by Taylor Hart
A smug look passed over her face. “I do have to admit I don’t know if I would have revealed so much to you the other night in the hot tub if I would have known who you were.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“What?”
“You reveal all sorts of stuff to me, and you know who I am now.”
“No, I don’t.”
He grinned. “I’m not going to lie. I liked having the jump on you that first night, but it’s the same with us. You’re the same.”
Hesitating for a second, she shook her head. “I do feel comfortable with you. It’s weird.”
Man, he couldn’t even explain how much he enjoyed that confession. “I liked thinking you were single too.”
It appeared what he said made her nervous. She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
“What?”
“Cooper Harrison cares if I’m single or not?”
“Maybe.” He lifted his eyebrows. “But you’re not, so it doesn’t matter, right?”
“Right.”
“Tell me about the boyfriend.”
Squirming a bit, which he had to admit he liked too, she sighed. “I told you. I met him last week. He’s in the military and has to go back soon. I guess that’s my luck.”
He didn’t say anything for a second. Then he decided to tell her what he was thinking. “No.”
“What?”
“Your story doesn’t make sense. You met him last week and fell in love. He’s leaving soon, and you decided to leave him and come here, to a singles—what did you call it?—‘meat market’ instead of staying with him until he leaves?” Cooper pointed at her. “Doesn’t make sense.”
“I told you. It was already paid for, and you should know, Mr. business owner, you guys don’t give refunds.”
He studied her. “Doesn’t matter. If you were in love with him like you say, you’d give up the money. Plus, he’s leaving soon. How can you put a price on what might be your last days on earth together?” He said the last part in a high falsetto.
She cocked her eyebrow. “Ha. Ha.”
Putting up two fingers, he smiled. “That’s the second time you’ve used the ha, ha come back.”
She rolled her eyes, letting out a puff of breath.
He grinned.
She pointed at him. “Hey, you don’t understand how precious money is to the little people, okay? I … there wasn’t a lot of money for me growing up, and I am devoted to personal development.”
That just made her more attractive. Personal development was his passion. But coming on a singles retreat when you just fell crazy in love didn’t make sense. He looked away. It also didn’t make sense that all he wanted to do was kiss her again.
“What?”
“What made you fall in love with him?”
At first, she didn’t answer. Then she looked away. “What can I say? Love at first sight.”
He stepped into her personal space and leveled her with a stare. “Spark, right?” Every part of him wanted to kiss her, again.
She didn’t move. “Right.”
The tension was palpable between them and he swore he could see the same feelings in her eyes as the ones in his heart.
Turning away, he tried to recover. “Right.”
She stuck her chin out and turned to sit. “Like you could steal me away.” She scoffed. “I mean, a billionaire. A best-selling author. I read you like to invest in startups and that you’re friends with Ashton Kutcher, who is on fire with startups, by the way.” She turned to him. “I read in Forbes he’s now investing other people’s money for them in startups. He’s turned like twenty million into two-hundred fifty million?”
Cooper sat next to her, ignoring the lemon scent of her. For a second, his thoughts scrambled. “You care about who’s in Forbes?”
She laughed. “I mean it. I am fascinated with how companies start and then break out and grow. Ashton Kutcher seems like the expert at the moment.”
“Oh, just ask him.” Cooper laughed.
She laughed too.
“Tell me more about startups.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes.” She nodded. “If I ever have a lot of money, I totally want to invest in a startup.”
He paused. “Why? So you can fund your nonprofit?”
She didn’t answer for a second, looking down at her hands and picking at her nail bed. “Don’t tease me about my nonprofit.”
A pang of vulnerability shot across her face, and he recognized it instantly. It’d been what he’d felt the past three years. “I’m not teasing you,” he said softly.
“Well, I’m not going to lie. I’d like to pay off my student loans too.”
“Reasonable.” How was it possible he could like this girl more and more every second?
They didn’t speak for a few minutes. It felt like she’d gotten weird, and he didn’t know why. So he asked what he’d been wondering the most about. “What got you interested in human trafficking?”
“Stop.” She shook her head.
He couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m serious.”
“It’s not like I just got interested in it all of a sudden.”
He paused. “Okay, tell me why you want to help people.”
“Do you really want to know?”
“Yes.”
Clasping her hands together, she twirled a ring on her pinky finger. “When I was growing up on the farm in Nebraska, I just wanted to do something that mattered.”
This was not making him like her any less. “Okay.”
“Then I got to high school and started debating and learning about all the broken things in the world. In college, I started to realize the modern day slavery issue was women and children being taken every day. Not just in other countries, even in America it happens. People are taken and not heard from for years. They turn up in some forced labor camp on the other side of the world. Or the women are made into sex slaves.” She pinched her lips. “It’s horrifying, and only a small handful of people are trying to stop it. Did you know the porn industry drives this market? Young girls and women are captured and then drugged and forced to perform in these movies. The public doesn’t realize when they support the porn industry, they really are supporting human trafficking. It’s morally reprehensible.”
His heart thumped harder in his chest. It was like her passion and her desire had ignited something inside of him. It showed him how pointless his life had been. The first night he’d had a glimpse of it, but now it was growing, and she was part of it. It made him feel alive. It made him feel like he could have a chance to impact the world even more.
“So now I want to free people around the world from being bought and sold. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to.” She gave him a sad smile.
At this moment, right now, he knew he was in love. Without wanting to, but unable to stop himself, he reached out and put his hand over hers. “I think it’s a good cause.”
She looked down but didn’t move her hand. She stared up into his eyes, and her own shimmered with obvious emotion. “You do?”
He nodded. “I do.”
“I have a tentative plan.” She exhaled and pulled her hand back. “My roommate and I …” She hesitated and rolled her eyes. “The cheating roommate,” she said, clearing her throat. Then she waved a hand through the air in dismissal. “We put together goals: first, raise awareness; second, raise funds for groups like that new movie Abolitionist; and make sure the private organizations that are going after bad guys have funds. It’s a tricky situation for the governments because it’s all political when you’re busting other governments that allow these practices.”
It made Cooper sick. “Some governments allow it?” He didn’t know this.
She nodded. “Some tend to look the other way. One of my goals for my nonprofit is to make the public’s abhorrence of it so great that it won’t be able to be ignored. One of the focused efforts is getting the UN involved and presenting about it at the next world convention.”
She sighed. “They’re holding it in London this year, and I would love to go.”
“Why don’t you?”
Glaring at him, she scoffed. “Says the billionaire.”
Cooper grinned, still feeling surprised he fell more and more in love with her every second.
“What?” she asked. This time she had an exasperated smile on her face.
He shook his head, confused at how attached he already felt to her. He swallowed. “That’s really cool.” That was a complete understatement.
Giving a couple of little nods, she let out a breath. “Thanks.”
Not knowing what to say, he looked out over the valley. “Do you know the first white man to ever see Jackson was John Colter with the Lewis and Clark Expedition?” It was the only thing he could bring to his memory that wouldn’t rat him out about how he was really thinking how he wanted to spend a lot more time with this woman.
She let out a laugh and then shook her head.
“Why are you laughing?”
“’Cause you’re random.”
He felt another smile spread across his lips. “I guess it was a bit random.”
She nudged him with her shoulder, smiling. “I like it. I’m pretty random too. Too many thoughts getting jumbled up in my brain.”
He knew exactly how she felt, but he didn’t say it. This woman kept putting him more and more onto uneven ground
It had been this way with her since the first time he’d met her in the hot tub.
“What’s wrong?”
He blinked. “Nothing.” It wouldn’t be appropriate to try to move in on someone else’s girl. It wouldn’t.
He wasn’t Hunter.
He definitely wasn’t Sterling.
“Please, tell me what you were thinking?”
The way she asked made him want to tell her everything.
“You first.”
“I was thinking you’re not what I expected.”
He tilted his head to the side. “You aren’t what I expected either.”
She laughed. “You don’t have access to tons of Google pages on me and books I’ve written.”
“Then tell me more about you.”
“Uh, no.”
“C’mon, I don’t know anything about you.”
“You already know I was left at the altar.” She countered.
“Doesn’t count.”
Narrowing her eyes, she shook her head. “Yeah, because you acquired the information under false pretenses.”
He laughed. “They weren’t false.”
She pushed him in the chest. “Were too.”
It surprised him she’d touched him so casually. Like a friend. He didn’t have a lot of female friends. Most of the women who approached him wanted something from him. “I never lied about who I was.”
“You told me you came through the crack in the gate.”
Putting his hands up, he laughed. “Fine. Tell me something else.”
London raised her eyebrows and said, “Oh, the most personal detail about me doesn’t count?”
Leaning back, he nudged her. “C’mon, that’s not your story.”
Raising her chin, she smiled. “You mean, I create my own story and all that?”
He smiled, liking how she made fun of him. “Yes, that’s one story about you. Now, tell me something else. Something real.”
Scrunching up her face, she exhaled sharply through her nose. “I work at a corporate office, and I basically do whatever the diva asks.”
“Still not a real answer, but fine. What field do you work in?”
For a second, she looked blank. Then she stood. “Oh, HR.”
Once again, something was off about her. But, at this point, he wasn’t sure if he was the off one. Surely she wouldn’t flat-out lie to him after all her accusations about his false pretenses? He stood too.
She turned to him. “Do you need to get back?”
“Yeah.” He didn’t, but he felt like she wanted to leave. “I guess I distracted you from your work.”
“Yes, you did.” She paused and turned back to him. “But thank you. It was worth it.” She looked out over the landscape.
Turning, he looked out too. Blues, oranges, and pinks, all faded in the sky against the three large peaks of mountains. He couldn’t help it. He reached for her hand. “Yes, it was.”
They stood there linked by their hands. He thought he could feel their hearts beat in sync. Everything fit perfectly. Together.
But she slipped her hand away. “I really need to go.”
Chapter 9
What in the world was happening to her?
London went through the motions of going to bed and tossed fitfully, thinking about Cooper—the way his facial hair was always the perfect length and how much different he looked now than in his pictures online. About the way his hand had felt in hers.
She thought of how interested he’d been when she’d spoken about her nonprofit. The only true thing she’d really told him.
She frowned and wished things were different. Somehow. He’d lost his wife not once, but twice. That man had been through torture.
How was she ever going to write a series on him without revealing the most interesting part of his pain?
If only she didn’t like him. Was like even a strong enough word? Who cared? She hated herself for falling for him.
It felt like no matter how much she stalked him on Google, the words for more articles wouldn’t come.
Fluff articles were always so easy for her, but this man wasn’t fluffy. Picking up one of her perfect hotel pillows with both hands, she threw it across the room.
No matter how deeply she stalked him, none of the information on the Internet was new or interesting. He’d been all over the world. Sold millions of books. Given money to quite a few causes. She knew the thing that had put him over into the billionaire world was the start-ups.
The thing she liked most about him was he didn’t act like a billionaire. Her mind flashed to him flying the helicopter last night. She grinned. Okay, maybe he acted like a millionaire. But a billionaire would have hired someone, right?
She shook her head.
This was stupid. Why was she even thinking this?
She thought of the recent cause for autistic kids he and his Jackson Hole billionaire friends had supported.
She snorted. It was crazy she’d been with him last night holding his hand. She’d even kissed him! More than once!
It had never occurred to her that her journalistic integrity would be tested by the question of dating a billionaire, who also happened to be the subject of her article. Actually, forget about journalistic integrity, her personal integrity was at risk. If only Marcia hadn’t found the mock draft of her article.
The next day at lunch, London sat alone at a table finishing the last chapter of Cooper’s book.
She’d put her laptop bag on the chair opposite her to dissuade people from sitting there. She wasn’t here to meet people, and she wasn’t about to waste her time getting involved with people from all over the world.
Didn’t they all realize that long distance relationships never worked? After this week, even if there was a connection between them, a real relationship would be nearly impossible to maintain. How many had a job they could just drop and pick up in a different part of the world?
Putting down her apple, she flipped open her laptop and brought up the three articles she’d started last night. All three focused on Cooper’s philanthropy.
Someone pulled a chair back.
Looking up, she saw a hand picking up her bag and laying it on the table.
“Seat’s taken.”
“Would you mind if I just take up the other half of the table? I have some work to do too.”
Looking up, she saw Dante from the other night at the pool. Today he wore black slacks and a light blue short-sleeved polo. He wore, what she was sure he thought was, a charming smile. He really did have ridiculously good-looking classic Italian features.
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The mischievous glint in his eye made her smile, and her heart rate involuntarily kicked up.
“I promise not to talk about seven of anything.”
Without wanting to, she let out a light laugh and nodded to the table. “Sure, you can sit,” she said, accepting his smooth apology.
“Thanks.” He sat, opened his laptop, and immediately started typing. “It’s hard to find a place in this room to sit and work for a minute.”
Glancing around, London agreed. “Yeah, everybody’s working it, aren’t they?”
Dante kept typing. “Yeah.”
They both typed in silence for a few minutes. Guilt seeped into her. London couldn’t help but ask. “What are you working on?”
“Oh.” Dante he ran his hand through his thick black hair. “La mi famiglia.” He uttered it like a curse word.
“Excuse me?”
The side of his lip quirked up, and he turned his brown, chocolate eyes to her. “My family is unreasonable.” He sighed. “I am part of a family business, and apparently, there were some fires that needed putting out, and I’m the”—he air quoted—“only one who can handle it.” He sighed. “The funny part is that I didn’t even want to come on this retreat, but my parents and my business partners insisted I come.” He grinned. “I am not very good at wooing women.”
Intrigued, she took her bottle of water and took a drink. “What business are you guys in.”
Dante quit typing and turned to her. “We own a chain of Italian restaurants in New York.” He shrugged. “You probably haven’t heard of them.”
Curiosity pulsed through her. “Try me.”
He seemed like he didn’t want to tell her. “De Luca’s.”
“De Luca’s?” Excitement filled her. “I’ve never been there because you always have a wait list on weekends. The word is you have to know the owners to even get a shot at getting in.”
Lifting his hands into the air, he tilted his head to the side and smiled. “Well, now you know one of the owners.”
Stunned, all she could do was laugh. “I had you totally pegged for some dumb frat boy the other night.”