Page 33 of Enticing Her Love

“Then why did you disappear after you won? Didn’t you get a ton of sponsorships and special guest spots on shows and podcasts?”

He looked at her, weighing his answer. The sun beat down on her back, and her brows pinched in concentration as they moved slowly through the water. It was hard to believe he’d been so wrong about her at first. She wasn’t just another pretty face. She had grit, and she never backed down. That confidence and determination were the sexiest things he’d ever seen. He’d give anyone else a half-ass answer to the question she’d asked, dodging the reason he’d gone into hiding, but for the first time in as long as he could remember, he wanted to share the truth. He wanted Sutton to know the real him, just as she’d been showing him who she was. “Because it turned my life into a circus.”

She seemed to mull that over as they trudged through the water. “In what way?”

“I wanted to do something good, but the media turned me into the it guy. A pretty face the public would be drawn to.”

“Aw, poor Flynn was too handsome for his own good.”

He scoffed. “I didn’t say I believed it, but companies wanted to pay me to travel and promote whatever they were selling, or to say I was exploring some cool remote place when they were really going to put me up in a fancy hotel and drive me out to a fucking forest or a desert for a few hours to pretend I was doing something important in a place like this. It was bullshit.”

“I don’t know, Flynn. I wouldn’t mind a cushy deal like that.”

“C’mon, Steele. You can’t tell me you’re not enjoying this fine Ecuadorian spa. I’m kind of loving our mud bath.”

She smiled. “It’s a good one, but a little wine and cheese would be nice.”

“Okay, here comes the whine.” He spoke in a whiny, childlike voice. “I don’t wanna walk through the water anymore.”

She laughed.

“And here comes your cheese. Hey, beautiful, did you do something to my eyes? Because I can’t take ’em off you.”

She winced. “That was cheesy.”

“Ya think? Still hungry for more? If being sexy were a crime, you’d go straight to jail.”

“Please stop.” She laughed.

“So, what do you do for a living besides take my breath away?” He loved hearing her laugh and seeing that smile light up her eyes, so he rattled off a few more cheesy lines.

Ten minutes later they were still laughing as they volleyed cheesy lines and gathered the net to see if they’d caught any fish.

“How does it feel to be the king of cheese?” she asked.

“Not as good as it felt to be between your knees” came out before he could stop it. Shit.

“Flynn!” She swatted his arm, but she was still laughing.

“Sorry, but you should know by now that I tell it like it is.”

“Well, stop being so honest.”

“So, you like liars? That makes sense.” He started opening the net.

“Why would that make sense?” she snapped. “I don’t like liars.”

“Just that you’re lying to yourself if you think you could take a cushy job and feel good about lying to the public.” He started weeding through the net, pulling out leaves and other debris.

She sighed. “It was just the idea of a spa. A comfy bed, a clear bath, and a back massage sound really good right now.”

“I get it, but you’d be bored shitless fake reporting. Hold this for a second. I want to get the camera.” He handed her the net, and her eyes bloomed wide.

“Ohmygod. The camera. We have to edit out what you said!”

He’d planned on editing out the things he’d revealed about himself, as well as the not-safe-for-work comments, even though he was pretty sure they were too far from the mic for it to have picked up their conversation. But she was adorable when she was freaking out, so he played it up. “I don’t think the audience would mind hearing a few cheesy jokes.”

“Not that! The part about my knees.” She whispered the word knees.