Her Collateral Bride: A Lesbian Age Gap Romance

surface. Get under her skin. She was so sure that Claire was

hiding something. That something or someone had hurt her.

Not because she liked what she liked, but because she’d

looked so wrong when Haley had asked about her childhood.

Then again, she’d been a sarcastic little snot about it and

hadn’t deserved a straight answer.

“Oh my gosh, yum, that smoothie looks amazing!”

“Come on, admit it. It’s not the smoothie you were eying

up.”

Her friends had arrived, and Haley was tossed back to the

present, back to the tall glass sweating in her palm, the scent

of pineapple and banana giving the beach just the slightest

tropical vibe, and Snake’s dark-eyed stare boring into her back

from the other side of the sand where he was perched in the

most ridiculous lawn chair. How it was even holding up his

bulk was beyond her. He was definitely pushing his luck.

Amy blushed furiously at Elva’s statement. She wouldn’t

look at Snake, but that’s what Elva was talking about. Haley

had no idea if the guy was hot or not. She wasn’t into guys,

and Snake had a brooding, scary kind of look about him. He

wasn’t hot in any of the traditional senses or ways that the

media would portray a man as being desirable. He was nice,

when you got to know him, but maybe Amy liked scary men

who looked like they could pick a person up and break them in

half. Haley pushed up and opened her arms, smoothie in hand,

to hug both her friends. “I’m so glad you’re here! I hope you

brought your bathing suits.”

“We did.” Elva pointed at the backpack on Amy’s shoulder

and the one on her own. “This place is crazy nice. I wish my

dad would owe someone money so that I’d get to stay in a