Page 5 of Loving Her Enemy

“What the hell is wrong with you? What were you thinking landing on top of me? You could’ve killed me!”

“I was thinking I didn’t know if you could swim!” he snapped back, his angry eyes boring into her. “You shouldn’t have been that close to the edge of the pool while you were gawking at me.”

“Gawking? Gawking at you?” she snapped. “You wish!”

“I guess it’s safe to say you’re both okay,” Hershel said, drying his hands on another towel.

“Why are you even here?” Bristol asked her brother, her arm tight around Halayna as if she was afraid she’d collapse. “And when did you get here?”

“I’m fine. Thanks for caring,” Sloane said, glaring at his sister as he accepted the towel Hershel offered him.

“Of course I care,” Bristol snarled. “I’m just shocked to see you. I thought you were in the UK.”

He dried his face and wrapped the towel around his shoulders. “Change of plans, and since I knew you were in town, I came home. And you…” he pointed at Halayna, “I almost didn’t recognize you. What happened to your arm, and why the hell are you so skinny?”

Halayna gasped, then shook out of her friend’s hold. “Ugh! You’re still…you’re still…” she growled at Sloane, struggling to find the words to best describe him as he stood there soaked and looking like a wet dream. “You’re still an asshole!”

She snatched her sun hat and sarong from the lounger, shoved her feet into her flip-flops and stormed away. Sloane Davidson might be fine as hell, but he was still a clueless jerk.

I gotta get out of here. No way was she staying in that house if his gorgeous ass was back in town. His mansion might be huge, but the entire state of Georgia wasn’t big enough for the both of them.

Chapter Three

The moment the words left his mouth, Sloane knew he had messed up. Still, what he’d said was true. Halayna barely resembled the woman he had known as his sister’s best friend. Seeing her looking so frail and thin definitely caught him off guard.

His gaze bounced from Hershel, then to Bristol, who sent him a murderous glare.

Yeah, he was an idiot.

“None of that came out right,” he rushed to say. “I was shocked, alright? You never mentioned Halayna was here with you. When I came out to check on the pool’s temperature, I—I was… well, shocked to find someone I didn’t know!”

Shocked was an understatement. Halayna always had a destabilizing effect on him. It started the first time he’d met her when he had dropped Bristol off at college. Though he had wanted Bristol to have her own dorm room, his sister insisted on having a roommate, and that roommate turned out to be Halayna.

Back then, though he’d been attracted to Halayna, he had never considered making a play. Not only because of the huge ten-year age difference, he’d also been obsessed with building his empire.

Halayna had been nice to look at, and she’d been a sweetheart, but that was it. That was all he had allowed himself to think of her.

But then over the years, as he watched her turn into a smoking hot beauty, his attraction to her multiplied. Not just because she was stunning, but also because the woman was wicked smart and self-confident. Still, he kept his distance, honoring the taboo of not dating his sister’s best friend.

Seeing Halayna again, and in his home in a skimpy one-piece swimsuit, shook him. And if he had to admit it, not in a bad way. Her long, glorious ebony hair draped over her left shoulder. He had always dreamed of running his fingers through the silky strands, wondering if they were as soft as they looked.

And those beautiful deep-chocolate eyes… Eyes that tilted downward at the corners, dark as midnight as they’d stared at him. The woman stirred a longing so potent inside Sloane that he had been struck speechless.

It wasn’t until her name finally fell from his mouth in a whisper that he snapped out of his daze. Well, that and the fact that she’d been too close to the pool’s edge.

Bristol huffed a breath and ran a hand through her shoulder-length curly hair, disappointment lingering in her eyes.

“For a brilliant man, you sure say the stupidest things around Lanie. I get you were surprised to see her, but it never fails, Sloane. And you wonder why she hates you. You’d better hope she isn’t leaving.”

“Wait!” he said when Bristol turned to walk away. “What happened to her? Why is she here?”

“She’s been through a lot. And when I happened to call her a few days ago, I found out she was in the hospital.”

His pulse amped as Bristol recounted the accident and some of the setbacks Halayna had experienced over the past few months. His protective side wanted to rush in, encircle her in his arms, and fix all her problems. But things never worked like that with Halayna. In all the years he’d known her, she’d been ridiculously independent, and for her to accept any help from Bristol meant things were probably more dire than they appeared.

“What can I do to help?” he asked.

“Letting her live here a while is all you need to do. If I can talk her into staying, will you keep your distance? At least for a few days, until she’s feeling more comfortable. She’s leery of men, and she still hasn’t forgiven you regarding Owen.”