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By the time they’d had lunch, she was yawning behind her hand. She tried to convince herself it was because she’d stayed up late working. Because she’d had trouble sleeping knowing her ex-husband was downstairs—the man was majorly throwing off her chi. But all that line of thinking did was bring Jayson back to the forefront of her thoughts and then she’d ended up comparing him to Elias.
Elias’s muscles beneath his white shirt looked nice enough, but he somehow lacked the roundness through the shoulders that Jayson had. His forearms were fine, but she doubted he had the strength to lift her up so she could wrap her ankles at his waist. His face was pleasant, but too clean-cut. His lips were too narrow. His hair, wavy in the breeze, was thinner than Jay’s full, thick, but short locks.
Elias was as boring as his stale, white outfit—a literal blank slate—and his personality barely appeared. He spoke carefully and evenly, but his stories droned on, and the last one about the investors’ party meandered and looped but in the end had no point.
He wasn’t witty. He wasn’t stubborn. He wasn’t challenging.
He isn’t Jayson, her mind offered and she told it promptly to shut up.
She didn’t want Jayson. That was her mantra after they docked, after she’d allowed Elias to kiss her cheek and as she drove home. So intent on making that her new truth, she decided that working side by side with Jayson was probably a bad idea. Bet or no bet, she needed to put some distance between them.
When she stepped into the kitchen of her house and looked out the window, instead of finding peace in being alone she found Jayson Cooper in her pool.
He was naked save for a pair of board shorts, and floating on a yellow raft shaped like a lemon slice. He should have looked ridiculous, especially wearing a pair of pink sunglasses that belonged to her, but he didn’t.
He looked damned tempting with a solid tan and a five o’clock shadow darkening his jaw. He was cradling a can of sparkling water in one hand, his head leaning back, showcasing the column of his strong neck. Beads of water danced along his body, glistening in the waning sun.
Her mouth watered.
How dare her body react to him? He ruined everything—including her date. If not for sleeping with Jayson so recently, she might have found Elias Hill perfectly pleasant.
Perfect. Yuck.
She replayed that dumb story about the family dog he’d told her and cringed. How was it that a billionaire yacht CEO wasn’t more interesting?
“What the hell are you doing here?” she growled, tossing her beach bag onto an empty lounger. She was still wearing her new bikini beneath her shorts and top and had been planning on coming home and swimming off her frustration.
“You’re back. Didn’t expect you for a while.” He finished off his water and crunched the can with one hand before tossing it to the side of the pool. “I was going to leave, but I was caught up in working and decided to take a dip. I was planning to be gone by the time you came home.”
“Sure you were.” But him being here didn’t piss her off as much as she wanted it to.
Especially when concern leaked into his tone when he asked, “Didn’t go well?”
She crossed her arms and shrugged.
A frown bisected his eyebrows. “What the hell did that bastard do?”
She dropped her arms. “Nothing. I’m not mad about my date. I’m mad because you’re here and I want to swim.”
“I have to leave so you can swim?” When he said it out loud it did sound silly.
“Whatever. It’s hot and I’m frustrated and I’m coming in.”
Hands in her hair, she pulled her waves into a ponytail and stripped out of her clothes. She was aware of Jayson watching her from behind those pink sunglasses. Especially since this bikini was gorgeous. The hot pink suit covered what it needed to, but the peekaboo mesh at the neckline hinted at what she was hiding.
She stepped to the zero-entry side and started down the ramp, the warm water lapping at her ankles, then calves, then knees. She commented about how the water was colder than she’d expected and he grinned.
“Don’t.” She warned, sealing her fate.
He was off the raft in a shot, tossing the sunglasses to the side of the pool and then...he was gone.
“I just washed my hair!” she shouted as he cut through the water. Before she could turn to walk up the ramp, he’d surfaced and scooped her into his arms like Swamp Thing.
“You know better than to tell me the water’s cold, G,” he said, his eyelids lowering ominously.
She kicked her legs uselessly and wiggled in his grip. “I take it back!” she said through breathless laughter.
“You can’t take it back.” He laid a hard kiss on her mouth and walked her toward the deep end. Before she could beg him not to throw her in, he’d already tossed her into the air.
