‘I’ll drive,’ she said, moving behind the steering wheel, glad when Aiden didn’t argue. But a second later, he took up the seat beside her and all her senses went into overdrive because he was just so damned big, his huge, muscly, hairy legs man spread wider than a freaking goal net (because: BDE, obviously), his knee just an inch or so from her own. He couldn’t sit in the seat without his elbow brushing hers either, even when she was shoved dangerously close to the edge of the golf cart. It wasn’t his fault he was built like a bear, but she wished… she wished… for a lot of things, actually.
She suppressed a sigh as she started the cart up. ‘Ready?’ She made the mistake of turning to face him. Aiden wore reflective sunglasses, but that didn’t matter. Just the set of his jaw told her he was dreading this as much as she was, and the part of her that had dreamed of getting some kind of revenge sparked to life. She flashed him an over-bright smile – definitely not an authentic representation of how she felt, but she imagined it might be a little like rubbing salt in the wound.
‘Sure,’ he said, the lines of his body radiating tension. ‘Let’s go.’
Before she pulled the cart out though, he was reaching for the cooler and cracking the top off a beer, taking a long, slow drink, so his Adam’s apple shifted and his mouth… that mouth…
She looked away again quickly, and accelerated away from Astrid and Blake, the former shouting after them, ‘Good luck! Have fun!’
Sienna was starting to think she just might.
* * *
‘How the hell are we meant to find these damned flags?’ Aiden snapped, after fifteen minutes of driving with no luck.
‘By looking for them?’ Sienna replied sweetly, glancing across at him and enjoying the rigidity of his body. He wasn’t enjoying this. He was actually hating it. He didn’t want to be near her this morning, yet last night, he’d been all about the moonlit walks and sharing of cocktails. What had changed? The fact she’d gone running with Chuck? Astrid was right: the green-eyed monster was most definitely swirling in Aiden, even though it had been an eon since they’d dated. Even though he’d been with other women since. The hypocrisy of that!
Still, she could most definitely enjoy his discomfort.
‘I have been looking,’ he said, reaching into the cooler and removing a sandwich. He uncovered it and took a bite.
‘Well, keep going.’ She shrugged.
‘I hate this kind of shit,’ he muttered, surprising her with his honesty.
‘Weddings?’
‘No,’ he replied quickly. Then, frowning, ‘I meant idiotic party games. We’re not twelve-year-olds playing pin the tail on the donkey.’
‘I don’t think any twelve-year-old still plays pin the tail on the donkey,’ she said serenely. ‘Spin the bottle, maybe.’
‘Jeez, I haven’t thought about that in years,’ he said, sounding a little less grumpy. ‘And seven minutes in heaven.’
‘More your type of game than mine,’ Sienna said, her own voice a little clipped.
‘You always were a good girl.’
She bristled a little at that. ‘Because I didn’t go to the kinds of parties where the whole vibe was to swap herpes and glandular fever?’
He laughed. ‘Pretty much.’
‘I think you used to like that about me.’ She looked across at him in time to catch his jaw tightening again, his body stone-like once more. He took a bite of his sandwich, as if to cover it. Sienna turned her attention back to the gravelled path, part of a network of paths that criss-crossed the whole island.
‘I liked a lot about you.’
Fuck.So that had backfired.
‘Are you still a good girl, Sienna?’
Her hands tightened on the wheel. ‘Well, I still don’t play spin the bottle, if that’s what you mean.’
His grin surprised her, spreading slowly over his face when he turned to look at her. ‘Even with Chuck Daly?’
There was something in his voice though, that belied the simplicity of his dimply face. Her breath caught in her throat at the way he’d brought up Chuck. He was sounding her out, seeing how she felt about the other man. And she was not afraid of pressing her fingers right into that big old jealousy bruise he was clearly carrying.
‘I think he’s a little too impatient for spin the bottle.’
Aiden snorted. ‘You’re probably right.’
