to join them on the beach
instead of prowling around in the attic looking for antiques.
“Yeah. The firm decided to cut back. The economy sucks. Instead of
being the Lead Financial Analyst, I’m back to being a plan old
Analyst now. I lost my office, that nice fat raise I got last year,
and my free cell phone.”
“Oh, honey, I’m sorry. That sucks.”
Violet held her right hand up, palm out,
fingers spread. “But that doesn’t end my shitty week from hell.
Wednesday, John e-mailed me… e-mailed me. He didn’t even have
the decency to tell me to my face.”
“Oh no. This doesn’t sound good.”
“He told me he needed some space. Space . Can you believe it? Damn it.” She waved her arms
around her in a wide arc. “The world is full of freaking
space. All you have to do is walk the hell outside.”
“That jerk .”
Leaning back on her hands, Violet gripped the
sand in her fingers. “Jerk is not a strong enough word for him. But
wait. To top that all off, yesterday I get home to my apartment and
the asshole above me left his water running all day, flooded his
apartment, and it leaked down into mine.”
“You have got to be kidding me.”
She tilted her legs from left to right and
slid a bare foot up the side of her leg and back down to the ankle.
Logan was still watching her. She considered taking off her shorts
too. “The only good thing, it just messed up my bathroom, nothing
else, but still. Everything in there, my towels, my toiletries, all
ruined. I can’t even use it. When I got Dayna’s invitation, I
responded so fast I thought I saw my computer start to smoke.”
“A weekend away is definitely what you
need.”
“Dayna’s invite came right on time. I was
about to start spazzing out. Hopefully by the time I get back
they’ve cleaned and cleared it all out. My renter’s insurance is
going to replace everything that I lost. So that’s something.”
“It is.”
“The only good thing for sure.” Well, not the
only thing, she thought as her gaze traveled back across the fire
to Logan. When he’d walked in the door thirty minutes after she did
earlier today, she knew her weekend was looking up.
She was minus her promotion, minus a working
bathroom at her apartment, and minus a man. Maybe she could add some dick in her life this weekend.
Logan’s dick, she thought and grinned. Crude,
she knew, but hey, it was what she wanted.
When she’d arrived and gone to the room Dayna
assigned her to sleep in, she’d lain out everything she’d brought
with her and smiled. All the skimpy bathing suits she’d purchased
at an end of summer sale last September were definitely going to
come in handy. The one she had on now was the second she’d worn
that day. A one-piece peach suit that plunged in the front and back
and looked incredible against her skin had been what she’d worn
while they were swimming in the pool earlier. But after she’d
showered and changed, she’d put on the white.
Operation: Seduce Logan McMasters was moving
fast, forward and ahead. Violet watched him all day, caught
glimpses of him as she paraded around, bending over, and doing
everything she could think of to focus all his attention on her.
Hopefully it was working, because before the night was over, she
planned to have him in her bed, by the pool, and any other place
she could think of. When she went home tomorrow morning,
what’s-his-face would only be a distant memory.
She stood, grabbing the shirt she’d pulled
off earlier. “I’m going for a walk,” she said to Stella, and
trailed a path along the shore, heading away from the beach house,
the wet sand sticking to her bare feet.
Her hope… Logan would follow.
Ahead, streamers of seaweed rolled in the
surf. The company that rented colorful loungers and chairs with
overhead umbrellas were loading up their equipment to sale again
the next day. The beach was empty except for the group she was
with, but she still heard snatches of conversation and music
carried
Antony Beevor, Artemis Cooper
Mark Reinfeld, Jennifer Murray