Page 36 of When Stars Collide
“Don’t cover up on my account.”
“You’re not going to seduce me.” As soon as the words were out, she wished she hadn’t spoken them.
“Hey, you’re the one who keeps bringing up sex.”
She shot up in the water, gripping the towel around herself. “Liar. You bring it up every time you waltz around in front of me without a shirt.”
“I’ve never once waltzed around—”
“And when you look at me with that face.” She climbed out.
“I can’t help my—”
“And bat those green eyes.”
His voice raised in outrage. “I never batted an eye in my life!”
She stomped across the snowy deck in her flip-flops. “Every time you— You—” She grabbed the bedroom doorknob.
It was locked.
7
Stunned, Olivia spun toward him. “You locked the door!”
He reared up from the bubbles. “What do you mean?”
“The door! You must have pushed the lock when you came out here.”
“I didn’t do anything to the lock. Let me see.”
He rose—his body steaming in the cold night air, a male Aphrodite emerging from an artificial sea.
The veteran of a hundred locker rooms wasn’t self-conscious about nudity, and she should have been too focused on the locked door for more than a passing glance, but she wasn’t.
He was magnificent, every part of him. Shoulders and chest, narrow hips, lean and powerful legs. And...Wow.
He moved in front of her and tried the knob. “You’re right.”
She forced herself to refocus. “Of course I’m right!”
“What kind of idiot would use a lock like this on a balcony door?”
“They’re your friends, not mine.”
He felt above the door frame. “See if you can find an extra key anyplace out here.”
There was no furniture, nowhere to really look, but she poked around anyway. “Nothing. Why didn’t we bring our phones? We should have brought Paisley.”
“Depressing thought.” He abandoned his fruitless search above the door and reached for his boxers. “I don’t suppose any of those classes you take taught you how to pick a lock?”
“Lock-picking isn’t a requirement for grand opera, but I can order dessert in seven languages.”
“Currently useless, but still impressive. We’ll find another way in.”
“It’s freezing!” Like any serious opera singer, she religiously guarded herself against chills with scarves around her throat, herbal teas, and vitamin supplements, yet here she was.
“Get back in the water.”
