Too Tempting (The Lewis Cousins 1)

When Serena looked up, I gave her a grateful smile and said, “Dinner is served.”

Everyone busied themselves making their plates, then sat around the table, talking in between bites.

I noticed Zoey eating quietly and watching the group intently, and was going to try and pull her into the conversation when her eyes widened and she stood up abruptly.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said absently, then picked up her plate and started backing away. “I just thought of something I have to do. Please excuse me.”

I watched, confused, as she stumbled her way down toward her cabin, the door slamming behind her as she went inside.

“What was that?” Dillon asked, his face reflecting the same concern I was feeling.

“I’ll go check on her,” Jasmine said, rising from her spot.

“Me too,” Serena added, following after our cousin.

“Should I go?” I asked, unsure how to handle Zoey’s abrupt departure.

“Nah, let us girls handle it,” Jasmine replied from over her shoulder. “We’ll let you know if you’re needed.”

Chapter Ten ~ Zoey

I was scribbling fiercely, the plate of food I’d brought with me forgotten.

Watching Gabe and his cousins … the way they interacted, communicated, and obviously felt about each other, had given me an epiphany. There was something missing in the book I was currently finishing up, and inspiration had struck over dinner.

I grinned excitedly as I wrote. My editor was going to lose her mind!

A knock on the screen door had my grin fading as I looked up to see who was disturbing my train of thought.

“Can we come in?” Jasmine asked.

I really wanted to say no, but realized Jasmine and Serena might take it wrong, not understanding the intense need I had to put pen to paper.

“Of course,” I said instead, allowing my desire to be polite to overrule my desire to be alone.

I went back to writing, trying to get down the ideas that I had before I lost them, and Jasmine sat down on the bed while Serena walked around the room.

“So … I was just telling Serena that she needn’t be worried that you have some sordid underlying plan to trap our cousin and use him for your own gain…”

Still half in a daze, the gist of Jasmine’s words penetrated my brain and I looked up, confused.

“What? Why would I use him?”

Jasmine waved her hand, as if waving away my question.

“But I told her, the last person that would need to use our cousin for anything, would be Zoey Zahn…”

My brain cleared immediately and I dropped my pen.

“How long have you known?” I asked, my stomach dipping as I worried that she’d be upset with me. I liked Jasmine, and didn’t want her to think I had any sort of negative reason for keeping my identity to myself.

“I thought you looked familiar that first day, and it kept bugging me, but I didn’t know why,” she answered, flipping her flaming hair over her shoulder then giving a small shrug. “I went to Comic Con last year and saw you on a panel, but that was the only time I’d really seen your face, so it didn’t register right away. I woke up last night and it came to me.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I figured you had your reasons, and you weren’t hurting anyone by not announcing that we had one of the most popular writers in the world sleeping in the next cabin.”