Page 5 of Double Apex

This just got less fun. I may have to spank her for it later.

I drop my gaze with a smile. “That’s racing. Sometimes you hunt opportunity down, sometimes it shows up with an apple in its mouth. When those circumstances arose,Iwas the one in the position to take advantage.” I lean closer. “It’s not the tool, but how well you use it. And I’m an exceptionally skilled craftsman.”

She smirks. “Oh?”

“That, iubi,” I say, tapping the back of her hand, “is a promise.”

Reece touches my elbow, pointing at a short man in chinos. “From theHerald Sun,” she prompts.

I tip my head in the man’s direction, still looking at Natalia. “Everyone wants a piece of me. Ifyou’rehungry for a second slice, I’m at the Park Hyatt. Nine o’clock in the lounge?”

A figure steps into my peripheral vision.

“Nat!” Phaedra leans over the fence, and she and the reporter hug. “What do you think of our leggy libertine here?” she asks Natalia, giving me a backhand slap to the stomach.

“I think he’s going to be disappointed at nine o’clock,” Natalia replies. “And your description was spot-on.”

I might be able to camouflage my annoyance if Phaedra weren’t watching for it like a cat with her green gaze fixed on a mouse’s den.

“Aww, Legs.” Those naturally candy-pink lips tilt, and her little nose with its smattering of freckles wrinkles. “Did you think you were playing withher? Natalia was playing withyou.”

“Clever girls.” I give Natalia a level stare. “Shame—I had quite a story to share with you over a bottle of wine.”

Her eyes narrow in consideration, and she throws a chummy arm around Phaedra. “These boys do hate to lose, Phae. And you and I were going to hang out tonight anyway. Let’sallhave a drink in the lounge. We’re in the same hotel—why not?”

Phaedra looks alarmed. “Hells to the nope. Negative. I thought we were going to bingePeaky Blindersand raid the minibar?”

“Just one drinkie,” Natalia tells her in a tone like it’s settled. “It’ll be fun.”

She saunters off to interview Jakob, and theHerald Sunreporter heads my way.

“It would appear we have a date,” I tell Phaedra. Putting my lips near her ear, I add, “Wear white.”

She recoils, frowning. “Oh, suck it. Even if I gave two shits what you think, I don’t own white clothes—they get filthy. Who the fuck wears white?”

“Good girls who don’t mind getting filthy.”

“Is there anything you can’t turn into a double entendre?”

“You’re pouting because I outsmarted you.”

She snorts. “You have to get up pretty early in the morning to outsmart me.”

“For you,” I tell her, “I’d stay up all night.”

3

MELBOURNE

PHAEDRA

“Here—it’s yours now,” Natalia says, shoving a piece of clothing at me when I open the door of my suite. “It’ll look amazing on you, but my boobs are too big.”

I shut the door and follow her in. “Poor baby. What other problems do you have? You eat pastries all day but can’t seem to gain an ounce? You have orgasms too easily?”

“Haha. Seriously though—try it on. I bought it at L’Habilleur when I was in Paris, and c’est très chic, but I feel self-conscious wearing it.”

“Cry me a river.” I hold it up for inspection. The fabric is heavenly. Soft and clinging, with a deep crisscross front. “I can’t wear this tonight. It’s white.”

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