Next Song I Sing (NEXT TIME AROUND) (9 page)

Jasper looked discreetly around the restaurant, then sent his brother a hand signal.

Max burst out laughing. “Wow. You gave me the finger in your hotel café. Chloe Zanders really does have you stirred up, doesn’t she?”

“In a manner of speaking,” Jasper said, pushing his plate away as he saw yet another man walk over to speak to Chloe. “Damn it, there’s another one. I can’t just go around yelling at hotel guests for speaking to a woman I’m interested in dating.”

“Of course not,” Max said reasonably, trying to imitate his brother’s tone of disgust. “So what exactly are you going to do, Jasper?”

The frustrated grunt Jasper made as he stared out the window had Max grinning happily.

Chapter 8

“How many does that make now, Emma?” Taylor asked innocently.

“Huh? Oh. Six, I believe. If you count the pool bartender,” Emma replied, laughing. “Personally, I would count the bartender. He was very nice. I wish he liked short, curvy blondes more.”

“Shouldn’t you two leave the counting to the accountant?” Chloe said, trying hard to sound indignant and not to laugh herself. “And it was seven thank you very much, not six. I feel practically naked in this suit. It doesn’t surprise me that it’s drawing so much attention.”

“It’s not the suit, Chloe. Don’t be in denial. It’s the fact the woman in the suit is sending out the vibe that getting completely naked with her could become possible at any moment,” Taylor informed her, tilting her sunglasses down to flash her baby blues. “If I’d known you were going to get all the action this afternoon, I’d have made you wear that butt ugly green thing you brought with you from back east. Emma and I obviously can’t compete with the fascination of all that milky skin being revealed by those holes.”

“I told you the suit was going to be dangerous,” Emma said, openly gloating and smiling when the lusty beauty in the black suit rolled her eyes even higher than usual.

Chloe pushed herself out of the lounge chair and stood, hands on hips, looking down at her two best friends in the world. “The only danger I’m in is from being teased to death about something I cannot control. To prove I’m not trying to lure guys, I’m heading to the pool to cool off. We’ll see if wet doggy hair slows them down.”

She walked to the edge and dove off, cleanly parting the turquoise water with ease.

Jasper’s gaze was on Chloe cutting through the water as he slid quietly into the lounge chair she had just vacated. “Hello, ladies. Enjoying your afternoon?”

“Not as much as Chloe is,” Taylor said, laughing. “We figure she’s a novelty and that’s why so many men have been trying to pick her up. Em and I can’t compete.”

“Were you trying to compete?” Jasper asked with a smile.

“Not really,” Emma answered, lifting her sunglasses to the top of her head. “We just like teasing Chloe.”

Jasper laughed easily, watching Chloe boost herself up high as she climbed out of the pool to perch on the edge, every bit of her straining strips of spandex as she did so. It took everything he had to bite back the frustrated sigh inside him.

So what exactly are you going do?
He could still hear Max taunting him.

Rising, Jasper picked up the towel from the back of Chloe’s lounger and headed over to where she now sat, feet still dangling in the water still. At least she’d be covered temporarily, Jasper thought, dropping the towel around her wet shoulders.

He stooped in his dress slacks until he was almost at eye level with her. Chloe’s hair was dripping, water running off it and down her breasts. His thoughts were so wicked that he had to count to ten before he spoke.

“Got time for a drink?” Jasper asked as casually as he could, tucking the towel more completely around her. “I know this little pool bar, very intimate. The hotel owner is a friend of mine.”

“Considering the other offers I’ve had today, I have to give you a three for originality. However, your delivery in that sexy voice of yours is at least an eight or nine,” Chloe said sincerely, her brown eyes full of laughter. “Is there a mai tai in it for me?”

“You can have anything you want,” Jasper told her, standing up in shock of the stark sincerity in his own voice. He automatically reached down a hand to help her.

“You sure you want to do that. I probably weigh as much as you do, skinny man. We could both wind up in the pool,” Chloe warned, grinning at the hand Jasper was offering.

She heard herself and winced at her obsessive need to keep pointing out what she was sure Jasper was not fully comprehending. She had never really hated her weight, or her full-figured size fourteen body, but she truly could send the svelte Jasper Wade flying with an enthusiastic tug. While ultimately it might be funny, it also would definitely put an end to their flirting.

Jasper laughed and shook his head. “Chloe. Where do you get these ideas? You do not weigh what I do. Looking at you in that suit, I could use a cooling off in the pool anyway. Let’s live on the edge. Take my hand and let me help you up.”

Chloe grinned finally and put her hand in Jasper’s. He pulled her to her feet with much less effort than she had imagined it would take. For a second or two, she had a sense that he had to prevent himself from pulling her into his arms.

“You’re pretty strong for a lean guy,” she teased, reaching out to squeeze his bicep, the towel slipping down her arms as she did so. For some reason, her urge to flirt seemed always on around Jasper. Today she was sober and still couldn’t stop herself, confirming that her attraction to him hadn’t been as mai tai induced as she’d thought.

“Let’s just say I’m highly motivated to impress you with my masculinity,” Jasper said stiffly, stepping close to lift and tuck the towel around her shoulders again. He couldn’t seem to stop himself or keep his hands off. “In case you’re wondering, the answer is yes, I am trying to cover you up. I couldn’t eat lunch without worrying about all those men passing you business cards.”

“Why, Mr. Wade—are you saying you were jealous of the attention I’ve been getting?” Chloe asked, deliberately letting the towel drop again, this time wrapping it around her hips like a sarong. It left her cold, wet, barely covered breasts as the sole focus of his attention. Chloe met his gaze levelly in challenge and marveled at how appealing she found his discomfort.

“Yes,” Jasper said, his gaze drawn down to where the holes revealed the smooth skin of her breasts. He was judging some of them to be wide enough to fit two or three fingers. He could do a lot of exploring with three fingers—hell, two.

“Owning a hotel, I thought I had seen everything there was in the way of swimwear. Sometimes it more closely resembles dental floss, and it’s virtually impossible not stare out of morbid curiosity at the person who wears such a thing. Rarely has even the most outrageous swimwear distracted me, regardless of the woman wearing it. Today has changed all that because I now have the urge to drag you off and start exploring your holes,” Jasper told her, his tone betraying him and revealing the irritation he’d been holding inside. “And I’ve thought of lots of ways of doing just that.”

Chloe choked on a laugh. It was the irritation in his tone that pleased her most. She swallowed the rest of her laughter and tried to match his haughtiness.

“Well that’s a quite a tactical line to take in flirting, Mr. Wade, and one I certainly haven’t heard today. The other men were less open in sharing their amorous plans for me. I think it’s pretty brazen of you to suggest such an exploration since we just met yesterday.”

Jasper stopped and turned her by the shoulders to face him. “Let me buy you a couple mai tais, Chloe. I think you’ll see the reasonableness of my suggestion after you’ve consumed them.”

Chloe laughed loudly as he dropped his hand and they headed to the bar. “You think a couple mai tais will make me easy where you’re concerned?”

“Not really,” Jasper said on sigh, pulling out a chair for her in a shaded area near the bar. “I knew it was lame. I’ve just been hanging around my younger brother too long. Let me get our drinks.”

***

Rayonna saw Max finishing his lunch and walked quickly to the table. She knew he had a habit of jumping up and running the moment he was done. “Hello, Maximillan. How are things?”

“Just fine, Rayonna. If you’re looking for Jasper, he’s busy,” Max said, lifting his sandwich for the last bite. “I’d invite you to join me, but I’m done.”

Rayonna waved his unpleasantness away and dropped into the chair across from him. “I know you don’t like me, Max. Why bother pretending otherwise? But I care about Jasper. I wanted to come ask you about the woman he’s seeing.”

“Did Jasper tell you there was a woman?” Max asked, his opinion of his brother shooting up a notch for being ballsy enough to tell Rayonna about Chloe.

“Of course not,” Rayonna denied. “Jasper would never admit such a thing to me, no matter how truthful. I could tell it when he wouldn’t sleep with me. Now I need to see what my competition is like.”

“To what end?” Max asked, happy to hear Jasper hadn’t slept with her, not happy to hear Rayonna was interested in seeing Chloe for herself. “You have a long list of lovers, which would have included me if I hadn’t said no—
hell no
. That’s why I have zero sympathy for you. I’m proud of Jasper for finally ending the farce of your relationship.”

“That’s cruel, Max, even for you,” Rayonna said softly. “And I was terribly mad at Jasper when I made you that offer.”

“He’s my brother, Rayonna—hell, Jasper practically raised me with our parents travelling all the time. I love him and would never hurt him that way. But I’ve often wished I had told him about your offer because he would definitely hate your guts for it,” Max said, being purposely blunt. He knew from experience it would take that to get Rayonna to leave him alone.

She stuck out her bottom lip in a pout and turned her beautiful face to the window. She saw Jasper walk to the pool edge with a towel in his hand and drop it around a woman’s shoulders. Moments later he pulled her to her feet, laughing as she smiled back at him.

“You have to be kidding me,” Rayonna said, stunned. “
That’s
the woman Jasper is chasing? How can he possibly want her? She’s fat.”

“Fat? Who’s fat?” Max asked, looking out the window and seeing Chloe and Jasper play fighting over her towel. He’d bet his tips from last night Jasper was trying to cover her up so other men couldn’t see her. If he hadn’t been arguing with Rayonna, he would have laughed his ass off.

“Just look at that woman, Max. Jasper has his hands all over her,” Rayonna said, her voice revealing how stricken she was by the thought. “He’s following me with that gigantic woman.”

“No, he’s not following you,” Max denied firmly. “He’s out there competing with the other numerous guys that propositioned that beautiful woman before Jasper found his balls and jumped into the mix. That woman is not what you think she is, Rayonna. She’s lush and soft and fun. Face reality—your life’s work is built on a sham. Move on now before you lose the rest of your illusions.”

“She’s pale as a ghost. Her hair is wet and dripping, but she’s obviously a drab brunette,” Rayonna said in disbelief, rolling her eyes and skipping over Max’s comments since she well knew his libido ran the show for him.

She could see Max sleeping with anyone, even the big woman, but how could Jasper stoop so low? Jasper was a gentleman. Jasper ran the highest rated hotel in Laguna Niguel. Jasper had dated other models and married
her
.

“The least he could to do is seek a rebound relationship with someone appropriate. God knows most of my friends would gladly console him,” Rayonna said, thinking out loud. “Now he’s just embarrassing me by settling for some strange woman lacking the good sense to wear something to conceal her size. Imagine what the press will say.”

Max snorted. “Get help, Rayonna. What Jasper is finally doing is called ‘moving on.’ Be grateful Jasper waited until after the divorce. He has more ethics than you.”

“You know very well Jasper has forgiven me for my slip,” Rayonna said quietly. “I divorced him quickly once the affair with Gregory became common knowledge.”

Max shook his head. He would never understand his former sister-in-law or the reason Jasper ever married her. He would never believe Rayonna had anything of quality that his brother might have wanted.

“I sure as hell hope you’re leaving tomorrow,” Max said finally, not sparing her the raw truth of his opinion.

“There’s a show in Madrid. I’ll be gone three weeks, but I’m coming back, Max. I’m not giving up, especially now that I see how desperate Jasper has become. Your brother may not be great in bed, but I still love him,” she said fiercely. “He doesn’t have to settle.”

“Oh for…that’s such fucking bullshit,” Max told her, forgetting they were in the café and not alone. “A man is only as good as the woman he sleeps with, Rayonna. My brother has moved out of his cold-hearted bitch phase. Go find some rich count or dignitary to marry. Leave Jasper the hell alone.”

“You’re too young to understand, Maximillan,” Rayonna told him, choosing to overlook his cruel and crude remarks. “Love is much more complicated than someone like you can grasp. You’ll understand that someday.”

Max rolled his eyes. “Wow, those acting lessons are really paying off. Did you rehearse that in front of a mirror?”