Page 80 of Regards, Mia

A chill runs through me as I feel him pull away, throwing up walls between us where none had been before. I reach up to touch him, but he flinches.

My heart squeezes. “We’ll talk about it later.”

Jay shrugs. “Whatever you say, Boss.”

I frown. “Don’t call me that. I’m not your boss.”

“You’re paying me,” he says, walking back to the bed. He stretches out, picks up the book, and resumes reading. “Is it okay if I order room service?”

“Jay, don’t be like that.” I put my bag on my shoulder. “I have to go. Just be careful today.”

He flips a page. “I’ll wear plenty of sunscreen.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be the perfect upstanding boyfriend worthy of Mia James.” He puts the book down and glances up at me, his gaze guarded. “You better go. Don’t want to be late.”

My stomach knots. I don’t have time for this conversation, but I can’t leave Jay like this. I walk over to the bed and sit next to him. My feelings for him are hopelessly tangled.

Part of me wants to shove his past aside and accept him, but there’s a big part of me that can’t forget he’s a criminal. And there’s a bigger part that tells me it doesn’t matter. Our relationship is temporary, at best.

I drop my gaze to the letters tattooed across his upper chest. RESPECT. The inked lines stand out against his tawny skin. “We’re toodifferent.”

He closes the book and sets it aside, giving me his full attention. “If you’re trying to apologize, you’re doing a shitty job.”

Frustration mounts in my chest and I grit my teeth. “I’m not trying to apologize.”

His brow lifts. “Okay then, what are you trying to do?”

“I’m trying to…” My words die away, and I drop my gaze to his chest. So much ink. So much hard, lean muscle. He doesn’t even look real.

“You want to go another round?” he asks, his voice a cold, hard edge. His eyes are even colder.

Anger churns inside me. “Dammit! I’m not trying to have sex with you, either.”

He folds his hands across his belly, completely unaffected by my emotional outburst. “It’s okay that you’re ashamed of me,” he says in a perfectly neutral voice. “It doesn’t matter.”

And then he says the words I’ve been thinking. The ones I’ve been dreading.

“None of this is real.”

I rise from the bed and walk out of the room, holding my head high as I slam the door behind me.

CHAPTER 31

Just Being Nosy

Relaxing is impossible. All I can think about is the look on Mia’s face before she walked away.

Disgust. Anger. Regret.

It was so easy to see everything Mia was thinking. Unlike me, she hasn’t mastered control of her features.

I pretend to be absorbed in the book I’m reading as Craig walks by on the beach, holding two cups in his hands.

“Hey.” He stops in front of my lounge chair. “They gave me two drinks instead of one,” he says. “Want it?”

I turn back to my book. “Not really.”

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