Page 58 of Holiday Home 5

Unless, of course, the two women lounging in the sun near said basket decided they didn’t want things to get cooler. Which very much seemed to be the case.

At some point, Tess and Victoria had decided to go topless. Had they rubbed sunscreen on themselves or let the other woman handle it? Why the fuck hadn’t they called out to him in the ocean, so he might come ashore and do it?!

Maybe they did, and maybe you were just too busy to hear,Liam thought.

How and when it happened, ithadhappened. As he, Anna, and Avril trotted out of the ocean and returned to their towels and umbrellas, they saw two topless professors lying under the sun. In the past half an hour, Liam had only failed to see Avril’s breasts. That thought was almost amusing, given that she’d likely have been the most comfortable with going topless; he knew he could have simply asked her to do so when they’d gotten here, and he bet she’d have done it.

“Speaking of lovely breasts,” Avril announced as they returned their group to being five.

Tess lifted her head. “Welcome back. Did you all enjoy the water?”

“Water’s fine, but not as fine as you two beauties,” Avril said.

“That’s a terrible line,” Victoria said, not even bothering to lift her head.

“It’s anexcellentline,” Avril said. “You just have no taste.”

That brought Victoria’s head up. Behind her sunglasses, sunlight bursting off their reflective surfaces, she eyed Avril.

“We have thesametaste. The last twenty-four hours attests to that.”

Avril grinned and made another playful comment. Liam wasn’t listening. His heart was busy making a clamorous celebration inside his chest. For all the other types of confirmation he’d gotten from her, this one, for some odd reason, felt especially solid.

He sat near Tess, watching the human avatars of maverick and stoic parry words nearby. A shoulder bumped into him, directing his eyes toward the second topless woman on the beach. Hopefully, that number would increase before long.

“Behave,” Tess said, looking over the rim of her sunglasses. “I’d like us to have a relatively normal picnic. The debauchery can wait a little while longer.”

“So, I can’t kiss you?” Liam asked. “Because I really want to.”

“I didn’t saythat,” Tess said, leaning in slightly closer.

By the time their kiss ended, barely a drop in the barrel of what it would take to cool his desires, Avril and Victoria had finished their verbal swordplay. Nearby, certainly having seen him and Tess kissing, Anna decided to open the cooler with food in it. Everyone gathered in a familiar circle as she began passing out chilled fruits and sandwiches.

Tess got her wish. Their picnic wasrelativelynormal. Sans the topless professors, whose lead Avril eventually followed, and the difficulty Liam had with keeping his gaze at eye level, there wasn’t too much out of the ordinary going on in their area. No suggestions for strip poker recurred, at the very least. Liam had half expected Anna’s eyes to widen while she passed out their food, having found a chilly deck of cards within. It would have been on the lower end of Avril’s many surprises.

But no, not today—notyettoday, at least. Other than distracting him as she tossed away her top, her magnificent breasts joining the collection around him, Avril didn’t instigate a thing. Instead, she laid out the plans she’d discussed with himand Anna out in the ocean to the professors. Neither found any issue with her proposed itinerary.

“There are some things to do around the resort, too,” Tess noted. “There’s a tennis court hidden away, and the resort promises some cultural activities.”

“Want a rematch, then?” Avril asked, grinning.

“If there’s time,” Tess said.

“You two play tennis?” Liam asked, gulping down some water from his metal water bottle.

“Of varying degrees, we’re all rich white women,” Avril commented glibly. “Weallplay tennis.” She nodded at Anna. “She’s probably the best one here. Another of her not-so-shocking skills. If she can’t be on the ice, then put her on the clay—she’ll show her stuff.”

“I’m okay at tennis,” Anna said. It seemed impossible for her to admit her own skill at something, so Liam imagined that Avril was closer to the truth than her slightly embarrassed roommate.

“We should all play,” Avril said. “We can find a day for it, and Liam can be the ref. I’m sure he won’t mind seeing us rushing about in short skirts.”

“A doubles match or a four-person tournament?” Tess asked.

“Doubles,” Avril said, and they all surely saw the glint of a plan coalescing into existence within her beautiful green eyes. “Students versus professors.”

“At which point, we’ll lose, as I’m only okay at tennis,” Victoria said. “The best and the worst player should team up, so there’s a little more mystery about which team will win.”

“I’m okay with that,” Anna said.

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