Page 15 of Settling the Score (The Karma Club #4)

‘I guess this is us.’ She gestured to a golf cart with a gold ribbon.

On closer inspection, she saw that a couple of piccolos of champagne, as well as some beer, had been stashed in the front glove box, as well as an ice box with sandwiches.

Astrid’s handwriting was on a sticky note that read, ‘In case you get lost!’

Gawd, please let them not get lost.

‘I’ll drive,’ she said, moving behind the steering wheel, glad when Aiden didn’t argue.

But a second later, he took up the seat beside her and all her senses went into overdrive because he was just so damned big, his huge, muscly, hairy legs man spread wider than a freaking goal net (because: BDE, obviously), his knee just an inch or so from her own.

He couldn’t sit in the seat without his elbow brushing hers either, even when she was shoved dangerously close to the edge of the golf cart.

It wasn’t his fault he was built like a bear, but she wished…

she wished… for a lot of things, actually.

She suppressed a sigh as she started the cart up.

‘Ready?’ She made the mistake of turning to face him.

Aiden wore reflective sunglasses, but that didn’t matter.

Just the set of his jaw told her he was dreading this as much as she was, and the part of her that had dreamed of getting some kind of revenge sparked to life.

She flashed him an over-bright smile – definitely not an authentic representation of how she felt, but she imagined it might be a little like rubbing salt in the wound.

‘Sure,’ he said, the lines of his body radiating tension. ‘Let’s go.’

Before she pulled the cart out though, he was reaching for the cooler and cracking the top off a beer, taking a long, slow drink, so his Adam’s apple shifted and his mouth… that mouth…

She looked away again quickly, and accelerated away from Astrid and Blake, the former shouting after them, ‘Good luck! Have fun!’

Sienna was starting to think she just might.

* * *

‘How the hell are we meant to find these damned flags?’ Aiden snapped, after fifteen minutes of driving with no luck.

‘By looking for them?’ Sienna replied sweetly, glancing across at him and enjoying the rigidity of his body.

He wasn’t enjoying this. He was actually hating it.

He didn’t want to be near her this morning, yet last night, he’d been all about the moonlit walks and sharing of cocktails.

What had changed? The fact she’d gone running with Chuck?

Astrid was right: the green-eyed monster was most definitely swirling in Aiden, even though it had been an eon since they’d dated.

Even though he’d been with other women since. The hypocrisy of that!

Still, she could most definitely enjoy his discomfort.

‘I have been looking,’ he said, reaching into the cooler and removing a sandwich. He uncovered it and took a bite.

‘Well, keep going.’ She shrugged.

‘I hate this kind of shit,’ he muttered, surprising her with his honesty.

‘Weddings?’

‘No,’ he replied quickly. Then, frowning, ‘I meant idiotic party games. We’re not twelve-year-olds playing pin the tail on the donkey.’

‘I don’t think any twelve-year-old still plays pin the tail on the donkey,’ she said serenely. ‘Spin the bottle, maybe.’

‘Jeez, I haven’t thought about that in years,’ he said, sounding a little less grumpy. ‘And seven minutes in heaven.’

‘More your type of game than mine,’ Sienna said, her own voice a little clipped.

‘You always were a good girl.’

She bristled a little at that. ‘Because I didn’t go to the kinds of parties where the whole vibe was to swap herpes and glandular fever?’

He laughed. ‘Pretty much.’

‘I think you used to like that about me.’ She looked across at him in time to catch his jaw tightening again, his body stone-like once more.

He took a bite of his sandwich, as if to cover it.

Sienna turned her attention back to the gravelled path, part of a network of paths that criss-crossed the whole island.

‘I liked a lot about you.’

Fuck. So that had backfired.

‘Are you still a good girl, Sienna?’

Her hands tightened on the wheel. ‘Well, I still don’t play spin the bottle, if that’s what you mean.’

His grin surprised her, spreading slowly over his face when he turned to look at her. ‘Even with Chuck Daly?’

There was something in his voice though, that belied the simplicity of his dimply face.

Her breath caught in her throat at the way he’d brought up Chuck.

He was sounding her out, seeing how she felt about the other man.

And she was not afraid of pressing her fingers right into that big old jealousy bruise he was clearly carrying.

‘I think he’s a little too impatient for spin the bottle.’

Aiden snorted. ‘You’re probably right.’

‘You don’t like him?’

‘He’s been a good friend to Blake,’ Aiden contradicted.

‘But you and Blake are separate people,’ she drawled, as if speaking to someone who didn’t easily comprehend. ‘At least, last time I checked.’

Aiden’s nostrils flared. ‘My point is, it’s not my place to like or dislike him. He’s been good for Blake.’

Sienna bit the inside of her cheek, considering that. Aiden had always put a premium on what was best for Blake. Only a few minutes separated them in age, yet Aiden had naturally slotted into a sort of protective, older brother role.

‘Yeah, but?—’

‘Stop driving.’ Aiden put a hand on her knee to grab her attention, and she was so shocked by the contact – which felt much more intimate than it should have – that she slammed on the brakes, which meant they jerked in their seats.

‘What?’ she demanded, turning to face him, breath burning in her lungs, eyes huge in the reflection of his glasses.

‘Look.’ He leaned forward, removing his hand from her knee so he could point at a tree.

‘I don’t see…’ she said, scanning the direction he was pointing in.

‘Look.’ He reached across and touched her jaw now, tilting her face slightly. ‘There.’ He pointed now and his arm brushed her whole side. She shivered, despite the balmy heat of the day.

‘I don’t… Oh!’ Her gaze landed on a green flag. ‘A flag, finally! It’s not one of ours, but at least we know what we’re looking for now.’

‘Sienna Mastrangelo, you really are a good girl, aren’t you?’ he said, in a tsk-tsk-tsk tone.

She stiffened. ‘What’s your point?’

‘There’s more than one way to win the game.

’ And with that, he was stepping out of the vehicle, all big, broad strength as he strode easily off the path and into the wooded undergrowth, reaching up and removing a flag that must have been placed by Blake, given how high and well lodged it was in the limbs of the tree.

‘What are you doing?’ she asked, when he returned to the cart holding the flag as if he’d secured some kind of victory.

‘Making sure no one else can win.’ He grinned at her. ‘It’s a solid plan.’

‘Aiden, you play dirty,’ she marvelled, wondering why she was surprised. He’d promised he loved her – the first person ever to make her feel secure and safe in the world, since her mom had died. He’d promised he’d stay with her. He’d promised they’d be together forever.

And then he’d left.

Just like that.

Because it had served him. Because it had been right for Aiden, and that was the person Aiden cared most about.

Yeah, of course he played dirty. When it came to winning, Aiden would always do whatever it took. Sienna was just glad she’d learned that lesson – she’d never be collateral damage again: not his, not anyone’s.

‘The point is to win, right? Well, we’re going to win, no matter what. Deal?’

She felt as though she were getting into bed with the devil, by double-crossing her friends. But she nodded anyway, because Aiden was smiling, and she realised that her revenge would be all the sweeter if she lulled him into a false sense of security.

‘Sure, deal,’ she agreed, reaching for the beer he’d been drinking, taking it from the cup holder. ‘May I?’

His smile slipped. His back straightened.

He stood just beside the cart, clutching the flag until his nails turned white, staring at her, so Sienna figured she might as well make it count.

She made a show of wiping one fingertip (perfectly manicured courtesy of the Cinderella treatment the girls had subjected her to) over the condensation on the side of the bottle, before lifting it to softly parted lips and placing the head there.

She took her time, tilting the bottle slightly, and angling her head back, letting a sip of liquid land in her mouth, before swallowing exaggeratedly, removing the bottle and gently dabbing at the corner of her lips.

Aiden just stared at her.

Sienna’s heart soared.

‘You… drink beer?’ he asked, his voice a different pitch to usual. It was an inane question, and Sienna almost laughed.

‘Sometimes. It’s hot.’

‘I just…’ His voice trailed off as she lifted the bottle to her lips once more, took another slow, refreshing sip then held the bottle towards him. ‘Did you want some? I presume you don’t mind sharing,’ she purred.

Aiden was frozen to the spot for a couple of seconds before he reached out and took the bottle, but this time, whether by choice or chance, his hand caught hers around the glass, holding it there a moment, and his other hand – with the flag – lifted to his glasses and unhooked them, so his eyes could finally meet hers.

Her temperature spiked. They were so blue, like glaciers. Her whole body reacted to the intimacy of that look, accompanied as it was by the big bear paw being wrapped around her hand.

‘Thanks.’ The word seemed to reach right inside of her and twist her stomach in a vice.

He repositioned his hand, moving it to the neck of the bottle, then lifted the drink and had some.

Sienna dragged her attention to the tropical wilderness in front of them, staring at it, at the trunks of trees, rather than the way Aiden’s throat moved as he swallowed, the way his mouth covered the top of the bottle she’d just been drinking from.