Water drips down his tanned nose, and I glance at the full lower lip I fantasized about kissing for most of my teenaged life. “Fancy meeting you here,” says Cooper. “You’re the cook?”
“Pastry chef.” Last winter, Cooper won several medals in the Olympics for snowboarding and retired from the sport. But I think he’s here with the pharmaceutical company, and I ask, “You’re a corporate guy?”
“Not quite. I sell snow to the Eskimos.” I frown at him, and he says, “New job. I’m in training to sell medical devices to surgeons.”
“Oh.” I blink as my brain tries to wrap around Cooper with a real job. “Congratulations on your Olympic medals. It was pretty amazing to watch.”
“Thanks. You watched me?” Cooper’s voice has lowered in tone, and it makes tiny hairs on my body stand up.
“Well, yeah,” I say. “You’re the closest I’ll ever get to being famous. I told everyone I knew that you were my fir—brother’s best friend.”
He reaches over to move a strand of my hair off my face, and a tiny shiver runs through me at his touch. He asks, “Are you married?”
“No.” My brain goes into overdrive as I imagine he’s asking because he wants to date me. I picture us holding hands as we kiss by a campfire in an old fantasy that has almost become a real memory for me. I ask, “You?”
He shakes his head. “Boyfriend?”
“Nope.” My heart doesn’t care that this boy devastated us when he went off to prep school, and it reaches out for a guy I crushed on so many years ago. “You?”
Cooper lifts up to lean on his arm, and his body blocks the sun. He says, “No,” before he lowers his mouth to mine.
Oh my god! His kiss is amazingly tender and does more than live up to my fantasies. While he only nibbles at my lips instead of diving in for more, my entire body heats up as if he flipped a switch. I’m pretty sure I hold my breath too, because I practically gasp when he pulls away to say, “No girlfriend either.”
I chuckle at his joke and place my hand on my mouth to make sure this isn’t a dream before I ask, “What was that for?”
“That was for all the years I kicked myself for not doing it the last summer we spent here. I swore if I ever saw you again, I’d kiss you before you could escape.”
The grin covering my face almost cracks my cheeks. I’m thirteen again, and this time I’m not going to blow my chance. I’m not the timid girl I used to be. When Cooper leans down for more, I take all I can get. I open my mouth when his tongue darts between my parted lips, and I drink him in. He holds my face as if I’m a treasure while the muscles of his back flex beneath my palms. My fantasy of his kiss pales in comparison to the real thing. I think it might be the same for Cooper, because when we break apart, he smiles before he pulls me back for more.
About the Author
Gwen Hayes writes romance for adult and teen readers. You know...kissing books. She is represented by Jessica Sinsheimer at the Sarah Jane Freyman Literary Agency.
Gwen is also a romance editor at www.fresheyescritique.com because her dream job is to read books for a living.
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Gwen Hayes, His Counterfeit Campfire Bride
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