When he neared her mouth, she stopped him before their lips could touch. Outlining his jawline with her finger, she used her free hand to gently push him away from her. She took that moment to provocatively lift her dress over her head, revealing her spicy two-piece bathing suit.
Her eyes were pinned to his lips as he licked them in anticipation and slowly unzipped his pants before pushing them completely off. Cydney gasped at the sight that was before her. Brandon hadn’t worn anything underneath, displaying his enlarged sex. Her mouth watered as she took in the complete sight of his sexy nakedness. His arms and abs were so muscular that it made her want to lick every crevice of his body like it was a chocolate-ice-cream sundae.
He walked toward her, one mission clearly evident in his mind. Instead of getting nervous, Cydney flirtatiously smiled and met him halfway.
“I see you brought the swimsuit you were looking at in the store,” Brandon said as he played with the string on the side of her bikini.
“I always keep my promises,” Cydney replied, her voice catching as his eyes grew even deeper with desire.
“Come with me,” he told her seductively while grabbing her hand and leading her to the ocean. Her inner voice warned her that a man this sexy could be dangerous for a woman’s psyche. Men this fine were hard to forget and even harder to duplicate. But that inner voice was no longer present the minute their bodies hit the water. The only thought on Cydney’s mind was making sure she remembered every moment she spent with her sexy island lover.
Chapter 1
Eight months later...
“Cydney Rayne.”
She glanced up at the man who had whispered her name and prayed her eyes were deceiving her. They’d been formally introduced an hour before her sister Imani’s wedding, and her body temperature still hadn’t returned to normal. It had taken all her strength to stand up as maid of honor and not steal glances at the sexy man whose eyes had been glued to her the entire ceremony.
Imani and Daman Barker’s backyard wedding reception was in full swing, and she didn’t dare regard the man while being surrounded by her family and friends.
“Please follow me,” she said quickly before leaving the reception and retreating to a nearby walk-in closet inside her grandfather’s large house. As soon as she shut the closet door, she wondered why she hadn’t found a less confined hiding spot.
As they stood there observing one another, she wondered who would be the first to speak. Goodness, the man looked devastatingly sexy. He looked even better than she remembered. His black suit looked tailor-made and now the foremost thought in her mind was how good he’d look out of it.
He licked his lips as his eyes practically burned a hole through her lavender maid-of-honor dress. He was obviously having the same thoughts she was. She wanted to kiss him badly, and seeing the fire in his eyes, she knew that he wanted to kiss her, too. But Cydney refused to start something with a man like him—the kind of man who oozed sex appeal and looked like he just walked off the cover of GQ magazine. She could lose her damn mind with a man like him, and losing her sanity over a man, no matter how good he looked, was not an option.
A month ago, when she’d gone to help her new brother-in-law move out of his Detroit condo, she had seen a picture of Daman with a man she couldn’t quite make out. She could only see his profile in the picture, but she instantly knew that she had met the man previously. Refusing to believe her eyes, she put the photo out of her mind, hoping it was just a weird coincidence that he resembled that man she’d tried to forget about. Now, staring back into a pair of amused sea-blue eyes, she reminded herself that she never did believe in coincidences.
“So, Cydney Rayne, would you like me to call you Jessica, Cydney or do you prefer Cyd, the name everyone else has been calling you all day?”
She wished she could wipe that smirk off his handsome face. She wasn’t the only one who’d made up a fake name. “Well, that depends. Do you want me to call you Shawn Miles or would you rather I call you Brandon?”
His eyes squinted together. “Although I loved the way you screamed my name that night in the ocean, I’d wished you were screaming Shawn rather than Brandon. Now that you know my real name, maybe we can make that happen.”
Throwing her head back in an exaggerated laugh, she refused to let his arrogance get to her. “I’m sure your ears were playing tricks on you, but if that’s the name your mother gave you, then Shawn it is. You can call me Cyd or Cydney, but if you think for one minute that we’ll be sleeping together, think again.”
He was still smiling and checking her out. She tried to keep a calm demeanor, but she was anything but relaxed. She couldn’t even remember how Shawn knew Daman since she hadn’t really listened to the introductions past learning his real name. The moment she’d seen his face before the wedding, she’d wanted to crawl into a deep, dark hole. However, Shawn had looked more amused than surprised. She’d barely returned his handshake when the enormity of the situation had hit her full force. Most people never saw their one-night stands again. Unfortunately for Cyd, her one-night stand came strolling through her grandfather’s backyard for her sister’s wedding. Seriously?
“How do you know Daman, anyway?”
He looked at her from head to toe one more time before responding. “I met Daman through Malik Madden, a mutual friend.”
Cyd wondered if Shawn had known her true identity when they’d first met on the island.
“No, I didn’t know we shared a mutual friend. Imani and Daman hadn’t started working on the gala they planned yet,” Shawn said, interjecting her thoughts.
Cyd squinted her eyes together, soaking in his accurate assessment. “I didn’t even ask you anything,” she snapped. Even if he didn’t know her then, she was sure he’d known about her before he got to the wedding because he hadn’t appeared surprised when he saw her.
“You’re right. I knew who you were before I got here today. After meeting with Daman and Malik one day, I used Google to search Imani when I heard she was marrying Daman. That’s when I spotted a picture of you and your business partners.”
Cyd rolled her eyes and shook her head when he read her thoughts once more. Clearly Shawn had done his research. Cyd, along with her sister Imani Rayne-Barker, cousin Lexus Turner and friend Mya Winters were proud founders of Elite Events, Incorporated in Chicago. The women were well-known for planning elaborate events that left lasting impressions with all who had the pleasure of attending.
“How do you know that’s what I’m thinking? I could have been thinking anything.” Cyd didn’t like when people assumed they knew what was on her mind because usually they were wrong in their assumptions. But Shawn had correctly assessed her thoughts, and that didn’t sit well with her.
Shawn pushed aside a coat that was partially blocking his view of Cyd. “That’s true, but you weren’t just thinking anything. And trust me, Cyd, I wanted to track you down the minute I found the information.”
He was really starting to irritate her. He spoke to her as if they’d known each other forever instead of just being sex partners for one night. “Listen, you don’t know me, Shawn Miles, or whatever your name is. So do us both a favor and stop acting like you do.”
He leaned in closer, and she inhaled his enticing masculine scent. Being around him was a threat to her sanity, and her body was a ball of nerves. Her heart beat even faster as her eyes followed his hand that reached for her face. She couldn’t help but lean into him a little more.
“I know you better than you think, Cydney Rayne or Jessica or whatever your name is. And I also noticed your hair. It’s different than I remember. This color makes you look even sexier than you did the week we met.”
His voice was so seductive that she squeezed