Page 28 of One Life to Loathe

Good job, idiot,I chastised myself.Yelling at her is totally going to make things better.

“You don’t like me,” Sam replied stiffly. “You’ve made that apparent. I just don’t want to force you to touch me when we’re trying to be professional.”

She was on my last nerve. Or maybe I was the one somehow irritating myself. Was that possible? “Sam, we have to touch one another. We’re playing love interests.” Was she trying to kill me? It certainly felt that way. At the very least, she was trying to make me go insane. “We have to find a happy medium here.” Something occurred to me. “Are you sure you’re not the one uncomfortable touching me?”

The look she shot me was withering. “I know how to do my job. Far be it from me to try to be respectful of your boundaries.”

What boundaries? I hadn’t set any boundaries. Had I? When I looked back at the limited time I’d spent with her, I realized I’d done nothing but set endless boundaries. I was mean. I mocked the show. I didn’t understand her point of view. All of that suggested I didn’t like her. Of course she was uncomfortable with me.

“Listen, you’re seeing things that aren’t there.” I kept my tone even. “I know I’m not easy to get along with?—”

She let loose a snorting sound.

“We have a job to do, though.” I was plaintive now. “You’re right. I need this to go well. I really don’t want to screw it up for the rest of you either. I’m just a jerk sometimes. I can’t seem to help myself.”

Her eyes were searching when they locked with mine. “Have you ever tried not being a jerk?”

I barked out a laugh. She was funny. She might not have realized it—and maybe it wasn’t always on purpose—but she was funny. And when she smiled, it was brighter than the sun and made everything in her general vicinity warmer. Unfortunately, she didn’t smile all that often around me.

“Maybe we should try something different,” I suggested. “Instead of ignoring each other when we’re not working, maybe we should try to be friends.”

Who just suggested that? Did I suggest that? Crap. Why did I even say that?

“You want to be friends?” Sam was understandably dubious.

“Of course,” I replied, even though I was mentally head-slapping myself. I was just digging myself in deeper.

“I guess we can try to be friends.”

“Great.” I slid my arm around her waist without prompting and cocked my head when my fingers brushed the skin betweenher corset and the top of her pants. Did she have to be so soft? Wait … why was I blaming her? It wasn’t as if I hadn’t touched a woman recently. I went out to bars when I needed to let off steam. I was hardly celibate.

Still—still—touching her was making something short inside my head. She smelled divine, like cloves and cinnamon colliding. Her eyes were clear, and there was nothing devious happening in them. Not ever. With Sam, what you saw was what you got. She didn’t play games. She just wanted to exist.

You should be more like that.

I ruthlessly shoved the voice out of my head and focused on the task. “Here we go.” I pulled her body flush with mine and tried to ignore the weird things happening inside of me. There were small explosions going off here and there. They were going to cause me to pass out if I wasn’t careful. That’s how intense they were.

It was only then that I realized what was happening. It was chemistry. I felt it when I looked at Sam. It had been so long since I’d felt legitimate chemistry that I hadn’t recognized it. That’s what this was, though.

There were sparks.

Between her and me.

Endless freaking sparks.

Double crap. I didn’t need sparks. I wasn’t going to do anything about them, of course—I didn’t date co-stars for obvious reasons—but the sparks were definitely there. Did she feel them too? Her face was squinched up in concentration, and I honestly couldn’t tell. She didn’t seem all that worked up, though. If she was feeling what I was feeling, she would be reacting. That was all there was to it.

I decided I needed to put some space between us so I could avoid getting burned by the sparks, but Miles had decided to return, and he was clapping when he took us in.

“That’s great!” he enthused. “That right there is what I’m looking for. You guys look as if you want to jump one another.”

The only thing that jumped when he said that was my penis. It seemed to be excited at the thought of jumping Sam.

Down boy. Good grief. We are working.

“Let’s just get this done,” I gritted out. I needed to get away from Sam. My mind was too busy to put up with this for long. “Let’s just … get the photos in.”

“Okay.” Miles bobbed his head. If he realized I was struggling, he didn’t show it. “Sam, tilt up your chin. Stare into Leo’s eyes.”

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