Crave (His Second Chance with Heiress Bryn Christmas Duet #1) - Z.L. Arkadie Page 0,42

I’m going to California this weekend. I’m babysitting,” I said.

“You are?” Jamison sounded surprised.

I looked into his whiskey eyes. “Yes. I’m spending time with my nieces and nephew at the Montecito estate.”

Jamison nodded.

“But you’ll be here, right?” Eden asked him.

He shook his head. “I’m going wherever she’s going.”

My eyebrows pulled. “Spencer’s going to be there.”

He nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay.”

Then our lips became magnets, engaging in teasing kisses.

Alex cleared his throat. “I’m trying to eat over here.”

Alana use both hands to wave us on. “No, by all means, continue.”

Jamison and I laughed off our desire to sneak off somewhere quiet and bang. But would that be enough? A wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am? Our sex was like luxuriating in natural springs made of magical water with sprinkles of rainbows, fairy dust, and every beautiful myth humanity had conjured to make us mightier and take us away from reality. Up until that moment, our fast-moving relationship had felt like destiny, but it had also felt volatile.

“Okay, well, what about next weekend?” Eden asked Jamison.

Dale snorted bitterly as he threw his hands up. “Eden, I’m sitting the fuck over here. Can you give it a break already?”

She threw herself forward. “Could you give it a break?”

“Give what a break?” He clearly had no idea what she was talking about.

Eden looked at him, stunned. At least I then understood why she flirted so intensely with other men. It was her way of getting back at Dale for undressing other women with his eyes. I wanted to tell her that he wasn’t aware that he did it. He was in a daze. He had issues that only a good therapist could help him resolve.

Eden turned to me. “So, are we on for the week after next?”

“I don’t ski,” I said.

Eden’s jaw dropped. “No way. An heiress who doesn’t adorn herself in a tight, sexy ski outfit and hit the slopes? Unheard of.”

I laughed and snuggled closer against Jamison’s body. He had his arm around me, and I was finishing my second glass of red wine, feeling woozily in love and, despite Eden and Dale’s last spat, in good company. “I hated those people,” I confessed.

“I can believe that,” Alana said. “Bryn is the most un-heiress heiress I ever met.”

Dale slumped in his seat and snorted. “If you had Randolph Christmas for a father, you’d be an un-heiress heiress too.”

“Hey,” Jamison said in a booming voice. His body tightened—he was ready to stuff Dale in the bathroom toilet.

“Dale, stop being a dick or go home!” Eden yelled.

Dale hardened his jaw and turned away from her. I knew what stage they were in. She was the one in control because he needed her for that production project he’d mentioned earlier. I was certain that if it weren’t for that project, Dale would never have backed down so easily.

Jamison, glaring at him, shifted his position. I rubbed his thigh to calm him down and then faced him. He put his mouth next to my ear. “That guy brings out the worst in me.”

I lifted my mouth to his ear. “He brings out the worst in everybody. He needs help.”

“I love that about you, you know?”

“Love what?”

“He treats you with disrespect, and you have empathy for him.”

“Whispering sweet nothings over there?” Alana said.

“Howdy. How’s everyone doing tonight?” a woman’s voice blared through the PA system.

Jamison and I looked away from Alana, who also turned toward the stage to see a blonde with two pigtails, probably in her early twenties. She was dressed in tight jeans, fur boots, and a checkered blouse tied in the front to show her midriff. Attention was what she wanted, and attention was what she was getting.

She announced that it was time for karaoke, and those who wanted their turn should come up front and sign up. Alana immediately pulled Alex out of his chair, and they made their way to the stage. The girl handling the list let them go first since Alex was so cute, which she mentioned three times before announcing them.

Dale jumped to his feet and narrowed his eyes at Eden. “I’m leaving. Are you coming?”

With their last argument, Eden had handed Dale the victory. He’d managed to change her mood from happy to cruddy. She acceded to his wishes, said goodbye to me and Jamison, and asked that I tell Alana and Alex that she would see them in the morning. Dale didn’t say goodbye to either of us.

Jamison and I were alone at the table at last. I smiled. “We made it.”

“You handled the whole