Aiden stared down at her, lips parted, eyes narrowed, cheeks slightly flushed, and where their bodies were still connected, she felt his arousal against her belly – rock-hard proof of his desire for her.
Which was precisely what she wanted, she thought, but without the sense of triumph she would have hoped to experience in such a moment. After all, kissing him and pulling away was step one, wasn’t it?
Unfortunately, though, it was a hollow victory. For while Sienna was doing her level best to act as though she’d been completely unfazed by the kiss, she could admit, only to herself, that this was absolutely not the case. The kiss had fazed her. A lot. A lot, a lot, a lot. She was ridiculously, three-phase power fazed. Super fazed. Fazed to the power of a millionty suns.
It had left her weak at the knees and tingling in her veins and eyes flooded with stars and heart – the heart she intended to keep utterly under lock and key – thundering around in her chest so she could hardly hear anything above the frantic, desperate thwomping sound.
But too much was at stake for her to let him seeanyof that. This guy had shredded her self-confidence, her view of men, the world, had walked out on her like she was worthless, like their relationship was worthless. He’d left her pregnant, alone, heartbroken and bereft, all the while going on to live his absolute best life. Screw him. Not literally, she promised herself. Definitely not literally.
‘Well,’ she drawled, amazed that her voice only wobbled slightly. ‘I guess we’ve still got chemistry.’ She shrugged, like it was neither here nor there for her. ‘Who would have thought it, after all these years?’
He frowned, her tone obviously not what he expected. ‘Sienna…’
What was he going to say, though? He just stared down at her, face serious, like he’d never seen her before.
In a way that turned her blood to lava and her stomach to mush.
She took a step back, pulling away from him, desperate for some distance, and brain space.
‘We should keep looking for those flags,’ she said, forcing herself to smile carelessly. ‘Or give up and head back to the house. Your call.’
She didn’t wait to hear what he decided. Instead, Sienna Mastrangelo turned on her heel and cut through the water, into the shallows, onto the shore, and as far away as she could get from Aiden without letting him realise that she’d found that whole kissing experience as discombobulating as anything.
* * *
‘I was about to send out a bloody search party for you lot,’ Astrid called, as their cart wheeled back onto the lawn nearest the house. ‘Where have you guys been?’ She jogged towards them, scanning their still-wet bodies and the assortment of flags that sat on the floor between them. And laughed. ‘You did realise your quest was forgoldflags? And that they were all on land?’
Sienna forced another smile, just like she’d been doing all afternoon, since that damned kiss. Anything Aiden said, she’d smiled serenely, doing her level best to act like she was someone who went around getting kissed every day of the week. NBD. Even when it was a very, very BD. She couldn’t let it be.
‘We did a little thwarting when we didn’t see gold flags.’
‘Yeah, someone else did a little thwarting of you,’ she said, with an eye roll.
‘Who?’ Sienna demanded indignantly, as Paige emerged clutching a bunch of flags – a mix of purple, gold and red.
‘Paige!’ Sienna spluttered.
Astrid grinned. ‘It’s always the ones who look like butter wouldn’t melt.’
Aiden swung out of the golf cart, eyes shifting to Sienna’s for a beat too long before moving to Astrid. ‘Who won?’
‘No one, you all bloody cheated,’ Astrid said with mock impatience. ‘Everyone came back with flags they weren’t supposed to collect. First ones back were Chuck and Bella though.’
‘That doesn’t count as a win,’ Sienna said, at the same time Aiden answered, ‘So, no one won?’
Astrid glanced heavenward. ‘You’re both as competitive as each other.’ She turned to give Aiden the full force of her attention. ‘Blake’s looking for you. Something about a suit try on.’
But Aiden didn’t move. Not right away. He stayed standing there, looking at Astrid, as if trying to think of how to reply, then at Sienna, as if searching for something to say.
Eventually, he nodded once and muttered, ‘So, I guess I’ll see you later?’
Sienna wasexhausted.Spending the better part of the day with Aiden had taken a freaking toll, but she wasn’t going to show him that. She smiled, nodded, waved, and even managed to chirrup, ‘I had fun!’ And then, backpedalling abruptly when she thought about how that probably sounded, ‘Hunting flags together, I mean.’
‘We should do it again some time,’ he replied, and now Sienna had no idea if he was talking about the flags or the kiss, but either way, her cheeks flushed.
‘No more hidden flags with you cheaters,’ Astrid interjected. ‘Next time we plan a party game, I’m gonna draft in some umpires to oversee the rules.’
Aiden grinned then, and Sienna’s breath tightened in her throat, because when he smiled, those dimples seemed to groove deep into his cheeks and his eyes crinkled in a way that spoke of humour and happiness, but also of age – lines that weren’t there when he was a teenager added to his air of maturity and charisma.
