Chapter 286

“Questionable.” Leila threw him a look. He didn’t need to see more to know she meant Marissa and
almost grimaced at the memory. Everyone could make mistakes, even hellish ones like that. “But
you’ve improved a lot.” She then smiled at him concealing nothing. A big hearty, winky type of smile
and he felt that hint of warmth knowing she meant Emma. Leila wasn’t so dumb after all and maybe it
was her he should offload to rather than Hunter. Get a female perspective.

“Leave her out of this,” Jake warned, squeezing Emma a little more tightly. He may have liked the way
Leila was thinking, but he had to make sure none of them got the wrong idea for her sake. He also
wasn’t exactly too enamored with the way Marissa seemed to be honed right in, staring at them both
and giving him her best fuck-me-now eyes. He regretted picking a place in her line of sight to stand.

“You know when you know, right?” Vincent smirked Jake’s way knowingly, and in that second, he really
wanted to throat punch him. Like a performing fucking circus, the other two men joined him in knowing
looks and all three winked his way slyly. He glanced to see if Emma noticed anything untoward, but she
was busy resting her head into him innocently.

Assholes.

“Daniel certainly seems to think so.” Jake made kissing noises at Hunter in a bid to cover the moment
of complete awkwardness, letting go of Emma to haul Daniel into a headlock and plaster his cheek with
wet, noisy kisses. Fucker could take that for initiating all this in the first place.

“Fuck off, you creep.” Daniel fought as everyone laughed. Everyone lightening up from the all too
serious turn in conversation much to his relief and he could see even Emma was smiling. Jake came
back to put his arm back around her possessively and ignored Marissa once again hitting him with a
sexual pout.

Piss off, for the love of God.



“Admit it, you’ve been planning the Hunter-Carrero wedding since you were just a little girl. It’s kind of
sweet, really.” Jake prodded Daniel with his beer bottle and received two fingers on one hand and one
on the other as a response. It was an attempt to keep his focus off what Marissa was now doing with
her tongue in the bottle she was holding, he had never had the urge to push it down her throat this
badly before.

“You’re riding dangerously close to a Hunter free existence. Then we’ll see which dude is crying into his
Haagen Dazs. We all know that Mr. Smooth Carrero has the biggest man crush on me.” Daniel picked
up a beer, mock threw his hair back like a woman, and fluttered his eyelashes.

“In your dreams, pretty boy. I’m hoping for a threesome with the twins.” Jake winked at Vincent and
Richard who threw on matching “EWWWW” faces. Everyone laughed, even Marissa this time which
meant she had to stop blowing off the bottle and giving him orgasm looks. He felt that draw for a
moment of a guy who definitely had not had enough sex of late and watched for a mere second as she
bit on her lip suggestively, memory serving him right about what she used to do with that mouth before
sense got the better of him. Emma laying her soft head against his heart almost made him feel guilty
even pondering it for a second.

Jake adjusted his hold, so he could pull her closer and rest his arm further around her. She was the
only girl who belonged near his heart, whether she wanted it or not. He switched his beer bottle to his
left hand, so it hung in front of her and gently took her empty cocktail glass and laid it down, glancing at
her happy face for a moment and being reassured that bringing her on this trip was the best thing. He
had never seen her so chilled or smiley in all the time he’d known her and even being grossly
manhandled by him tonight hadn’t brought out one PA telling off. Maybe she was warming to him after
all.

Daniel started rehashing another trip last year, another summer vacation a group of them had gone on.
There had been sixteen of them that time and of course Marissa, she had tried to get into his bed on
more than one occasion, and he had even woken up with her writhing on top of him naked, trying to get



him hard. He had considered it for all of ten seconds before shoving her ungracefully to the floor and
then proceeded to fuck every girl she’d brought with her over that next couple of days just to piss her
off.

Marissa looked his way devilishly, obviously remembering his little backlash, and he felt smug for a
moment. He maybe had no feelings for the girl anymore but getting some sick payback for what she
had done to him always got a reaction. They seemed to keep doing this; going around in circles year
after year until he had met Emma … Now it no longer interested him at all and he had no intentions of
trying to beat her at any more games of seduction ever again.

The waitress came with a tray and laid another round of drinks on the canopied table. Jake handed
Emma a fresh cocktail with his free hand, his mouth lingering close to her temple a little longer than
necessary as he smelled her, weird and probably a tad obsessive but she always smelled edible.
Tropical fruits and slightly sexual in a way and he liked to just do it because he was fucking weird when
it came to her. He had long ago stopped even questioning the shit he did around her.

Hunter started eyeing him oddly, waving his phone around and talking about some vague memory that
Jake could barely remember. He was flicking his phone at Jake enough that he finally took the hint,
letting go of Emma and leaning in to see. He was being strangely secretive by only showing it to Jake
and then he saw why.

There was no picture only the start of a text which read.

Jake … She seems totally into you tonight … Fucking get in there … Look at her man, she’s all over
you.

Jake looked at Daniel with a warning frown but couldn’t help but feel a little torn. Emma had been
cuddling up to him as much as he was since standing here, all the flirting on the dance floor with him
and now glaring Marissa down; he was starting to wonder if he should make a play for her or not.



He didn’t know if it was the alcohol or what, but Emma was different on this trip, had been since they
arrived and maybe he should stop acting like a woman and just go for it. Daniel was obviously seeing
something he wasn’t.

He caught Marissa once again giving him the bedroom eyes and sighed internally. Staring at her for a
moment to give her the back-off warning, he felt Emma looking his way.

God, she looked beautiful with that hair.

He couldn’t help that same rush of lust whenever he looked at her and being drunk was certainly not
helping at all, he pulled her in instinctively for a kiss, part of him saying DO IT and then chickened out
and hit her on the cheek platonically instead. She was making him all kinds of nervous now that he was
even considering trying to make a move on her tonight. He wasn’t sure whether to listen to Hunter or
not, he had zero clues when it came to Emma. Still no way closer to ever reading her but Leila’s
encouraging smiles his way and now Hunter giving him a green light had his palms getting clammy and
his throat drying up.

Fuck … He was scared shitless.

“You’re very quiet … Want to go back to the boat?” he said to her softly, hoping that maybe if he got her
alone he would relax and be able to read her signals a little better. Decide if she wanted this or not.
Decide what to do instead of freaking out like an amateur over here.

“Yes, please, I’m so tired, it’s been a long day.” She smiled at him and his crotch most definitely stirred,
Emma’s husky tone was a little too inviting for platonic thoughts.

Fuck, maybe Hunter was right, Emma was definitely looking at him in a way he had never seen her
look.



“Ooh, party on the boat.” Leila chanted and jumped up, impressively bouncing her boobs, all male eyes
immediately followed because that’s what men were designed to do, seek out impressive tits when
jiggling. Even Leila’s, even though Jake realized how weird that was and felt a harsh dig to his ribs.
Looking down he could see one very unimpressed look from Emma. He knew this look. Her haughty
little PA glare which signaled she was not happy with him, a little hint of jealousy from his green-eyed
princess. Feeling suddenly euphoric that she had just given him the green light he had been looking for,
he gave her an apologetic shrug and wink.

Baby, tonight you’re going to be kissed senseless.


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