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“Shame,” someone grumbles loudly from behind me, more than one chuckle following.
“So, two upstairs and two downstairs?” I offer, looking at Liselle and Amy for some guidance.
“There are a lot more of us down here than upstairs,” Penelope says, crossing her arms over her chest. “I think we should have three.”
“Sure,” Liselle says with a barely interested shrug of her shoulders. I thought she’d have a lot more to say about this, but apparently not.
“I’ll go upstairs,” Jasper volunteers quickly. Too quickly if the way he looks at Aimee is anything to go by.
“The rest of those clothes stay on,” Liselle adds as the two of them make it to the bottom of the stairs. “Please try and remember you’re not alone here.”
“Sure thing,” Aimee replies over her shoulder, her Little Sister tagging along behind them as Charlotte and her Little Sister chatter away with their nail technician, following.
The guys head into the kitchen, in search of drinks or something, I’m sure, as the rest of us head back to what we were doing before. One of the techs follows Ruby and me into my room, leaving the door open as she sets everything up on the table. Grabbing the wine, I get comfortable on Tamsin’s bed, Ruby sitting awkwardly at the table.
Ruby looks nervous as she follows the movements of the tech, who introduces herself as Eileen, one of Stephanie’s usual nail support assistants. How often the girl breaks a nail and needs an emergency appointment, I have no idea, but ateamseems like a bit much, in my opinion.
Eileen makes a start, soaking Ruby’s hands in bubbly warm water, nothing but the sound of her bangles clicking together and breaking the silence. She pats her hands dry, sorting out the cuticles before attempting small talk with her. Unsurprisingly, it falls flat on its face.
I manage to stifle a smile, glad that it’s not just my attempts to get her to open up that are failing. Until…
“So, that’s the guy, is it?” Ruby asks, her gaze locked on whatever it is that Eileen is doing to her nails.
“Which guy?”
“Your bracelet, complicated, boyfriend not-a-boyfriend, Nick.”
So she was paying attention, interesting.
“Oh, no. That’s Wyatt. He’s Nick’s roommate. He helped me out with getting the sauna up and running. Completely coincidental timing.”
“Obviously.” She rolls her eyes.
“Top up?” Leo offers, red wine in hand as his head pops around the open doorway.
“Yes,” I agree, much quicker than I expected. The three glasses of wine and crazy adrenaline from my brush with death, or Wyatt’s headphones, clearly affected me more than usual.
His abs ripple as he crosses the room, and I can’t help the action as I run my tongue along my lower lip. His scent envelops me as he draws ever nearer, his gaze darkening as he notices the movement, his heat way too close as he refills my glass.
He looks good. He smells good. And he sure as hell hasn’t thrown me around anywhere. Not yet, anyway.
“Are you okay?” he asks quietly, sparing a glance across the room before training that intense blue gaze back on me. “Wyatt mentioned what happened earlier on, that’s all.”
“Oh, yeah, that. I’m okay,” I brush off awkwardly. “Just a total misunderstanding, that’s all. Completely my fault.”
“Well, you know I’m here for whatever you need,” he says, his proximity only getting closer. “Even if it’s just for getting rid of the monsters under your bed,” he replies with a wink.
“From what I hear, you could be the monster under my bed.”
Oops. Where the hell did that come from?Maybe I should slow down on the wine after all.
“Only if you ask nicely,” he rumbles quietly, a vibration I feel to my toes, the toes that curl involuntarily at the sound.
Jacob.
Think about Jacob.
They’re together, right?
