Page 47 of The Winning Ticket

She rests her head on my shoulder. “My week was okay. Work isn’t great, but I got out and took a few more photos yesterday afternoon, so at least I have something fun to do. And I had dinner with my family on Wednesday night.”

“Oh yeah, how’d that go?” I twirl a strand of her hair around my finger.

She shrugs. “Fine. Morgan mostly talked about the wedding, and we all just let her. It was nice not to have the focus on what I’m up to for a change.”

“So none of them gave you a hard time about me?” I ask, suddenly on edge, although I’m unsure why.

“No, which was great. I wasn’t in the mood to have the same conversation with them again.”

“What do you tell them?” I have no idea why I’m asking this, and she shifts to look up at me.

“That we’re friends.”

“Is that all?”

Her eyes widen and she surveys me for a moment. “What… what else should I say?” Her voice has lowered a little, and I can feel the tension running through her while I continue twirling her hair around my finger.

“I don’t know… I guess friends is right…” I clear my throat and move my arm.

Why the hell did I push the conversation in this direction? Clearly, this week has fucked with my mind more than I’d realised.

“What should we do for dinner? It’s just us tonight, right?” I get to my feet, pretending not to notice her confused expression, while I go to grab my phone.

“Um… yeah, it’s just us. The others are coming around tomorrow evening.”

“Okay, cool. How’s Thai sound?” I ask, opening up the delivery app.

She’s quiet for a while, and I look over to see her staring at me.

“You okay?”

She nods. “Yeah… Thai’s fine. I’m going to get changed and read for a bit. Let me know when it’s here.” She gets up and heads into her room.

I shake my head while I order, cursing myself for making things weird between us.

20

DON’T START SOMETHING YOU CAN’T FINISH

BRIANNA

After cleaning up the last of the takeaway containers in the kitchen, I let myself out onto the terrace. I look around for Jake and see him up in the spa, his head back against the side of the spa, eyes closed. It has clearly been a long week for him. I’m still not sure what that conversation earlier was about, but something has changed between us, and all evening, I’ve felt the tension growing around us. I know he’s felt it too, and I have caught him watching me several times, a hungry look in his eyes that disappears as soon as he realises I’ve noticed.

I head back into my room and start digging around for a pair of swimmers. I put on the first bikini find, a hot pink one I bought for a trip to Hawaii last year. The bottom is a g-string, held together by ties at the sides, and the top is the standard triangles held together by string. It wasn’t something I’d usually wear, but the rest of my swimmers were in the wash. Looking at myself in the mirror, I consider whether this is appropriate to wear in front of Jake. But after our conversation tonight and how things have been between us lately, maybe this is what I needed to do to finally get him to make a move.

Because I’m starting to realise that that is exactly what I want.

Out on the terrace again, I walk up the stairs and move towards the loungers, placing my glass of wine down. I undo my robe and drop it onto the lounger closest to me. Once I pick up my wine glass again, I turn to find Jake staring at me.

Caught staring at my barely covered butt, he looks away for a moment, but it’s like his eyes are drawn to me, his gaze returning to move slowly up my body, taking in every curve.

Pretending not to notice when his gaze rests on my breasts as I stroll towards the spa, I realise that my hips are now swaying provocatively of their own accord, and he finally looks me in the eye, the heat behind his gaze nearly burning me.

I raise an eyebrow when I come to a stop at the side and lean down to place my glass on the side, fully aware that his gaze immediately drops to my cleavage once again. I may have stayed bent over a beat longer than necessary, enjoying the effect I appear to have on him. Straightening up once more, I step slowly onto the first step before easing myself into the warm water.

Now that I am in the water and in close proximity, Jake straightens and clears his throat when I sit down next to him.

Realising I’d left my wine behind, I stretch across Jake, smirking a little at the sharp intake of breath that I feel against my neck. When I sit back, I look at him, noting how his eyes have drifted upwards, staring at the sky. I can see the tension in his jaw.

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