Page 34 of My French Love Affair

A deep, warm, infuriating sound that rumbles through his chest, like he’s just won something.

I cross my arms tighter, seething.

"You know what? Forget it."

"No, no," he says, righting himself, though his grin still lingers. "I am a man of my word. I will make it up to you."

"The time for that wasbeforeyou poured a drink all over me and laughed in my face about it."

"I thought we established that this wasn’t my fault," he says, acting all innocent. "You’re making this sound like I held you down and forced the daiquiri upon you."

"You basically did,” I grumble.

He lifts his drink slightly, like he’s cheers-ing himself.

"Merde, how powerful I must be," he muses. "Stealing taxis, ruining outfits, altering moods… What else can I do?"

Irritated and at a loss for what to do with myself, I snatch another cocktail napkin from the bar and aggressively dab at the sticky mess he caused. It only seems to make it worse as stray bits of tissue stick to my sarong, and with a frustrated huff, I shove the now-stained napkin towards his chest.

"Forget the new bikini," I say as I stab a finger at him. "You can just owe me dry cleaning."

He catches the napkin with ease, flicking his gaze down at it like it’s some amusing little gift.

Then he looks back at me, his blue eyes twinkling with barely concealed amusement.

"And how do I pay?"

Well. I hadn’t thought of that.

"Figure it out, asshole."

Then, before he can say another infuriating word, I spin on my heel and march away.

Behind me, I swear I hear him laugh again.

Chapter Ten

Poppy

Iam done with this night.

I storm back towards our sunbeds, still sticky, still furious, and very much in need of a shower - and possibly an exorcism - to remove the smug prick from my brain.

Emma looks up as I approach, eyes narrowing immediately.

“Oh no. What happened?”

Jas, who has been half-dozing, squints up at me and then frowns.

"Why do you look like you’ve been dipped in a strawberry smoothie?"

I throw my arms in the air, exasperated.

"Because some absolute menace of a man spilled an entire daiquiri down me -on purpose,I swear - and then had the audacity to laugh about it."

Emma sits up so fast she nearly spills her drink.

"What?!Who? Where is he?!"

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