Page 24 of Double or Nothing

He attempts to hold up a hand with another crap attempt at an excuse, but I won’t let him. It’s not just Alice I’m reading. It’s him, too.

And it’s not just Alice who’s stiffening at his touch, with a blush across her pretty cheeks. His beetroot matches hers.

I keep my attention on them as I give the broker my account details, watching their edgy smiles as they talk. Alice is shifting from foot to foot, and Bryce keeps running his fingers through his hair.

He likes her. A fucking lot. And she likes him. A fucking lot.

For once Eli would be proud of me. I think I’ve got this one nailed.

Fuck the meaning of black lines and gold foiling.

What I really want is to fuck Bryce and the beautiful Alice Rose Parker… both at once.

CHAPTER EIGHT

BRYCE

Alice’s beautiful smile gives me the same rush it always has. She shakes her head in pure disbelief and mouths oh my God, and it hurts me to see the sliver of self-doubt in her, still lingering in the shadows through her joy. I thought she was far beyond that, having observed her from afar, but seemingly not.

I could kiss Jack on his beautiful, hot lips for making Alice so happy. On the other hand, I could kick him in the shins for putting me in this position, standing right next to her.

“Your friend, Jack,” she says. “Where did you find him?! I can’t believe he’s just bought all three!”

Back in the times when Alice and I were close, I would have been honest without question. I’d have told her how I met Jack just last night at a gay bar, while I was out looking for sex, post my divorce papers coming through. She would have been open mouthed, but full of giggles, wanting a breakdown of every second.

“I’ve known Jack a while,” I say, surprised at how much it pains to lie to her. “He’s a real character, isn’t he?”

“You could say that. He was messing around at first. Told me my pictures were nothing but splashes of paint worth twenty pounds, not twenty thousand. I almost believed him, the cheeky bastard.”

She’s laughing, and I laugh along, but that realisation makes me want to kick Jack in the shins a little harder. I’m not so sure he’d have meant it in jest.

“It’ll be great for us all to have a drink together,” she says. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you, Bryce. Far too long.”

My stomach drops, my gaze instinctively on the lookout for her father.

“Yes, it’s been a long time.”

I can barely bring myself to meet her eyes, they churn me up so badly. I was expecting a dirty night filled with more of Jack’s cock, not to be sipping champagne with a woman so out of bounds.

I know Jack will be digging for secrets as soon as the cork gets popped. I’ve already seen his motives in his keen-eyed stare.

He returns from the broker booth with a grin and a clap of his hands.

“Signed, sealed and set to go,” he says. “What an honour, Alice. Maybe someday I’ll get to see more of your work.”

“Anytime. I have a studio, over in Hampstead. Feel free to drop by.”

“I might just do that.”

His tone is so blatant – flirting with her, right in front of me, but there’s a dash of dirty humour in his smirk when he looks my way. He may be a great reader of people, but I’m not. I don’t know whether to be enraged, or excited. Strangely jealous from two different sides.

Jack checks his watch.

“Only ten minutes to go. Anyone have any goodbyes to throw around, or shall we get the hell out of here?”

“Just one for me,” Alice says. “Give me a minute.”

I wait until she’s out of earshot before I begin the barrage at the man who ended my sex drought last night.