Page 9 of The Off-Limits Rule: Extended Edition

I smile and pull my hand back. “Sorry. Not trying toseduceyou, I swear,” I say, emphasizing the word to remind her of her earlier ridiculous statement. Time to tug us back into the friend zone—probably my least favorite of all the zones. “But now that I’ve not only seen but also touched your hairy legs and you don’t see me running away screaming, you have no choice but to come cliff jumping with us.”

“Cliff jumping?! No.” She’s vehemently shaking her head. “No, no, no. I don’t do that kind of thing.”

“By ‘that kind of thing’ you mean exhilarating fun?”

“Don’t make me remind you about my book. I go on all kinds of exhilarating adventures in those.”

I scoot a little closer without meaning to. “I would argue that books give the illusion of fun. But believe me, there’s nothing like the real thing.”

She lifts an eyebrow, and I could swear she scoots closer too. “I’ll argue that you’re wrong. Studies show that reading a book actually increases dopamine in your brain and reduces stress.”

“You know what else releases dopamine and reduces stress?” I watch Lucy swallow, and her eyes dip to my mouth. “Cliff jumping,” I whisper with a smug smile.

The corners of her lips curve up softly as she continues staring at mine, making this moment feel oddly intimate and charged. I wonder if she’s feeling the same pull I’m feeling.

“Cooper!” Bailey and her friend Jessica both singsong at me from in the water. “Come on! Let’s go to the cliffs.”

“Yeah,Cooper.” That’s Drew now, mocking their flirtatious voices. “Let’s go!I need you tohold my handwhile wejump!” His voice sounds ridiculous, and it’s followed up by anoof.I imagine Bailey and Jessica both hitting him in the stomach.

I look back at Lucy, and her new closed-off expression pokes at me. “You guys go without me,” I say.

Her eyebrows furrow tightly together, like she can’t fathom that I would want to stay on this boat with her rather than go off with the others to the cliffs. “Why aren’t you going?”

I shrug. “Because I don’t want to leave you here alone.”

“But…I’ll be fine here. I’ve got my—”

“Book.Yes, I know. But just imagine how much fun we’ll have talking and flirting back here on the boat while they go cliff jump for a while.” I raise and lower my eyebrows once. “You can haveme all to yourself. Endless flirting opportunities. You won’t even have a minute to waste on your book, we’ll be so deep in conversation. I’ve got an entire list of questions I’m dying to ask the second they’re all gone.”

Her eyebrows sink low. “I see what you’re doing.”

“What’s that?”

“Trying to make cliff jumping seem more appealing than staying behind and being forced to talk.”

“Absolutely. Is it working?”

Her smile pulls up in one corner. “Yes.” She rolls her eyes when she sees my smile grow. “Fine, I’m in. Let’s go.”

Chapter 4

Lucy

I’mnotin. So very not in. In fact, I’d say I’m pretty solidly out.

With every single step I climb up this cliffside, I question my mental stability more and more. Obviously, there are some cylinders not firing correctly in my head to have so easily succumbed to reverse psychology. One minute I’m blissfully reading on the boat. The next Cooper is beside me, sending electrical currents through my body with a single look, and then he’s threatening to unleash his full flirtatious abilities on me, and I panicked. There’s no way I wouldn’t humiliate myself if left alone with Cooper for more than ten minutes.

Now I’m almost to the top of the cliff, and all I want to do is drop to the ground and spread my body out to grip the earth as much as possible. This is terrifying. And so high up! Worst part of all, I’m up here alone, with everyone down below, floating in the water and chanting my name.Super.I love when people chant my name to get me to jump off fifty-foot cliffs.

I should have stayed home.

I reach the top, and my legs wobble when I look over the edge. Ohhhhh no. I can’t do this. Did I mention I’m deathly afraid of heights? So afraid that I even avoid the glass railings on the second floor of the mall. I’m a spineless jellyfish for agreeing to this—for letting Cooper’s hypnotic aqua eyes coax me into adventure. Ihateadventure. If there were a shirt with that saying, I’d buy it and wear it every day with a matching hat.

“You okay up there, Luce?” Drew yells from the water. He knows my fear of heights and was skeptical when I said I’d jump. I was offended at his look of disbelief at the time, but now I want to go back in time and strap myself into his Jeep and tell him to gun it all the way home.

My ego will never allow it though.

“Super!” I yell from the edge with a double thumbs-up. “Just savoring the view!”

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