Page 81 of Holiday Home 3
“Could be,” Avril said.
Victoria’s stared at her flatly. “It had nothing to do with your brother.”
“Just wanted to make sure,” Avril said, holding her hands up placatingly. “Even now, you’re still ‘the one who got away’ to him, so I just want to make sure you’ve never relapsed.”
Standing between the two women, he got the sense that he should be the one who volunteered to raid the kitchen and get some refreshments. As soon as he slid that suggestion into the room, he received approving nods from both women.
“By the way, you look very nice tonight, Liam,” Victoria said before he could escape the room. “Anna was the one who helped you select that outfit?”
“She did a little more than help out,” Liam admitted.
“She has a good eye.”
He nodded, smiling sheepishly. “Oh, and you also look really…” He searched for the right word, knowing the first several that came to mind might be too inappropriate to share. Naturally, as if she’d peered into his thoughts, Avril decided to announce a few possible options.
“Ridiculously sexy, way too gorgeous for words, hot as fuck?”
Victoria sighed exasperatedly and glared—oh, so that was what it looked like—at Avril, who survived unscathed behind an already-formed grin.
“I was going to say really beautiful,” Liam hastily said, hoping to stall any conflict until after he’d departed. “I can’t think of a Bond girl who could match up to you.”
“Smooth,” Avril snorted, shifting her grin toward him.
“Thank you, Liam,” Victoria said. “And we even have a Bond villain serving as our dealer.”
Avril immediately began twirling an invisible mustache. “Guess that makes you James Bond, then,” she told him. “Guess you get to have all the girls, huh?”
As color again threatened his composure, he beat a hasty getaway. Back in the hallway, he retraced his steps to the central intersection. From there, he turned left.
The kitchen and dining rooms he came upon matched the rest of the place’s ostentatiousness, and he fished through both refrigerators he located in the former for an armful of drinks. Once he had some bottled water, soda, and even two cans of lemonade in his clutches, he started heading back to what he hoped would be a peaceful room.
Before he made it back in time to see if that was the case, he came across another woman who was early to arrive for their game. He saw her just as he wrapped around to the intersection. Her head was down, looking at the directions on the card sitting on the central table. However, she noticed his presence before he could announce it.
Anna’s bright green eyes, not so far off from the color of Victoria’s dress, found him just as he was about to say hello. Immediately, an utterly radiant smile bounded over the table, impacting him dead center. His heart skipped a beat.
“Liam! You’re already here?”
He nodded and approached, setting the drinks down carefully on the table. “Victoria is too. I was getting us all some drinks.”
Anna nodded. “Let me help.”
As she began to circle the table toward him, his heart found another reason to skip a beat. And then it raced.
If Avril, Evelyn, or anyone else had helped her decide on the dress she now wore, he owed them his gratitude. If this had solely been Anna’s choice, then he was already thanking her with his undivided attention.
She wore a dress that was every bit as revealing as Victoria’s. In fact, it was more so. It began with the spaghetti straps on her slender shoulders, which was all that kept thealluring dress from collapsing to the floor. Her dress was black, completely covered in mesmerizing floral sequin patterns that glittered in the lighting of the overhead chandeliers, and it formed around her curvaceous silhouette marvelously. It had not one but two slits in the skirt, both mid-thigh level. It also plunged its neckline a few inches below her breasts and made sure that there was no shortage of cleavage confronting his approach.
“Wow,” Liam whispered. “You look great.”
“Thank you,” Anna said. She bit her lower lip, seeing in his expression that he thought far more than that she just looked “great.” She inhaled and scanned him. “You look really good, too.”
He smiled, and their bodies instinctively shortened the distance between them. “You’ve got an eye for it, apparently. You just don’t seem to run out of secret talents. Ice skating, fashion, soft lips.”
Anna’s eyes flashed with delight, and it was seconds later that they retread the topic of the last of those. The mesmerizing floral patterns on her dress had to play second fiddle to the captivating fullness of her lips. No matter what, he needed to taste them again.
Eager to aid him in his goal, Anna tilted her chin. Her eyes caught the light from the chandelier. For the time being, he forgot all about Avril and Victoria. Caught up in the throes of need, he kissed his fake girlfriend with as much passion as he’d imbued in any kiss before it.
As their lips tangled, their bodies shortened the scant amount of distance between them. Soon enough, Anna’s breasts contacted his chest, and her arms went up around his neck. His hands landed above her hips, where her figure flared into its valley. And yet an ache to send them either higher or lowersurged through his arms. He battled with it, uncertain if Anna would want such a thing.