Page 5 of Bright Lights and Summer Nights

She’s blonde, her hair barely hitting the tops of her collarbone, but because of the dark, I can’t fully see her face.

I squint, trying to make out her features. “On the count of three, jump down and I’ll catch you.”

Her hair blows in the wind as she nods her head. “Okay,” she says tentatively.

“One…” I begin, lifting my hands in the air to help her down. “Two…”

“Wait!” she yells, shifting her weight slightly at the top. “How do I know you won’t let me face-plant?”

“Guess you’re just going to have to trust me,” I counter, wiggling my fingers, even though I’m unaware if she can see them or not.

She laughs sarcastically, the sound echoing off the trees. “Trust a total stranger who is witnessing me commit a felony? You really have reached rock bottom, Emma…”

Emma.

I play with the name in my head, surprisingly wanting to immediately know everything about her.

“Well, Emma,” I begin, lowering my voice slightly. “You have two choices. You can trust me to catch you and attend the party you’ve worked so hard to break into, or you can jump back down and return home wondering what would’ve happened if you just trusted a handsome stranger in the dark.”

“Very bold of you to call yourself handsome.”

This makes me laugh. A loud one that comes from deep inside my chest. Now isn’t the time to tell her that just last year, I was announced as the sexiest man alive. My publicist forced me to do a photoshoot and a media tour for the entire thing. It isn’t my favorite accolade I’ve been awarded, but I’m confident enough to know most view me as handsome.

“Why don’t you jump down and you can tell me yourself?” I fire back, desperate for her to take the bait and jump.

I wait for her to respond, but instead of answering, she does the last thing I was expecting. She launches herself from the top of the fence without any sort of warning.

She yelps, her body catapulting into mine.

“Fuck,” I mutter, my hands grabbing her hips as my feet plant into the grass to try and stop the both of us from falling to the ground.

The stranger—Emma—grips my arms like she’s holding on for dear life. Her arms wrap around my neck as her shaking body molds to mine.

“What happened to counting down?” I ask, my voice tight.

She laughs under her breath. “Counting down makes it worse. I had to go for it.”

Before I can respond, she pulls away. I let her feet hit the ground, confident she’s safe now. I want to give her some sort of witty remark, but I’m too thrown off by the sheer beauty of the woman standing in front of me to speak.

CHAPTER 4

EMMA

A loud laugh bubbles from my throat as I take in the stranger staring at me with an unreadable look on his face. “Wow. It turns out you weren’t lying,” I mutter, wondering if I said it for his benefit or for mine.

He cocks his head to the side, his sharp jawline now illuminated by the moon. “Lying about what?”

“You are stupidly handsome,” I answer, wishing it wasn’t the truth.

His lips twitch. It isn’t a full smile, but even though I barely know this man, I could guess that a full smile is hard to earn from him. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

My hands find my hips as I take another step back, the grass soft beneath my feet. “It’s a terrible thing. The more handsome a man is, the more of an asshole he is, too. It’s a proven fact.”

One of his dark eyebrows rises as he watches me closely. God, does he have to be so attractive? His blue eyes are almost piercing, feeling like they’re staring me down right to my soul as he thinks something over.

I use the silence to my advantage, my eyes roaming over him so I can drink him in. His dark hair is buzzed short on the sides and slightly longer at the top, but not by a lot. The haircut suits him, bringing attention to all the sharp lines of his chiseled features.

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just assume that I’m an asshole,” he notes, turning around and reaching down to grab each of my discarded heels.

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