“Listen, I’d love to take you to dinner.”

“Dinner?”

“You left me a couple of bucks, figured I’d like spending them on you as much as I liked losing them to you.”

“You liked losing to me?”

I contemplate the question for a moment. “Oddly, yes. Which is strange because I hate to lose.”

“I’m guessing it doesn’t happen often.”

“What? Losing?”

She nods.

“No, actually. It doesn’t. I tend to go after what I want until I win.” Our eyes lock on each other, something passing between the two of us, a thick tension swirls in the air. “So…dinner?”

Kate smiles, but the uptick at the corners of her mouth quickly turns down. “I can’t.” She looks hesitant, but offers no further explanation. “I had fun tonight.” She reaches into her purse, pulls something out, and extends her hand to me. “I don’t really want to keep your money clip. I noticed it wasn’t your first initial engraved on it. Maybe it means something to you?” She tilts her head, observing me.

“It does. But that’s okay. You keep it. It’ll give me a reason to see you again.” I reach down, close her fingers back around the money clip, and lift her hand to my mouth. My lips brush the top lightly, my tongue sneaking out to fleetingly touch her skin. The brief contact stirs an ache inside me. This woman tugs at something—more than arousal—something that makes me want to slow down time just to spend a few more minutes standing here.

“Did you just …” she stammers a bit.

“Did I just what?”

She squints at me. “You know.”

“Do I?”

“I felt your tongue on my hand. You … you licked me.”

I’d been dying to run my tongue along her neck all evening, although I hadn’t really meant to be so crude about it. It just sort of … happened. “I wouldn’t say licked, maybe just a little taste.”

“So you tasted me?”

My entire body suddenly has interest in this conversation. “I suppose I did. But it wasn’t nearly enough. That brings us back to my invitation for dinner. Tomorrow night?”

“I can’t.”

“The day after then?”

She laughs and shakes her head. The sound makes me smile.

“Good night, Cooper.” She pulls the driver’s side door shut and leaves me standing there … for a full five minutes after she’s gone.

Chapter two

Kate

Distracted as I drive home, my mind replaying the evening over and over, I miss my damn exit as a picture of Cooper standing beside my jeep pops into my head for the twentieth time. Dress shirt unbuttoned at the collar, shirt sleeves rolled up to reveal sexy strong forearms, he exuded power, yet something about him was playful … down to earth. Not like the typical guys I’ve been meeting the last few years.

His square, deeply defined jaw had just a hint of a five o’clock shadow on his perfectly tanned skin. Bright, startlingly green eyes stood out, the shade somewhere between jade and moss. Beautiful, but the color wasn’t the part that mesmerized me. It was the gold ring around his pupil that captured my attention, surrounding the rich dark brown. It reminded me of a sunflower, painted in a field of green grass. And every time he tried to bluff, the sunflower grew bigger, making it that much more difficult to focus on my hand. It didn’t help that the soft green and glittering gold were set off by the thickest eyelashes I’ve ever seen on a man. Why do men get the good eyelashes?

I hold my breath and make a wish as I enter the tunnel. I’ve been making the same wish as I drive through the burrowed rocky canyon for years. It’s always about my brother. Selfishly, today my wish is for me.

After a twenty-minute detour, I’m surprised to find my roommate, Sadie, still awake when I walk into my apartment.

Collapsing onto the couch dramatically, I slouch down, stretching my long legs across the coffee table.

“Bad day, Angelina?” she says. Every day since I started filming the reality show, she has a new actress name for me. Yesterday I was Reese.

“Long day of sitting around doing nothing. But, actually, it was a good night.”

“Did you get to see Flynn?” She sits up on the couch, hoping to hear some good gossip. Gossip I’m not supposed to share by the terms of my contract, one that I violate pretty much daily. Even if I weren’t anxious to tell my best friend about a guy I was seeing, she’d get it out of me. Sadie Warner could pull gossip out of a priest.

“No, he wasn’t on set today.”

Deflated she won’t be getting the juicy inside scoop about Bachelor Flynn today, she continues anyway. “What did you do tonight that was fun then?”

“I played cards.”

“Cards? Booooring.” She drags out the word in that singsongy way.

“Not when one of the players is hot.”

“Why didn’t you say that sooner?” She tucks her feet underneath her, giving me her full attention.

“You lost interest the minute I told you Flynn wasn’t there, and only regained interest once I mentioned a hot guy.”

“So?” Clearly she can’t fathom what is wrong with my statement. I roll my eyes.

“What if I had a nice night catching up with an old family friend? A female old family friend who is important to me. Would you have wanted to hear about my night then?”