Page 37 of The Love Lie
“I wouldn’t dare, Cuj.” A smile tugs at his lips. “All I was going to ask is if you wanted me to order you some room service. I’m about to call something in.”
“Room service.”
He eyes her uncertainly. “Yes…?”
“Room service,” she repeats, louder this time, her eyes bugging just a little before she shakes it off. “Right. Of course. Sure, get me the shrimp salad I had the other day. Thanks.”
The door slams in his face.
He recoils as if she slapped him.The hell?
And then her fractured sentence registers.I guess I could—
Could what?
I guess I could eat. I guess I could have dinner. I guess I could stand here and look at you and talk as if I’m not affected at all.
That makes one of them.
Except he thinks about the way she briefly studied her room, the way her teeth worried over her lower lip, the way her cheeks turned a slight shade of pink. He assumed she was annoyed, but could she have actually been…embarrassed?
Shit.
He’s suddenly positive about what she was going to say.I guess I could go get dinner.
As in go somewhere.
As in leave this room.
Together.
Shiiiit.
Well, he dropped that fucking ball, didn’t he?
Cooper lifts his hand as if to knock, then lets it fall. He knows her well enough to know that the opportunity has passed. Whatever momentary breach in her defenses occurred, it’s done now. The mortar’s patched. The crack is filled. That ten-foot-thick stone wall stands solid once again.
An hour later, he calls out to let her know the food is there, then he returns to the deck where he left his camera perched on a mini-tripod. The sky is just beginning to pinken, and he’s itching to capture a sunset before he leaves. Dusk was always his mother’s favorite time of day because it was when the ranch finally loosened its hold on her husband. Cooper spent many an evening with her on that back porch, curled against her side in the swing his father had built, watching the sky turn gold, looking for a figure on the horizon while the scent of a hearty dinner wafted on the breeze like a lure. He spent even more evenings on the back of his horse, the glow from the kitchenspilling like a beacon into an ever-darkening night, riding toward home with an ache in his gut, following his nose.
But that was before she passed.
Before the house went dark.
“Can I join you?”
He fumbles with his camera, practically jumping out of his skin as he spins. His heart is a racehorse thundering around a track. “Yeah, yeah. Of course. Yeah.”
An amused smile overtakes her face. “You all right there, cowboy?”
Honestly, he’s not sure. The sight of her has struck him stupid. If he thought she was sexy in that ivory gown on the beach, or in his hat and little else, or in that barely-there bikini, he wasn’t prepared for this. Her face is freshly washed and clear of any makeup. Her hair is a mess bundled high atop her head in some sort of gravity-defying bun he has no idea how she secured. Glasses he had no clue she needed rest on her nose. Black leggings cover her down to her ankles and a downy pink sweatshirt hangs off her frame, two sizes too big. He can’t stop looking at the spot where it falls tantalizingly off her shoulder. He’s never been so turned on by six bare inches of skin. Freckles dance along her collarbone and all he wants to do is lick them.
This is Sam.
Not the vixen or the analyst or the actress.
It’s a glimpse at the real woman hiding underneath. A tease. And all it does is make him want to see how beautiful she looks when she comes completely undone.
“I’m good.” Cooper forces the words up his dry throat. They come out as little more than a deep, rough rumble. Sam’s eyes flutter for a moment. “I just didn’t expect you. I thought you had to work.”
