Page 58 of Enticed

“Fair enough,” she says before forming her answer. “I would probably kiss Olivia, marry Perry, and kill Amy.”

“Really? Care to explain?” I ask while trying to watch her face and watch the cars breaking in front of me.

“Well, Liv has pretty nice lips—I’ve always been jealous of them. I think being married to Perry would be awesome because the woman can run a blog and a household—she gets shit done. And Amy is the only one left, so I guess she gets death.”

“Wow. You’re cut throat,” I tease her, reaching for her hand.

“Just logical. Okay, your turn then?” She asks, shifting in her seat and folding one of her legs up underneath her to face me.

“Yup. Lay it on me.”

“Okay. Out of Cash, Luke, and Kane… who would you kiss, marry, and kill.”

I rub the stubble on my chin while I contemplate my answer, mostly because I know the noise turns Clara on. I cast my eyes over to her and catch her gaze on my hand, her eyes darkening with each pass of my fingernail over the hair.

“Okay. I would kiss Cash, marry Kane, and kill Luke.”

Clara gasps. “You would kill the widower?”

“Well, I look at it this way,” I begin while adjusting my seated position. “Cash has a lot of experience kissing women, so he’d probably be pretty good at it…”

“I’m going to tell him you said that,” Clara chides as I mentally reply that she won’t have the opportunity unless we open up about our relationship—but I leave that out for now. “And Kane is one of the most loyal men I’ve ever met. He loves my sister something fierce, so I think he would make a great husband.”

“Awww, you love your future brother-in-law, don’t you?” She bats her eyelashes at me.

“Eh, he’s alright,” I wink at her.

“And so you would kill Luke by elimination?”

I shake my head. “No. I would kill him so he could be reunited with his wife.”

Clara sits back and stares at me. I can feel the laser effect of her eyes before I turn to search her face. Her mouth is in a flat line and she’s barely blinking. I can’t get a good read on what she’s thinking at all.

“Wow. I think that’s one of the most morbid yet sweet things I’ve ever heard.” I shrug and then flash her a crooked grin as she reaches for my hand and brings it to her lips. “You sure are a romantic, aren’t you, Coop?”

“You ain’t seen nothing yet, babe. Just wait for all the fun I have in store this weekend.”

We keep talking and sharing stories of our childhood as the traffic finally lets up and we make our way up the mountain. There’s a road I need to turn on to get to the resort, so I tell Clara to help me keep a lookout as we cruise.

“Do you remember that time you came home for Thanksgiving and you and Liv were finally both twenty-one?”

Clara laughs and then bobs her head. “Yes. I’m pretty sure I remember that night.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t.”

“Well, I think that was one of our first tequila drowning sessions. Liv had just broken up with someone, I believe, so I felt obligated as the best friend to help her forget.”

“Well, I remember that night because my dad sent me to the bar to pick the two of you up.” I can still see Clara that evening—decked out in black leather leggings, a red sweater that cut deep into her cleavage, and her long brown hair curled in waves down her shoulders. It wasn’t the first time I appreciated her body in my life—but it was the first time I looked at her as a woman. She wasn’t a teenager. She wasn’t just my sister’s friend. She was Clara Anderson, the woman—and she was gorgeous.

“Oh yeah. That was a fun car ride home,” she laughs as signs for our turn start to appear on the side of the road next to the gigantic trees filling the forest. We are knee-deep in the woods now and almost to the top of the mountain, driving up a two-lane road, the soft orange glow from the sunset filtering through the tree trunks and branches around us.

“I think that was the first time you came on to me,” I admit, remembering how she flirted with me when Liv passed out in the back seat.

“I did not!” She admonishes, but I just nod indignantly.

“Yes, you did! Seriously, Clara… with your track record, would you doubt that you did?” I wink in her direction as she huffs and crosses her arms over her chest. She’s pouting and fuck if it isn’t turning me on.

“I plead the fifth,” she finally says, trying not to smile.

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