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Wanna bet? She did a quick-step down the hall, found her room and shut and locked the door.
The room was a
palace, just like the rest of the house. It was oversized, ostentatious, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the pool and gardens. She flung herself onto the bed, sinking into the creamy duvet that wrapped itself around her with a comforting caress.
Exhaustion took hold. She wanted to forget everything, to shut it all out like a bad nightmare. Maybe if she took a short nap, she’d feel better. She was bitchy and short-tempered, especially with Jed, who had only been doing his job.
She rolled over onto her back.
His job. Right. A job that hadn’t required him to sleep with her, to engage with her emotionally, to smile at her and make her—
Make her what? Start to think she was falling in love with him?
He hadn’t made her do anything. He hadn’t made her any promises. He’d been there, been available and hot and sexy, and she’d been all too eager to throw herself at him. It wasn’t like he’d forced himself on her. He’d done his job by staying close to her. What had happened between them had been mutual, but she sure as hell had been blaming him for everything, hadn’t she?
She threw her arm over her head to shut out the streaming light and closed her eyes.
ELEVEN
Jed held his breath and dove down to the bottom of the pool, skimming across from one end to the other. He pushed off the deep end and broke the surface, his lungs burning as he swallowed in oxygen. Then he turned, dove down and did it again, forcing himself to drive harder, to increase his speed, to push himself past the point of endurance.
When he came up for air the fourth time, he was breathless and wasted, and this time he hadn’t been thinking of Elena the entire time he was under.
He swam to the edge and hopped out, wiped his hands on the towel and checked his phone to make sure Grange hadn’t called or texted.
Nothing yet, but it had only been a few hours. He wouldn’t expect to hear from them for a while.
He turned, pushed off and plunged down again, forcing his body to remain submerged while he swam the bottom of the pool from end to end. When he surfaced this time, Elena stood at the edge, watching him.
He shook the water out of his eyes and stared at her. She was wearing an orange bikini. Nothing overly sexy, just a two-piece thing. Except anything she wore was sexy because of her curves.
And because it was Elena. She could have put a burlap sack on her body and he’d think she looked hot.
She cocked her head to the side. “You trying to drown yourself down there?”
“No. It’s an endurance exercise.”
She took a seat at the edge of the pool and dangled her legs in the water. “I was beginning to think I was going to have to jump in and rescue you. You were down there a long time.”
“I’m used to it.”
“Obviously.”
She was talking to him. Something had changed from two hours ago when she’d stormed off to the bedroom. Jed didn’t want to do anything to piss her off, so he turned and resumed swimming, this time doing regular laps. She stayed at the edge of the pool, watching him.
If that’s what she wanted to do, fine. It didn’t bother him at all.
Much.
Except when she leaned back on her hands, her body stretched out to the sun, reminding him of what it was like to make love to her. The water in the pool was heated, and so was he. He swam to the edge and climbed out, grabbed his towel and hoped for a cold breeze to chill him out.
Elena slipped into the water, sank in over her head, then popped out and swam. Her strokes were strong and confident as she did laps. He climbed into the chair and watched her body curl from side to side as she took a breath, then put her face back in.
Even at swimming she was elegant and beautiful.
And gave him a hard-on.
He thought about going inside but didn’t want to leave her alone out here, so he was just going to have to suck it up and suffer.
