Page 51 of Revenge Honeymoon

She glanced over at the shiny green swimsuit balled up on the floor and then back at Max. Their eyes met. He saw the bikini there, too.

A dull ache grew between her thighs. Her breathing sped up.

Oh my.

He focused on her mouth.

Or was that just her imagination?

“Um, so, I have this really fantastic picture of you, Ruby, and someone wants it for the cruise line’s ad campaign.” He held out the form. “So if you could sign here, I’d really appreciate it. I think they said they’d pay you for it. But they need the release signed first or something.”

Ruby’s mouth dropped open. “What? What are you talking about? What picture? When? You were taking secret pictures of me?” She glanced at Emily with rounded eyes.

Emily’s heart stopped. Ruby thought Max was creepy.

Well, maybe the way he described it was a little creepy.

Crap.

This was not going well.

“Who wants my picture?” Ruby shook her head. “Why would you do this, Max? I mean, when did you think this was a good idea?”

A sheen of sweat appeared on his face, and he rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry. This came out all wrong.” He gestured with his hands. “These twins wanted me to take their picture, and it turns out their family owns the cruise line or something and when I showed them your picture—”

“Why would you show these people my picture? Why did you even take my picture?”

“Well, I meant to show them the picture I took of them, but opened the wrong folder and clicked on your photos and then they loved it so much, and I was only thinking about what a great opportunity it was—”

“For you,” Ruby said.

“Well, I thought you’d maybe be flattered and—”

“Flattered that you took secret photos of me in my bathing suit?”

“Well, no...but Sylvia was the one who pointed you out.”

Ruby crossed her arms. “So now it’s Sylvia’s fault?”

Max shifted his gaze sideways to Emily.

Oh, God, what a mess. How to fix it? Somehow she’d ended up in the middle of Ruby and Max and some kind of horrible mix-up nightmare.

No, no, no!

Only a few moments ago Max had maybe been about to kiss her and now her best friend thought he was a lecher.

Dammit.

Max held up his hands. “I’m sorry. I’m doing a terrible job of explaining myself. Sylvia told me I had to take marketing photos of guests on the pool deck—”

Ruby pursed her lips, quirked a brow, and gave Emily a look.

Not a good look, but awhat-is-with-this-guykind of look.

Uh-oh.

Max paused mid-sentence. He’d seen the glances that passed between them. “Forget it.” His shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry I even told these women you’d consider it. That was wrong of me.”

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