Page 52 of Holiday Home 4

It’s pretty unlikely ever to lower the score,he responded, heart zooming as he quickly replied.

Are you primarily interested in pictures of me in swimwear? Would an evening dress potentially do?

I won’t put any stipulations on outfits, no,Liam said, though he recalled that this had started through the veneer of comparing old bikinis to potential new ones—ones he would get to see if they visited Fiji.I’m sure I’ll be stunned, regardless.

Stunned into giving me three points,Victoria retorted dryly.

I know there’ll be a few in there that I can’t resist giving five to,he texted back.You just haven’t sent them over yet.

What a loaded word: “yet.” In the context of their current discussion, especially so. So full of his hopes, as quickly poppedas a balloon floating into a maze formed of needles. In her next response, Victoria allowed it to stay aloft in the air.

We shall see. Perhaps you’ve just raised your bar too high, on account of living beside such a beautiful woman, then pretending to date another beautiful woman. And also, lest I forget, apparently earning the attraction of another gorgeous woman.

If only you knew,Liam thought, wondering if just the revelation that he’d kissed all three of those women in the past twenty-four hours might cause Victoria’s jaw to drop. If anything could truly flabbergast her, upset her immaculate poise, maybe that could do it.

If you were someone else, I might believe that,he sent back,but I don’t believe for a second that you’re worried about anything like that.

Am I not allowed my illogical worries?

Not that one.

You’re harsher than I’d judged initially,Victoria responded.Bolder, too.

Like a light appearing at the end of the tunnel, Liam saw the reply he needed to send. If there was any chance in the universe that he might get to do more than just admire Victoria in all her immaculate, incredible beauty in Fiji, it was predicated on him not backing down here. Of the two types of men that Victoria had complained about, he’d never be the “hey, let’s hurry up and fuck” type. He had much more in common with the faceless, nameless man that had bored her tonight.

He'dhadmuch more in common with the faceless, nameless man that had bored her tonight. Without a shadow of a doubt, he knew Victoria Moreno wasn’t currently bored. Not by him, not by their conversation. And so, brimming with confidence that what he typed out was the right thing to say, he sent his reply.

It’s all in my goal of trying to be a little more nuanced, that’s all.

Victoria’s dress, the one she wore tonight, the one shesent his wayless than a minute later, hit all the marks they’d just discussed. It was an evening dress, and it was plentiful in the skin that it displayed.

He’d also been right. She was in her kitchen, right where she’d been when they’d first made this deal. Even with midnight on the horizon, her lights kept the room well-lit, so Liam didn’t need to worry about missing out on a single detail of what had to be one of the most beautiful women on the planet.

Taken from a slightly high angle, the selfie he received showed that Victoria had elected to wear a deep blue dress tonight, with only two hard-working spaghetti straps holding it up. It was a corset dress, clenching tightly around her hourglass of a figure. Though he couldn’t see past her navel in this specific picture, taken while Victoria was still sitting down, he imagined it hugged her wide hips and gorgeous ass tightly.

But even without that half of her visible, there was so much to work with. Her eyes, like always, belonged to the most beautiful of blizzards. Pure, indomitable, enough to captivate without accessories or even a single spoken word. There was no off switch to the way her eyes pierced him. The hints of makeup on her olive skin, a pair of dangling diamond earrings, the lustrous curve and bounce of her dark hair, which she’d seemingly let down since being let down by her date.

Really, though, how the hell had this guy sat in the first camp—the boring group—when Victoria was dressed like this?

There was enough cleavage on display to set Liam’s heart racing, his blood boiling. The dress dropped low enough for the most immaculate set of breasts that Liam had ever seen to fully hint—more than that, even—at just how much there’d be to admire if those straps slid off those smooth, soft shoulders.A pair of breasts capable of stiffening the cock of someone in his bed over a hundred miles away in mere moments. A pair of breasts worth being smothered to death by. If that were how you died, you’d nod, smile, and welcome the sweet bliss that preceded the eternal end.

I’d appreciate a nuanced rating, then,Victoria sent. She waited, in fact, only sending that message twenty or seconds after the arrival of the image. As if she knew he’d be stunned long enough for him to fail to notice that she hadn’t seen an accompanying message.

Twenty seconds before sending her request, then another twenty more before Liam felt coolheaded enough not to howl like a wolf at the moon. Settling himself… somewhat, he tapped out his response.

Is this your favorite dress?

It’s among the evening dresses I think highly of, but I wouldn’t call it my favorite.

Okay,he said,I still give it a four.

Only a four? You’re not helping set my worries about your too-high standards at ease.

Well,he replied, heart in total frenzy within his chest,you’ve only given me a look at half of you. If I can see how the rest of the dress looks against your body, then maybe I could reevaluate my decision.

A few minutes passed without a reply, yet Liam didn’t feel half as frantic now as he had during the last briefer delay. With some certainty, he felt like he knew what was happening in Victoria’s kitchen. She was putting her glass in the dishwasher, the wine bottle back into its cupboard, and then exiting the room entirely. He didn’t know for sure, but he felt like a woman of Victoria’s style had to have a standing mirror.

He was proven right. He quite liked being right, aware of and expecting good things, not fretting over what might gowrong. He could tell why Avril liked to instigate things. If you started something, you usually had a better grasp on how things might go than everyone else.

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