READY OR NOT (CAMREN)

FOUR

Lauren quirked her head. "I'm sorry. You're not what?"

"Just a bartender. I mean, I'm that too. I love to tend bar, but I'm also a business owner."

"Owner of what?" Lauren asked.

"Showplace."

Right on cue, four jaws dropped. "Wait," Ally said, making a rewind gesture with her hands. Camila enjoyed the rewind gesture. "You own Showplace? What happened to that bald guy with the big stomach who used to grumble at everyone? Now that you mention it, I haven't seen him in a while."

"LA?" Camila asked. "He was causing the place to bleed money and sold it to me a year and a half ago."

"Back when you started working behind the bar and the place got crazy popular out of nowhere?" Normani stared at her. "And you're just now telling me this?"

"I didn't think it was a secret," Camila told her in all honesty.

The best part was that Lauren's beautiful face was now carefully blank. It seemed she was out of ammunition, which was beyond pleasurable for Camila. She accepted the win but decided not to celebrate. Not really her style. "If you'll excuse me I think I'm going to check out the water. I'm on kind of a high right now."

Lauren watched Camila descend the steps to the sand below with a prickle of regret moving up her spine. She'd behaved badly...again...and she wanted to somehow fix it, because this wasn't her. At least, it wasn't who she wanted to be.

It was dark out now, but the light from the deck illuminated the surrounding shoreline, and with Camila's sexy silhouette , it wasn't hard to track her progress as she walked along its edge. "Excuse me a moment," Lauren said to her friends, who exchanged interested glances. "And stop that. No looking at each other."

"Like at all?" Ally called after her. "Because that could get weird."

"You'll figure it out," she called back.

When she stepped down onto the beach, she slipped out of her shoes and inhaled sharply at the cold sand against the bottoms of her feet. Unfortunately, when the sun disappeared, it had taken much of the warmth of the day with it. She walked gingerly down to the shoreline and headed north to where she saw the brunetter, who was staring out at the darkened water.

"I have no idea why I'm rude to you," she said to Camila's back.

Camila tossed a glance over her shoulder, but she was smiling and that was something. "Yet, you can't seem to help yourself."

Lauren shook her head. "I don't know what it is."

"Try. I'm honestly curious."

"I think it's your cavalier carriage and that smile you have when you make the drinks that switches when you smile at me and then—" She paused because Camila was staring at her with amusement and that sent her defenses flaring. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I think, in your roundabout way, you just said you're hot for me."

"Pshhh. Um, no." Lauren looked away as if it was the most ludicrous statement she'd heard in recent history. "That is absolutely not true. In fact," she said, downing the rest of the shot of rum she still carried, "I find you annoying. And I find the smile annoying. That's two annoying things about you already." She covered her mouth in a mixture of shock and regret at the words that had just fled from her mouth without permission.

Camila shook her head slowly. "There you go again."

"I'm so sorry. I don't know where that comes from. I was brought up with manners, I promise. I'm generally much nicer. But with you, things just fly out of my mouth like it has a mind of its own."