Charles Cash got under my skin.

That’s what happened out there on the trails, and when he split off to go back to his suite, I couldn’t let it go. 

People like me. That’s part and parcel of being Josephine Paxton. Charlie—I can’t stop thinking of him as Charlie, even though he’s clearly grown up and become a Charles—hates me for no reason whatsoever.

I planned my revenge poolside. The entire plan? Get him to talk to me.

He holds his glare.

I glare back at him, then put on my most exaggerated mean face.

Three heartbeats later, his mouth quirks up into a smile. A fraction of an inch, but it’s there. I mean, what kind of man can resist a dare? Not Charlie Cash.

The door is cracked open just far enough for me to wedge my pinky finger in. “So what will it be, Charlie?” I raise both my hands in the air in a questioning gesture. “You probably hate being called that, but I can’t help it. High school still has an effect on me.” My old confidence grows slowly, like a weed pushing through the sidewalk, but it’s growing.

He rolls his eyes. “Nobody calls me Charlie anymore. Not even my brothers.”

“That can’t possibly be true.”

He stands up from the table, giving me another view of his rugged, masculine body unfolding beneath his clothes. “Truth or not, I’m not talking about it here.” I hurry out of my seat at the same time the waitress returns with the card folio. He opens it, signs the slip without looking, and shoves his card back into his wallet. She moons at him the entire time, but he never notices. Finally, he turns his gaze back to me. “What do you have in mind, Josephine? Another trip to the bar?”

The comment is barbed, but I let it slide off my skin like the water droplets from beneath the falls. “Ha. You couldn’t pay me to drink tonight.” He gives the cocktail on the table a look. I wave it off with one hand. “I’m done with that.”

“Fine. Let’s walk the beach then.”

“Oooh, you’re quite the adventurous one.”

He gives me a sidelong glance as we make our way out of the restaurant. “You could stand to be a little less adventurous, if you ask me.”

“But I didn’t ask.” 

That banter does make him smile. It’s a real smile, and the sweet glow of victory blooms in my chest. Victory…and something else that I’m not willing to consider at the moment.

He leads me out past the pool, out past the ring of luxury bungalows at the edge of the resort, and onto the white sand beach. The sun is beginning to set, casting a brilliant orange glow over everything. Charlie walks between me and the ocean. Backlit by the setting sun, the vision of him against the sand is something else.

We’re silent as we leave the resort behind, the music from the pool area fading with every step. The quiet is not the sharp silence of the trail. Still, it’s going to be up to me to break it. So I do. “What brings you to Emerald Shores, Charlie Cash?”

He stiffens a little at the old nickname, but takes in a breath through his nose and lets it out. “Business.”

“You came to a tropical resort to do business?”

“I came here for my business,” he clarifies, sand shifting beneath his feet. He’s wearing a linen button-down shirt, and the way it slides over his skin makes me want to unbutton the remaining buttons and yank it off his shoulders to send it swirling toward the beach. “One of my CEOs wanted me to scope it out.”

It doesn’t quite have the ring of truth. “Did he also want you to take a vacation?” Charlie scoffs. “Well, it would make sense. Every time I’ve seen you, you’ve had your head stuck in your phone, or buried in your laptop. I don’t think you got up once the entire flight.”

Charlie turns that smile on me again, and it’s like the sun has returned to the sky. “You don’t mind your own business, do you?”

I roll my eyes so hard that Charlie laughs. “You’re the one who hauled me out of the pool earlier.”

“I did not haul you anywhere. You came willingly.” He sounds a little bemused. “I don’t understand why, though.”

I sigh. “It was either that or you were going to stand there the rest of the afternoon, watching me.”

“You make me sound like a stalker.”

Now it’s my turn to laugh. “You would never stalk me in a million years. You can’t stand me.”

“I couldn’t stand you.”

“Oh?” I tease. “Did you change your mind during the last five minutes?”

“I sure as hell did not,” he says, and it’s like something breaks open between us, a wall tumbling down. Maybe not the main wall. Maybe not the fortress Charlie has built up around himself—and why he’s done that, I don’t know—but one of the outer walls. I keep pushing, removing more bricks one by one.

We continue walking down the beach. It’s never completely silent, not with the steady crashing of the waves onto the shore, but through the sparks of conversation, I manage to needle things out of him. Like how he hasn’t taken a vacation in six years. Like how he really did hate me for dating Greg Roberts.

“He wasn’t a prize,” I say about halfway through that line of conversation, while we’re walking back toward the resort. “He was kind of…” I search for the right word. Greg’s face, red and angry after one too many beers, appears in my mind. What was I doing, dating a guy like that? Trying to numb myself, that’s what. It was all supposed to be fun, until it wasn’t. “He was kind of terrifying.”

“He was an asshole.” Charlie glances over at me. “He didn’t deserve you.”

I’m so shocked by his words that I think my heart stops. The fact that he thinks another man didn’t deserve me is nothing short of earth-shattering, but I play it cool. “Thank you.”

“You’re nothing special,” he covers, but there’s a smile at the corner of his lips that says otherwise. What world are we in, that Charlie Cash is starting to flirt with me?

“I think you’ve got that wrong,” I say loftily. “Men like you are a dime a dozen.”

We cross back by the bungalows and head up toward the gate leading to the pool. I reach for the clasp, and suddenly Charlie’s hand is on the small of my back. “Josephine—”

I stop, turning to face him. “Yeah?” I haven’t had much to drink, but I feel drunk just looking at him. Drunk and heady, like anything could happen.

“About earlier—”

I’m backed up against the gate. He’s inches away from me, and I get the sense that he hasn’t been this close to someone else in a long time. He smells so good. There’s a look in his eyes that’s dark and glittering, and he searches my face. I’m still playing with him, but I don’t feel like he’s playing with me.

“Charlie?”

I lean forward an inch, and he responds as if on instinct, his hand moving to my waist. When he brushes his fingertips against me, it feels like fire, even through my clothes.

He’s leaning in, and oh, God, he’s going to kiss me. Charlie Cash has completely lost his mind, and he’s going to kiss me.

I want it to happen so badly that I can’t stand go through with it. I bail at the last second, turning my cheek, trying to pretend I heard someone calling my name.

Charlie jerks back like I’ve slapped him, running his fingers through his hair, turning away. When he turns back around, his eyes are full of regret. “Where are you staying?” 

I can hardly breathe, but I force the words out. “In—” I wave vaguely toward the private bungalows. “One of those.”

“All right,” he says, giving me a nod. “Thanks for the walk.” I get out of his way just in time. He moves through the gate and goes quickly toward the pool. “It was fun,” he calls over his shoulder, and then he turns his back on me.

My heart falls to my shoes. 

Burned. That’s what you get for playing with fire.