw its way up my throat with another sip of my drink, my shorts suddenly feeling far too tight. I lifted my leg to mitigate the damage as she slid into the pool. She helped him out of his floaties and guided him through the water, hands careful and patient, her voice so effortlessly encouraging. She didn't hover, and most of all, she didn't baby him - she let him try, fail, try again. And he loved her for it. I'd never seen him take to someone so quickly. But Sienna was good with kids - I'd known that the moment I'd realized who she was. She was a teacher, and she loved her job. I shouldn't have expected less. But it still made my chest feel slightly too tight when she held him gently as he practiced floating on his back, his eyes squinting from the sun, and praised him. "You're doing amazing," she said. "I swear, if you keep practicing, you could swim laps in a week." Zach beamed up at her, his little curls floating in the water around his head. "Maybe Daddy will get us a pool so I can swim more when we're home." Sienna grinned down at him. "You could ask him really nicely and I'm sure he'd consider it." "I'll text my contractor," I chuckled, slipping my phone from my pocket. I heard their exchange as I typed out my questions about in-ground or above-ground, square footage, and depth. "Maybe we can swim together at home," Zach said. There was a brief pause-so quick that he probably didn't notice, but I heard it. Heard the way she breathed in, the way the water sloshed around them as she hesitated. "Yeah, maybe," she murmured, her voice a little softer. "If your dad invites me." Zach didn't miss a beat. "I'll invite you." My heart thudded hard against my ribs. Fuck. Sienna laughed, a little breathier than she'd been before. "Well, that's hard to argue with." Later, when Zach was curled up on a towel in the lounger to my left with his iPad and a popsicle, I let myself look at her for longer than a few fleeting seconds. I shouldn't have. But I didn't stop myself. She was lying back in the grass to my right, her body stretched over a towel, one leg bent just slightly, her skin lightly bronzed by the sun. Her sunglasses were off and discarded near her head, her arm flung across her eyes like she was shielding herself from more than just light. Her one piece clung to her like a second skin now, damp and drying in the breeze, and I had to force myself not to stare at the little crease between her thighs. Water droplets glinted at the edge of her collarbone, sliding down over her shoulder, over that same little freckle that had caught my attention when I'd been buried inside of her halfway over the Atlantic. Her braid was starting to unravel at the nape of her neck, damp strands curling against her skin, and God, I wanted to brush them back, wanted to touch. The rise and fall of her chest was steady, nipples pressing into the wet fabric. Her lips were parted like she'd dozed off mid-thought, pink and soft and maddeningly close to me, and I couldn't decide what part of me I wanted them on most. But then she moved. Her fingers twitched first, then her arm, sliding down just enough to reveal her face. Her eyes blinked open, straight at me. I didn't look away. I didn't want to. ---- Zach was sprawled across the living room's rug, deep in a make-believe dinosaur battle with Margot, who was shockingly making some of the most convincing T-rex snarls I'd ever heard despite being in the tail end of nausea from what she'd eaten yesterday. She sat cross-legged in linens, a warm blanket draped over her shoulders and a mug of peppermint tea in her hand. She looked up and gave me the faintest smile as I stood in the doorway, dressed in tailored charcoal slacks and a white button-down rolled to my elbows. "You look handsome, Matt," Margot deadpanned, "but the T-rex says you're going to get eaten." Zach let out a vicious roar and body-slammed a plush stegosaurus into the carpet. I shook my head, a grin tugging at the corner of my mouth. "You know you don't have to do this," I said to Margot. "I already ditched on golf. I don't have to go to the rehearsal dinner, Sienna and I can stay back and let you get a bit more rest." Margot rolled her eyes. "I'm okay enough to watch him. I'd say if I wasn't." The sound of a door clicking open down the hall drew my attention away from the living room. Heels sounded on tile, clicking one step, then two, three⁠- Sienna rounded the corner, stepping into the space like it was just another Friday, and for a second, I nearly forgot how gravity worked. This was worse than the blood red dress last night. This was worse than her in her oversized, thin shirt this morning, worse than seeing every part of her I'd wanted to drag my hands over in that black swimsuit. This was downright torture. She stood there under my gaze, her black dress hugging every curve, every line of her body like it had been designed with her in mind. The faintest bit of shimmer, almost woven into the fabric, caught the light - and God, I nearly dropped to my fucking knees. Thin straps, a neckline that tested every bit of composure I had in me, and when she turned to grab her purse from the counter, the low-cut back was almost enough to send me spiraling. Her hair was pulled back again, a thick braid that wrapped around her head like a crown, little pieces framing her cheeks. I swallowed my own saliva wrong. I choked. "Jesus," I muttered, coughing into my elbow. Zach looked up at me. "Daddy? You okay?" "Fine," I rasped, my eyes still glued to her like I had no choice. She tried to hide the smirk that was so clearly dying to break free. "You look pretty," Zach announced, telling her for the second time today, his teeth showing in a wide grin as he lifted his dinosaur high like it could somehow measure that on a scale. "Thanks, tiger," she said, and fuck, my heart stopped. She couldn't call him that. I called him that. But I wanted to hear her say it again. "You've got great taste." I finally found my voice. "He's right." Sienna glanced at me again, her brows raised. "You gonna survive over there?" "Barely." The faintest shade of pink crept up her neck and into her cheeks. "I'm Margot," Margot cut in, extending a hand toward Sienna without rising from the floor. Sienna took it. "Since the walking hormone over there forgot his manners." I huffed a breath. "Margot⁠-" "Sienna," Sienna grinned. "Nice to meet you. You're Zach's nanny, right?" "Only when he's good." Margot pinched Zach's cheek, and he squealed, laughing as he squirmed back up onto the couch. "When he's not, I'm apparently the devil." Sienna snorted. "Yeah, I'm a teacher, I know how that goes." I leaned down over the couch, grabbing Zach by either side of his head and pressing a kiss square in the center of his forehead despite his protests. "See you in the morning, yeah?" He frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. "Why can't I come?" "Because tomorrow is the big wedding that we have to endure, and you're gonna need a lot of energy for all that boredom before you can hit the dancefloor." I ruffled his hair as I stood back up to my full height. "Thanks for hanging out with me today, Zach," Sienna added. "Same tomorrow?" He beamed so wide at her that I almost worried another tooth would come loose. "Okay!" I hooked an arm around her waist and led her out into the warm night, the sky above turning pink and orange above the palms. The other villas lining the path were coming to life, with groups of wedding guests dressed in formalwear heading toward the main building, soft chatter and laughter ringing out across the resort. Sienna tucked her bag under one arm, watching the parade of rich idiots in flowing linen and silk wander past us. There was something I couldn't quite place in her expression, something guarded, something stashed away like it was either treasure or a weakness. I slowed as we reached the turnoff that would lead us toward the dining area, something clicking in my head. I didn't want to go. Not because I couldn't tolerate the guests. Not because I wasn't capable of stomaching another night watching Ryan try to flourish in attention bought by my money. I knew she was dressed for revenge, dressed for combat, but I didn't want to share her. I didn't want to give them that. At least not tonight. My feet dug into the wooden walkway as I pulled her to a stop. "Do you want to go to this?" She raised a brow as she looked up at me. "Are you seriously asking me if I want to make small talk with people I don't know, eat overpriced mass-cooked seafood, and stare at my ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend all night?" she asked, the breeze pushing her little waves across her cheeks and lips. "Because the answer is no. God, no." I reached up and caught the strands with my finger, tucking them behind her ear. "Let's ditch it." "I spent three hours getting ready⁠-" "Let's go somewhere else," I said, cutting her off. "Not back to the villa." Her eyes flicked between mine, her brows shifting almost imperceptibly. "Just you and me," I added, my voice a little lower. "Real food, real drinks, zero Ryan and Lauren." She blinked and turned her head back toward the spot everyone else was heading to, hesitating, before turning back to me, her gaze dropping just briefly to my mouth before locking on my eyes again. "Yeah," she breathed. "Okay." That was more than enough confirmation for me. I slipped my hand around her waist and led her away from the main building, down the opposite path toward the taxi rank and private vans. She didn't ask where we were going. She didn't even look back. ---- The restaurant was tucked behind an unmarked gate on a winding road, fifteen minutes from the resort but far more upscale than anything Ryan could dream of conceiving. Dark wood, low candlelight, and a wrap-around terrace that overlooked the ruins of a Mayan pyramid, the cliffs, and the water, like it belonged to us alone. Our server, a woman with a thick accent and a friendly smile, took one look at us and offered a quiet table for two on the terrace. No menus, just drinks and chef's choice small plates. There was an ease to the way we settled in. It wasn't awkward or overly charged like when I'd met her in that first-class lounge, and it certainly wasn't as stressful as it had been last night with Ryan's gaze trailing us. It was simple, calm, like we weren't two people actively trying to ruin my brother's weekend. Like it had been all day. By the time the first course arrived, we were halfway through our second cocktail. Sienna leaned in, chin resting on her knuckles, the dim and flickering candlelight twinkling off the greens in her eyes. "I keep waiting for this to feel weird," she said casually. I quirked an eyebrow at her as I set my drink back down on the table. "And?" "It hasn't." "Disappointed?" Her lips twisted up at the corners. "Mildly." We fell into a rhythm - easy, strange, and dangerous in its simplicity. She asked about Zach's favorite movies. I told her about the time he'd tried to mail his dinosaur back in time. She told me about her classroom, about how her students were already planning to stage a mutiny because they were expected to do math differently now. I told her I was surprised she hadn't gone for something easier and more financially stable than wrangling hormonal pre-teens for a living. She shrugged as she looked at me, her gaze holding far too much in it. "They're honest," she said. "They haven't had enough time to learn that the world rewards you for lying." The next round of drinks came - a high-end scotch for me, something with lavender and gin for her. She sipped it, made a bit of a face, then took another sip anyway. The silence that followed wasn't awkward, though. None of this was. I'd been sitting here just like her, waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting for the moment everything shifted and one of us got irritated or ran out of things that engaged us. But it didn't come. She leaned back, her eyes on mine, her voice a little quiet. "So..." I waited, resting my chin on my palm. "So?" She swirled her drink, her eyes catching on the lavender sprig dancing against the rim of her glass. "You're forty-seven. You own an airline. You've got a kid who adores you. And I highly doubt you have trouble finding someone to sleep with." Her eyes flicked back up to mine. "So... what's the catch?" I let out a slow breath as I sat back in my chair. "Why do you think there has to be a catch?" "Come on. Men like you don't just float around from woman to woman unless they're hiding something," she smirked, one brow raising as she sat a little further forward, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper, a laugh already being suppressed. "So, what is it? Tax evasion? Blackmail? Pending SEC investigation? Erectile dysfunction? Tell me, Matt, is that why you waited two hours on that flight to ask me to get a drink with you, so you could pop your Viagra with dinner?" I nearly choked on my scotch, a laugh bursting out of me before I could hold it back. "Jesus⁠-" "I'm serious!" she chirped, fully beaming now, her shoulders shaking with giggles, her hand flitting about as she spoke. Fuck, she's cute. "Don't tell me it's something weirder like, I don't know, funding and running a whole cult on the side, or maybe you've got some private island where all the monkeys have dubbed you king⁠-" I caught her by the wrist, grinning, my thumb dragging along the base of her palm. "I don't have a private island. I don't run or fund a cult," I chuckled, smirking at the way her cheeks warmed just a hair as her gaze flicked to our hands. "And I sure as hell don't have erectile dysfunction or any of the ridiculous ideas your brain can come up with." She sat back with a huff, her hand slipping out of my hold, and crossed her arms over her chest. "There's got to be something," she said, nudging my foot with hers beneath the table. "Sienna James, are you playing footsies with me⁠-" "Shut up," she hissed, but she was still laughing, her cheeks and neck still warm. "What are you hiding?" I watched her as I rolled the words between my teeth, tempted to let them out, tempted to see what she'd do with them. She lifted her glass again, her eyes boring into me in a way that screamed curious, like she wasn't going to let this go until I gave her something. And fuck if I didn't want to reward that. "You want the honest answer?" I asked, lifting my head from my palm and wrapping my fingers around my drink instead. "Obviously." "I don't let people in." There. Said, done. "I don't do relationships. It's cleaner that way. Easier." She blinked at me, her smile faltering, but she didn't interrupt this time. "But you," I huffed, pausing as I tried to find the words, my tongue dragging over the back of my teeth. "You were chaos in a yellow sundress, sitting in a seat that should've belonged to someone else, looking like you didn't give a damn what anyone thought when you clearly did." Her lips parted, her brows knitting together like she wanted to cut in. "I didn't plan this outside of showing up, making my brother feel small, and going home. I didn't plan to sleep with you on that flight. I sure as hell didn't expect to like you, but now you're here, at a dinner with me that neither of us planned on attending when we could've just stayed in the villa in our respective rooms for the evening," I said, the words falling out easier now that I'd said the hard part. "Hell, Sienna, I could be watching T-Rex Time Jam with Zach curled up in my lap if I wanted to. And I'm not." The silence stretched for a beat, her eyes searching mine, her chest rising and falling just a little bit faster. "No," she said softly. "You're not. But you don't know me, Matt⁠-" "Maybe not yet. But if I'm being entirely honest, I want to."