Anyone But Nick (Anyone But... #3) - Penelope Bloom Page 0,45

keep my eyes forward and do what needed to be done.

The unfortunate twist to this whole resort situation was that what needed to be done was people watch. It meant I could convince myself I was working while I was probably just hoping to find Miranda somewhere on the resort grounds.

I didn’t have a fully formed plan for what I’d do when I did find her. I’m sure some of it was just wanting assurance that she wasn’t in her room having wild sex with Max Frost at this very moment. I clenched my teeth at the thought. Another part of my need to find her was to apologize, though.

While I stood by my right to expect professionalism from my vice president, I knew I’d been a total ass earlier. I should’ve let her explain instead of shoving assumptions down her throat. But it was hard to be reasonable and calm when it felt like my blood was boiling.

I had taken lunch by the pool. I hadn’t been able to relax because I’d kept expecting Cade to literally jump out of a bush the whole time. When not thinking about Cade, my mind had gone to the idea of her fingers digging into Max’s stupid back. The idea of her sleeping with other men hadn’t occurred to me when I’d thought up this grand scheme of mine, and I was worried it was going to break what little was left of my resolve.

I had also been constantly licked, sniffed, and prodded by dogs. Apparently, everybody had decided their dogs would like to swim as well, which the resort staff hadn’t seemed pleased by. By the time I had headed back to my room from lunch, I had been soaked from the waist down from canine attention—and numb from the shoulders up after several conversations with women who hadn’t bothered to hide their intentions.

It was just past seven when I gave up for the night and went back to my room, feeling oddly defeated. I wasn’t used to letting go of control, but that was exactly what I’d done with Miranda. The right thing to do was to keep my nose out of her business, so that was exactly what I was going to do, even if it killed me.

I heard muted laughter about half an hour later. I half tossed my laptop on the bed and moved to the door, pressing my ear against the wood. I stepped out onto the porch of my cabin and looked toward Miranda’s. She was heading out in a little black number and looked dressed to kill.

Jealousy spiked through me. Who was she trying so hard to impress, and why did I want to strangle them so badly?

“Hey,” I called out. Our cabins were separated by only a dozen feet of space, and I barely had to raise my voice to catch her attention.

“Oh,” she said. “Hey.”

“Got plans?” I asked.

She busied herself looking for something in her purse but apparently had no plans to answer me.

“If you are trying to look for a chocolate bar in there, no thanks. I’ve seen where you stash them for your friends. I can only imagine where one for me would come from.”

She gave me an odd look. “What?”

I blew out a breath and rubbed the back of my neck. What the hell? I never had trouble talking to women, but now I was trying so hard to walk some blurry line between professional and personal that I was failing at both. “I was trying to make a joke. Since you had stuffed the candy wrapper ‘for your friend’ in your bra the other day. At the office,” I added awkwardly. I was suddenly wishing I’d been smart enough to stay in my goddamn cabin. I was doing about as well here as a hormonal teenager who was trying to hide a boner behind his calculus book—not that I’d ever had any personal experience with that technique.

“I was looking for my phone, actually,” she said. There was a cold flatness to her voice that made my stomach feel empty.

For the millionth time, I reminded myself that I was only getting what I wanted. I had been the one to decide I was going to push her away, and, go figure, she was thoroughly pushed. “You enjoying yourself so far?”

“Ready?” asked a deep voice from inside her cabin.

Miranda turned, nodded quickly, and gave me a tight-lipped smile. “Gotta go,” she said.

Max Frost stepped outside wearing a button-down shirt and