The Off Limits Rule (It Happened in Nashville 1)

“Too late.” His hands drop away, but his eyes are definitely still holding me.

“What do you mean?”

His grin makes my chest tighten. “You’re caught.” He tilts his head toward the house, but I still don’t understand. “That’s my house, Lucy. You’re in my pool.”

WHAT?! I’m in Cooper’s pool right now? I blink at the beautiful house behind him, and my brain feels like it’s full of molasses with how slowly it’s processing this new information. Then, when everything snaps into place, my eyes toss grenades at him, and I lunge forward to splash him. “You big liar!” SPLASH. SPLASH. SPLASH. He laughs and turns his face away to avoid my attacks. “Why did you make me think we were trespassing?!” I don’t give him a chance to respond. I lurch forward and wrap my arm around his neck, trying to drag him under and drown him.

He’s actually pretty pliable and easy to drown because he’s laughing so hard his muscles are momentarily incapacitated. Why does it feel so amazing to be stronger than Superman? I dunk his head under the water and pull it back up. “You’re”—dunk—“SO”—dunk—“mean!”—dunk.

This time, when I pull him up out of the water, his muscles revive themselves, and he stands to his full height, towering over me like a monster that’s just been made stronger from all the torture. I turn to scramble away, but—oh yeah—I’m in water and bogged down by, like, fifteen pounds of extra weight from my clothes. Cooper easily catches me and swoops me up in his ar

ms. He’s cradling me, and I’m fully pressed up against his fantastic body now. I don’t want to acknowledge how good it feels…but, oh boy, do I. Every inch of me feels like it’s sparking and reacting.

Do you know what happens when you mix water and electricity?

Electrocution.

“You’re gonna pay for all that waterboarding,” he says, carrying me up the steps of the pool like I’m nothing more than a wet towel.

I squirm and kick, but he just keeps walking until we’re out of the water. He goes to the deep end then flashes me one last sizzling, torturous grin before launching me in the air, tossing me right back into the pool. I scream in midair, and then the water engulfs me. No sooner do I catch my breath than I feel his arms come around me and start hauling me to the stairs AGAIN. Yes, he laughs like a wicked villain and chucks me in a second time.

I’m laughing so hard at the absurdity of this night that now I’m the paralyzed one. I can’t remember the last time I felt like laughing this hard. After the third time I get sent airborne, I give up the fight, surface, and float on my back, staring up at the sky. I feel Cooper’s hands around my body once more, but this time, he doesn’t take me out of the pool. He holds me, and his hand wipes what I’m sure are more mascara stains off my cheeks, but I don’t feel as embarrassed about it this time.

He swims us back to the shallow end and sets me on the little wading ledge in the water, and then he sits down right beside me, our shoulders pressed together like he has to be touching me in some way. Why? Because it’s normal for him? Because he’s hoping to turn this into more?

I squint up at the sky, feeling his eyes on my face. “Are you trying to get me to sleep with you?” I ask boldly because sometimes I can’t help but say what’s in my head. It’s my superpower and my curse.

If he’s shocked by my question, he doesn’t act like it. “No.”

I can’t decide if I’m comforted or let down by his answer. “Okay. Then what was the point of tonight? Bringing me here…letting me think we were doing something illegal? It feels like this might be your signature move or something.”

“My move?” His voice is full of amusement.

“Yeah, you know, like you have this whole scene worked out perfectly to where women are putty in your hands.”

“Are you putty in my hands right now?” His words make chill bumps erupt across my skin.

I can’t answer that question. “How many?” I ask, turning things back around on him because I’m too scared he’ll be able to see the answer to his question written on my face in highlighter. I probably look like I’ve broken out in heart-shaped chickenpox.

He shakes his head, a soft smile on his lips. “This is not a move. You’re the first woman I’ve even had in this pool.”

Oh.

My shoulders relax a little, but then, when I lean a little more into his shoulder, realization zaps through me. “WAIT! That’s your move, isn’t it?! Taking women to do special things for the first time!” I point an accusing finger at him.

He grabs my finger and lowers it like I had the barrel of a gun aimed at his chest. “Will you stop it? I don’t have a move.” His grin curves into something wolfish. “Never needed one.”

I roll my eyes and make a blehhhhhh sound.

He laughs. “Lucy, I brought you here because I wanted to cheer you up. You seemed so down earlier when I called you cute—like I meant cute in a tiny-purring-kitten way.”

“Actually, I thought you meant it in an awwww-look-at-that-adorable-mom-letting-loose kind of way.”

“And that’s worse?” he asks with a crooked brow.

“Much.”

“Why’s that?”