The jab, aimed true, right for my chest and hitting home. Dead center.
Talk about a sucker punch.
Ouch.
So he is pissed at me.
Unfortunately, his comment made my granddad practically double over with laughter. “Don’t tell me you’ve been hiding away in the damn office.”
Clearly, I wasn’t as scot-free as I thought I was. The unmistakable taunting was barely covered up with his usual light tone. A simple tease to any other person that wasn’t familiar with the way he spoke or joked around, but to anyone that was a little more seasoned like me, it became quite obvious he wasn’t at all kidding in his mockery.
If this was how it was going to be for the next five weeks, I wasn’t sure how the hell we were going to both manage. Having such thick tension had already been practically suffocating when it was simply sexual. Slap on a dose of irritation and it turned into a regular recipe for disaster.
Goddamn it.
This was why I was supposed to keep my damn dick in my pants.
“I haven’t.”
My granddad shook me by my shoulder. “The paperwork can wait, Blake. Enjoy the summer while it’s here.”
“Yeah, Mr. Director. Enjoy the summer while it lasts,” Marlow chimed right in, stoking the fire like the fucking pot-stirrer he was determined to be. “Unless you’re avoiding something down here with us common folk.”
I shot him a subtle glare.
Knock it off.
He sent back a cheeky smile and then winced. “Ugh.”
I tried to narrow down the list in my head one-by-one. Talos was too much of a rule follower to be talked into leaving the property in order to make a booze run for a guest. Lydia was usually in bed before the sun went down, and Lindsay was definitely not the type to be hanging around the guests after her shift was done.
There was the possibility of my other set of crew, my night shift-ers, but would Marlow have approached a staff member he wasn’t at least a little bit familiar with?
I supposed it didn’t really matter, considering he was good at disarming anyone he came in contact with. It’d take one long and meaningful conversation after the sun went down and the bonfires were blazing against the night sky before he had them fishing their keys out of their pocket and scurrying off to the staff parking lot to run into town for him.
“Who’s your hook up?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.
I had to know. If he had anyone in his back pocket, I wanted their name and once I had it, they’d immediately be switched to day crew for the next five weeks. No way was I tolerating this bullshit flying under my nose. He wasn’t about to be getting a special on-call meal service whenever he pleased just because he sweet-talked someone into feeling special.
He’d signed up to come here for a reason. He wanted a life change and goddamn it, he’d get just that. He’d get the full authentic experience of living at a wilderness and survival adventure camp, I’d make sure of it.
While I was also going to pretend that a spark of jealousy mostdefinitelywasn’t brewing in my chest at the possibility of Marlow talking someone else up like he had me—cornering them against the mess hall and inviting them back to his cabin for a little getting-to-know-each-other.
My jaw tinged suddenly from grinding my teeth together.
I wasn’t supposed to care about being a passing interest. That’s what our whole one-time arrangement had been agreed to. He had no loyalty to me, and nor did I have anything for him. I wasn’tsupposed to,anyway. I was only another notch on his bedpost. A consequence of giving in to my stupid desires like I had no control over them in the first place.
That was it.
Why the hell did that sting so badly?
“Can’t say, my lips are sealed,” he muttered, a hand coming up to massage his temple.
My granddad’s eyes were lazering into me. “I see we’ve gotten quite familiar with the guests.”
I almost groaned.
This was not how I wanted any of this to go. We’d come out here to walk the grounds and catch up, not run into Marlow and have my whole cover blown. Him calling me out on everything because of his bitchy mood wasn’t what I’d signed up for after agreeing to leave the safety of my office and coming down here to spend time with my granddad.
