Page 41 of Enemies to Lovers

The right side of his full lips curls enough to let me know that he absolutely is. I mirror the gesture, and grab my bag from where it’s hanging inside the kitchen door. I hold the sun cream in my hand, my invitation for him to climb out of the pool.

He puts a foot up to the edge – an easy feat for him, from the shallow end – and lunges upwards. His walk is lazy, like a Southern drawl. He’s in no rush. Like a panther in the forest keeping a steady eye on its prey, he gestures to the sun-lounger where his towel is, and I go towards him.

‘Such a gentleman.’ I don’t know why I say it, but I do. When Adonis was here, I was struck by how smiley he was when he spoke to me, his features expressive and open. He didn’t have any fear around owning his interest. It’s different with Jamie. There’s too much at stake, too much to lose. Every sentence is like a move on the chessboard, careful and loaded and unclear. I’m playing with fire.

Jamie responds by wiping a finger at the side of his mouth, a bit like you would when an especially tasty-looking pasta is put down in front of you. He takes the bottle and uses a hand on my shoulder to spin me round.

I hear him open the lotion and squirt some into his hand.

‘Good run this morning?’ he asks, as his hands find my back. I am transported back to Christmas, the first time his hand lingered on my lower hip as he squeezed past me in the kitchen. There’d been plenty of room, no squeeze necessary. But that’s where it had all started.

‘Nice,’ I reply, as he reaches the back of my bikini. ‘Just 10 k, down around town and up through the hills to get back.’

‘Do you want me to go under the strap?’ he murmurs, the movement of his fingers slowing down. ‘Or …?’

My voice sticks in my throat. I have to will myself to speak. I’d much rather close my eyes and let his hands do whatever they damned well please. I think of that first night playing volleyball, and of my disappearing bikini top. I tell him, ‘It’s nothing you haven’t seen before.’

He lets out a gruff chuckle. ‘True,’ he replies. ‘But a gentleman never pervs and tells.’

‘I’d never pegged you for one of those,’ I shoot back, reaching behind to pull on the string of my top so that it comes undone. I put an arm over my chest in case anybody comes out, but then that is half the thrill.

‘If you never had me pegged as a gentleman,’ Jamie says, and he works his way perilously close to my left boob, ‘that’s your problem.’

I don’t know what to say to that.

‘And yet here we are,’ he continues, voice low. Hekeeps his hands on me, running down the length of my torso so that his fingertips all but graze my nipple and I gasp. I am most definitely protected from the sun with the thorough job he has done. He’s showing off, now.

Jamie gently takes the string of my bikini from in front of me, leaning in so that I feel his breath on my skin. I move my neck, a silent invitation. But he doesn’t take it. The agony of this is painful, and delicious. I’m buzzing at a cellular level. I’m thinking a million things and nothing, all at once. I close my eyes and take a breath.

When I turn round, I get to see those grey eyes and blank expression.

‘We’re doing a good job of being nice to each other today, aren’t we?’ I ask quietly.

‘It’s almost like we’ve declared a ceasefire.’

‘Almost,’ I retort.

He breaks into a huge grin, like he can’t hold it back. It makes me smile, too, and we stand, in a kind of smile-off, something shifting between us yet again.

‘Morning,’ Laurie yells from across the pool. It breaks our spell. Goddamn this family! Always interrupting things.

‘Morning,’ Jamie shouts back.

‘Morning,’ I say, quickly doing my top back up.

When I’m done, I hold out a hand.

‘Friends?’ I ask. ‘Officially?’

Jamie takes my hand and gives it a firm shake.

‘Friends,’ he says, holding on to me for a second longer than a friend should.

‘Pretty lady!’

The voice comes from around the side of the house, and it comes from Adonis. I’m in the middle of trying to list all the states in America quicker than Laurie can. Why? I have no idea. Somehow it came up, and then somehow it became a competition.

‘Adonis!’ Mum says, opening her arms to issue two air-kisses. ‘I’m so glad you could come. It’s Flo’s hip, you see …’

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