He walked away with a little more sway to his hips than usual, aware there could be half a dozen women watching him. And crossing his fingers she was one of them.
Chapter 3
Following her morning run along the beach—and past alighthouse;God, Nantucket was cute—Olivia changed into her swimsuit and joined the others for a day of lounging by the pool. Unlike her sisters, who were both engrossed in sexy rom-coms, she chose to read her emails and the latest thought pieces from her equity research team. She had won her two-hour-phone-free bet with Ashley, but this morning, reality had set in. With the promotion battle ahead of her, she simply couldn’t afford to be out of the loop for two weeks.
By the afternoon, Ashley and Jessica were so annoyed with her working, they dragged her out to look around the town despite having declared an hour earlier that it was too hot.
When she came back to her room to shower and change for the evening, her best friend Meera messaged her:
Tell me you’re not working.
She replied:
I’m not working.
Meera’s response came back a second later:
Do I need to verify that with Jessica or Ashley?
A little peeved at the harassing from both sides, she shot back:
Stop messaging me. I’m supposed to be on holiday.
Meera replied with a crying-with-laughter emoji. Presumably because she was the one who’d forced Olivia to stay in Nantucket another week because “I can’t remember when you last took a proper holiday and you’re going to burn out if you keep this schedule up.”
Meera worked in the same company but didn’t subscribe to Olivia’s “Work is life” motto. Several rungs farther down the pay-scale ladder than Olivia was, Meera had reached a level senior enough for her to enjoy the perks of delegating, but she had no interest in climbing any higher, declaring she had her work-life balance just right. It was something Olivia couldn’t understand. What was the point of balancing work if it was the best thing in your life?
But she wasn’t supposed to be thinking about it. Nope, instead of analyzing quarterly earnings reports and planning how to beat Stuart to the promotion, she was going to be watching a group of men take their clothes off.
What would her niece say?Fuck my life.
Thank God she had the second week to herself, no distractions, nobody to stop her from spending it how she wanted to spend it.
Pushing the thoughts aside, she scanned the small selection of clothes she’d brought with her, neatly hung up in the wardrobe. When she failed to find anything that would, even remotely, fulfill Sophie’s directive ofdress to kill, she sighed.
“Whoa, what’s wrong?” Ashley, swaddled in the hotel dressing gown, popped through the open interconnecting door.
“Nothing. Just figuring out what to wear tonight.”
“It shouldn’t make you sigh.” Ashley placed a hand either side of Olivia’s face. Whatever she saw there made her smirk. “You want to wear something slinky in case you bump into the sexy Connor.”
“I do not.” She wasalmostcertain that wasn’t the reason behind her current indecision. “I just don’t want to let Sophie down, and none of my clothes sayparty.”
“That’s because you don’t party, sis. You work. Exercise. Repeat.”
Very maturely, she gave Ashley the middle finger. “I enjoy working. And I’m bloody good at it.”
“True, but it’s time to focus on the things you’re not so good at. Like relaxing, letting your hair down.”
“I don’t get the point of sitting around on loungers and doing nothing. What does it achieve?”
Ashley rolled her eyes. “You’re a lost cause. Okay, if you’re not prepared to relax, how about having wild holiday sex with a sexy-as-hell younger man?”
“Now you’re being ridiculous.” Her body still tingled every time she remembered the light touch of Connor’s fingers on her lower back.
“Why is it ridiculous? Because of his age? Bollocks to that, he fancies you, so it isn’t an issue.”
“It would be when I took my clothes off.”
