EIGHT
HARPER
He’s still fucking that skank, Courtney Swan. The lying bastard! White-hot jealousy punched me in the gut.
I was finding it difficult to concentrate on what Cash was saying as we left the pool together. He helped me out of the water with his hand on the bottom of my back, and my spine felt like it would snap; it was so stiff. My bad shoulder was also aching. I had no idea what I was doing,attemptingto flirt, possibly?
I glanced back in Phoenix’s direction, where he still stood propping up the bar with Courtney. Their conversation looked intense at first, and now they appeared to be doing shots together. I felt like the dumbest girl on the planet. My heart was breaking all over again.
As usual, the girl was dressed like she was charging for it. Court was wearing denim cut-offs that appeared to be making their way up her asshole and a blue tee over a red bikini. The first time I met her was at a beach party the previous year. Courtney had been wearing a similar pair of shorts, but a white T-shirt that saidI fuck on the first date. No surprise that I had sized the bitch up from day one.
“Shall I grab us a couple of beers?” Cash said, misunderstanding why I was looking towards the bar area. I caught the towel Molly threw at me and wrapped it around my body, now feeling self-conscious.
“I'd better check with the boss. Do I want a drink from the bar, Hudson?” I snarked as I plonked my ass on the lounger beside him and Mols.
The big man himself released a long, loud snore. He had his sunglasses on, so I couldn’t see his eyes. Molly was sitting on the edge of his lounger with a huge grin on her face. “Hud’s napping.”
“I can hear that. You’re keeping him up too late, Mols,” I replied with a saucy look.
She grinned, peeked over at her sleeping boyfriend, and then lifted her chin towards Cash.
Whilst shielding her eyes from the sun, she said. “I think that’s a yes from Hudson. Thank you, Cash. Harper will have a rum and Coke, and I’ll have a beer, please. Any brand, I’m not choosy.”
“Yeah, I can see that by the knucklehead you’re dating,” Cash chuckled, playfully disrespecting his friend. I watched his muscles flex as he dried his face on his towel and then grabbed his phone. “Back in a sec.” He then turned towards the pool and bellowed out to Josh, Michael, and Verity, who all had drinks.
Verity was sitting on the poolside, paddling her legs, and the boys were in the water. “You guys good?” The boys answered by giving him a thumbs-up.
“Save me a space, beautiful,” Cash then said, motioning towards the area on the lounger I was sitting on. I smiled.
As Cash left, I checked out his butt cheeks in the navy, still-damp boardshorts he wore. That was one fine tushy, but it wasn’t as nice as Phoenix’s ass. I then turned back to Molly with a raised eyebrow. “You’re drinking?”
She’d removed her dress and was sitting in her bikini with Hudson out of it on the bed.
“Why not. We need to celebrate.”
I was puzzled. “We do?”
“Yes. Phoenix was watching you flirting with Cash. Even from the other side of the pool, I could see the vein in his temple throbbing,” she explained with a giddy look.
Molly was so sweet with her match-making attempts, but I wasn’t on board at that moment, considering Nix was getting wasted with another girl that very second. He was probably doing it to get me jealous after my display in the pool with Cash. Unfortunately for my sanity, it was working.
Another loud snore came from her side. “How do you sleep next to that?”
She turned and glanced lovingly at her comatose boyfriend. “You get used to it. And we don’t get to do a lot of sleeping.”
“Nice,” I said, feeling awkward. Where girl-talk about sex was concerned, I was out of practice.
“I’m surprised Hudsoncansleep when there are so many half-naked guys around. Shouldn’t he be watching you, so you don’t stray?” I chuckled, taking off the towel and tugging on my shorts. I turned to glance up at the bar. Cash and Phoenix were now standing together, their heads bowed, deep in conversation.
Molly ignored my comment. “Hey, don’t put them back on. You look hot, don’t you want Nix to see the goods up close?”
I shrugged, fastening my top button. “I don’t know Mols. He’s been standing, talking to Courtney for the last fifteen minutes. Sloppy seconds and all that. Don’t forget he slept with her straight after he kissed me.”
“What the actual fuck,” came Hudson’s voice as he pushed up into a sitting position and yanked his sunglasses off. Those dark eyes of his drilled into me.
Of all the times to wake up.
“Brutalkissedyou?”
