Page 69 of Ace My Heart

I slipped out of the robe, tossing it at Joel, and did my best to strut out onto the court in the enormous heels they’d dressed me in. The lingerie wasverypale pink andverysee through. I was glad I’d taken Joel’s cheeky but no doubt well-meaning advice and had a Brazilian a few days before – nothing worse than pubes peeping through lace underpants.

A tennis racquet is the most unwieldy prop for a sexy photo shoot. I handled it awkwardly as I followed the instructions the photographer called out, but he insisted I was doing just great.

I threw a glance in Joel’s direction. He was leaning forward in the chair, his elbows resting on his knees, his mouth slightly open, eyes roving my skin … hungrily.

“Wipe the drool away, Joel!” I called out with a syrupy smile. He leaned back, folding his arms across his chest and sending a sly grin my way as I changed positions for another pose, suddenly feeling much less awkward, and so much sexier, as I watched him watching me.

“Okay, we’re done!” the photographer said, satisfied. I held my hand out to Joel for the robe. He pulled it back out of my reach.

“Just let me admire the view for a little longer,” he murmured, eyes grazing my breasts, barely contained in the demi-cup bra. I snatched it from him, wrapping myself up self-consciously.

“You know,” Joel began as he followed me into the house, “I can enjoy the view just as much in the robe as out of it.”

I whirled around then, brow furrowed. “What the hell are you talking about?”

He approached me, stopping about a foot away. “The way this gapes … just here,” he murmured, reaching out to touch the robe just below my collarbone, “it taunts me with the tiniest hint of what’s beneath.”

He traced the fabric down to where it rested against the curve ofmy breast. I watched his fingers leave a trail of goosebumps on my skin.

“You’re panting, Stinky.”

I gasped in a mouthful of air and stepped backwards into the bathroom, flinging the door shut in his face. I stripped out of the robe, glancing at my suddenly flushed chest, at the way my nipples were jutting obscenely through the lace bra.

Nope – we’re not going there again,I told myself.

“Oh, come on, Mel. I’m a red-blooded male, and those panties …”

I opened the door and stuck my head out. “Can youpleasenot use that word!”

“What word?” he asked, holding the door so I couldn’t slam it in his face again.

“Panties!” I choked out. “Damn I hate that word!”

He let go of the door, and I shut it again as he guffawed. His laughter retreated as he showed the photographer out.

I finished pulling my clothes back on and stepped out of the bathroom, colliding directly with Joel’s chest. He pushed me back inside, against the wall, pressing a finger to my lips to signal that I should be quiet.

I wrenched his hand away.

“What’s going on?” I hissed.

He watched me, his eyes dark, worried. “Mel, just stay down here and bequiet, for God’s sake.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Ben.”

I gulped, making a gesture as if I was zipping my lips shut. Joel smiled gratefully and slipped back out of the bathroom. I crept to the door and cocked my ear up the stairs. What the hell was Ben doing back in Australia so soon?

Joel opened the front door.

“Ben, what a surprise!” Joel said, his sincerity so believable. Clearly he was a great liar.

“Where is she?” Ben demanded, his voice unrecognisable … sinister.

“She’s not here,” Joel replied.

“Joel, don’t be stupid, you can’t hide her from me forever!”

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