“Normally you walk into a room and chew my head off for stepping on your toes. Especially after I get one up on you. Now you’re looking at me with those sad eyes full of pity.”
She was not feeling pity but compassion. And she wasn’tstaring at him because of the sex tape, she was staring because he looked incredible in his sexy contractor-for-hire uniform.
“Pity is the last thing I’d ever feel for you.”
“Then what are you feeling?”
She batted her eyes. “Irritation.”
A smile lit his face. “Shocker.”
“There must be some interference with the mics,” Roger, the boom operator, said.
“And your body language isn’t really the vibe we were going for,” Jack added. “Can we exude a fun and light feeling, please?”
Poppy bit back a smile. If they only knew the real vibe that was lighting between the two of them, the entire direction of the show would shift. Another reason to keep her distance. The last thing she needed was for the papers to report that the big man on campus was responsible for the show’s success. She’d give him his due, but she refused to be the little lady in the corner holding paint swatches.
She plastered the kind of smile on her face she used when someone on the street told her to smile. “Is that what you wanted?”
“Let’s get a little messier. How about you paint a dollop on the tip,” Jack said.
“Tip of what?” she asked, confused.
Decker grinned and it was wicked. “Painter’s choice.”
“How about this?” She dunked her hands in the paint pan and smacked his chest—and man, what a chest it was. It was like accosting the statue of David.
When she pulled back there were two perfect handprints on his pecs. He flexed and they jumped up and down. She laughed. A big belly laugh that she felt all the way down in her soul. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had so much fun.
He grinned and said, “Payback’s a bitch.”
His eyes fell to her chest, which had her rethinking her little dare.
“This show is rated G,” she said primly. “Let’s keep this family friendly.”
He coated his hands in the second paint choice and placed them on her cheeks, smooching them together until her lips puckered like a goldfish.
“You did not just do that,” she said through her fishy lips.
“Well, I had other cheeks in mind, but this is rated G.”
She dunked her hand in another color and smeared it right down his impressive abs. They were like a washing board.
He pulled her against his chest and rubbed their bodies together so that the paint smeared between them, making a slick canvas. She threw her head back and released another good belly laugh until she realized that somehow, in all the fun and games, their good parts had lined up.
In a flash, he stopped and his eyes met hers and locked because the vibe went from light and friendly to heated and heady, and she forgot why she was mad at him. His head dipped lower and lower as she rose on her toes higher and higher. Then suddenly he pulled back so quickly she nearly fell over.
“Is that what you wanted?” he asked.
She was about to answer, “No.” Which would have been a blatant lie because she wanted that kiss, but another voice filled the room.
“Perfection,” Jack said, his hand coming up over a camera that was less than a foot from Poppy and Decker, with a big thumbs-up.
It was like someone dunked a bucket of cold paint right over Poppy’s head. She’d been so caught up in the moment she’d forgotten they were being taped.
DIARY ROOM:
Decker: I slept in my truck and before you ask why it isn’t on tape, I went out the window and hopped the fence in the backyard because it’s none of your fucking business.
