Wardrobe outfits me with an almost see-through white cover-up dress and an incredible pair of high-heeled sandals. The only color in my ensemble is from the aqua bow on the brim of my straw sun hat. Mercedes and Jessica eye me angrily when I walk through the living room to answer the door for my date. It validates what I saw when I looked at my reflection.

“Wow. White’s your color.” Flynn’s eyes pore over me and then he kisses my cheek.

“I don’t think white is actually a color.”

“Then what is it?”

“It’s the absence of color.”

“Well, then the absence of color looks hot on you, smarty pants.” We both laugh.

“Likewise, your absence of color looks mighty handsome.” Flynn’s dressed in all white too. Well, except for the splash of color artistically running down his left forearm. All of his tattoos are black and grey except one. I’d never noticed it until now.

My handsome date leads me to the car and opens the door for me. “Is it a coincidence that we’re both dressed in white?”

“Nope.” He closes the door and jogs around to the driver’s side. “It’s symbolic. We’re starting over. Remember? Today is our first date.”

“Please tell me you don’t expect me to go up in one of those?” We pull into a beach parking lot and a shack offering parasailing rides makes me suspicious. There are a few people floating around in the sky tethered to colorful parachutes above them.

“I do.” He parks and smiles at me.

“I told you I was afraid of heights.”

“We’re starting fresh today. Remember? What better way to start off than to live a little.”

“I’m all for living, it’s the opposite of living that scares me and keeps my feet on the ground.”

He opens my car door. “They set us up for a double harness. I’ll hold you through the whole thing.”

“Even when we splatter on the ground?”

He chuckles. “We won’t splatter on the ground. Besides, there’s water underneath us.”

I look around and find the cameras already rolling. Taking a deep breath, I finally give him my hand. “What’s your greatest fear?” I lean in and whisper to avoid my voice being picked up.

“Rejection.” He kisses my cheek. “See, we’re both conquering our fears today.”

I’m still on an adrenaline high from our afternoon date as I get ready for dinner. Flynn was right, facing one of my biggest fears was somehow freeing. Leaving me to feel like today really was a fresh start.

As promised, Flynn held me the entire way. My body secured in a harness clipped to his, his muscular thighs straddled me, long legs wrapped tightly around my waist from behind the minute we lifted into the air. One strong arm fastened around my middle in a bear hug left me feeling secure as we soared high above the ocean. Even when I had finally relaxed enough to enjoy the breathtaking view of the crystal-clear aqua water below, his hold on me never loosened. Eventually, I found myself leaning into his embrace instead of clinging to it.

After parasailing, the boat took us to a sand bar in the middle of the ocean and we hand fed giant sea turtles and snorkeled amid schools of colorful fish. Today was a day made for reality television, yet I was so completely enraptured with everything we did, most of the time, I didn’t notice the cameras.

The smile on Flynn’s face when he arrives for dinner matches my own. His long hair is loose, framing an undeniably swoon-worthy face. But it’s his smile that undoubtedly would have women throwing their panties at him on stage.

“What? I didn’t even say anything yet and you’re shaking that head at me like I’m up to no good.” Flynn feigns innocence, although his eyes tell me his thoughts are anything but.

“That smile. I bet women drop their panties for those dimples.”

He takes a step closer. The air between us shifts. “I hope so.”

Unlike the playful carefree mood from this afternoon, tonight there’s a tension that hangs thick between us. The challenge of navigating down the steep natural stairs of the dimly lit cliff to Bottom Bay is handsomely rewarded at the bottom. The serene beach, surrounded by tall privacy-ensuring cliffs is dark and empty. Until we walk a few hundred yards and pass a towering jut of a mountain to the other side. I actually gasp at the vision.

Leaning palm trees are bedecked with sporadically placed candles ensconced in hanging glass lanterns. A blanket is spread in the corner, an oversized picnic basket illuminated by a few candles surrounding it.

“Wow. It’s beautiful.”

Flynn looks at me pensively. “It is. Are you okay with this?”

The ice protecting my heart for the last week melts just a little. I look at him and smile. “I think I am.”

We spend the next three hours eating, talking and laughing. With only the candlelight around us, it’s easy to forget there are probably cameras set up all over. It’s romantic and beautiful, and Flynn is a complete gentleman. I learn things about him I never would have guessed—things we have in common. We both were science majors in college, although his focus was astronomy and mine was biology. We both love Johnny Cash, but don’t get the Beatles phenomenon. And our dads never met a casino they could walk past.

“What makes the stars twinkle, Copernicus?”

“Ahh. That is a common mistake of the layperson,” Flynn says with some sort of accent. I assume it’s an attempt at the dialect of the famous astronomer, but I know little about Copernicus other than he is the granddaddy of astronomy. “Stars actually don’t twinkle.”

“They don’t? I’m not sure I want to hear this.”

Flynn chuckles. We’re both lying on our backs, gazing up at the sky filled with stars—some of them twinkling. He rolls from his back to his side and props up his head on his elbow with one hand. His other hand brushes a stray hair behind my ear. “It’s just the angle we view them at. A ray of light bends slightly when it passes through the atmosphere, it deflects and we see it as a twinkle. If we were on the moon, we wouldn’t see a twinkle at all.”

I smile, captivated by the splendor of the twinkles above, even if they aren’t really what they seem. “Well, then I’m glad we’re here and not on the moon.”

“Me too,” he says quietly. My heart skips a beat meeting his direct gaze. We hold a long stare, his eyes filled with longing and intrigue, the candle illuminating the blue in his eyes. And his mouth … full and soft, perfectly kissable. He smiles staring down at me, revealing luscious dimples and a confidence that makes me think he absolutely knows what to do with a woman. His eyes drop to my lips and then return to mine with even more heat in his gaze.

The last thought I have as his lips meet mine is that this may be more than a game, and I’m either all in or all out.

chapter thirty-eight

Cooper—

2 weeks later

Walking from the bathroom, a towel wrapped around my waist, I jerk to a halt when I hear the sound. My gaze is riveted to the TV I’d left playing, where her face knocks the air from my lungs. I stopped watching the DVDs after the day the camera zoomed in on them sleeping snuggled in a bed. In the yellow room, of all rooms.

I know I left her with no reason to think I was worthy of a second chance. But I guess I’d secretly hung on to hope that maybe, just maybe, we could be together after the show ended.

Dickhead comes on the screen. This must be the finale. My asshole brother must be in his glory. Ratings have been through the roof. I’ve caught glimpses of the advertisements in the moments before the remote could change the channel. He got what he wanted. America is dying to know if the longhaired, hippy-looking cocky bastard choses the temptress or his torch.