Barefoot Bay: Hold On To Forever (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read Online Free PDF Page A

fell across her cheek. She muttered something under her breath, then tucked it behind her ear.
    He had no idea why women insisted on putting their hair up. Especially when they had the kind of hair she had—long and wavy—the kind of hair a man liked to wrap his fingers around. He suspected she was clueless on just how attractive he found her. Or maybe she did know. Maybe that’s why she always seemed so skittish around him.
    “Relax. I don’t bite.”
    She stiffened. “ What ?”
    “Let me rephrase that. We need to talk.”
    “We have talked, remember? I’m not the one who walked out in the middle of a conversation.”
    So she was still holding a grudge from their last encounter. But that had been two months ago. She claimed to be a business woman. Surely he wasn’t the first person to say no to her.
    He’d invited her for a drink the night of Mitch’s graduation dinner because he’d wanted to get to know her. He prided himself on being able to read people, and he’d been certain that she’d be amenable to something more than just an after dinner drink. It would be tricky, hitting on his brother’s girlfriend’s sister, but they were both adults. He could be discreet if she was.
    But she hadn’t been interested in him. She’d only been interested in jumping on the Martinez and Martinez gold wagon. Not that he blamed her. But there was a time and place for talking business and an intimate after dinner drink wasn’t it.
    If he was being honest, getting up in the middle of a pitch had been rude, not typical behavior on his part. Despite the fact he wasn’t looking to change ad agencies, if she had been anyone else he would have let her continue her sales pitch. But he’d been so damned disappointed when she’d started talking business. Still, a late apology wouldn’t hurt and could go a long way in getting her cooperation. Luckily, the pool bar was still open.
    “Let me make it up to you.” He signaled the bartender. “I’ll have a Maker’s Mark and a gin and tonic, please.” Jack signed the bill and set the drinks down on a table overlooking the gulf. It was after ten and the resort was winding down. Besides an older couple walking toward the beach and a waiter picking up empty glasses, they were the only ones out here.
    He pulled out a chair, and waited for Felicity to make up her mind.
    After a few seconds, she reluctantly sat down. She still had on the dress she’d worn to dinner, but she’d ditched the heels and was now wearing the same flip-flops from this afternoon. Her bare shoulder brushed up against his chest giving him a whiff of her perfume. Something tropical and fruity smelling. It took him a moment to realize that it wasn’t perfume but rather the resort’s signature smell. There was an entire slew of spa products in his bathroom—shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, all compliments of the house.
    An image of Felicity getting out of the shower, rubbing the tropical smelling lotion into her warm, moist skin made his groin tighten. He was thirty-three years old, for God’s sake. What was it about her that made him feel like some randy teenager? He shifted his mind back to his motivation behind the drink. He couldn’t let this inconvenient attraction get in the way of what he needed from her.
    She picked up the gin and tonic. “How did you know this was my drink?”
    “It’s what you ordered two months ago.”
    “How on earth—”
    “I remember everything from that night.”
    “Because you’re one of those people with a photographic memory?”
    Sure. Let her think that. “Not photographic, but, yeah, I have a good memory. I have to in my line of work.” He took a sip of his Maker’s Mark. “I’m sorry I walked out on your sales pitch, and for what it’s worth, I’m sorry about my grandmother’s behavior tonight. If it’s any consolation, she’s always been…curious.”
    She smiled at his reluctance to call it what it was. He’d meant to use the word nosy and she