Page 31 of Booked for Summer

‘You liked me well enough yesterday,’ he pointed out gruffly, feeling as if someone was standing on his chest. ‘Nothing’s changed.’

Her mouth gaped open. ‘Seriously? You think lying about who you were, having sex with me knowing you were going to shaft me, and destroying a place I clearly think is incredible, isnothing? Never mind that you’ve just had the gall to offer me sex as some sort of consolation prize.’ She pulled up to her full five-foot-and-a-smidgen height and jutted out her chin. ‘Thanks for the generous offer to keep the sales from the books, but I didn’t come out here for the money.’

Pocket-size, yet she was the one making him feel small. ‘Whatdidyou come here for?’

For a brief moment she looked crestfallen, but then she squared up to him. ‘I told you when we were on Galley Beach, but probably all that interest you showed in me was just a way of making sure you got the sex you’d been deprived of the day before.’ Her voice trembled a little, but her gaze was unflinching. ‘Funny thing is, you didn’t have to pretend to be interested. I’d have slept with you anyway.’

He felt like he’d been punched in the chest. ‘I wasn’t pretending.’

‘Then you should remember what I said.’ Her watery blue gaze pierced his. ‘I came here to work with books.’

He gave her a curt nod. Message received. Then he turned away and marched back towards the resort– his resort, the place he’d created from nothing. A defiant statement to those who’d fucked him over. They’d not managed to cower him, to break him. The new waterfront would cement the statement, make it even more powerful. Not only had they failed to break him, it would say–he had won.

Yet even as he increased the distance between himself and the bookstore, the image of Jade wouldn’t budge from his mind. Beneath the anger, she’d looked heartbroken, like he’d not just put an end to her little adventure. He’d ruined something vitally important to her.

It took a bag of mints and an evening with his grandma before the bad taste left his mouth.

ChapterTwelve

Jade read the name on the brass plaque in front of her: Jeremy Scott, Guest Services Manager. Then she sucked in a deep breath, checked she wasn’t showing too much cleavage, and knocked on the door.

‘Come on in.’

‘Hi, I’m Jade Taylor.’ She smiled at the guy behind the desk. Direct blue eyes, red hair, and a face that looked familiar. ‘Oh, we’ve met before. You were talking to Liam… er, Mr Haven, yesterday when I kind of barged in on you.’

‘I remember.’

His tone was dry, his expression warm, friendly, but also speculative. She tried not to think what conclusions he’d drawn about why she’d pushed her way into the resort owner’s office. And called him by his first name. ‘I run… er, I was employed by Flo to run the Little Bay Book Shack, you know, the place on the wharf. Or at least that’s what I was supposed to come here to do, what I was really looking forward to doing, before she sold it to Liam… Mr Haven…’ God, what was she doing? She’d rehearsed this on the way over and now she was making a total pig’s ear of it. Ignoring Jeremy’s amused look, she ploughed on. ‘Anyway, I’ve been told the bookstore is going to be shut down, which is a totally misguided decision… in my opinion, obviously. I want to prove to Mr Haven?—’

‘My boss?’

Oh, shit, she’d kind of assumed from what Flo had told her, that Jeremy would be on her side. ‘Um, yes. I want to show him that the bookstore could be a really valuable addition to the resort. I mean, surely I can’t be the only one who thinks it’s nuts to get rid of it and have a waterfront of boring new builds instead.’

Jeremy burst out laughing and continued to laugh, at one point wiping at his eyes, before slowly his guffaws turned to chuckles and finally to an amused shake of his head. ‘I’m sorry, totally unprofessional of me. I just couldn’t help wondering what the boss would think of you calling his exclusive luxury cottagesboring.’

This was not going as planned. But she’d signed a contract to sell books for three months and she was not going give up without a fight. Drawing in a breath, she gave Jeremy her best flirty smile. ‘You won’t tell on me, will you?’

He looked amused. ‘No. I value my job too much.’ Jeremy stretched out his legs and regarded her. ‘So what did you want from me?’

Giving him another smile, she nodded towards the chair. ‘Do you mind if I sit?’

‘Of course, my bad.’

She settled on the chair, crossing her legs in a way that showed them off to their best advantage. They weren’t long or elegantly slender, but regular Pilates had given them definition. ‘So, um, I wondered if there was any way we could work together to our mutual advantage.’ Oh, crap, did that sound like a come-on? Gentle flirting was one thing, but she didn’t want to come off as desperate. ‘I mean, you’re in charge of keeping guests happy, yes? And books have to be one of the best ways of doing that, especially in a swanky place like this, where doing anything more than lifting a hand to turn over a page seems way too much effort.’

A smile hovered around his mouth. ‘Keep going.’

Feeling more confident, she leant forward and was about to go into her sales pitch when there was a loud rap on the door.

She almost fell off the chair when Liam strode into the office, his tall imposing, annoyingly attractive frame making the place feel suddenly cramped. ‘Why the fuck have we ordered fifty stuffed flamingos?’ His gaze swept the room, and when it collided with hers, he visibly jolted. ‘What are you doing here?’

She swallowed and glanced pleadingly at Jeremy, who looked like he was about to burst into another fit of laughter.

‘Jade is here to discuss winding down the bookstore,’ Jeremy replied smoothly. ‘She thought I might be able to help.’

Liam raised a brow and studied his guest-services manager through narrowed eyes before turning his attention back to her. Her skin prickled as his eyes travelled down, skimming over her cleavage and making her very conscious of how it looked, her pushing out her breasts to the man opposite. Self-consciously she sat back.

Liam slid a hand into his pocket and regarded Jeremy. ‘Has she met Leroy yet?’

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