The Dare Collection: July 2018. Nicola Marsh

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СКАЧАТЬ always trumps vodka.” She speared a glazed shrimp with her fork and then grabbed a chair. “I’m glad to see that you and vodka are back on speaking terms.”

      “We’re taking it slow.” Becka pulled up a second chair and sank into it. “My shoulders are killing me. I obviously need to add more push-ups to my routine.”

      Allie laughed. “The girls will love that.” Her friend had a reputation for being a brutal fitness instructor—a reputation she’d more than earned—and this would only cement it. One of the biggest draws Transcend offered was high-energy spin classes with combined exercises that worked the entire body. She reached for the pitcher of cucumber water in the middle of the table and froze. “What is that?”

      Becka reacted first and snatched up the little folded note. She read it and frowned. “What the hell is it?” She turned it around, and Allie’s heart skipped a beat.

       Yes.

      The word had been scrawled with a careless masculine hand, and even though it wasn’t signed, she had no doubt who had written it. He accepted my terms. A flush spread over her skin, and even though she tried to fight it, Becka saw.

      Because of course she did. She dropped the note and pointed a finger at Allie. “It’s from Roman. You sly fox, I thought you were calling the whole thing off.”

      Allie pushed her food around the plate with her fork. “I told him if he could keep from badgering me about business—or even talking about it—then we could spend more time together.”

      “That was the tamest euphemism for banging your brains out that I’ve ever heard.” Her friend slouched back into her chair and laughed. “Vacation has done wonders for your stress level. I told you so.”

      “The guy trying to convince me to sell the gym that I worked my entire adult life to get started and keep running followed me to another country to pitch his sale, and you call this trip a success.”

      Becka shrugged, completely unrepentant. “You took care of that by removing business from the equation. Now there’s only the hot monkey sex to worry about, and I think you two have proved that you’re more than capable of keeping your eye on the prize.” She made an obscene gesture.

      Allie spit out the sip of water she’d just taken. “Oh. My. God.”

      “Just calling it like I see it.” Becka winked. “But seriously—if he’s willing to shelve that big black mark against him, are you going for it?”

      There was no reason to think he was telling the truth. He could be trying to pull a bait and switch to get her alone. But that didn’t make sense. He could have found a different way. Roman had more than proved how capable he was in tracking her down. He had no reason to agree if he wasn’t interested in exactly the same thing she was—sex.

      Her body clenched at the thought. Allie set her fork down. “I think so.”

      “Woot!” Becka gave a little wiggle. “That’s my girl. In that case, I’m bringing that delightful bartender, Luke, back here for some of said hot monkey sex.”

      She shot her friend a look. “You wouldn’t, by chance, be throwing me at Roman so you can hook up with Luke?”

      “Oh, please. We both know that I’m more than capable of finding a suitable place to get under that uniform if I have to.” Becka sobered. “But I don’t want to get him into trouble, so the villa is a better option.” She held her straight face for all of two seconds. “What are you waiting for? Go! Get your...” Becka stopped short, her expression turning wicked. “He’s stacked, isn’t he? You can just tell by how he carries himself that the man is packing serious heat.”

      “Becka.” Allie laughed, which broke the tension that had been building from the moment she realized Roman had changed his mind. She sat back in her chair. “You did that on purpose.”

      “You’re stressing, which is the opposite of what you’re supposed to do here.” Becka popped a strawberry into her mouth. “I helped.”

      “Yes, you did.” She looked at the food, but her stomach was tied in too many knots to think about eating right now. Allie pushed back her chair and stood. “I guess I should...change?”

      Becka picked through the food and added more to her plate. “You want my advice?”

      “As if saying no would stop you from giving it to me.” She snagged one of the bright red strawberries and took a bite.

      “Wear that.” Becka waved a fork at her.

      Allie looked down at her muscle tank top and sleep shorts. “This is not sexy.”

      “Lose the bra and whatever you’re wearing under the shorts.” She grinned. “If he doesn’t take you right there on the floor, I’ll give you twenty bucks.”

      * * *

      Allie walked across the warm sand to Roman’s brightly lit villa. Soft music emerged, and though she couldn’t quite place the lyrics, the lilting melody drew her in. She made her way up the porch stairs and stopped just outside the ring of light from the foremost lamp.

      “You’re teasing me.”

      She jumped and then silently cursed herself for jumping. Allie searched the spot where his voice had come from, only making him out of the shadows when he moved closer. “How long were you lurking there, waiting to make your grand entrance?”

      “Would you believe me if I said I went for a swim to burn off some energy and just got back?”

      She started to call his bluff, but he walked into the light and, sure enough, he wore wet swim trunks and his hair dripped tiny rivers down his shoulders and chest. It took more effort than it should have to drag her gaze to his face. “Swimming in the ocean at night is stupid.”

      “I survived.” He held out his hand, as imperious as a king. “Come here.”

      Allie had never been one to make an entrance, but she found herself wanting to prove Becka right. She threw her shoulders back and put a little extra hip into her walk, knowing it would make her breasts sway more than normal.

      Sure enough, as soon as she breached the circle of light, her chest was exactly what held Roman’s attention. His hazel eyes went wide and then hooded. “AC/DC.”

      “I’m a fan.” She looked down and pulled at the hem of her shirt, which drew the fabric forward and revealed a bit more side cleavage. “They’re classic.”

      “How attached are you to that shirt?”

      The question brought her head up. She found him closer than before and stopped. “I’ve had this shirt since I was thirteen.”

      “Mmm.” He circled her, and she didn’t bother to try to keep him in sight. Allie already knew what he’d see. The tiny sleep shorts that her ass filled out, the slits in the side teasing even more skin. The carefully ripped sides of the shirt that showed her breasts and part of her side. She normally wore the shirt for sleeping or working out—with a bra. It was practically indecent without one.

      Which was the point.

      Roman СКАЧАТЬ