Sun-kissed (The Au Pairs 3)

"You think so?" Anna asked hopefully.

"Trust me. It's just a sign that he's serious about you. He loves you."

"He used to, anyway," Anna said doubtfully.

Their conversation was cut short when cries of, "Anna! Anna! Anna's turn!" arose from the Beirut table.

"Oh, I should go--it's my turn!" Anna said, skipping happily back to the drinking game.

Jacqui bit her lip. She would have to find another way to really convince Anna that Kevin was still in love with her short of Kevin actually coming out and saying so. Although that seemed to be the only way Anna would ever believe her husband was still interested in her. Suddenly, the prospect of going back to Sao Paulo at the end of the summer seemed inevitable, and Jacqui felt the mean reds coming on--if only she could find someone to talk to, to make her feel better, the way Ben had the night they had first kissed.

"We get all kinds here," Grant mused, coming up behind Jacqui and watching Anna funnel three pints of beer at once. "Your boss, right?"

"Uh-huh." Jacqui nodded, still thinking about the disappointment her grandmother would feel once she found out Jacqui had failed to get accepted into an American college like she had planned. But Grant was still talking and had put his arms around her waist, pulling her close.

"She came over the other night complaining about the noise.

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But then she realized she'd met us before--at that club, with you. So Duffy just invited her in--and, well, she's come over every night of the week now."

"Don't you think that's weird? I mean, she's, like, forty." Anna was actually a few years shy of that date, but she might as well have been retirement age to Jacqui, who at seventeen thought twenty-five ancient.

"Yeah, but Duffy thinks she's a MILE So, there you go." Grant shrugged, leading her to the den off the living room where they could be alone. He locked the door behind them and returned to nuzzle her neck briefly, planting soft butterfly kisses. Kisses that normally would make her knees weak and her heart melt, but when he started unbuttoning her shirt, Jacqui didn't feel like making out just then.

She pushed his hands away and removed herself from his embrace, holding her shirt closed and looking him in the eye. The guys probably thought it was hilarious that their uptight neighbor was playing drinking games, but Jacqui didn't think it was that funny. "I just don't think it's such a good idea to encourage her to visit. I mean, how can she get her marriage back on track if all she's doing is hanging out here?"

"Huh?" Grant had already forgotten the topic of conversation. "Who cares?" he asked, putting his arms around her again and kissing her forehead, then her nose, and finally her lips. He gently pulled her arms away so that he could finish removing

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her top. His fingers stroked her bare stomach.

Jacqui sighed and rolled over. There were worse things one could do to pass the time than fool around with a cute boy, but just then, it was the last thing she felt like doing.

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sometimes, manhattan

can be an escape from the hamptons. . . .

BY NOW, MARA WAS SO USED TO GETTING IN EVERYWHERE in the Hamptons that when the PR girl at the door stopped her friends from entering the CD release party for some new hip-hop act, she was momentarily blindsided.

"But they're with me," she argued. "I'm with Hamptons. Lucky's already here?"

"I know, Mara, and we're really glad to have you, but we're oversubscribed right now. I'm sorry. I can only get you in plus one," Mitzi's assistant said. "Not plus two."

"It's not a big deal." Jacqui shrugged. "I can go."

"No, stay where you are," Mara ordered.

"Forget it--let's go," Eliza said. "I don't want to stand around and argue with the clipboard patrol all night. Let's just get a drink across the street. We can pay for our drinks sometimes, you know."

"But my column," Mara protested, thinking she still needed a few items for the piece.

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"Oh, Mara, c'mon. One night off? All you do is run around with your notepad and recorder. Didn't Sam Davis already say you were doing such a great job, you remind her of her when she was young? Can't you just kick back and forget about your column for one night? Just hang out with us; no getting up to talk to celebrities. Okay?" Eliza asked.