Page 69 of Casita Casanova
“No shit? I couldn’t tell by the loud sigh of contentment.”
My cheeks heat and I roll my lips together to keep from grinning. “Does my butt look good?”
“Girl, you know you don’t even have to ask that, but…” She pauses to look over her shoulder at my backside. “Yes. Like a peach,” she says in a terrible Nicholas Cage impression.
Okay, my butt looks good. That’s a start. What about my hair? Shoot. It’s too late to check. Playing it cool, that’s me. Friendly but not friends, right? I’m cool as a cucumber—even though my temperature has just spiked ten degrees.
And not from the Southern California sun. There’s something much hotter on the beach today.
Much. Hotter.
“Ladies,” Cas says as he approaches.
I lift my head and look up at him, my mouth watering at the sight of that body in those European swim trunks. If Eddie had purchased those short things, I would have given him grief, but Cas? It’s like they were made for that body.
Bespoke swimwear… is that a thing?
“You must be Cas.” Danielle stands, always the brazen one, extending her hand toward him.
“And you must be Danielle.”
She makes a sound of approval in her throat. “She talks about me?”
“She sure does. And we already know she talks about me.”
I groan into my towel. He’s laying it on thick with that tone. If I look up at him, I have no doubt I’ll see that leg-weakening smile plastered onto his pretty face. “Turn it off, Cas.”
He chuckles and the sound reaches clear down into my belly.
“I will if you scoot over, Maryn.”
I raise my head and try to look up at him, but he’s standing so close to me that all I see when I look up is—
Uphis shorts.
Help me.
My belly tightens and I look away quickly.
No doubt he stood that way for a reason. Cas is as calculating as he is gorgeous, and he combines the two in order to be a force to be reckoned with.
“Actually, I’m about to get going,” Danielle says, drawing my attention to my best friend. “Stay with MaRo. Use my towel.”
“Marrow?” Cas asks.
“Maryn Rose,” I explain, my voice muffled by my little arm cave.
“Thank you, Danielle. I’ll take you up on that towel.” He pauses, then there’s a shuffle as he settles onto the towel beside mine. “I’ll stay with MaRo.”
“Great,” she says quickly, a little breathless. Even my badass best friend isn’t immune to this man and those pretty green eyes.
“Cas,” I grumble, tucking my face back into my folded arms. “Knock it off.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You want some wine, Cas? Maybe something to eat?”
She’s offering him our beach day snacks now, too? The nerve of this woman. Wasn’t she supposed to be helping me get past this attraction to my tenant? Wasn’t she on board with that plan just a little while ago, or at least pretending to be? Begrudgingly?
