Blame It on the Bikini - By Natalie Anderson Page 0,18
night off work. As it was she worked the bar job and a café job in the daytime. But it wasn’t just a silver spoon that Brad had been born with; it was a whole canteen of cutlery. He might work, but it wasn’t because he needed the money. He had no idea what it was like for people on the wrong side of the poverty line. And he was so used to getting his own way she was now ridden with the urge to argue with every one of his suggestions.
She walked back to the bar. She’d gone uber-efficient when she’d seen him sitting there. It was a way of working off the insane amount of energy she seemed to be imbued with. It didn’t help that he was so gorgeous wearing dark jeans, a belt that drew every eye to his lean waist and a red tee so faded it was almost pink—only Brad could put on pink and make it masculine sexy. Pure ladybait.
Eyes locked with his, she reached for the knife to slice more lemons. Her skin sizzled as he openly looked her up and down.
‘You never used to dress so monochrome,’ he commented thoughtfully.
He remembered that? Mya had never worn normal in the past, but she didn’t have the time to make her crazy outfits any more.
‘Needs must,’ she said briefly. If she didn’t have the time to do something properly, she preferred not to do it at all, so all the fun she’d once had in creating something from nothing had been put away. Lauren had never worn the latest in fashion either—another thing that had brought them together back at school. She too turned her back on the consumerism of the day, and together they’d done it with style. Mya knew how to sew. She could turn a rag into something unexpected—deliberately setting out to make a statement with her clothing.
He glanced up and grinned at her. ‘Still touchy?’
‘I didn’t sleep well.’ She sliced quickly.
‘Nor did I. I kept looking at your picture on my phone.’
She paused, eyes glued to the knife. No way could she dare look at his expression this second. ‘I don’t want to know what you were doing with my picture.’
‘I never looked at you that way before.’
Oh, like that was meant to make her feel better?
‘I’m aware of that,’ she snapped. ‘It was not ‘til you saw the bikini.’
‘No, I was otherwise occupied. I’m sorry about that in a way. But to be honest it was a good thing. You weren’t ready for me then.’
‘I’m not now,’ she lied, snapping the knife down on the chopping board, ignoring the way the lemon juice stung her burn.
‘Oh, you hold your own,’ he said. ‘And you know it.’
Her phone vibrated against her leg. She frowned and pulled it out. But it wasn’t a text; it was a reminder from her calendar.
Oh, no.
‘Are you okay? You’ve changed colour.’ Brad raised his voice. ‘Mya?’ He asked more sharply. ‘Bad news?’
She tried to smile but couldn’t force the fear far enough off her face to manage it. How could she have made such a mistake? She had everything on file, had due dates highlighted and underlined, but she’d been too busy dreaming up exotic cocktails and daft names to christen them in the past twenty-four hours to check. In other words, she’d been having too much fun.
She’d been so distracted she’d said yes to the extra shift at the café when they’d called last minute, forgetting to check her diary just in case. She’d figured it was better to keep fully occupied and thus ward off dangerous, idle-moment thoughts. Brad-type thoughts and replays of an unexpected, crazy kiss. She’d been distracted by imaginary conversations with a guy. About a party?
As a result, the assignment due tomorrow for her summer course had slipped her mind. She’d not done it. She’d not even half done it. She hadn’t done nearly the amount of research and reading she should have. She was playing everything close to the wire at the moment, every minute screwed down to either work or study, and last-minute deadlines had become the norm in recent weeks—so long as she had the info she needed. Mya was good enough to wing it. But just winging it wasn’t good enough for her. She wanted to ace it. She wanted her perfect GPA back. She wanted her perfect control back. She didn’t want to be sleepless and thinking saucy thoughts at inappropriate hours of the