Good Girl Complex(Avalon Bay #1)(15)

“Evan and I dive in,” Cooper says. “Steph runs to distract the cop. Anyway, so the goat kicks the hell out of me, and I’m back there getting woozy, about to black out, when Evan says, bro, we gotta ditch this car and run.”

“So what happened to the goat?” I demand, now sincerely invested in the fate of this poor animal, but acutely paranoid that everyone notices how out of sorts I am. How hard I’m staring.

“Evan pulls onto this fire road that cuts through the state park and somehow wrestles that thing out of the backseat and takes it into the forest. Leaves me passed out on the ground beside the car so when the cops get there and see me unconscious and covered in blood, looking dead as a doornail, they all start freaking out. They get me in an ambulance, and I wake up in the hospital. In all the confusion, I slip out of there and meet Evan at home like nothing ever happened.”

“They never caught you?” Bonnie hoots with laughter.

“Hell no,” Evan says. “Got away clean.”

“So you left a goat by itself in the woods?” I stare at them, amused yet horrified.

“What the hell else were we supposed to do with it?” Cooper sputters.

“Not that! Oh my God. That poor goat. I’m going to have nightmares about the thing crying alone in the dark forest. Chased down by bobcats or something.”

“See?” Evan smacks his brother’s arm. “This is why we don’t let chicks talk us into playing hero. They’re never satisfied.”

Still, I laugh despite myself. The image of those two tearing through town, barely able to see over the steering wheel, with a frightened goat kicking and bucking around, is too hilarious.

For a while longer, we trade silly stories. About the time Bonnie and her high school cheerleading squad turned a hotel grand staircase into a Slip ’N Slide at a competition in Florida. Or the time a friend and I met some guys when camping with her family and almost burned down the campground with fireworks.

And then, it finally arrives. The moment Bonnie has eagerly awaited all night.

Evan grabs the blanket he got from his car earlier and asks Bonnie if she wants to take a walk. Those two have been making eyes at each other since we came here. Before they walk off, she glances back at me to make sure I’m cool by myself, and I give her a nod.

Because as terrified as I am to be left alone with Cooper, it’s exactly what I want.

“Well, my work here is done,” I inform him, trying to act normal.

He pokes the fire with a stick to move the logs around. “Don’t worry, she’s safe with him. He talks like a delinquent, but Evan’s not a creep or anything.”

“I’m not worried.” I get up and take Evan’s spot in the sand beside Cooper. I shouldn’t, but I’m a glutton for punishment. And I don’t know if it’s him or the intoxicating scent of burning driftwood, but I feel drunk despite only having one beer. “Honestly, neither of you are what I expected. In a good way.”

Uh-oh. That sounded flirty, I realize. My cheeks heat up, and I hope he doesn’t take the comment as a sign of interest.

“Yeah,” he says, shaking his head. “I’m kinda still waiting on an apology for that herpes crack.”

“I plead the fifth.” I bite back a smirk, looking at him from the corner of my eye.

“So that’s how it is, huh?” He arches an eyebrow, challenging me with mock bravado.

I shrug. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Alright. I see. Remember that, Mac. When you had the chance to be the bigger person.”

“Ohhh,” I taunt. “So it’s war now, huh? Sworn enemies to the death?”

“I don’t start shit, I finish it.” He makes a joking tough guy face and kicks some sand at my feet.

“Yeah, real mature.”

“Now about that bet, princess.”

That does me in. With that single mocking nickname, I blink and a terrible sinking awareness becomes undeniable.

Cooper’s hot.

Insanely hot.

And it’s not just his strong, angular face and deep, dark eyes that descend for ages. He also possesses a certain I don’t give a fuck quality that gets right at the most susceptible parts of me. In the light of the fire, there’s something almost ominous about him. A knife when the light glints off the blade. Yet he has a magnetism that’s undeniable.

I can’t remember the last time I felt such a visceral attraction to a guy. If ever.

I don’t like it. Not only because I have a boyfriend, but because my pulse is racing and my cheeks are hot, and I hate feeling like I’m not in control of my own body.

“We never did set the stakes,” he muses.

“What do you want, then?” Fair’s fair. If nothing else, I’m a woman of my word.

“You wanna make out?”

I play it cool, but my pulse kicks into a new gear. “What else do you want?”

“I mean, I figured a blowjob was a nonstarter, but if we’re negotiating. …”

Despite myself, I crack a smile. “You’re shameless.”

Somehow he manages to release the tension from the moment, erasing all awkwardness until I’m no longer hyperaware of myself.

“Alright,” he says, a sexy grin tilting his lips. “You drive a hard bargain. I’ll go down on you first.”