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His gaze remained fixed on her, starting at her eyes before traveling lower on her face. “Well, we all have to sleep sometime.”
His response was dry but was exactly the kind that appealed to her—
Nope. This would not do at all. Luna needed to keep a distance, and since a physical one wasn’t possible at the moment, an emotional one would have to do. She sighed and flatly said, “I knew I should have stayed in bed today.”
“I knew I should have held out for more than free coffee.”
Ah, so that’s what was promised to Sam in exchange for his cooperation. Mia’s best friend, Natalie, co-owned Pony Expresso, which was the coffee shop next to the jewelry store, and therefore Mia got free drinks all the time. Luna wanted to laugh and she had no idea why. Maybe it was the ridiculousness of the whole situation. “Sucker,” she said, giving him a slight hip check.
His reaction to this additional physical contact was releasing a soft grunt. This delighted her, and she considered doing it again.
“Hello? Lulu?”
Luna’s focus snapped to Mia, whom she’d forgotten about. “What?”
“I just asked if you could focus in this direction.” The woman pointed to the ground near her. “And smile. Sam, you can just keep your head turned to her. Yes. Beautiful. Love it.” The camera shutter clicked away. “Sam, turn to me and, Lu, look at him now. Perfect.”
Luna tried to refocus and remember this was just a quick photo shoot and wasn’t anything else… Sam’s profile was nice. His nose was strong and straight, even better than Viggo’s. A person only had to get past twenty pounds of hair and an old baseball hat to see it, like uncovering a weathered chest and being completely unaware of what treasures might be inside.
“Lu, maybe you can do a quick…”
“What?” Luna asked.
Her cousin-in-law poked her cheek with a finger, giving herself an additional dimple. “Last pic, I swear.”
She rolled her eyes. Mia was impossible. Except, while she should hate everything about this, there was a part of her that didn’t hate it at all.
Strange.
As she leaned toward the man, her mouth puckered in preparation to plant a fake kiss on his cheek, Sam said, “Huh?” while rotating his head.
And, because she had the worst luck in the world, their lips met.
Chapter Two
The length oftime their mouths were pressed together was between receiving an electric shock and the words,Oh Shit, going through Luna’s mind. Her eyes popped open and Sam jerked away as if her lips were covered with razor wire instead of lip balm.
“Why the hell did you do that?” he said while at the same time she yelled, “Why’d you turn your head?”
“How’d I know you were going to kiss me?” A hand swiped across his mouth, which did a great job of popping whatever playful bubble she thought they’d been in.
It appeared she had been wrong. Again.
Their exchange from before hadn’t been a fun, flirty back-and-forth. Heactuallyhad been annoyed by her. This was the only explanation for why he reacted as if her lips were the most repulsive thing he’d ever experienced.
Not that she cared, but still. Her skin grew hot as the humiliation set in, and she wanted to die. Then a flash of anger went through her at being put in this situation in the first place.
“Did you not hear Mia? She said to give you a peck on the cheek. It’s not like I was doing it for fun. Why in the world would I give some random guy in the park a kiss? I’m done, Mia.” When things got too far out of her control, Luna did what she always did: looked for the nearest escape route. Except, when she stepped away, the stiletto heel of one of her shoes caught in the soft dirt, causing her to reel backwards, her arms windmilling like a cartoon character.
In a step, Sam was there, steadying her with a solid arm around the waist. “Whoa. Sorry, I—You just caught me off-guard.”
“You don’t seem to be off-guard now.” She pushed against his chest, her blush approaching a hue that could be considered atomic. He didn’t get to play the nice guy now. It was too late. She knew the truth of how hereallyfelt. While Luna preferred to stomp away with all the warranted indignation owed to her, this was made more difficult when her heels kept sinking into the soft ground. She managed to propel herself across the park on nothing but spite and aggravation.
Behind her, Mia scrambled to collect her camera bag and rushed to catch her. “God, Lulu. I’m so sor—”
“Luna,” she replied through gritted teeth as she continued to hobble across the grass, narrowly avoiding being tripped by a rolling soccer ball from one of the nearby kids. “I don’t like it when you guys call me Lulu.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry.”
