Playing It Close by Kat Latham Read Free Book Online

aching palms over the bum of her shorts. Maybe she should test the waters a little herself. Gathering her nerve, she said, “I should go...”
    But she let the end fade out on an unspoken unless... hoping he might fill in the gap.
    He stood next to her, towering in a way that should’ve been intimidating but instead set her hormones into a tizzy. “All right.”
    All right? Seriously? Damn. That toss of the dice hadn’t paid off. She shoved her hands in the pockets of her shorts. “Um, if you let me know how much dinner was, I’ll pay you back.”
    His brows drew together. “Don’t be ridiculous. I was going to eat anyway.”
    And there went her excuse to see him tomorrow. “Okay. Well...cheers.” Suddenly desperate to leave before things became more awkward, Tess stepped into his room and headed for the door.
    She’d just opened it when he called after her. “Tess?”
    Trying to smother the hope that leapt inside her, she turned. “Yes?”
    “Do you have plans for tomorrow?”
    She should make something up, pretend to consult her agenda at the very least. She shook her head.
    “I saw a brochure for hiking in the cloud forest. Come with me?”
    The eco-lodge sat at the edge of a national park and was surrounded on most sides by mountains. Tess had already gone on an excursion into the cloud forest. It’d been stunning, but with only a few more days here she hadn’t expected to do the same thing twice. “Okay. Meet you in the lobby at nine?”
    Way to play hard to get.
    Liam leaned against the balcony door, the shadow over his face keeping her from interpreting his thoughts. “Sleep tight.”
    Tess let the door close quietly behind her, her busy mind flying out of control, certain of only one thing: she wouldn’t get much sleep tonight.
    * * *
    Tess went through the list of items she needed in her daypack one last time, just to be sure. Swimsuit— tick . Sunscreen— tick . Sun hat— tick .
    Going into the cloud forest twice hadn’t been part of her plan, but miss the opportunity to spend the day with Liam Callaghan, who turned out to be not just a sporting legend but also funny and flirtatious? Not a chance. If she did, she’d be ignoring the number one item on her most cherished list—her Ways To Change My Life list: Grab hold of the good times .
    That list only had a couple of items ticked so far. Travel somewhere exotic at least once a year. Okay, she shouldn’t have ticked that one off because hopefully she had a lot of years left. But she’d done it this year. She was here now.
    Dye my hair blue. She’d done that, hoping for a classy dark blue, the kind that women with jet-black hair sometimes go for, which made alabaster skin look amazing. Sadly, she hadn’t started out with jet-black hair, and putting blue on brown had looked a mess. So she’d gone to a funky student salon in Soho and told them she wanted to try a different color. A drastic change. Now she had a separate list: Mistakes I’ll Never Make Again. Number one: Tell a student hairdresser you want a drastic change.
    So her hair had been bleached and turned bright pink, which did nothing for her skin, especially when she’d been spending time in the sun building up an English tan: medium pink all over. Her skin would soon match her hair if she weren’t careful.
    Hence the SPF 50 sunscreen.
    Ready to go, she swung the pack onto her back and was nearly out the door when the phone rang. The hotel phone, next to her bed. She’d kept her mobile off and hadn’t booted up her laptop since she’d arrived. Only three people knew her room number: Liam, the receptionist, and her cousin Charlie, who owned an eco-travel company and had booked her onto this trip.
    Please be Liam.
    She closed her door and rushed to the phone, sitting on the edge of the mattress as she picked it up.
    “Hey, Tessy. I didn’t wake you up, did I?”
    Damn. Charlie. “Not at all. I was just on my way out, in fact.”
    “Oh? What’re you doing