Page 78 of Booked for Summer

Customers continued to keep her busy for the rest of the afternoon, but the pang of disappointment she felt when they turned out not to be tall, dark and grumpy-looking with mesmerising silver-specked grey eyes, became more and more acute.

I’m trying to offer you a version of me I thought I’d buried. I won’t blame you if you think he’s not worth your while. Others have thought the same.

His words had played round in her head all night. Maybe it was for the best that he wasn’t going to show because she didn’t have any defence against the man when he opened up to her like that.

The door swung open and her heart ricocheted off her ribs when she saw who it was. She had to press a hand to her chest to stop the damn thing flying across the room towards him.

He gave her a cautious smile. ‘Is now a good time?’

‘For what?’ Oh God, it sounded like she was contemplating dragging him upstairs for a quickie.

He gave her a quizzical look. ‘Is there more than one option on the table?’

‘I… er, just meant I assume you’re here to ask how yesterday went?’

He nodded, those beautiful eyes never leaving her face. ‘Jeremy informs me you were a hit with the guests.’

‘Wow, that’s good to know. The team will be delighted.’

‘The team.’ His shoulders twitched. ‘Youwere the hit, Jade.’

‘Oh.’ He was hard to resist even when he was being an arse, impossible to resist when he decided to seduce her. This serious, intense yet secretly very kind man? He was one she could easily fall in love with.

‘It can’t come as a surprise.’ He took a few steps towards her, his thumb caressing her cheek in a light touch that turned her insides to mush. ‘The guests loved you. Everyone loves you.’ His hand shifted to tuck a curl of hair behind her ear. ‘You have a natural way with people, a wit, a charisma, a smile we try to encourage, hoping it will be pointed in our direction.’

Butterflies flapped crazily in her belly as the liquid silver-grey eyes pulled her dangerously under their influence. ‘Thank you.’

He nodded and took a step back. ‘Would you recommend a book for me?’

It took her a moment to gather herself. ‘I thought you only read contracts.’

His eyes darkened. ‘If I recall, you once promised to find me a book, but then we got… distracted.’

Unhelpful images of how she’d distracted him flew through her mind. He’d been naked, hugely aroused and throbbing in her hand…

She didn’t know whether to scream with disappointment or cheer with relief when the door opened. And Adam walked in.

‘Am I interrupting anything?’ Adam’s gaze bounced between the pair of them, a slow smirk crossing his face. ‘Looks like I am.’ He turned to Liam. ‘I thought you said she wasjust an employee?’

Ouch.

Liam exhaled sharply, and a flash of frustration crossed his face. Clearly whatever he’d said to Adam wasn’t necessarily the truth, but she’d had so many mixed messages already from him, it was impossible to know where she stood. Really, the only healthy way forward was to spend the next two months untangling herself from him. Not getting herself in deeper.

But then she looked at him again, at the fresh lines of tension on his handsome face, and her heart didn’t see the man. It saw the lost, shunned young boy.

* * *

Liam shoved his hands into his pockets before he did something he’d regret, like grab Adam’s shirt and shove him against the wall. Not that he’d regret the action, but he would regret embarrassing Jade. ‘What do you want?’

Adam chuckled. ‘Not content with continuing to meddle in the tourist industry, you’re now working in book sales?’

Liam’s hands twitched, forming into fists.

Jade turned and gave Adam a polite smile. ‘How can I help, Adam?’

‘I came to apologise for not being at the meeting the other day. I hear you’re doing book surgeries now.’ A broad smile crossed his face. Cocky and smug were the adjectives Liam would have used to describe it. Someone who liked the son of a bitch might say ‘charming’. ‘What do I have to do to make an appointment?’

‘No appointment needed.’ At Jade’s reply, Adam’s smile grew, and Liam’s fists clenched tighter. This was excruciating. ‘You just need to stand in line at the next pop-up clinic.’

---