15. Sam
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
sam
Disheveled doesn’t even begin to describe the state Sam is in as she walks at an aggressively fast pace through the lobby of the resort at six in the morning. She’s wearing the same wrinkled clothes from the day before. Her hair is already falling out of its bun. Loose power cords dangle from her hastily assembled carry-on bag. And her overstuffed suitcase is only half-zipped because she didn’t have time to sit her ass on it to force the damn thing closed. If she forgot some of Emily’s clothes, so be it. She’ll buy her new ones. Sam had to get out of there. Fast. Dumb luck is the only reason she was able to sneak away before the cowboy woke up, and she’s not about to waste it by doing something completely idiotic like hanging around to say goodbye.
No lips. No tomorrow.
That was the agreement.
So what if it was the best sex of her life?
So what if Cooper seemed to see right into the depths of her soul?
So what if she’d never felt more at peace than when she was wrapped up tight in the warmth of his arms?
She has a job. She has a life. She has things she needs to accomplish. She can’t give all of that up to run off with a cowboy. She won’t make some guy her entire world. He has his ranch. She has her city. And never the two shall meet, once she gets the hell off this island and back to reality.
“I need a boat,” she desperately blurts to the man working behind the front desk. “Any boat. It doesn’t matter. I just need to get to the airport as soon as possible. My original transfer time isn’t for a few hours, but something came up and I need to leave now.”
“Of course, miss,” he says amiably, obviously well-prepared for crazed patrons making demands at all hours of the day. “Let me see what I can do.”
He dials a number and speaks softly to whoever is on the other end of the line. Sam drums her fingers on the countertop. She bounces her leg. She doesn’t mean to be so rude, but she can’t help it. Her skin is crawling with the need to get out of Dodge, because she knows the second Cooper realizes she’s gone, he’ll come running.
She saw it in his eyes the night before.
Mine , they whispered. You’re all mine.
In the moment, she was euphoric.
Now, she’s moving faster than a bat out of hell.
“Miss Peters, you’re in luck,” the clerk says jovially as he hangs up the phone. “There’s an airport transfer leaving now. The two guests on board agreed to wait for you if you—”
“Em? Is that you?”
Nina.
Fuck.
Not bothering to hear what else the clerk has to say, Sam murmurs a hasty thank-you and pushes off the desk. She dips her head and grips her bag tighter, as if she can use the leather tote as a shield. But the producer is far too astute.
“Em! Wait up!”
How ’bout no.
She hightails it through the open-air lobby and back into the soft light of dawn, then cuts a sharp left toward the docks.
“Em!”
Palm trees pass in a blur.
“Emily!”
Water shimmers up ahead.
“Samantha!”
She stumbles in pure shock but somehow manages to keep her feet. The boat bobs ten feet away. One of the employees waves her forward, already reaching for her suitcase.
“Stop right there, Sam, and give me five minutes or I’m telling the whole world the truth about you. The truth about your sister.”
Everything within her comes to a screeching halt. Sam closes her eyes for a moment, to breathe, to think. Then she plasters a smile on her face, spins around, and plays dumb.
“Nina, oh my gosh. I didn’t realize that was you. A family emergency came up and I have to—”
“Cut the crap, Sam.”
Deny. Deny. Deny. “I don’t know what you mean? I’m not—”
“I know , Sam.” Nina pointedly arches her brow and snorts. Shedding her friendly skin, the cutthroat Hollywood producer slithers out of hiding. “I’ve known since the second you two switched places. Did you really think you could fool me? I mean, obviously, yes. But it’s my job to read people. To find their weaknesses. To play on their strengths. To expose the secrets they naively think they can keep hidden. And I’m good at my job, Sam. I’m very, very good. Even if I wasn’t, Emily and Jake were about as subtle as a foghorn.”
All the times Nina randomly happened upon her and Cooper in the resort run through Sam’s mind. All the times the producer cajoled them into hanging out. All the times she kept their ruse going just a little bit longer.
Why?
Suddenly, Sam remembers this is the woman who stood between her and Emily while the show was filming. The woman who wouldn’t let Sam get through to her sister even when she called the studio explaining there was a medical issue. The woman who tried to corner Emily into revealing her cancer diagnosis on-screen for the whole world to see.
Fuck her.
And fuck this.
Sam cocks her hip and crosses her arms over her chest. “So why pretend you bought it?”
“I wanted to wait and see how it all played out.” Nina shrugs, no hint of apology in her tone. “I wrote Jake a note after he left. I’m assuming he got it, which means he knew I knew, and so did Emily. I thought she would’ve told you when you got your phone back after filming wrapped, but when it became clear you and Cooper were still playing engaged, that for some reason you weren’t talking to your sister, I got curious.”
“Curious?”
“About what exactly was going on between you and Cooper.”
Sam’s throat tightens. “And?”
“And it’s a masterpiece.” A hungry gleam shines in the producer’s eyes. “We’ve had a lot of crazy things on this show, but we’ve never had a twin swap or a not-so-fake engagement or one of the contestants running off with a producer. I really thought I’d seen it all, and so do our fans, but this is something entirely new. A rarity in my line of work. A holy grail.”
Sam’s heart thuds painfully against her ribs, but she forces a sharkish grin. “Then it’s too bad you don’t have a single minute of the truth on film.”
“Who’s to say I don’t?”
Her blood pounds. “We would’ve seen the cameras.”
“Would you have? Phil is pretty experienced at remaining unseen. He’s been doing this for five years, after all.”
“We never dropped character outside of the room.”
“You mean the room Emily was staying in during filming? That room? Where we had hidden mics?”
It’s a bluff.
It’s got to be.
But…what if it’s not?
Every single moment she spent with Cooper outside their bungalow plays through her mind. They were good. They weren’t perfect. But inside that room, inside those walls…
“California is a two-party consent state,” Sam says, trying a different angle. A desperate one. “That’s where you’re based. Those are the laws you have to follow.”
“Are you willing to bet your sister’s future on that?”
Sam chews on her lower lip. Nausea curls in her gut as the possibilities spin. She can’t lose the upper hand. “You’ve got nothing.”
“Maybe.” Nina shrugs. Her expression is utterly inscrutable. “Or maybe I have everything I need.”
“If you did, you wouldn’t be chasing me down like this.”
“I want to make you an offer before you leave.”
“Yeah, well, you can shove it up your ass. No matter what you try to threaten me with, I’m never going to willingly risk my sister’s reputation.”
“I’m not trying to threaten you, Sam.” Nina holds up her hands as if in truce. “I’m trying to help you.”
She snorts. “Help me right over the edge of a cliff.”
“I needed to get your attention. But now that I have it…” The hard lines across the producer’s face soften. Her body slouches, the tension leaving her all at once as a sigh slips through her lips. Sam doesn’t buy it. Nothing about this woman is real. “Jake is my friend. And Emily probably wouldn’t agree, but I consider her a friend too. I don’t want to hurt them. But I need ratings. I need a sound bite for a ten-second promo. I need a big reveal to cap the season off, something to draw people in. And if you don’t want that to be the truth about who exactly Emily ran off with, then I need something better.”
“Em will—”
“Break things off with Cooper during the live finale?” Nina finishes with a scoff. “Yeah, I figured out your big plan. And having just spent every minute of the past six weeks with your sister, I can tell you that’s the opposite of what I need. We both know watching her amicably separate from Cooper will be about as interesting as watching paint dry. But you, on the other hand…”
“I what?”
“You have a natural affinity for the camera.”
Sam gives her a flat stare. “Wow, what a diplomatic way to say I’m a dramatic asshole.”
“I love dramatic assholes.”
“Well, we don’t love you.”
“Come on, Sam.” Nina grins. “I’m sure we could figure out a mutually beneficial agreement.”
“I don’t negotiate with terrorists.”
The producer rolls her eyes.
Sam crosses her arms and stares at Nina hard. The boat won’t wait forever. Time is ticking. And Cooper is used to waking up with the dawn. If she wants to get out of here, it needs to be now. She’s done playing games. “What exactly do you want, Nina?”
“I don’t know yet. But—” She cuts in before Sam can mutter the curse word playing on the tip of her tongue. “I know it involves you. I’m still working it out in my head. So for now, I just need you to keep this between us. Don’t tell Emily yet. Don’t get her involved. Give me a minute to parse through the options. And take my call.”
“What call?”
“The one I’ll make when I figure out what to do next.”
Sam doesn’t respond.
“Miss?” the employee behind her calls. “Are you—”
“Yes. I’m so sorry. I’m still coming,” Sam rushes to answer as she spins around and pushes her suitcase toward him. Before she can take a step toward the boat, Nina’s hand closes around her wrist.
“I need an answer before you leave, Sam.”
She bends her elbow and wrenches her arm free. Nina lets go without a fight. Not that it matters. Her claws have already sunk deep. And from her smug expression, she knows it.
“I’ll take your fucking call,” Sam spits. “But leave Cooper out of it. This is between you and me. He deserves a clean break.”
“Deal.” The producer doesn’t hesitate. Just like that, it’s done. “I hope you have a safe flight home.”
“Yeah? And I hope you crawl back into the hellhole from whence you came.”
“See? This is what I mean.” Nina waves her hand between them. “Emily would’ve just mumbled a half-hearted goodbye. But you’ve got fire, Sam. Viewers love fire.”
“You know what they say about playing with fire, Nina?”
“Bye, Sam.”
She doesn’t respond. Instead, she turns her back, climbs into the boat, and holds up her middle fingers until the dock, the producer, and the rest of the resort disappear from view. The first thing she does when she gets to the airport is switch her flight to the one that leaves tomorrow. She can’t risk being in the airport today, not when there’s any possibility of a run-in with Cooper. Leaving when he was out cold was hard enough. Leaving when he’s begging her for something more? Even diamonds have their breaking points.
When the transfer is complete, she books it to the airport hotel across the street and gets a room. The sight of a bed gives her flashbacks to large, calloused hands roving over her skin and commanding lips laying claim to every inch they kissed. So she sits on the toilet. But even then her gaze pulls toward the shower and a wave of heat leaves her breathless. Eventually she ends up in the closet with her headphones on, her laptop open, and angry rock music blaring. But even that isn’t strong enough to completely drown out his presence, his memory, or his deep, assured voice when he so confidently whispered, I’m not the one you’re trying to fool.
Dammit.