Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Phoebe
“ I have news,” Bailey said, dropping down onto the end of my sun lounger.
“Andy and I were just chatting over by the bar, you know, flirting around and all that, when he asked me what I thought about us spending a little one-on-one time together at some point during the next eleven days before he flies home.”
“A man who gets straight to the point, finally,” Rhea said dryly. “Why didn’t he just throw you over his shoulder, slap your arse, and march you back to his bedroom?”
I snorted out a laugh, lowering my book to see them both properly. “Maybe he’s trying to be a gentleman.”
“Those guys? Unlikely.” Rhea chuckled.
Bailey rolled her eyes. “It’s not like I would have minded if he had done those things, let’s be honest, but no. He wants to take me out for a meal before we head out with you guys one night. Just the two of us. Can you believe that?”
“I’m proud of you, Bails,” Rhea said.
“Proud?” She scowled.
“You’ve finally got a guy to realise you’re not as cheap as you pretend to be. Free food. Score.”
That’s all it took for the two of them to begin their bickering again, making me drop my head back on the lounger and groan until they stopped.
Their tit for tat had always been something I either found hilarious or struggled to endure.
Today, I found it a struggle, and I wasn’t entirely sure why.
Rolling my head to the side, the vision of Henry sitting at the table, poolside, drinking a beer on his own seemed to answer that question for me.
He'd been on my mind, taking up space that didn’t allow for much else.
So much so, I’d read the same page of my book five times already, and none of the words seemed to make any sense. Not when a few others occupied my thoughts more.
I have to. The alternative carries far too many risks for both of us.
What the hell had he meant by that?
Were Rhea and Bailey right? Did Henry really like?—
No. I couldn’t go there.
It seemed easier to let him pretend to dislike me than consider the alternative. Every negative thing Rob had ever said slammed into my mind at once. It did that a lot, almost knocking the wind out of my chest and any trace of confidence I had away.
You’re so good all the time, Bee. Too good. Every man will pretend that he likes a well behaved little wifey at home, but deep down, we’re all craving that naughty girl. You couldn’t give me that.
You’re always reading. It’s so boring to be around. Is that really what you think a real man wants in his life?
Look, you’ve always been hot, but sometimes that just isn’t enough.
Don’t get crazy about this. Nobody likes a crazy chick.
That gaslighting motherfucker’s voice was a constant ghost hovering over my shoulder, trying to stop me from living my life. He’d made me question far too much in such a few short years. I couldn’t afford to let anyone else make me feel like I wasn’t good enough for them.
Men like Henry.
Still, my gaze drifted down to his muscular chest as he sat there with one hand wrapped around his beer while the other rested on his parted thighs, his chin tipped up to the blazing sun as though he didn’t have a care in the world.
Had I really been pressed against that body and been too out of it to remember?
I knew the answer to that was yes, because the moment Bailey and Rhea ventured down to the pool, I made sure to ask them all about it, warning them to never let me get that bad again, only for them to give each other that annoying side-eye again and press their lips together at exactly the same time.
The two of them chatted away in the background now, but their voices were muffled as my brain buzzed with thoughts of what it would be like to spend a night with someone like Henry Cohen.
Just one night. Would his hands be as rough as his voice?
Would he teach me things I’d never dared to fantasise about before?
Would he drive into me with the same intensity as his eyes burned every time they looked my way?
As if he heard my thoughts, Henry slowly turned my way.
Despite both of us wearing sunglasses, I knew without a doubt that his eyes were as locked on mine as mine were on his.
Everything around us seemed to fade away except the desire I felt tugging me towards him—the kind I’d only ever read about in my favourite stories.
The kind I highlighted with a peach-coloured pen every time it sprung off the page to smack me in the heart, reminding me that that’s what I wanted in life.
That’s what had always been missing with Rob: the insatiable need to devour someone based purely on the way they looked.
The willingness to allow my guard to drop and release my wild edge with someone I’d never see again.
Someone who wouldn’t judge me for my fantasies, my needs, and my undiscovered recklessness.
That insta-kinda lust.
I understood it now.
If I never had to see Henry again, I could imagine taking him to bed, laying down and looking up at him, begging him to destroy my body like no one had ever dared to before.
Henry raised his beer to his lips, never looking away from me as he took a slow, long drink before lowering it back down to the table in front of him and licking his lips carefully.
My skin prickled, and my nipples tightened, sending a jolt of electricity from my chest to the very pit of my stomach. I imagined those lips on me. My neck. My mouth. Covering my breasts before trailing down to find the aching desire between my legs, and?—
“What do you think, Bee?”
I blinked at the sound of my name, sucking in a sharp and heavy breath.
“Bee?” Bailey said again.
Reluctantly turning away from Henry, I hoped and prayed the girls hadn’t seen my ogling. “You… erm. Sorry?”
Bailey’s smile rose slowly, just like her brows, and her attention fell to my chest. “Cold, babe?”
My nipples were painful despite the heat, and a rush of blood purged my cheeks. Clearing my throat, I shook my head and sat up to cross my legs on the lounger. “I’m fine.”
Bailey glanced at Henry for just a moment before she looked back at me. “Sure. Right.”
“Do not start this again.” I gave her a pointed look.
“Oh, Phoebe.”
Pushing my sunglasses on top of my head, I ran my hands down my face, groaning into my palms before I let my arms fall back into my lap. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“But—”
“I said I don’t want to talk about it, Bailey.”
“I don’t think she wants to talk about it, Bailey,” Rhea chimed in.
“Okay.” But I could tell from the look on her face that this wasn’t the last I was going to hear about it.
I knew my friend well, and Bailey loved to bide her time with things like this.
For now, though, she’d acquiesced, and I’d never been more grateful.
I needed my body to calm down, and talking about him wasn’t going to allow that to happen any time soon.
“What did… um. You were asking me something before?”
Her smile brightened. “Rhea just gave me the green light to head out for some food with Andy tonight before we all meet at a club later. I wondered if that was okay with you, too.”
It had been something we always did as a trio, making sure we got consent to:
Leave the group for something better.
Make plans with a guy we barely knew.
Make plans when we already had them with our girls.
“Do you trust him?” That was the be all and end all for me. If she wasn’t sure, she wasn’t going. “Gentle reminder that we’ve known him for three days here.”
“I don’t need a lot of time like you do. I trust my gut, and that’s good enough for me.” She twirled a lock of her hair around her finger and looked up to the sky. “The question is, is he safe to go out with me without you guys there?”
“Absolutely not ,” Rhea answered for all of us.
The two of them broke out into laughter, and I laughed, too, but the lingering effects of that one glance from Henry still dominated my entire being, driving me insane.
Speaking of Henry…
“Wait. I’ve no problem with you going out with Andy, but then you said you’d meet all of us at a club later.” I raised a brow. “By all, you mean…”
“You know what I mean, babe.” Bailey smirked. “Now you’ve just gotta stop pretending you don’t want it.”
“Oo, nicely done.” Rhea chuckled, and I finally shot her a look full of daggers I didn’t really mean to shoot. She shrugged in response, completely unfazed. “I’m only saying.”
“Well, don’t. Either of you.”
“Look, Rhea will want to see Jace again, despite her pretending she’s keeping her options open.
” Bailey rolled her eyes again and muttered something to herself neither one of us could make out.
“So, you two head to a club, Jace and He Who Shall Not be Named will follow you, no doubt, then Andy and I will meet you guys there not long after.”
“Voldermort? Really?” I groaned.
“If I say his name, you’re likely to get excited again.” She gestured to my nipples.
I tried to cover them as subtly as I could.
“Ugh. Enough of that. You two can do what or whoever you want while we’re here.
I’m totally fine with that as long as you’re safe, but my ‘no men’ rule sticks.
I’m going to make it until the end of this holiday without laying a single finger on any man’s… private parts.”
“For the love of God, Bee, will you just call it a cock already?” Rhea grumbled.
They fell into fits of laughter again. Not that I minded this time. It got me out of the conversation, allowing me to throw my head back against the lounger and close my eyes, the groan of defeat falling from me at the same time as a rush of adrenaline spiked, causing my heart to race wildly.
No men, I told myself. No touching. No intimacy. Nothing.
That didn’t mean I couldn’t look.
I rolled my head to the side to steal another glance at Henry’s fine body, only to find his chair now empty.
That’s when, for the first time all holiday, a chill of cold air really did pass over me.