Page 46 of Booked for Summer

Amused, he stared back at her. And that, he realised belatedly, was a mistake. It was easier to handle the sight of the bed than those huge blue eyes. ‘Don’t look at what?’ He asked dryly.

‘Exactly.’ She grabbed the laptop from the worktop and shoved it into his hands. ‘You sit on the sofa and study the spreadsheet thingies while I make a drink. Good old Tetley tea from home, or some dubious coffee that was already here and even if it is in date I will probably ruin because I don’t drink the stuff?’

‘Water.’

‘Are you sure? Can’t beat a good mug of tea. Helps everything from hangovers to heartbreak.’ He stared back at her and she gave him a wry smile. ‘Yeah, the heartbreak part is a lie. At least it didn’t help me.’

‘The men who were bad for you.’ He didn’t like thinking of her with other men.And I thought I’d reached rock bottom with the last two guys I slept with.Liked it less when he remembered he’d treated her worse than they had.

‘Yep. So anyway.’ She waved a box of teabags. ‘Is that still a hard no for the tea?’

‘I prefer my drink not to resemble a dirty puddle.’

She shrugged her shoulders. ‘Your loss.’

He watched as she reached up into the cupboard for a glass, the stretch revealing a sliver of the soft curve of her belly. The one he’d traced with his tongue.

Dragging his gaze away, he turned his focus to the spreadsheets Flo had put together, recognising them from the ones she’d sent him when he was buying the bookstore.

Jade set a glass of water on the small coffee table in front of him. ‘Bet you’re not used to numbers that small.’

He glanced up at her. ‘I wasn’t always rich.’

Her cheeks went pink. ‘Sorry, yes, I got that from when you were talking about wanting to buy your grandma a house. I meant when you look at the finances for your fancy resort.’

She came to sit next to him and it was like a million neurons fired off in his brain. He was kidding himself if he thought this was just a casual attraction, one that would conveniently disappear the more he saw her. It felt like he was hooked, and his choices were to fight the inevitable, or save himself the angst and admit to it.

‘My fancy resort has bigger numbers, but the principle is the same. This column is where you put the sales recorded from the till.’ He pointed to the screen, but when she leant in to follow the direction of his finger, her breasts came into contact with his arm and he groaned. ‘You realise not looking at the bed isn’t going to stop me from wanting to fuck you in it.’

She inhaled sharply, scooting away from him as if he’d suddenly announced he had rampant herpes. ‘I don’t want to know that.’

‘Trust me, I’m aware. And I’m not exactly happy about the situation, either,’ he added grimly. ‘But the genie is out of the bottle, and we can’t just shove it back in, no matter how much we might want to try.’

‘Genie, what genie?’

She looked panicked and he let out a frustrated breath. ‘You know what I’m saying. I don’t have to sit here and imagine what it would be like to roll around with you on a bed. Iknowwhat it’s like. And it’s really fucking hard to ignore that.’ He stared back at her. ‘Really hard to tell myself I don’t want to experience it again.’

She shot up from the sofa and started to pace up and down the small loft space. ‘Well you need to, because you and me are not happening again. No, no, no. Definitely not happening.’

‘You’re sure about that?’

‘Absolutely.’ He took satisfaction from the fact her gaze didn’t meet his. ‘I’m working on being a different version of me than the one who walked onto your boat wondering if she was good enough. Wondering if the guy she was about to sleep with just saw her as an easy lay.’

He winced. ‘I told you, that’s not what I thought.’

‘It’s what part of you thought. You asked to fuck me, Liam. Not to take me out to dinner.’

‘Yet I took you out for cocktails.’

‘You did. Even though you don’t date.’ She frowned, bright blue eyes searching his. And seeing too much. ‘You’ve been hurt, too. So maybe we should both get better at picking the people we do decide to let close.’ She paused, looking down at the floor for a moment before meeting his eyes again. ‘Do you know what I overheard my last boyfriend saying to his mum when she asked him what he saw in me? “Every guy goes through a dumb-blonde phase. Jade is mine.”’

‘What an asshole.’

‘And an arsehole.’ She raised her chin. ‘I’m tired of being underestimated. Especially by people who should know me better.’

‘That’s why these three months working at the shop are so important to you.’

‘Yes. And I need you to give me longer than two weeks. I deserve longer.’

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