Page 13 of The Love Lie
Or is that just his lungs from lack of air?
All at once, Cooper surges to the surface. He flicks the water from his hair and focuses back on the bungalow to escape the nagging doubts. Movement catches his eye as Sam pads across the living room. She peeks casually at the empty couch, then looks around curiously. She’s the exact distraction he needs.
It’s go time.
Cooper swims back to the edge of the deck. Forgoing the ladder, he places his palms on the wood and hauls himself out of the ocean in one smooth motion, perfectly aware of how his muscles flex and strain. He doesn’t look up as he tucks hisfeet underneath him and pushes to standing. The sun shines overhead. Droplets glisten over his mostly naked frame. Water courses down his bare chest. He brings his hand up to smooth his hair out of his face. With his bicep flexed beside his head, he finally looks up to meet the eyes he knows are on him.
Sam stares at him, her mouth agape, practically drooling. His lips curl into a grin. She immediately snaps her jaw shut and scowls. He crosses the distance and slides the door open.
“Good morning,” he chirps.
“You planned that,” she accuses flatly.
“Planned what?” He lifts his brow, the picture of innocence. “The water’s great. You should try it.”
“Don’t you have a bathing suit?”
He shrugs. “Figured this works just as well.”
“Sure you did.”
Her gaze rakes down his chest hard enough he can practically feel the passionate scratch of nails. She pauses on a location distinctly south of his belly button where his wet boxer briefs cling to him almost indecently. A hungry look flashes in her eyes. She gulps. And he wants to gloat, but instead the intensity of her stare makes him twitch…down there. Suddenly, he’s not as in control of the situation as he thought. But Sam either doesn’t notice or is too flustered to seize the advantage because she just snaps her gaze up as a warm blush fills her cheeks.
“I don’t have time to swim anyway.”
“Why not?” He frowns. “There’s nothing on our itinerary for the day. I checked this morning.”
“I told Emily to leave my laptop and phone with the front desk when she left. I need to grab them and get to work.”
“Work?” He pauses and pointedly stares back out at the glistening ocean before arching his brow. “In a place like this?”
“My boss probably wants to fire me for disappearing on him like this, so yes, work, if I want to still be employed by the timethese five days are up.” She sighs and rubs her forehead, so much more flustered than the woman he saw the night before, all confidence and defiance.
Cooper crosses his arms and leans against the doorframe, his curiosity piqued by the change in her demeanor. “And what do you do for work? Emily never said.”
“I’m an analyst at an investment banking firm,” she replies distractedly, obviously still running through some sort of list in her mind.
Cooper whistles. “Fancy.”
He means to sound teasing, but it must come off differently because she snaps her head up with the wrong kind of fire in her eyes. “Yeah, well, we can’t all shovel cow shit for a living.”
“Ooh, Cuj. That one hurt.” He presses his palm to his chest as if wounded, unable to fight the grin that widens his lips. He can’t help it—he likes her bite.
But her expression immediately softens. “Sorry, that was an asshole thing to say. I’m just stressed.”
“Who wouldn’t be stressed, waking up in a place like this?” He casually takes in the private suite that probably costs three grand a night. “I mean, really? This is the best the network could afford?”
She snorts.
“Besides,” he continues. “I do shovel cow shit for a living, among other things.”
He’s been elbow deep up a cow’s asshole more times than he can count, not that he’s going to tell that to her. Ranching definitely isn’t glamorous. But it has its moments, like waking up before dawn during the first frost of the season to watch the entire sweep of plains glitter like diamonds with the rising sun, or witnessing a newborn calf rise on shaking legs to suckle from its mother for the first time. She lives her life in a cubicle. He lives his outdoors, no walls to cage him in. And when he goes onvacation in a place like this, even if it doesn’t happen very often, he can appreciate it instead of waking up anxious to bury his face in a screen.
Yes, Cooper knows exactly what city folk like her think about his line of work, and it doesn’t bother him one bit. He wouldn’t trade places with them for all the money in the world.
Which is why he just shrugs and finishes his thought with a simple, “I take no offense to the truth about honest work.”
“You’re too nice.” She winces. “I really hate that I said that, and I’m sorry. I don’t actually think that way. My mom owns a flower shop and my dad is a police chief, and from what I’ve seen of the world, they deserve to make millions a lot more than every jerk in my office, including me.”
