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“I’m never without my phone.”
“And that’s half your problem, Nathan.” Head tilted to the side in challenge, she smiles with satisfaction as I hand Jenkins my cell. “You have too many clothes on.”
I raise my eyebrows, surprised by her admission. Judging by the way her lips curve up, it’s clear what I’m amused at.
“Shoes and socks off, and roll up your pants,” she clarifies, pointing to my feet.
“What?”
“Just do it, Nathan. We’re going to dip our toes in the ocean.”
“I’m not doing that in the middle of the day.” Who the fuck has time for this bullshit?
“Yes. You. Are.” Before I can argue, she steps toward me then does something most unexpected. She undoes my tie in the same way she did the first night we had sex, only this time she’s not sucking my tongue into her mouth.
Pity.
It’s as if someone’s punched all the air out of my lungs; being this close to her makes me want to kiss her.
“Much better,” she says, removing my tie completely then unbuttoning the top two buttons of my dress shirt.
I gulp, remembering everything we did on that first night, feeling hotter than before under the Californian sun.
She bends and slips her shoes off her feet. “I’m glad I didn’t wear silk stockings today.”
So am I. My mind wanders off, trying to work out what color panties she has on under her pale pink dress today.
White, I hope.
“Thanks, Jenkins.” Arianna takes a bottle of water from him, replacing it with her heels and my tie. “Roll your pants up and grab your water.” She breezes past me and in the blink of an eye she’s walking down over the golden sand toward the shoreline. “Just go with the flow, Nathan,” she shouts, not looking back.
“Sir?” Jenkins breaks my mesmerized ogling at the woman who is sliding into my every thought and my heart more and more as the weeks go by. ’Cause she’s fucking sneaky like that.
“She’s not going to back down on this, is she?” I ask him quietly.
“I would suggest you ‘go with the flow,’ sir.”
This is a conspiracy, I’m sure of it.
Exasperated, I take my shoes then my socks off and roll my pants up, before taking my water from Jenkins and running down the beach to catch up with Arianna.
That’s right, I’m fucking chasing after her, at two o’clock on a Monday afternoon, when what I should be doing is working.
What the hell is she doing to me?
I feel like I’m playing hooky.
“So what do we do now?” I ask, almost out of breath. I shove my bottle of water into my pocket so I can free my hands and roll up the sleeves of my shirt.
“We walk.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes, Nathan, it’s called enjoying the view, taking a breather, having a break.”
I look out over the ocean. “Were you sent from hell to annoy me?”
“Nope, I was sent to you to show you that there is more to life than working.”