Page 117 of The Love Lie
“Before you say anything, there’s one more thing you should know.”
He scoffs. “What the hell else did you do?”
“I left my underwear in the dressing room.”
He drops his head against hers with a groan.
“What? I just thought it was an important piece of information you’d want to have before deciding your next move.”
“You can’t keep winning arguments like this.”
“Why not?” She grins as he slides his palms down the sides of her silk dress, checking for ridges that aren’t there. He curses under his breath. She licks his neck. “It works.”
“You’re a fucking menace,” he mutters as he bunches the skirt in his fists and pulls her closer.
“Maybe.” She shrugs, playing with the hairs at the base of his neck. “But I’m your menace.”
“You know what that makes me?” he asks as he takes a step back, then another and another, dragging them to a private little corner offstage. “The luckiest man in the world, Sam. The luckiest man in the entire goddamn world.”
epilogue
SIX MONTHS LATER
The second Samducks through the airplane exit to see Cooper waiting on the tarmac with his arms crossed and a too-eager expression hiding in the shadows beneath his ball cap, she knows exactly what he’s planning.
“Absolutely not.”
“Hear me out.”
“No.”
“Cuj—”
“What could the two of you possibly be arguing about already?” Nina calls out from over Sam’s shoulder. “And can you give me five minutes to get a camera set up before you keep going?”
Sam rolls her eyes, smiling when she catches Cooper in the same act. She spent the past week with Emily in Los Angeles opening their first pop-up shop, assembling a new manufacturing team, and hiring a social media manager plus two new assistants to keep up with the rapidly growing success of Emily Ann Designs, which has taken off like a rocket since the season aired, and seems to be headed straight for the moon if her projections are correct—and her projections arealways correct. She’d hoped to get some time alone with Cooper before they officially started filming their new show, but that was before her mom showed up unannounced outside of Emily and Jake’s door with three lattes, a binder, and enough bridal magazines to restock a library. The woman is an unstoppable force. Luckily, that hurricane is completely focused on Emily. With her sister’s wedding set for the summer, their mother is, for the moment, choosing to respect Sam and Cooper’s plans for a long engagement. But it’s only a matter of time.
She shivers.
At the bottom of the stairs, Cooper arches a brow. Sam just shakes her head. When she reaches the final step, he takes her by the hand and gently pulls so she falls into his chest. Instead of going in for a kiss, as she expects, he hauls her up against him with his arm securely around her waist and drags his lips across her cheek to her ear.
“Twenty minutes,” he murmurs.
Sam leans back. He stares at her with a pointedly arched brow and holds her closer—close enough she can tell exactly what’s on his mind. Not that it hasn’t been obvious by the smoldering way he’s been mentally undressing her since the moment she stepped off the plane.
“Twenty minutes?”
A dimple digs wickedly into his cheek. “Twenty minutes.”
It’s a compelling argument, especially when a tired voice asks from behind, “What the hell is in twenty minutes?”
Sam glances at Nina, then past her to the stream of producers, cameramen, and assistants waiting to disembark, all headed to the same place as her and Cooper. Her mom’s surprise arrival in Los Angeles meant she pushed back her flight to the last possible moment and flew in with the crew. Sure, it was fun getting the extra time with her sister and her mom, but thechange in plans left her with no time to be alone with her fiancé before the horde descended. Unless…
Sam turns back to Cooper and groans.
He knows he has her.
Dammit.
