Boom - Sabrina Stark Page 0,80

brothers, and Arden because she thought it was a temporary deal.

It wasn't.

She might not know it, but an easy fling wasn't what I had in mind. Not anymore.

As far as my brothers, I'd deal with them later, when the house was finished and Arden was free of cameras and contracts.

For her sake, I'd handle it in private. No video footage. No drama. Just me and my brothers, hammering it out – without an audience.

Until then, I was keeping Arden to myself. And trust me, she wasn't complaining.

As the days turned to weeks, her interest in the house extended beyond the original project, and I found myself wanting her opinions on other projects, too – which houses to restore, which ones to pass up, and what to do with the properties that were next in the show's lineup.

Together, we pulled up plans and looked at pictures. It wasn't just about color schemes and window dressings. It was the layout of the houses, where we'd put in an extra bathroom, or what we'd do with an old kitchen or back patio.

Technically "we" wouldn't be doing anything, because Arden wasn't scheduled to be involved. But I loved her ideas. And her energy. And the way her eyes lit up whenever we brainstormed ways to modernize something while keeping its original structure intact.

Much of this – the house-planning, the brainstorming, the debating back and forth – we did in front of Waverly.

And it was driving her batshit crazy.

Judging from her sorry attitude, she felt ignored and neglected, even more so when I suggested – and none too nicely either – that if she didn't like the way things were going, she could find somewhere else to stay.

Too bad she didn't.

Instead, she stuck around, giving us more scrutiny than we wanted. Every few days, I debated kicking her out – or hell, just taking Arden back to my condo, where it would be just the two of us on our own.

But I didn't. It would only arouse more suspicion and a corresponding amount of camera time. Plus, Chase was my neighbor, and he was suspicious enough already.

I didn't want the extra attention. And neither did Arden. So we played it cool when the others were around. On the job, at the house, wherever – we worked like hell to act like there was nothing going on.

Were people buying it?

Hard to say. But we did our best. And we had a riot sneaking around.

Every night, I'd crawl out my bedroom window like a sex-crazed teenager, slink around the side of the house, and crawl in through the window beside Arden's bed.

And she'd be waiting.

Oh, boy, would she be waiting.

It was a good thing she had her own bathroom, because without it, we'd be showing up for breakfast reeking of sin and sex instead of soap and shampoo.

It also helped that we showed up alone.

Just before dawn, I'd use those same two windows to sneak back into my own room and come out looking reasonably innocent – or at least that was the general idea.

As far as the house we were fixing up, Arden and I no longer argued about who owned it. It was a good thing too, because I already had a plan to make it right.

When the thing was done, I was going to surprise the hell out of her in more ways than one. Until then, I was saying as little as possible. And so was she.

Maybe she knew I was up to something. Or maybe – and this was my favorite theory – I kept her so satisfied between the sheets, she was finding it hard to complain.

And me? I was asking some serious questions, the kind that should've scared the hell out of me.

Except they didn't.

Chapter 45

Arden

"My dream life?" I said in reply to Brody's question. "Well, I guess I'm living it, huh?"

It was long after midnight, and the two of us had snuck out for a quiet walk along the beach. Back in high school, I'd done the same thing plenty of times while living with my grandparents.

But never this late. And never after having had the best sex of my life.

Again.

In spite of the cool breeze, I felt warm and wonderful, walking beside Brody as the moonlight shimmered across the quiet, endless water.

He'd just asked me to describe my dream life, and the strangest thing was, I couldn’t envision anything better than what I was doing right now.

He gave my hand a playful squeeze. "It's a serious question."

"I know,"