Page 28 of Holiday Home 5

Anna accepted with a nod.

Shifting onto her knees, looking only a tinge flustered, she enveloped him in a warm hug. Her breasts pressed into his side, and he hugged her back with one arm. Once it ended, he checked Avril’s response.

She didn’t roll her eyes or seem bored by the tame deal. However, she did suggest that the negotiating players announce what deal they’d reached going forward, just in case what was agreed upon was a little more complicated than a simple hug.

“Ifyoucheat, I’ll know,” Liam said as Avril began shuffling for her deal.

Verdant eyes glimmered as she met his stare. “Same rules foranyonewho tries to cheat, then.”

Reversing her fortunes, Anna won the next round with two pairs. And as further evidence that she hadn’t cheated, Avril received her second loss.

“May I crawl over and have some civil negotiations, or do my shorts or bra come off right away?” one roommate asked the other. She’d already started hooking her thumbs under her shorts’ waistband.

“I’m willing to negotiate,” Anna said hastily.

Avril crossed over to Anna’s domain, and the two began whispering back and forth. This negotiation went on longer than its predecessor had. Even sitting beside them, Liam could onlymake out a word or two at a time. Anna eventually nodded, and Avril grinned.

“A kiss on the cheek for my best friend,” Avril announced, then followed through with the act.

As she made her way back to her side of things, Liam couldn’t help but feel that things had ended up in a reversed order. Where Avril might have offeredmorethan Anna wanted to start with, leading Anna to lower Avril’s offer to a more acceptable level.

In the next round, potentially leading to the opposite issue, Victoria ended up with the weakest hand. The woman on her right, grinning from ear to ear, happily flipped over her three-of-a-kind.

Victoria looked less than pleased as she shifted over and began whispering with Avril. On the other hand, this might have been one of the spicier combinations. He knew Avril wouldn’t let Victoria have it easy. And as the most invested spectator here, he could only benefit from that.

Unfortunately, it seemed that they came to an impasse. Eventually, Victoria, staring especially flatly at the woman she’d almost become sister-in-law to, returned to her area. Once there, she removed the breezy shirt she’d changed into after their time at the hot spring.

Liam found it challenging to mind overly much. After all, that brought him one step closer to finally seeing Victoria’s bared breasts. Unfortunately, the sports bra she was wearing had a zipper, and it was most of the way up. Yet, on the other hand, maybe someone might offer her a chance to keep it on if she pulled it down a few inches.

With Anna’s deal, the final of the first round, he found himself in a hurting position. He’d had nothing in his starting hand, and he had nothing after making the swap. Less thannothing, even. His high card of a six put him so far from having a chance that he nearly sighed.

The turn and river cards offered him no help. He took his first loss, and Victoria, eyes leveled on him after she revealed her pocket pair of aces, obtained her chance to stand on the other side of the pond. Aware that her eyes were far from the only ones watching him intently, Liam made his way into the space between Victoria and Anna, then leaned toward the gorgeous woman. He tried not to focus on the subtle scent of sandalwood he breathed in from her hair as he put his mouth near her ear.

“Anything in particular you’re interested in?” he whispered.

“That isn’t how this works,” the woman said mercilessly. “You have to make an offer, and then we can start negotiating.”

Heart sprinting about a mile a minute, Liam searched for the baseline he should set with his first offer. Or should he go for a more enticing—to him, at least—opening offer, expecting Victoria to take the role Anna had when Avril had come to her?

He decided to shoot for the moon. Why not? They were playing a game where they’d all end up stripping to nothing eventually, assuming the game didn’t end early.

“I could kiss your neck,” Liam offered.

“I’m sure you could,” Victoria whispered back, then said nothing else.

“Okay, then, how about one on the cheek?”

Victoria shook her head.

“I’d offer a neck massage, but I wouldn’t want to rush it. I can’t stay behind you for ten to fifteen minutes.”

“Can’t you?”

“No,” he said. “Tomorrow, though, I’ll give you my attention for five or six times that long.”

Victoria’s expression didn’t budge. After a few seconds, she revealed what she wanted. “How about you take your shirt off?The others are certain to go easy on you, but I won’t. If we’re playing this game, then we’re going to play it.”

So, it was going to be like that. She’d let him think there might be a negotiation, but like Tess had with Avril, she’d known it wouldn’t go anywhere.

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