The Tie That Binds: A Marriage of Convenience Novel

“I’m not feeling all that well. I think I’ll sit this one out and go take a nap,” I murmur, smiling politely. I can’t watch Daniel with Olivia any longer. My heart aches and I’m tired. I just want to get into bed and fall asleep with the hope that tomorrow might be better. At least I get to go back to work tomorrow.

Dominic shakes his head and grabs my hand. “Nope, you’re coming,” he says. He pulls me away from the rest of the group. The two of us fall behind them and he throws his arm over my shoulder.

“You got it bad, huh?” he murmurs. I frown at him, confused. “You know he’s just messing with you, right? His eyes were on you every time you looked away. He’s just trying to make you jealous.”

I pause and glare at him. “What are you talking about?”

He sighs, and a brief expression of hurt flashes through his eyes before he smiles at me. He gently pats my hair and strokes my cheek.

“All I’ve ever wanted was for you to be happy, Alyssa. I know I’m selfish. I know I’ve been a terrible friend to you. But I do truly love you. You’re my heart, Alyssa. I want the world for you.”

He hesitates and inhales deeply. “I also know you better than anyone else, and I know you’ve never once looked at me the way you were looking at Daniel today. You usually hide it so well that I didn’t realise…”

He shakes his head. “It’s nothing. Go put on your red bikini. You know the one, right? You look wicked hot in it. Go put that on, and trust me just one more time. Can you do that for me?” I look away, unwilling. Dominic cups my cheek gently. “Trust me, Lyss. I would never do anything to hurt you. Do this for me now, and I swear you won’t regret it.”

I shake my head. “I don’t feel like it. I don’t want to swim. I just want to leave.”

Dominic pulls me against him and hugs me tightly. “I know, Lyss. I know. But if you do that, if you run away now… then you and Daniel will keep going around in circles. My brother is hard to read, but I know exactly what he’s thinking. If you want to be with him, then you’ll need to chase him aggressively, until he finally gets it through his thick skull that it’s him you want. Until he finally believes it. So come to the pool with me and trust me. Let me make at least some of my behaviour up to you.”

I hesitate, but he pushes me into the direction of the house before following me, as though he doesn’t trust that I’ll actually come back out. He looks pleased when I walk back out wearing the bikini he told me to wear and offers me his arm. He changed in record time and has a spare pair of swim shorts in his hands. “For Daniel,” he says, winking at me.

When we reach the pool, Daniel’s eyes immediately find mine. He stares at Dominic’s hand around my shoulder and grits his teeth. Dominic chuckles and leans into me. “He’s stupid for thinking he wouldn’t pay for making my best friend suffer through that bullshit lunch.”

A small smile tugs at my lips, and I shake my head at him. “Don’t provoke him,” I tell him. “I don’t want to do that to him.”

Dominic smiles at me with a twinge of longing and presses a long kiss to my cheek. “I wish, Alyssa. I fucking wish,” he whispers.

“Where were you two?” Daniel shouts.

He walks up to us, looking furious. “Went to change, bro,” Dominic says. “Do you like the bikini I picked for Alyssa?”

I look at him through narrowed eyes. This bastard. He winks at me and holds my hand, twirling me around. Daniel’s eyes drop to my breasts and he grits his teeth. The bikini I’m wearing showcases my body perfectly. The tiny bottoms are shaped so that my waist looks small while my ass looks nice and round, and the top has enough support to push my already full boobs up. Even I think it’s sexy as hell.

Dominic hands Daniel the spare swim shorts he brought and Mary walks up to us, excited. “Oh, fantastic. See, problem solved, Daniel.” She glances between us curiously, an amused look in her eyes.

Daniel shakes his head. “I really don’t think that’ll be a good idea, mum,” he says, looking at her sternly. I laugh mockingly. So he doesn’t want Olivia to see his kiss marks. I brush past him, regretting coming here at all.

Daniel grabs my wrist and pulls me back. I stumble and brace myself against his chest. He looks at me intensely like he wants to say something, but then he shakes his head and lets go of me, his eyes lingering on my body.

He leans in and whispers into my ear. “You asked for this, Alyssa. I have no problems showing your lover boy all the marks you so happily left on my body. Let’s see if he’s still so keen on picking you out bathing suits when he sees what you did to me this morning.”

I chuckle humourlessly and stand on my tiptoes. I grab his shirt and yank him closer to me. “Don’t pretend to be the good guy here, Daniel. You just don’t want Olivia to see the kiss marks. You went as far as putting plaster on to make sure she didn’t see them. Don’t want to ruin your chances, do you? I wonder if she’ll still go for dinner with you when she finds out my lips have been all over your body…”

I let go of his shirt and push past him and an astonished Mary. “What did she say to you?” she inquires as I lie down on one of the empty lounge chairs. Daniel shakes his head and storms past her into the boathouse while Dominic sits down by my feet. He’s smiling at me, but his smile is bittersweet.

“Wow, you really grew up, huh?” Olivia says, glancing at my body. She’s wearing a black bikini and her abs are enviable, but she’s flatter and thinner than I thought she’d be. If that’s the body type Daniel likes, then he’ll never be satisfied with me. I smile at her politely as Daniel comes storming back in. He’s changed into his swim shorts, but he’s still wearing his shirt. He drops his trousers on the seat next to mine and glares at Dominic before he slowly unbuttons his shirt. I ogle him through my sunglasses as it falls opens. He might piss me off, but he’s still hot as fuck. He grins smugly as he shrugs his shirt off, letting it drop to the floor. Everyone stares at him with wide eyes. Olivia pales while Dominic looks away, hurt flashing through his eyes. I look down, feeling terrible about hurting him and embarrassed at the sight of the damage I did. Daniel has over a dozen kiss marks on his body, all the way from his neck to the waistband of his swim shorts. I didn’t think I’d left so many. I obviously wasn’t thinking clearly when I did it. It’s evident that he was passionately manhandled recently.

Mary clears her throat and looks shocked. Her eyes automatically shift to me and back to Daniel. She looks contrite for a moment before she purses her lips to try and hide a smile, her eyes lighting up with amusement.

“Cramp, my ass,” she mutters. I inconspicuously cover my face with my hair to hide my crimson cheeks. What was I thinking…

Daniel walks towards the pool and smiles at Olivia. “You wanted to swim, right, Liv?”

She stares at him and blinks a couple of times before nodding uncomfortably. “I — you… uh, your chest, Dan…”

He looks down at the kiss marks I left on his skin and smiles to himself. “Oh, that… yeah. To be honest, I didn’t expect to walk around half-naked today or I would’ve told my girlfriend to behave. She wasn’t pleased with a decision I made recently. We had a disagreement and worked through it… vigorously.”

Daniel smiles and shrugs, looking far too pleased with himself. This nut job. Did he seriously insinuate we had an argument and makeup sex? His not-so-subtle vulgarity is embarrassing as hell. Also, did he just call me his girlfriend?

Dominic glances at me and shakes his head. There’s a flicker of jealousy in his eyes, but he does his best to suppress it. “Fucking hell, Lyss,” he whispers. I look away and run a hand through my hair awkwardly. Thank god Olivia and Dana don’t realise it was me. I don’t dare to look up at Mary, though. I’m not sure I can ever face her again.

“I didn’t know you had a girlfriend, Daniel,” Dana says, sounding just as disappointed as Olivia. He grins at her and then glances at Dominic.

“I do,” he says.