Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 97151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
I chuckle. “Right,” I say. Is this an ambush?
“I think I have a solution. Maybe,” she says, tapping her temple.
“You do?” Avril says. “You didn’t say anything to me.”
“I just thought of it when Ben was up on the stage singing to you.”
“He wasn’t singing to me.”
“He’s into you,” Poppy says to Avril, like I’m not there. “It’s obvious. And he wants something to develop.” Poppy’s gaze slides toward me and then back to her sister.
“No, he wants to bang me again.”
I nod but don’t say anything. I definitely, one hundred percent want to bang her again, but something tells me I’m not really involved with this conversation.
“Whatever,” Poppy says. “And you’ve said you can keep it in your pants and keep things just business, so there’s no messiness.”
Poppy really knows all the details of our conversation. I make a mental note never to tell anything to Avril that I don’t want Poppy to know, and vice versa.
“Go on,” Avril says.
“He says he can make you fall in love with him in seven days, right?”
They both turn to me.
“That’s what I said.” I mean, it was a joke, but I think I can win most people over. She would at least see my good points by then.
“So, give him a week. In seven days you won’t be in love, and he’ll realize he can keep it in his pants because he’ll have gotten to know you.”
“Hey!” Avril says. “He’ll have gotten to know me, so he won’t find me attractive?”
Poppy shrugs. “Just that the novelty will have worn off.”
“The novelty?” she asks, wide eyed. I try not to smirk. Poppy doesn’t seem to register that she’s offended her sister. She’s more focused on solutions. I like that about her.
“Yes. Then he knows you can both keep it professional.”
“I’m not going to fall in love with him in a week, Poppy,” Avril says. “Novelty or not,” she mumbles.
“So, then he’ll know that and he can help us get the Boston hotel, safe in the knowledge that you just have a working relationship. No one’s fucking anyone to say thank you. No one’s doing anyone favors because they want to see the other one naked.” Poppy turns to me. “That was your worry, right? That things would get messy and misinterpreted and people would get compromised.”
“Right,” I say. “I don’t want to take advantage of anyone.” But I also have a rule against mixing the personal and the professional. A hard rule that I’ve never broken. A rule my mum urged me to follow my entire life so I didn’t end up like my dad. “I don’t mix the personal and the professional.”
Avril groans and the vibration travels across my skin like she’s just licked my cock from base to tip.
This girl.
“He’s not taking advantage of me,” Avril says.
“I know,” Poppy says. “But he wants to be clear. So if you spend a week together, then he can be sure.”
“A week?” she says, shaking her head.
I chuckle. “You see, Poppy, she knows that in a week, she’d be head over heels. She can’t risk it.”
“Jesus, Ben,” Avril says. “That ego of yours will get you in trouble one day.”
“Probably,” I agree. Until then, it’s pretty funny watching her reactions.
“He would never agree,” Avril says. “Because I’m not going to fall in love with him in seven days, and he’s going to get his feelings hurt. Then he won’t help me because I’ll have bruised his gigantic ego.”
That sounds like a challenge. But they can’t be serious about us spending a week together. Does Poppy want us to hit the Hamptons for a week or something?
“If that’s what you want to tell yourself,” I say.
Avril turns to me. “So, you’d be willing to try? And if I can keep my hands to myself, and keep things professional, you’d help me?”
I pause before I speak, because I don’t have an answer. There’s no way to rewind time. We have a personal relationship already. I can’t change that. But spending the week with Avril sounds…Well, I’d either end up dead or I’d finally figure out what it is about this girl that makes me like her so much. I’d discover why she’s the one person in the world who can get me to talk about cooking and my dad. The one person who I can’t read like a book.
“I’ll help you with the Boston site if you spend seven days with me,” I say, before I can think too carefully about it.
Avril stares at me, like she’s trying to process what I’m saying.
“What? You’re saying you’ll help me in a week if I hang out with you between then and now?”
“Hmm,” I say, rubbing my palm over my jaw. “No, I’m saying you need to spend seven days with me. I have plans in the next week. You probably do too. If we’re not together, then it doesn’t count.”