Page 26 of Love to Hate You

He laughed loudly in her ear. “You dislike me so much that you’d rather lose a race, which is clearly important to you, than be honest with me?”

“Yes.”

“Well, according to the Russo family rules, the losing team has to prepare dinner, which means you’ll be stuck in a confined space with me while I show off my cooking prowess.” He leaned in and whispered, “You’d be amazed what I can do with a good breast.”

She spun a little in his arms and her nipples went hard at the thought of his masculine hands on her breasts. As if they’d launched a homing beacon, his eyes dropped and he grinned. “I see.”

She splashed water in his face. “Funny. There’s nothing to see.”

“If you say so.” The way he said it, with the O rolling off his tongue in that British accent, drove her so crazy it was almost like foreplay. At least, that’s how her body reacted. All the blood rushed to her face and her heart thrashed wildly at the idea of flirting with the grumpiest man on earth.

“Fine, Crumpet Man, what do you want to hear?” She turned her head to look at him over her shoulder, and when she met his gaze her tummy gave a little flip. “That this is the one week I get my sister all to myself. No distractions. No boys or social media to contend with. The one week when I don’t have to pull all the weight of running a small business. The one week a year where I can just be me.”

He studied her for a long moment until she felt raw and exposed. She wanted to break eye contact but then he’d win. And she wasn’t about to give Weston Kingston another win.

“But are you beingyou?” he asked. “Because the woman I know would never let me get away with what Autumn gets away with.”

“She didn’t mean to hurt my feelings. She just doesn’t like conflict.”

“So what? She just expects you to go with it?”

“My family drives me crazy. Someone has to bend, or things can get heated.”

“And you have to be the one to bend? Because I haven’t seen anyone even sway, let alone offer a compromise. It’s just you.”

“It’s just been a weird day, that’s all,” she said defensively. “It isn’t normally like this. Autumn is, um—she has a big heart and means well, she can just be a little self-centric at times. And my parents just want this week to go well because Autumn has never brought a boy to family vacation.”

“Have you? Ever brought aboy?”

“No,” she said, as if the idea of it were the most ridiculous thing in the world.

“I didn’t think so.”

“What the hell does that mean?” she snapped. “Are you saying I’m incapable of getting a boy who’d care about me enough to join me on a family vacation? You are such a dick.”

Summer had lifted her paddle to smack him when, at the precise moment she turned in her seat, a small current hit their kayak from the side. One minute she was batting at Wes’s head and the next she was plunged into the freezing Atlantic water.

Her skin beaded on contact and water shot up her nose. She felt disoriented, not sure which way was up, and panic coursed through her. Then she felt someone grab her arm and tug.

She gasped the second she broke the surface and was sputtering like a fish fountain. A warm hand slid around her waist, fingers splaying around her entire midsection. Her shirt must have ridden up because they were skin to skin and their legs brushed each other as they kicked to stay afloat. It was as if someone had built a bonfire in her stomach, and it was roaring to life at the simple contact.

“Are you okay?” Wes asked, and he did not sound breathless in the slightest. He sounded worried—for her.

She wiped the hair out of her eyes and the moisture from her glasses and took several deep breaths. When the water cleared she saw the prettiest, most intense blue eyes looking at her. Lashes speckled with drops, lips wet from the ocean. His shirt was plastered to his chest, showing off just how muscular he was—something that his usual button-ups and suit vests camouflaged.

He had a swimmer’s body, with big shoulders and tight pecs. He was also wearing a smile that was pure cockiness.

“Love?” he asked with an I-caught-ya-oglingtone.

“I’m fine. I’ve been the Russo family’s swimming champion eleven years running, I’ll have you know. So I don’t need your help.” She didn’t move though, she noticed. She stayed right up against his body.For heat of course. Nothing more.

He bit back a grin. “Then why are you holding onto me for dear life?”

She looked down and realized she was clinging to him like he was catnip. She shoved him away and grabbed onto the capsized boat. It was hard to remain coherent when she was so close to him.

“You put me in a state and that’s why we flipped,” she said.

His arm rested over the side of the kayak, his big bulging bicep on display. “How serious is this state?”

---