Page 30 of Fifth Avenue Flirt

I chuckle. “Right,” I say. Is this an ambush?

“I think I have a solution. Maybe,” she says, tapping her temple.

“You do?” Avril says. “You didn’t say anything to me.”

“I just thought of it when Ben was up on the stage singing to you.”

“He wasn’t singing to me.”

“He’s into you,” Poppy says to Avril, like I’m not there. “It’s obvious. And he wants something to develop.” Poppy’s gaze slides toward me and then back to her sister.

“No, he wants to bang me again.”

I nod but don’t say anything. I definitely, one hundred percent want to bang her again, but something tells me I’m not really involved with this conversation.

“Whatever,” Poppy says. “And you’ve said you can keep it in your pants and keep things just business, so there’s no messiness.”

Poppy really knows all the details of our conversation. I make a mental note never to tell anything to Avril that I don’t want Poppy to know, and vice versa.

“Go on,” Avril says.

“He says he can make you fall in love with him in seven days, right?”

They both turn to me.

“That’s what I said.” I mean, it was a joke, but I think I can win most people over. She would at least see my good points by then.

“So, give him a week. In seven days you won’t be in love, and he’ll realize he can keep it in his pants because he’ll have gotten to know you.”

“Hey!” Avril says. “He’ll have gotten to know me, so he won’t find me attractive?”

Poppy shrugs. “Just that the novelty will have worn off.”

“The novelty?” she asks, wide eyed. I try not to smirk. Poppy doesn’t seem to register that she’s offended her sister. She’s more focused on solutions. I like that about her.

“Yes. Then he knows you can both keep it professional.”

“I’m not going to fall in love with him in a week, Poppy,” Avril says. “Novelty or not,” she mumbles.

“So, then he’ll know that and he can help us get the Boston hotel, safe in the knowledge that you just have a working relationship. No one’s fucking anyone to say thank you. No one’s doing anyone favors because they want to see the other one naked.” Poppy turns to me. “That was your worry, right? That things would get messy and misinterpreted and people would get compromised.”

“Right,” I say. “I don’t want to take advantage of anyone.” But I also have a rule against mixing the personal and the professional. A hard rule that I’ve never broken. A rule my mum urged me to follow my entire life so I didn’t end up like my dad. “I don’t mix the personal and the professional.”

Avril groans and the vibration travels across my skin like she’s just licked my cock from base to tip.

This girl.

“He’s not taking advantage of me,” Avril says.

“I know,” Poppy says. “But he wants to be clear. So if you spend a week together, then he can be sure.”

“A week?” she says, shaking her head.

I chuckle. “You see, Poppy, she knows that in a week, she’d be head over heels. She can’t risk it.”

“Jesus, Ben,” Avril says. “That ego of yours will get you in trouble one day.”

“Probably,” I agree. Until then, it’s pretty funny watching her reactions.