Rush Too Far (Rosemary Beach #4)(6)

I had startled her. I started to laugh when her gaze traveled down my bare chest and focused on my abs. What the hell? She was checking me out. Maybe she wasn’t that innocent. The idea made my stomach sour.

“Are you enjoying the view?” I asked, masking my disappointment with amusement. She blinked rapidly as if waking from a trance and lifted her gaze back to my face. I hated the idea of her throwing herself at me. I didn’t want her to be like the others. Why the f**k it mattered, I didn’t know, but it did. “Don’t let me interrupt you. I was enjoying it myself,” I told her, unable to keep the annoyance out of my voice. I took a sip of my coffee. Her face turned bright red, and she spun around to face the water again. Why did the simple fact that she’d been caught looking and gotten embarrassed make me so f**king happy? Damn. I couldn’t keep from laughing with relief.

“There you are. I missed you in bed this morning.” I recognized the voice from last night. Shit. I’d wasted time, and she’d found me. Blaire turned back to look at me, and then her eyes went to the girl pressing up against me. This was good. She needed to see what a sorry-ass piece of shit I could be. This was what I wanted. She’d stay away from me if she saw this. But the flash of interest in Blaire’s eyes as the girl ran her fingernails down my chest did things to me I didn’t want to admit.

“It’s time for you to go,” I said, moving her hand off of me and pointing in the general direction of the front door.

“What?” she asked with surprise in her voice, as if I hadn’t told her last night that this wasn’t happening again.

“You got what you came here for, babe. You wanted me between your legs. You got it. Now I’m done,” I reminded her.

“You’re kidding me!” she replied with an angry snarl. Maybe she hadn’t believed me last night. Her mistake.

I shook my head at my own stupidity and took another drink of my coffee. One day, I would learn that these hookups with a sleepover were trouble.

“You are not going to do this to me. Last night was amazing. You know it,” she said in a whiny voice as she reached for my arm, which I pulled out of her grasp. It wasn’t “Beg Rush” time anymore. We did that last night. It was fun. She got off more times than she could count. But for me, it was mediocre.

“I warned you last night, when you came to me begging and taking off your clothes, that all it would only ever be was one night of sex. Nothing more,” I said, annoyed that I even had to remind her.

I didn’t look back at her. I kept my eyes on the water and drank my coffee as if she’d already left. With a dramatic stomp of her feet, she left.

The horrified look on Blaire’s face made me quickly get over the interruption of last night’s mistake. “So how did you sleep last night?” I asked. It had to be cramped in that room, plus the stairs and the noise in the house probably sucked. This was her chance to complain. Show her true colors.

“Do you do that often?” she asked with an annoyed look on her face. That was adorable . . . dammit.

“What? Ask people if they slept well?” I wasn’t going to let that face get to me. She was leaving as soon as I talked to Abe. This was his problem, not mine. The fact that I enjoyed looking at her was even more of a reason to get her the hell out of here.

“Have sex with girls and then throw them out like trash,” she replied. Those big eyes of hers went wide, as if she were shocked at the words that had come out of her own mouth.

I wanted to laugh. She made it hard to stay focused. I set my cup down and stretched out on the lounge chair beside me. The best course of action was to get Blaire to hate me. I’d be doing us both a favor. If she hated me, I could easily keep my distance. “Do you always stick your nose where it doesn’t belong?” I asked.

Instead of the anger I expected to flash in her eyes, I saw remorse. Really? I had been an ass. She wasn’t supposed to look as if she were sorry for calling me out on my shit.

“Not normally, no. I’m sorry,” she said with an apologetic half-smile, and she hurried inside.

What the f**k? Had she just really apologized to me? Where did this girl come from? Women didn’t act like her. Had no one taught her not to back down from bullies?

I stood up and turned to look inside and found her picking up empty bottles and garbage littered all over the place from last night. I hated a mess, but I tried to overlook it when Nan wanted to party.

“You don’t have to do that. Henrietta will be here tomorrow,” I said, hating to see her clean up.

She put the bottles in with the trash she had collected and glanced back at me. “I just thought I’d help out.”

I was calling her father this morning. I needed to get her out of here. Until then, I had to make sure she hated me. “I already have a housekeeper. I’m not looking to hire another one, if that is what you’re thinking.” The harsh tone in my own voice made me want to wince, but I kept the bored look on my face. I had perfected it years ago. I could not look at her right now.

“No. I know that. I was just trying to be helpful. You let me sleep in your house last night.” Her voice was soft and pleading, as if she needed me to believe her. Fuck that.

We needed to set some ground rules before I f**ked up. “About that. We need to talk.”

“OK,” she said in a whisper. Dammit, why did she look so defeated again? I hadn’t kicked her damn puppy.