Between Us: Sex on the Beach by Jen McLaughlin Read Free Book Online Page A

pressing a little harder than necessary, even though the surface was pretty damn clean already. There were only a handful of locals sitting there, and it had been slow all night. Normally I’d be bummed, but tonight I welcomed it.
    Ever since Mackenzie had kicked me out of her room, I’d been in a bad mood.
    I tossed the rag over my shoulder and scanned the crowd. At first I passed right over her, completely missing her. But then I caught sight of her oversized hat and I did a double take. Yep, that was definitely her. And she was staring at me.
    I wanted to go up to her and ask if she was here to finish what we’d started earlier, but I refused to give in to the urge. She was the one who’d told me to leave, so I had. If she wanted to talk again, she could damn well come up to me. The last hour of my shift passed slowly, and she spent most of it on her phone, her fingers sweeping over the screen without fail.
    The rest of the time, she watched me.
    I could feel her eyes burning into me as I chatted up the customers and laughed. Every time I talked to one of the female regulars, Mackenzie grew tense and her fingers would hover over the screen instead of touching it. I might not be an expert at relationships and all the shit that came with them, but I was pretty damn positive that she was actually jealous. Of a woman who, more often than not, required help into a cab at the end of the night because she’d be that fucked up.
    I wanted Mackenzie and she wanted me. It shouldn’t be this complicated.
    After I closed out my drawer and slipped my tips in my pocket, I punched out and headed for the door without going over to her. She had to show me a sign. Something besides sitting there pouting at me, for Christ’s sakes. I didn’t have time for childish games.
    I was halfway to the door by the time she must have realized I wasn’t coming over to her. She pushed back from the table and came stumbling after me. She had on a pair of “fuck me” heels, a red sundress, and that damn hat.
    “Austin, wait,” she hissed, tugging her hat lower.
    I stopped and turned to her, my brow up. “Can I help you?”
    “Stop acting like you don’t know it’s me,” she said. “We both know you do.”
    “Actually,” I crossed my arms, “I can’t see your face with that fucking hat on, so how am I supposed to know who you are?”
    She ripped it off her head and tossed her hair behind her shoulders. Her eyes were spitting fire at me. “There. Happy?”
    “Not really. If you want honesty from me—which you made perfectly clear you do—I’m horny as hell and feeling like an ornery bastard at the moment. I’m off to take care of that particular issue right now.”
    “Seriously?” she said, her eyes wide. “Just like that, you’re moving on?”
    Nope. But I certainly wasn’t going to let her know she’d gotten under my skin. She didn’t need to know I’d be jerking off to the memory of her coming on that damn hotel bed—or that I’d be alone. “I’d prefer you, but well, you made your stance clear on how you feel about me after I let you know I knew who you were. Unless you changed your mind…?” I gave her a few seconds to tell me if she had, since she’d been staring at me for more than an hour, but she didn’t say a word. I inclined my head and started for the door again. “All right, then. Enjoy your stay.”
    “ Wait .”
    I stopped again. “Yes?”
    “You lied to me.”
    I sighed. “We went over this already. I don’t get a lot of free time, so I don’t want to spend it arguing with you about something we already went over. I didn’t lie. I just didn’t tell you I knew who you were. There’s a difference.”
    “Is there anything else I need to know about you? Things you’re hiding?”
    I opened my mouth and then closed it. A million of my secrets came to mind, but they were just that—secrets. “No.”
    “Are you sure?”
    I swallowed hard. “Yep.”
    “All right.” She took a deep breath,