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“Yeah, but I can handle it. You?”
“The more I answer, the more ridiculous my answer sounds.” His honesty surprised me, though it shouldn’t. Oliver was a lot of things but not a liar. “Especially with Mira reminding me.”
“Just keep reminding yourself that her goal is to get me married, that should help.” It wasn’t what I wanted to say, but it was what needed to be said—for me and for Oliver. He might think he was changing his mind about what he wanted, but he wasn’t.
This was hormones. Infatuation. It wasn’t real, and I knew that.
But it was a hell of a lot of fun.
“When this is over, I could use a long, hot bubble bath,” I told him.
Oliver swallowed. “Yeah?”
“Oh, yeah. With bubbles. Maybe even a glass of wine. Some company for those hard to reach places.” My laughter was cut off by the sound of his growl and the feel of his mouth crashing down on mine, kissing me long and hard, gripping me gently.
I closed my eyes and kissed him right back, reminding myself that his kisses only felt like forever, they weren’t promising it.
No matter how much I was starting to want just that thing.OliverWho would have thought a bubble bath could be so damn hot? Certainly not me, but I hadn’t stopped thinking about it in the seventy-plus hours since I’d left Eva sleeping soundly in bed. With a big-ass smile on her face that I’d put there. No one but me, Oliver March.
I was knee-deep into a serious case of infatuation with Eva Vargas. I couldn’t stop thinking about her, those gray eyes and raven hair, and especially those curves. The way they felt under my hands, my lips. My body. “Damn.” It wouldn’t do me any good to have rumors circulating about a certain podcaster to have an inappropriate boner in the middle of The Mayflower.
“Well, well, well… I wonder just who has captivated young Oliver’s attention so vividly.” Stone’s deep voice pulled me from thoughts I had no business having—and definitely not out in public.
“Hey, guys. It’s about time you showed up.”
Liam’s laugh sounded next, along with the hard smack of the beer pitcher on the heavy wooden table. “We’ve only been trying to get your attention for the past couple minutes.”
“Interesting,” Stone said and took a seat in the stool right across from mine, staring at me like he knew something he couldn’t know, because there was nothing to know. “So, who’s on your mind?”
I glared at Stone, daring him to push me when it was an open secret that he was in love with Sophie. “You know exactly who. And why. Don’t you, Stone?”
Anger flared in his brown eyes before he turned away and chugged his beer. “No clue. That’s why I’m asking.”
“Right,” I growled, suddenly, irrationally angry.
“How’s the bet going,” Liam asked. Despite being a retired Navy SEAL and some kind of private sector super soldier, he was the most laid-back guy I’d ever met. “You and Eva seem chummy, which is a big change for you two. Hell, you seemed more than chummy at the barbecue, at least according to just about everybody.”
“And it didn’t go unnoticed or unremarked upon that you disappeared together for fifteen minutes,” Stone added with a knowing smile.
I knew exactly what they both were saying, because everything with Eva felt just the way it seemed to everyone else. Being with her was fun and easy, like being in a real relationship but without all the unnecessary nagging and drama. “It’s going well and I’m enjoying her company.”
Liam snorted. “What in the hell does that mean?”
“It means that things are going well. We have a good time, always, and she’s not how I thought she was. Not exactly, anyway.” She was still a control freak with a burst of uptightness, but in a good way. “And there’s no drama, because it’s not real.”
Stone leaned forward, his dark eyes serious. Curious. “How do you know it’s not real?”
A slow smile crawled across my face as I refilled my beer and took a long swig. “Because there’s no drama. No fighting or jealousy. And because I’m not itching to get away from her.” Liam and Stone exchanged a look that I couldn’t quite decipher, but I knew instantly I didn’t like it. “What the hell is that look about?”
Liam laughed. “You want to tell him, or should I?”
“Be my guest,” Stone said, smiling into his beer.
“It’s real, man. Really fucking real.”
“Bull.” I shook my head, staring at both of my friends so they understood where I was coming from. “Eva and I are having fun together. She knows I can’t give her what she wants, so we’re just having a good time.” She hadn’t given me any reason to believe she’d changed her mind.
Liam laughed and shook his head, knocking back a shot of something brown before pouring a beer for himself. “I’m not sure if you know the deal, Oliver. This is how it happens. She’s gorgeous and smells good, great in the sack. Suddenly, you want to be around her all the time, you want to make her happy by doing things like throwing a fish fry together. Going to estate sales, whatever.”
