“Looking at you.” I grinned at her. “You look pretty damn cute when you’re pissed.”
She rolled her eyes. “Cut it out, Lincoln.”
“Cameras aren’t around, Brie baby. You don’t have to pretend.”
She gave me another look. “Not pretending. I don’t want to hear it.”
I laughed. “Sure, whatever you say. Let’s play it that way.”
“Are you always like this?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
There was a pause, and Aubrie seemed to look out across the pool. Finally, just as I was about to say something, she looked back over at me.
“Why did you just disappear like that, anyway?”
“What do you mean?”
“Back then. After the wedding. You basically just left and never came back.”
“You know why.”
She stared at me. “Like you said inside. You were pretty busy.”
I struggled to my feet. “Exactly. That’s right. Anyway, Jess and the crew will be done soon, so I better go. See you around.”
“Okay, sure.”
I gave her one last grin and then turned and headed back up to the house. I could feel her eyes on my back. Whatever, let her stare. If she wants to pretend like nothing happened, that’s fine with me, I thought.
But it wasn’t fine, not by a long shot. What was I thinking, teasing her like that on film? It was going to be obvious to anybody who watched what I wanted from her.
It was the only thing I wanted from her. That sweet mouth wrapped around my dick, my hands sliding up along the soaked spot between her legs. I wanted to make her whole body shake with orgasms.
As I limped back inside, I resolved myself to being more careful. Even if my days had been a miserable succession of one PT session after another before Brie had shown up, I couldn’t give in to that temptation. I couldn’t risk getting caught, as much for her sake as for mine.
I pushed open the door and caught sight of the crew coming toward me. I put on my best camera-ready smile and prepared myself for more bullshit.
Never-ending bullshit had become my life.
Chapter 5
Aubrie
I avoided him like the plague after that.
It was surprisingly easy. Despite how hard he had worked to piss me off those first two days, he lightened up and actually seemed to be avoiding me, too. Conveniently, when I was around the house, he was too busy with his physical therapist and the film crew to bother with me. Which worked pretty well, since I couldn’t stand him.
That interview kept playing through my mind. The way he looked at me, his smile, so cocky and sure of himself, and the way his muscles flexed as he adjusted himself to look at me. His tattoos running up his arms like snakes, and the glimpse of his abs I got every time he shifted in his chair.
He was so magnetic, even when he was being a dick.
Cameras aren’t around, Brie baby, he had said later, after the interview.
But they were always around, and we were both trying to pretend like the most important thing between us had actually never happened, and it was all so messed up. Then again, he didn’t seem particularly ashamed of it. He kept alluding to the kiss, and for a second I thought he was going to admit that he had left for Europe when he did because of me. Instead, I got his usual cocky smile, and he avoided the question all together.
He was right about one thing, though. I hadn’t exactly tried to track him down, either. I had wished again and again that he would call or email or text, just to say hi, even if it was from one stepsibling to another. But he never did, and I was too nervous to try to break the silence. It was as much my fault as it was his.
Despite all that, despite his annoying and frustrating way of looking at me, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I caught glimpses of him all over the house, but we were orbiting each other like two moons on opposite sides of a planet. Maybe I wanted to get closer, but I wasn’t letting myself.
Three days after the interview disaster and I was out by the pool again, scrolling through my phone like usual, bored out of my mind and wishing someone, anyone, was home, when suddenly Jules came strolling down toward me.
“Aubrie, dear,” she called out.
“Hey, Jules.”
She sat down at the end of my lounger and smiled. “How are you?”
“Fine. A little bored, honestly.”
“You’re bored? Even with all these cameras around?”
I laughed. “Not all of us love to be on camera.”
“Oh, I guess not.”
“What’s up, Jules?”
“I know you said you’d help out with my events, so I wanted to finally give you a job.”
I figured this was coming sooner or later. Jules may have been a little daffy, but she never seemed to forget a promise.