Page 14 of Resorting to Love
The link leads to a major online gossip rag. Not a website I’ve visited before, but I’ve heard of it. Idoventure out from beneath my rock sometimes. It’s one of those endless-scroll pages. At the top, in the top-story slot, there’s a grainy, dark image of a couple. Whoever took the picture probably used a cell phone on maximum zoom, without the flash. And cropped it, thank God. Even with the crappy quality, there’s no mistaking what’s happening in the photo.
Eli Wood is fucking a woman against a tree. And that woman is me.
If I had a non-healthcare profession, I might’ve remained unidentified. But, no. My name, age, occupation, and town of residence are spelled out beneath the photo. Nursing is often an unsung job. I’ve never wished for that anonymity more than I do right now.
Three more links are essentially the same, though each has a different version of the image. Our peeping photographer is a savvy—and greedy—bastard. The links to the dining-room video are different. Better, since they show me doing a public service, instead of public figure.
Even those articles reference my romantic link to Eli. Save a hundred lives, and you might be nameless nurse. Fuck one famous actor against a tree, and your name is a commodity. Such bullshit.
A key turning the deadbolt sends me scurrying to the bedroom.
“It’s just me,” Eli says, locking the door behind him. “I took your key so I could get us breakfast. I hoped to be back before you woke up.”
My stomach groans ferociously at the mention of food, something neither of us have had since yesterday afternoon. The ridiculous sound should give him something to tease me about, but the mouth that feasted onmemultiple times last night remains set in a straight line.
“You’ve been to your cabin to shower and change, but you don’t have food.” I’m still clutching the bedsheet as I walk toward him. “I’d joke that you ate it all, or got sidetracked with autographs and forgot it, but it wouldn’t be funny right now, would it?”
“No.” He scrubs his hand over his head, closing his eyes as he gathers a deep breath. “Chloe—shit, I don’t even know how to say this.”
“The internet is buzzing with pictures of us having sex against a tree, everyone suddenly knows my name, and oh yeah, that Canadian chick banging Eli Wood also saved some guy’s life, but mostly she had sex with him against a tree.”
“For starters.”
“Starters?What more could there be?” My eyes feel as if they might pop out of my head as the probable answer pops in. “My sister sent me links with photos and my CPR video. Please tell me there’s no video of us having sex floating around out there.”
“Not that we’re aware of.”
“We?” I march forward until I’m close enough to smell the aftershave on his freshly shaved jaw. “Since I’m positive you and I were the only people involved in last night’s activities, and I just found out about the pictures from my sister in Canada, who the hell arewe?”
“My agent, my publicist, and the tech company under contract to crawl the internet looking for stuff about me.”
“Wow,” I say, shaking my head in disbelief. “I guess I didn’t have sex with one man, I fucked an entire team.”
He reaches for me as I turn on my heel, but I evade him with ease. Working in the ER teaches you to have quick reflexes.
“Chloe,” he says, following me to the bedroom.
I stop just inside the room, blocking him from entering. “Sorry, this room has a maximum capacity of two. Team Dreamboat will have to wait outside.” Shutting the door in his face isn’t nearly as satisfying as I expect. Dammit.
“You’re the one who demanded we have sex by that tree.”
I fling the door open hard enough that it thuds against the wall. “Demanded? What, did I steal your free will? You weren’t capable of saying no?”
“No, I wasn’t. Not to you. I’d just watched you save a man’s life. I know that’s what you do, and you’re so fucking strong, physically and mentally, but it affected you. When you pulled me under that tree and told me you needed me right there and then, there’s no way I would’ve turned you down.”
“You’re overanalyzing. It was just sex talk,” I say, turning away.
“Bullshit.” He steps closer, cups my face in his hands, making me meet his gaze. “You needed me, Chloe. And I needed you too.” His eyes are too warm, too open, showing me things I shouldn’t want and can’t have. Not with him.
“That was last night, and it’s over. Idon’tneed what’s happening today, so…” I step back, out of his tender touch, then nod toward the door. “I’m sure there’s more stuff for you and your team to do. It’s probably for the best if we keep our distance for the rest of the week. Don’t worry, I’ll make that easy. I never intended to do any activities here anyway, just hide out and read.”
Eli scrubs his hand over the short, brown hair I very much enjoyed running my fingers through last night…the multiple times his face was between legs.
I can’t focus on how amazing last night was, or the knot forming in my chest because we won’t spend more time together. It’s for the best. Eli is great—really great, actually. But, even if I wanted a permanent relationship, there’s no sustainable future for us. A famous American actor from Los Angeles and a nurse from a small Canadian town could never work long-term.
All of which is pointless pondering, because he hasn’t mentioned seeing me again after this week. I really need to get him out of my cabin so I can get him out of my head.
“Is there something else?” I ask when he doesn’t make a move to leave. “Is it not good enough that I stick to my cabin for the week? Does your mega-team want me to leave the resort?”
