Authors: Emily Snow
“Is that something you really want to
do?” I whispered. His gaze washed over
every visible inch of me, starting at the top
of my head, and I tugged my bathing suit
top down to cover the patch of stomach
that was exposed.
“The question is, is that what you
really want?” he asked.
“I just want to know if it’s bothering
you to be around me after what
happened,” I said all in one breath. When
his eyebrows furrowed together, I
squeezed my eyed shut. “Don’t make me
say it out loud.”
“If you want me to answer the damn
question, you will.”
My eyes flew open and narrowed into
a glare. “I’ve got a history, Cooper, and
it’s scary when my—” I struggled to find
the right word to describe what he was to
me at this point and finally heaved a sigh.
“I’m scared that you’re drawn to me
because you feel bad for me.”
His expression changed to something
unreadable and he pointed down at my
board. “Let’s go back in before another
wave hits.”
Clenching my teeth, I stretched out on
my board and began paddling back to the
shore, my arms and legs tingling the entire
time. The moment both our feet hit dry
land, though, Cooper gave me a dark look.
“Get rid of your bodyguard for a little
while. We need to talk.” When I didn’t
budge, he pulled in a deep breath through
his nose, crossing his suntanned arms over
his chest. “I’ll call you out at Dickson’s
party, Wills, if you don’t hear me out.”
I was seething when I stalked over to
Miller, who was patiently waiting for me
on a beach towel, but I coaxed a smile
onto my face. “I’m going inside with
Cooper to talk for a few minutes.” He
lifted an eyebrow and I forced a laugh.
“About surfing and movie stuff. Can you—
I don’t know—hang out in the shop with
Eric and Paige?”
Even though he never dropped the
concerned expression, Miller muttered,
“Sure, Willow.”
When we stepped into Cooper’s
house, Miller disappeared into the shop
where Eric and Paige were signing up two
new students—twins from the look of it.
Cooper wrapped his fingers around mine
and led me upstairs to his bedroom. As he
slammed the door behind us, part of me
expected him to put my back up against the
wall like he did the other night, but when I
saw the look in his eyes, I knew that
wasn’t going to happen.
Disappointment. Complete and utter
disappointment that made me crumple
against the wall all on my own.
“Let me make this clear,” he said. He
took a deep breath, squeezed the bridge of
his nose and turned around for a moment,
facing the king-sized bed. When he faced
me again, his shoulders were squared.
“Am I hell bent on protecting you? Yeah,
I’d rip someone apart to keep you safe.
Are you a pity fuck for me? Absolutely not
because I’ve wanted you more than
anything.”
“I’m fucked up, Cooper,” I said, and
when my voice hitched, he closed the
space between us, lifting my eyes until our
gazes were equal.
“We’ll fix you.”
He took both my hands into his and
drew me across the room. Sitting on the
edge of his bed, he pulled me onto him so
that I straddled him. We were both still
wet from being in the sea, and his
bedspreads dampened beneath our
bodies.
“And I’m insecure,” I whispered. He
touched the side of my face with the tip of
his index finger, tracing up the curve of my
cheek.
He massaged the area behind my ear,
skimming his fingertips along the tattoo,
making the skin there—and where my scar
was—burn with the memory. “We’ll fix
that too.”
“I’m selfish, too,” I said at last.
“God, Wills, so am I.”
***
other than my need to be across the room
from Cooper. Every time our eyes
connected, and it happened more than it
should have, he gave me that deep-
dimpled smile that made my knees feel
weak and my heart twist painfully in my
chest.
Later that night, after I’d returned to
my rental house and lay alone in the dark
staring at the moonlight through partially
opened blinds, listening to Ellie Goulding
on my laptop, I decided that I wouldn’t
think about what would happen after the
summer went away, when I was done with
this movie.
I only wanted the here and now with
Cooper.
I left for work the next morning
repeating that thought in my head as Miller
drove me to my filming location. Once we
arrived, I felt myself being slowly
immersed into my old life. The life of
someone that I couldn’t be anymore.
I tried my best to shake away the panic
slowly shooting through my veins.
“I can do this,” I whispered over and
over again, as a makeup artist fussed over
me.
“Can you hold your lips still, honey?”
the artist asked, blowing a stray lock of
her asymmetrical blonde bob out of her
eye. I nodded slowly, coming to terms
with the fact that I would hear things like
that often over the next month or two.
I spent the next hour in hair and
makeup, getting M.A.C. caked onto my
face so I would look natural on camera
and then another hour arguing with the
costume designer about the string bikini I
refused to wear. The moment I stepped out
of my trailer dressed in the costume we’d
finally decided on—a tiny pair of
hibiscus-print board shorts and a tight,
high-necked Quicksilver rashguard—I felt
a weight drive itself down on my chest.
Justin, my leading man, only made that
feeling worse when I ran into him at a
refreshment table.
He tossed an apple into the air before
taking a bite out of it, and I rolled my
eyes. “We’re on Yahoo’s entertainment
page today,” he said.
“Let me guess—WilTin?” I asked,
grabbing a bottle of water and a donut. He
laughed.
“Close, Jillow.”
I made a disgusted face. “It sounds
like a cross between Jell-O and bodily
fluid,” I said, and before he could get a
word in, I added sweetly, “With you being
the bodily fluid.”
He scratched the tip of his lightly
freckled nose and cocked his head to one
side, squinting at me. “Damn, so I don’t
have a chance.”
“Not at all.”
He sighed then shrugged. “Can’t blame
me for trying. There’s always the girl who
plays—”
But I’d already tuned him out, focusing
my attention instead on Dickson who was
coming toward the refreshment table. He
clapped his hands together, grinning.
“Ready to remake magic?”
I’d almost forgotten that he’d worked
as the production manager on the first
film. I shoved away the fear of failure that
churned in the pit of my belly and bobbed
my head. My hair, which had been styled
to look careless, ruffled in the stifling late
morning breeze. “I’m ready if Justin is.”
“Let’s make a movie then,” Dickson
said cheerfully. He apparently hadn’t
noticed the way my voice had faltered,
and if he did, he didn’t say anything about
it.
I spent the morning working on a love
scene with Justin on the beach. I was
numb to the kisses and touching, the way
his long hair scratched my face, and found
that I was more focused on trying not to
develop a lazy eye from all the cameras—
of the studio variety—flashing in my face
for the sake of promotional stills.
Justin, on the other hand, loved it,
especially when I had to lie flat on my
back on top of a surfboard to finish up a
make-out scene. As he pinned my arms
over my head, I waited for him to make
some wise ass remark, but he only spoke
his lines.
“I can’t live without you, Alyssa,” he
whispered, his hazel eyes reflecting the
emotion of the scene. Then he swooped in
to kiss me as an actor, and I did my best to
respond to him, to act oblivious to the
giant ass cameras recording us at just
about every angle.
A moment later, the scene was called
and Justin climbed off of me. He winked
before disappearing in search of one of
the extras he’d been talking to earlier.
When the crew took a break for lunch,
Miller escorted me back to my trailer. He
peeked in first and then nodded, giving me
the go ahead to step inside. “I missed an
important call,” he explained to me,
holding up his phone. “You need me I’ll
be right out here.”
“I’ll let you know,” I said, closing the
door. I was in the middle of letting out an
exhausted yawn when a voice with a
distinctive Australian accent spoke up.
“He didn’t check very well.” I gasped
as Cooper’s hands slipped over my eyes.
My body automatically moved against his,
and I shivered when his warm breath
fanned my ear. “First illegal bonfires and
now breaking into my girl’s trailer. I’m all
sorts of bad,” he teased.
His girl.
I was his girl.
I licked my mouth, attempting to get
rid of the sudden dryness at hearing him
say that. “You said you had a lesson,” I
whispered hoarsely, slowly turning
around to face him. “At least that’s what I
think you told me this morning.”
God, he looked so good with his hair
all messy and his face still a little red
from surfing and I just wanted to—
“I’m here
because
of this morning,” he
said, his expression tense. He’d showed
up to my door at 4am, grabbing me to him
without saying a single word, and had
picked me up, taking me to the back of my
tiny rental. He’d used his mouth on me for
ten agonizing minutes, pulling away each
time I came close to release.
“Please,” I’d finally panted, struggling
up on my elbows to meet his hot gaze.
He’d nipped the inside of my thigh,
shaking his head, and I’d groaned.
“Please?” I’d said once more, just for
him to shake his head again. Then I
raveled my hands into his blonde hair,
jerking up on it. “Cooper—”
A moment later, he’d climbed up
drawing my tongue into his mouth and
using his fingers to finish getting me off.
When I’d tried to pull down the swim
trunks he’d been wearing, he stopped me,
catching my hands around his waistband.
“I want an IOU,” he’d said right
before he kissed me one last time,
dizzying me up so that I couldn’t return to
sleep.
Reluctantly, I shook my head to bring
my thoughts back to the present, to where
he had me lodged between the mini fridge
and the kitchenette table. “You broke into
my trailer for an IOU?” I squeaked, and he
guided my hand between us, wrapping my
fingers around him through his cargo
shorts. I squeezed hard, causing him to
shudder.
He groaned against the column of my
throat. “I broke into your trailer because I
wanted to be with you.”
I took a couple steps back, until the
backs of my thighs rested against the top
of the table, and gazed up into his blue
eyes. “We’ve got a surf lesson tonight,” I
whispered. He crooked a smile, and
snarled his fingertips underneath my
Quicksilver shirt, starting to pull it up.
My head swam, but I was conscious
enough to grab both of his hands, stilling
them by my side. “I can’t,” I said. I wasn’t
ready to let him see me completely naked
in the light just yet, if I ever would.
“Wills—”
The door to my trailer shook and he
drew away from me, groaning
dramatically. I straightened my clothes
and slid past him, my ass brushing up
against his crotch, to open it just enough to
see who was there. One of the assistants
stood on the bottom step, grinning up at
me.
“We’re ready for you again, Miss
Avery,” he said.
The fact that Miller was a foot away
looking like a beast with his arms folded
over his muscular chest didn’t seem to
affect this guy in the least.
“Give me a few,” I said, closing the
door as he opened his mouth to say
something else. I turned back to Cooper
who was suppressing a grin. “What?” I
asked, through clenched teeth.
“Miss Avery.”
“I’ve got to get to work.”
He stared at me for a long time before
dipping his gaze to the carpeted floor for a
moment. “Seeing you like this just—” I
covered his lips before he could say
something that would get me any more
worked up than I already was. He dragged
his teeth gently across my bottom lip
before forcing himself to break away from
me. Breathing heavily, he shook his head.