I threw on my shorts, and not wanting to see anyone on my way back to my bungalow, took a detour down the shaded path that cut through the leafy green vegetation behind the beach. My skin and hair were sticky with salt water and crusted in sand. When I passed the wall of water that spilled from the infinity pool, it was all I could do not to press myself to it and allow the fresh water to wash over me.
As I meandered from the relative cool of the path to the sun-splashed over-water walkway toward my bungalow, I spotted Cole at his door at the far end of the pier, fumbling with the lock. As much as I wanted nothing more than to flatten myself in the nearest doorway and hide until he was safely inside, I screwed my courage to the sticking place and called out, “Cole!”
He turned, an eyebrow arched. I hurried up the pier, casting a glance around to make sure we were alone. He opened the door to his bungalow and I followed him inside, my heart in my throat. Through the walls of glass, the sun reflecting on miles of turquoise water was blindingly bright.
I launched into my practiced speech before I could chicken out. “The other night when—”
“You’re fun when you drink, half-pint.” He laughed and shook his head. “I mean, shit. I had no idea.” He opened the refrigerator and took out a beer. “Want one?”
“I’m good, thanks.” I tried my damnedest to stop my cheeks from reddening. “How fun was I? I mean, like…”
His eyes were full of mirth as he cracked open the beer. “You don’t remember?”
I swallowed. “I remember the boat, and dinner, but…did we go in the ocean?”
“You did.” He chuckled.
“In my clothes?”
“Oh no, you took those off first.”
Shit. “All of them?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Did anyone else see?”
“I was the only one around.” He moved closer, looking me up and down with a half smile. “You have a rockin’ bod you keep hidden under all those chunky sweaters and cargo pants.” His breath was hot on my ear, his perfect superhero face inches from mine. I was suddenly overcome with the impulse to bite his nose like a deranged bird.
But he could shut the entire production down in a heartbeat. Not to mention fire me. Then where would I be? Working at McDonald’s wouldn’t exactly pay my mortgage, and I’d lose my shirt if I tried to sell my condo right now.
I swallowed my crazy and smiled. “What exactly happened?” I managed, hating myself.
“After you went for a swim, you refused to put your clothes back on, but I convinced you to at least wear my shirt to walk back to your room. You stripped it off the minute you walked in the door though,” he insinuated. “You were a horny little tiger.”
Oh God. So I’d gotten blackout drunk and thrown myself at my womanizing movie star boss, my worst nightmare incarnate. It wasn’t like me, but I wasn’t like me recently. The stress…I obviously couldn’t trust myself. And the alcohol. I must’ve had more than the two drinks I could recall. Keep it together, Taylor. What’s done is done. Focus on the present. I still didn’t have the answer I’d plowed into this awkward encounter to obtain. “So the night we…um, we didn’t…” I looked down at my hands, realizing they were making weird gestures.
“Fuck?” He laughed. “No. We didn’t fuck. I was a gentleman. Tucked you in bed and walked my ass home, hard as it was.”
There was a God in heaven.
“Okay, good. I just wanted to make sure.”
“But I’m here for you, you know.” He flashed that crooked grin, his eyes twinkling. “If you ever want to finish what you started, get rid of some of that tension you carry around.”
“You know we can’t be involved while we’re working together—”
He held up his hands, laughing. “Whoa! Who said anything about getting involved? I was just trying to make you feel better about the whole thing.”
Motherfucker. “Good, so we’re on the same page.” I forced a laugh, trying to regain my footing. “We’ll keep it on the down-low, obviously.”
“Yeah.” He ran his fingers through his thick hair. “That Madison girl’s already all up on me, and she doesn’t seem like the type to make nice with the competition.”
I furrowed my brow. The very thought of the drama that would come from a romantic liaison between Cole and Madison made me nearly break out in hives.
“What can I say?” He shrugged, sheepish. “I love women.”
And women loved him. “Yeah, I’ve heard,” I said. “But probably best not to hook up with anyone for the rest of the shoot, especially after what happened with Roxie. You don’t need any more bad press.”
“That was a bunch of bullshit.” He groaned. “That bitch was nuts. I never meant to hit her. I was throwing the phone at the window, and she—”
“She got in the way,” I cut him off. “I know.” Like it was perfectly normal to be throwing your cell phone out a hotel room window. “But it’s a good example of why you should probably just play it cool right now, at least until people forget.”
People had already begun to forget, or at least forgive, after a “source close to the couple” revealed Roxie had been on hallucinogenic drugs and wielding a knife, a claim she vehemently denied. It wasn’t the first time a romance of Cole’s had been rumored to end badly. But the rumors were never substantiated, and the public never seemed to care. Somehow it was always the women he’d been involved with who ended up looking like the bad guy—the mark of either
