Page 108 of Lucky Bounce: Instant Replay: Part One

Yeah, not so much.

Still, no matter how incredible things had been between them, none of it changed the fact that Eli was still Eli—a notorious bachelor.

She had to get past all of this, and fast. There was the article to consider, and maintaining a level of professionalism while working on that was important to her.

TheLucky Bouncemight only be an online gossip blog at its core, but having a byline on a story about Eli would help her get better freelance jobs. Eventually, she might even be able to quit the blog, and then she could get away from Lyla and her toxic bullshit.

Eli looked up from his phone and flashed her a sexy smile. His shirt was open at the collar, and the glimpse of the tanned, exposed skin of his neck made her stomach flip.

She’d had her lips all over his neck last night, pressing open-mouthed kisses there when they were in the shower together, and burying her face against it when he made her come.

Fucking hell.

How was she ever going to get through the next 30 days without jumping his bones or scratching out the eyes of any woman who looked at him twice?

“Are you ready to go?” he asked.

Holly walked over toward the door and picked up her purse. “Just about.”

She dug around in her bag and grabbed a tiny pot of strawberry-flavored tinted lip balm, then dabbed some on her lips.

Eli slid his phone into the pocket of his jeans and stood. “I should probably go grab my duffel bag out of the other room.”

“Oh, right.” She’d almost forgotten he had a room here. “Yeah, you better go do that.”

“Wait for me out in the hall, okay? I’ll give you a ride home.”

“No thanks.” She dumped the lip balm back into her purse. “That’s probably not a good idea.”

He frowned. “Why not?”

“Because...” She paused, trying to figure out how to word this properly. “Well, because of boundaries. We need boundaries, Eli. We need to go forward like this never happened.”

He raised one dark eyebrow. “So that means I can’t give you a ride home? I gave you a ride home before we slept together, Wilkes. One has nothing to do with the other.”

“It’s just not a good idea.” She rubbed her clammy hands down over her skirt. Fuck, why was she so nervous? “I’ll see you when we work on the article, of course, but we need to keep things professional going forward. We should start getting used to that now.”

“Okay, so fill me in... what happens after the 30 days?” he asked, crossing his arms.

“What do you mean?”

“You said that you wanted us to become friends again. I know we both want that, Holly. Once the 30 days are over, are we going to hang out?”

Holly shifted uncomfortably, then glanced up at him. “I haven’t really thought about any of that yet.”

“Well, maybe you should. Because we can’t become friends again if we don’t spend any time together,” he pointed out.

“I know that,” she said defensively. “It’s just that you have your life, your career, your... social life. I have my life and my job. We’re both busy. I mean, we share a set of friends, Eli. It’s not like we won’t ever see each other.”

He narrowed his eyes. “So that’s how you figure that we become friends again? When I see you at someone’s party?” He stared down at her, his face pinched tight. “You know what that sounds like to me? It sounds like you’re planning on blowing me off. That you’ll see me when you see me.”

“I never said that.” She wrapped her arms around her middle. “You’re putting words in my mouth.”

“Maybe you should clear it up for me, then.”

“There’s nothingtoclear up. I just think we need to focus on getting through the next month while we work on the article. We can figure the other stuff out later.”

“Bullshit,” he snapped. “There is no later. You don’t want to figure anything out. I can read between the lines, Holly, and there’s nothing there.” He slashed a hand through the air dismissively and headed for the door. “I guess I’ll see you when I see you, Wilkes.”

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