Chapter One
There were exactly two things Cooper Swanson and I had in common.
The first was that we absolutely loved my brother. There was no question that my brother’s best friend—my nemesis—would do anything for him.
The second thing we both shared was the lack of ability to say no to him. Which was why Cooper and I were now stuck sharing a cabin on a pre-wedding cruise my brother begged us to go on.
“Dude, come on, it’ll be fine,” my idiot brother Sam said, putting his arm around his fiancé and giving Cooper and me a look that saidso the hell what.“How long have you known each other? Fifteen years? Two nights in a cabin won’t be a big deal.”
Cooper gritted his teeth and glared at Sam. His six foot three height, broad shoulders, always styled dark brown hair, and long lashes made him the living embodiment of my dream guy. Just looking at him made me clench my thighs together—even if I hated him. He always had a different woman on his arm, and the man flirted with everyoneexceptme.
If this mix-up didn’t affect me too, I would’ve enjoyed the way his jaw tensed and his eyes almost burst out of his head in anger. “You know what my plan was for this.”
“Yeah, to get drunk and forget what’s-her-name.” Sam grinned, planted a kiss on Juliet’s head, and held out a fist to bump. “You can still do all that—just not in the cabin you’re sharing with Daniella.”
“Let me go see if they can’t find another cabin,” I said, ignoring the way Juliet seemed to study Cooper and me with a knowing look. It wasn’t exactly a secret Cooper and I didn’t get along, but we played nice in front of Sam when we could. Again, we both loved him, and he remained the only neutral ground we shared. Cooper glared at me, his passionate eyes mirroring the turmoil in my gut.
“I’ll go with you. I do not want to share a goddamn cabin with you for the weekend.” He stepped into my space, his large chest just inches from me, and my breath caught in my throat at the warmth radiating off him.
“Feeling’s mutual,” I mumbled, hating how my face flushed and my stomach tightened with a bright-hot fury. I elbowed him in the side as we made our way toward the desk, and he grunted.Score.He elbowed me back. While his touch sent goosebumps all the way to my toes, I shoved him out of my walking path.
Cooper was the star of my high school dreams, and I couldn’t even recall when he started hating me so much. I used to hang out with him and Sam all the time, but then one day, he started treating me like I ran over his dog.
He iced me out of their friendship and made me feel insignificant ever since. Now our interactions were insults and ways to fluster the other. I referred to the back and forth as flirt-hating, and his blatant disgust at rooming with me sent me over the edge.
We approached the concierge on the cruise ship, our bags still at our feet, and I gave my best smile. “Excuse me, hi. We seemed to have a mix-up and were hoping to get our own rooms for the weekend.”
The woman at the counter gave me a tight smile, but it shifted to lust when her attention landed on Cooper. Of course she noticed him. He was stupidly good-looking with his jawline and easy smile that made you feel like you were the only person in the world. For the first time, I wanted to use it to my advantage. “This guy needs his own room.”
“Please, help a man out, sweetheart,” he said, leaning onto his elbows and flashing her his signature smirk. I used to pine over that smirk in high school, wishing I was on the receiving end, but now, I had the urge to hit his pretty face.
“This weekend is quite popular, I’m afraid.” She typed on her computer and frowned before giving him a long, heated look. “We have a deluxe suite available, but it’s about three times as much.”
I groaned and pinched the bridge of my nose. “I can’t afford that, Coop.”
“There’s nothing we can do to fix the situation? This is my best friend's kid sister and thelastperson I want to share a cabin with.”
The woman furrowed her brow as she veered her attention back to me. She grimaced. “There’s nothing left besides the deluxe. I’m sorry.”
She did look sorry, so I’d give her that.
“Thanks anyway,” I said, picking up my duffel bag and staring at the keys in my hands like they were a ticking bomb. “Well, looks like you need to find a different bedmate each night if you want to avoid our room.”
“Or you can,” he fired back, his posture rigid and amped. “Fuck, this wasnothow I wanted this weekend to go.”
His words stung to the point I blinked to gain composure for a second. “Are you missing the part that this sucks for me too? You are thelastperson I want to be stuck with, okay? There’s no joy in this for either of us.” I held out a hand to stop him, and his hard chest ran into it. I hated how sculpted he was and how much he took care of his body, because hot damn, it was gorgeous to look at. Yet every time he opened his mouth, I wanted to push him over the edge of the boat.
“Why did you stop me? Just wanted to touch me, hm?”
“God, no.” I didn’t have to fake shudder at the thought oftouchinghim. He was gorgeous, but running hands over his hard body would be like selling my soul to the devil. “We need to survive this for Sam. We’re his family, and regardless of how much we loathe each other, we have to pretend.”
A dark shadow crossed his face, and his intense blue gaze landed on mine for a full beat. After losing our parents a few years ago, Sam and I had grown even closer. We were each other’s only family, and despite my hatred, that included Cooper.
He nodded, and his left cheek twitched. “Agreed. This trip is for him and Juliet.”
“Shake on it right now. We can fight when we’re behind closed doors, but we pretend we’rebest budswhen we’re around them, like we used to be.” I held out my hand and waited for him to take it. He took his sweet ass time but finally clasped his fingers around mine and squished our palms together. “We can survive three days without killing each other, right?”
“Debatable,” he said, his grin curving up on one side. When he ran his tongue along his bottom lip, a burst of lust went straight to my core.
