Free Next Song I Sing (NEXT TIME AROUND) by Donna McDonald Page B

still couldn’t stop herself, confirming that her attraction to him hadn’t been as mai tai induced as she’d thought.
    “Let’s just say I’m highly motivated to impress you with my masculinity,” Jasper said stiffly, stepping close to lift and tuck the towel around her shoulders again. He couldn’t seem to stop himself or keep his hands off. “In case you’re wondering, the answer is yes, I am trying to cover you up. I couldn’t eat lunch without worrying about all those men passing you business cards.”
    “Why, Mr. Wade—are you saying you were jealous of the attention I’ve been getting?” Chloe asked, deliberately letting the towel drop again, this time wrapping it around her hips like a sarong. It left her cold, wet, barely covered breasts as the sole focus of his attention. Chloe met his gaze levelly in challenge and marveled at how appealing she found his discomfort.
    “Yes,” Jasper said, his gaze drawn down to where the holes revealed the smooth skin of her breasts. He was judging some of them to be wide enough to fit two or three fingers. He could do a lot of exploring with three fingers—hell, two.
    “Owning a hotel, I thought I had seen everything there was in the way of swimwear. Sometimes it more closely resembles dental floss, and it’s virtually impossible not stare out of morbid curiosity at the person who wears such a thing. Rarely has even the most outrageous swimwear distracted me, regardless of the woman wearing it. Today has changed all that because I now have the urge to drag you off and start exploring your holes,” Jasper told her, his tone betraying him and revealing the irritation he’d been holding inside. “And I’ve thought of lots of ways of doing just that.”
    Chloe choked on a laugh. It was the irritation in his tone that pleased her most. She swallowed the rest of her laughter and tried to match his haughtiness.
    “Well that’s a quite a tactical line to take in flirting, Mr. Wade, and one I certainly haven’t heard today. The other men were less open in sharing their amorous plans for me. I think it’s pretty brazen of you to suggest such an exploration since we just met yesterday.”
    Jasper stopped and turned her by the shoulders to face him. “Let me buy you a couple mai tais, Chloe. I think you’ll see the reasonableness of my suggestion after you’ve consumed them.”
    Chloe laughed loudly as he dropped his hand and they headed to the bar. “You think a couple mai tais will make me easy where you’re concerned?”
    “Not really,” Jasper said on sigh, pulling out a chair for her in a shaded area near the bar. “I knew it was lame. I’ve just been hanging around my younger brother too long. Let me get our drinks.”
    ***
     
    Rayonna saw Max finishing his lunch and walked quickly to the table. She knew he had a habit of jumping up and running the moment he was done. “Hello, Maximillan. How are things?”
    “Just fine, Rayonna. If you’re looking for Jasper, he’s busy,” Max said, lifting his sandwich for the last bite. “I’d invite you to join me, but I’m done.”
    Rayonna waved his unpleasantness away and dropped into the chair across from him. “I know you don’t like me, Max. Why bother pretending otherwise? But I care about Jasper. I wanted to come ask you about the woman he’s seeing.”
    “Did Jasper tell you there was a woman?” Max asked, his opinion of his brother shooting up a notch for being ballsy enough to tell Rayonna about Chloe.
    “Of course not,” Rayonna denied. “Jasper would never admit such a thing to me, no matter how truthful. I could tell it when he wouldn’t sleep with me. Now I need to see what my competition is like.”
    “To what end?” Max asked, happy to hear Jasper hadn’t slept with her, not happy to hear Rayonna was interested in seeing Chloe for herself. “You have a long list of lovers, which would have included me if I hadn’t said no— hell no . That’s why I have zero sympathy for