as did his thighs against his pants, his quads making a subtle appearance with each step forward. His jaw was firmly set, as though he were on a mission, and those turquoise eyes were focused and determined.
“Good Lord, I hope he’s coming to me,” the woman a few chairs down from Babette said, but Babette knew better. He was looking straight at her, and he had that I-won’t-take-no-for-an-answer glare.
She swallowed, and wondered what the question was, because saying no wasn’t anywhere in her current equation. God help her, she hoped he didn’t ask for more than she needed to give. Because right now, turned on and needy and having just realized that he was the last guy she’d had sex with—she wouldn’t say no.
As well as he knew her, he probably could tell all that by merely looking at her. She diverted her attention to the pool, sunlight reflecting off the water, a lady swimming, a beach raft floating near the . . .
“I’ll take that.” Jeff’s voice was gruff, and she simply couldn’t keep looking at the pool. She turned and saw him grab her drink from Chris’s hand.
“I was getting her a . . .” Chris started, attempting to sound rough, but nowhere near the level that Jeff had already accomplished, and Jeff knew it.
“Well, I’m getting it for her now.” Jeff stopped walking and simply stood there, daring Chris to even attempt to take the drink from his hand, or to keep breathing.
Chris shot a look at Babette, probably to gauge her expression. She was dumbfounded and had no earthly idea what to say, since she had no earthly idea what was happening.
“Hey, man, we were just talking. I had no idea you two were a thing,” Chris said defensively, and with that, all at once, he didn’t look hot anymore. He looked young. Good God, she’d never even asked his age. What was he? Thirty? Twenty-eight? Twenty-five?
“We’re not a thing,” Jeff quickly corrected, which was good, since Babette had temporarily lost the ability to form words.
“O-kay,” Chris said, perplexed.
Babette, Chris, and everyone at the pool waited for Jeff to provide some sliver of an explanation. Didn’t happen. He merely stood his ground and waited for Chris to retreat. Chris took another longing look at Babette, shook his head, shrugged a little, then turned and headed toward the beach.
“Get your things.” It wasn’t a request.
Get her things? Babette glared at him. “You’ve already caused a scene. Now stop snapping at me as though I’ve done something wrong here.” Her temper was coming back into play, and she welcomed it. Being mad was better than being turned on, sort of. Or at least when Jeff was standing there looking all rugged and broody and right.
He stepped closer, and his broad shadow covered her completely. “You said you wanted to talk,” he said, his voice still gravelly, but not quite as demanding. “So get your things.”
If he hadn’t added that last mandate, she’d have answered him civilly. But he had, so there. “I did want to talk, but you weren’t home, and I decided to enjoy the pool—and everything it has to offer,” she added, to remind him that the lifeguard he’d shooed away had been here because she’d wanted him here. And she had, until right before Jeff arrived, when she’d started pondering how to get rid of him. Thanks to Jeff, she didn’t have to worry about that anymore.
And that pissed her off. Who was he to force Chris to leave? She should have been able to do that on her own, in her own way, when she was good and ready.
“Babette. I’m ready to talk. Now. You’re getting paid to talk to me, so unless you want me to call Kitty and tell her that—one, you aren’t doing your job, and two, I wouldn’t get back with her if she was the last woman on the planet, then I suggest you get—your—things.”
She got her things. But she huffed and puffed while she was doing it. “And bring my drink. I have a feeling I’m gonna need it,” she hissed, then stamped toward the lobby. “Are we going inside, or what? Because I really don’t understand why we can’t simply talk out here.” She kept walking, never breaking stride as she fussed about having to leave the poolside in the first place.
“You’re burnt,” he said, right before she stepped into the lobby.
She took a couple more steps to get out of the sun so she could see