Page 67 of Booked for Summer

A guard immediately dropped over his eyes and his expression turned blank. ‘Thank you.’

‘Well, then.’ Mary’s head swivelled between the pair of them. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’ Under her breath she muttered, ‘Claire’s book, my ass.’

Liam held the door open as Mary marched out of the shop. It closed behind her with a loud clunk, the sound echoing off the whitewashed walls.

Jade’s head buzzed with things she wanted to say.Last night was incredible. I want to do it again but I’m scared I might be falling for you. I think Mary knows about us.

‘Youtoldher?’

Her head jerked back at his frosty tone. ‘About your grandma? I didn’t think it was a secret.’

He stepped further into the shop, tension radiating off him. ‘It’s a private health matter. Now the whole island is going to know her eyesight is fading.’

‘Does that matter? People will want to help, like Mary did.’ She held up some of the books Mary had left. ‘She brought over some audio books and large print books from the library. I thought I’d add them to those we have in the shop and maybe I could take them over to her, see if it helps. If they work for her, we can order in whatever she’s into.’

A jaw muscle jumped. ‘You were planning on visiting her?’

‘Well, not if you don’t want me to, obviously. I mean, you can take them if you prefer.’ She stilled, embarrassment stinging her cheeks as she finally twigged what was going on. ‘You think this is all part of some clever plan of mine to infiltrate your life, don’t you? Like I’m somehow going to use your grandma to put in a good word for me with you. Gah.’ Feeling stupid and unbelievably hurt, she stomped towards the back of the shop, dragged out a cardboard box and began dumping the books Mary had given her, plus ones she’d found in the shop, into it.

‘What are you doing?’

‘I’m getting a collection of things for you to take to your grandma that might help her read. The easiest thing would be to listen to audio books on her phone or computer, but I don’t know if she’s tech savvy so I’ve included a few CDs, plus some large print books.’ She threw her spare Kindle in there, too. ‘And this is my Kindle, which she can borrow. You can change the font size so that might help, too.’ Feeling tears burn her retina, she thrust the box at him, and when those stupidly long fingered hands grasped it she definitely didn’t think of the way they’d played with her body last night. ‘Here. I hope some of it helps.’

* * *

He’d fucked up. Liam didn’t know how he’d gone from anticipating giving Jade one hell of a good morning kiss to make up for the one he’d missed when he’d found himself waking up alone, to this. Her staring at him with scorn in her expression and fire in her eyes.

He needed to apologise. She didn’t think she’d done anything wrong, he could see that. Could even understand she was trying to help, but right now it felt like a betrayal. He was only just getting used to the idea of letting Jade see parts of him others didn’t. He certainly didn’t want her giving that information to others.

‘We’re private people,’ he said quietly, taking the box from her. ‘We don’t need or want help from anyone. Especially not people here.’

She nodded stiffly. ‘Sure, my bad. I’ll make sure to keep well away in future.’

‘That’s not what I meant.’

‘Oh, sure, you still want to sleep with me, but outside that I should forget everything you tell me and pretend like we don’t know each other.’

This was spiralling out of control and he didn’t know how to stop it without sending the wrong message. And it would be very wrong to march over and kiss her now. To tell her he missed her in his bed this morning. Part of him was so incredibly touched she was doing something to help his grandma, yet a bigger part was terrified by the squeeze on his heart he’d felt when she’d talked about going to see her. Jade wasn’t supposed to be kind as well as funny, smart and sexy as fuck. She was supposed to be a woman he could enjoy and forget. Not one he could feel wrapping her silky blonde tendrils around his heart.

Panic surged through him like a bolt of high-voltage electricity and he set his shoulders, taking an invisible step back from the emotional black hole threatening to suck him in– and inevitably suck him dry. ‘Look, I came to thank you for last night. It was just what I needed.’ Bile rose to the back of his throat as he watched the hurt slide across her face and his hands gripped tighter to the box. ‘And thanks for this. It was very… thoughtful. I’ll be sure to give them to her.’

‘You do that. And while you’re there, tell her I’m happy to help in any way I can, but to come to me directly. I don’t want to have to deal with her jerk of a grandson.’

Okay. He deserved that, revelled in it, in fact; because her hating him meant there wouldn’t be a repeat of last night. He wouldn’t get sucked any further into that place he swore never to visit again, where he gave someone the power to hurt him, reject him.

Yet when he turned to walk back out, clutching the box in his hands, everything felt wrong. Like he’d taken a bad turn into a dark, lonely alley. The sense of wrong intensified when he knocked into the stand near the entrance and felt a burn of hot liquid on his thigh.

‘Fuck.’ He hissed, shaking his leg.

‘What is it?’

He ignored her. He just needed to get out.

‘Wait, I’ll open the door for you.’

He did not want to smell the coconut shampoo she used. Or feel the brush of her breasts as she reached for the door handle.

‘There’s something wet…’ Her voice trailed off and mortification shot through him.

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