A Chance at Love: A Second Chance Romance Read online

  “That’s right,” says Samira. Then she looks over at me. “And you’re with...wait, I think I know this. That entrepreneur guy, right?”

  I nod. “Yep. Leo.”

  “He’s her high school sweetheart,” says Jess.

  Samira’s eyes go wide. “No way.”

  “Yep,” I say, silently cursing Jess for saying anything. The less attention on Leo and I, the better, as far as strategy is concerned. “It’s true.”

  “I’m guessing you two didn’t have a horrible breakup, then, if you’re paired up with him now?”

  I shrug. “It was a mutual breakup.”

  “Ah,” says Samira. “Let me guess. End of high school?”

  I nod. I sit down on my bed and smooth my hand over the sheets. I wasn’t planning on getting into this, but now that it’s out, I may as well tell the story.

  “We dated our entire senior year of high school. He was my first love. Actually…my only love, I guess.” Shit. I really don’t need to open up like this. “Anyway. We got into different colleges, and we both agreed that it didn’t make sense to do a long-distance relationship. Not when we were so young. So we broke up. It really sucked. But we had to do it. I mean, how many college kids do you hear about being in long-distance relationships?”

  Samira nods. “I bet you would have broken up anyway.”

  “Yeah. Exactly.” I shift on the bed. “And now here we are, six years later, meeting again on a reality TV show.”

  Samira breaks into a grin. “Tell the truth. Do you still have feelings for him?”

  I let out a long sigh.

  “She wants him but she won’t admit it,” Jess tells Samira.

  “Gotcha,” says Samira. “And do you think he wants you?”

  “Oh, he definitely wants her,” says Jess. “I could practically see the outline of his hard-on in his pants.”

  “Jess!” I scream.

  But Jess and Samira are laughing too hard to hear me. Oh, for fuck’s sake. Why am I even bothering?

  “Fine!” I say. “I want Leo. There! Are you happy now?”

  “Yes,” Jess says, gasping for air. “Thank you. I just wanted you to admit it. That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

  I sigh and get up from the bed and walk past Jess and Samira, who are still laughing.

  “Where are you going, Whitney?” Jess chokes out.

  “Bathroom,” I mutter.

  But when I walk out of the room, I run smack into Leo.

  Chapter Four

  Leo

  “Shit,” says Whitney, smoothing down her hair. “Hi. Sorry. Were you standing there long?”

  “You mean, did I hear you say that you wanted me?” I say. I’d come upstairs to make sure she was okay—I saw her and Jess branch off from the group a little while ago and started getting concerned when they didn’t come back. But to overhear her say that she wants me...damn. Talk about good timing.

  Whitney’s cheeks burn. I feel a little bad for being so blatant with her, but damn, she’s adorable when she’s blushing.

  “Yeah,” she says. “Look, about that…”

  “You don’t have to explain.” I put on the most ridiculously-full-of-myself smirk that I can manage. “I mean, come on. Look at me. I’m a god.”

  She laughs.

  “You know, I was coming up here to ask if you wanted to go on a walk or something, but now that I know you want me…should we just go in a closet and get it on?”

  Her cheeks burn again.

  My over-the-top smirk fades. Shit. “Sorry. Too much?”

  “No. I know you’re just kidding around.” She takes a breath. “So, can I take you up on that walk? I could use the fresh air.”

  “Definitely,” I say. I offer my arm to her, and she laughs and hooks hers around it. “Come on. Let’s go look at the stars.”

  Outside, the sky is inky black and dotted with faint specks of light. Whitney and I walk around the paths on the property, and then drift off the paths and wander through the surrounding fields. While we walk, we catch up on the last six years of our lives. She tells me about the marketing job she has at a small publishing company. I tell her about what a typical day is like for me as a cofounder of a tech company. She asks about my parents; I ask about hers. It’s so good to just spend time like this with her. It reminds me of how good of a friend she was in high school—not just a girlfriend.

  I miss her. Oh, God, I miss her.

  When we reach the edge of the property, we circle around and start heading back. The mansion glows in the darkness, every one of its multitude of lights aglow.

  “What do you think?” I say, nodding toward the mansion. “Should we buy the place?”

  Whitney scoffs. “Oh, yeah. Definitely. I’m sure it will be a bargain, too.”

  “I bet you could get them to lower the price.”

  “Oh, yeah? And how would I do that?”

  “With your feminine wiles.”

  She smirks. “Feminine wiles my ass.”

  “Are you kidding?” I say. “Have you seen yourself, Whitney?”

  Her eyes drop, then raise again to mine. “This isn’t how I normally dress, you know.”

  “No?”

  “No. Come on. You know me, Leo. You know I’m a yoga-pants-baggy-tee kind of girl.”

  “Don’t forget the granny panties.”

  She punches me playfully. “You wish you could see my granny panties.”

  “Totally. I’d be all over them.”

  She laughs. But then she goes weirdly silent. Her footsteps slow.

  “What are we doing, Leo?”

  “We’re walking,” I say. “Although it now appears that...yep. We’re coming to a stop.”

  She turns to face me. “Come on. Be serious.”

  I meet her eyes. Fuck. I want to kiss her so bad. My hands itch to grab her face, to press my lips to hers. But when I think about actually doing it, the remembered pain of how much it hurt when we broke up flares in my chest. I know she said she wanted me, but the way she said it also sounded full of reservations. And I can’t risk her turning me down.

  “We’re just hanging out, Whit,” I say, shrugging. “We’re catching up. Having fun. And we’re going to win this game.”

  Is that disappointment on her face? Relief? Maybe a mix of both. She nods and turns her head to look at the mansion again.

  “I can’t believe that’s where we’re living for the next however many weeks.”

  “Ten weeks,” I remind her.

  “Only if we make it to the end.”

  “Oh, we will,” I say.

  She glances at me. “What makes you so sure?”

  “We make a good team.”

  “Right. Speaking of which...we should probably talk some strategy, huh?”

  I grin. “Thought you’d never ask.”

  We decide on a couple things upfront: first, we’re going to keep our history as on the down low as possible; second, instead of trying to become a power couple, we’re going to try to befriend as many other people in the house as we can.

  “This sounds perfect,” says Whitney. “We’ll get everyone to like us. Then, bam, we’ll be in the finale and everyone will wonder what happened.”

  “Exactly,” I say. “But remember. No alliances.”

  Whitney nods. “Anything else?”

  “I dunno. Can you think of anything?”

  Whitney hesitates. “Um...well, how affectionate are we going to be?”

  I shrug, trying to ignore my thrumming heart. “How affectionate do you want to be?”

  “I mean, if we aren’t affectionate at all, then us pairing up is going to come across too obviously as strategy, and I think our chances of getting voted off will be higher. But if we’re too lovey-dovey, we run the risk of annoying people. Or making them jealous.”

  “Right,” I say. “So…what exactly do you have in mind?”

  “Well…we can be flirty. Let’s not use any pet names or anything, though.”

  “Where
do you stand on kisses?”

  “No making out,” she quickly says. “But an innocent kiss here or there…that’s fine.”

  “Cheeks? Lips?”

  “Either’s okay.”

  “Okay,” I say.

  My heart feels like it’s going to burst through my chest. And I almost say something about how we should practice the kisses, just to make sure we get them right.

  But that damn memory of pain rides up again in my chest.

  “Come on,” I say, taking a step toward the house. “It’s getting cold out. Let’s go back inside.”

  Chapter Five

  Whitney

  Three weeks later

  “Do you guys think this swimsuit is too slutty?”

  It takes all my willpower not to exchange glances with Jess. The girl who just asked the question, Abigail, is standing in the middle of the kitchen wearing a bikini that will probably necessitate censorship bars when the show goes live.

  “It’s cute,” I say as I continue to slice limes for drinks. “Are you comfortable in it?”

  “Oh, totally,” says Abigail. “It’s like wearing nothing.”

  “If you’re happy in it, that’s what matters,” I say.

  “Thanks, Whitney. You’re sweet.”

  As soon as Abigail bounds off toward the pool, some of the other girls in the kitchen start making fun of her. I just keep slicing limes, only laughing along with the girls one time. As it turns out, trying to stay in everyone’s favor on this show is harder than I thought it would be. In the three weeks that we’ve been here, though, I’ve done my best—and so has Leo. So far so good when it comes to our strategy.

  “I think you’ve cut enough limes, Whitney,” says Jess, leaning her elbows on the kitchen counter. Then, lowering her voice, Jess says, “Can you believe that bikini? I’m pretty sure I saw her cooch.”

  “Jess,” I hiss under my breath. A cameraman has just walked into the room.

  Jess straightens up. “Yeah, that knife does seem pretty dull,” Jess says loudly and not at all fake sounding. The camera man keeps walking through the kitchen. As soon as he’s gone, Jess drops to her elbows again. “Where’s Leo?”

  “Out by the pool, I think,” I say, grabbing a paper towel to wipe up the lime juice on the cutting board.

  “You don’t worry about him being around all those bikini-clad girls? Especially ones with names that rhyme with Babigail?”

  “Nope,” I say.

  “You two are so weird,” says Jess. “Why are you still pretending like you don’t want to be together for real?” Then her eyes flick away from mine. “Speak of the devil.”

  I look over and see Leo walk into the house. He’s just wearing swim trunks, and his body is golden tan. The sight of him makes my skin tingle, as it’s been doing since I got here.

  “Want a drink, Leo?” Jess calls out to him.

  “Sure,” he says. As he walks over to us, I have to avert my eyes from his tan, muscled chest. Jess grabs the margarita-filled blender, pours some into a glass, and adds one of the lime wedges I just sliced.

  “Thanks,” says Leo. He takes a drink, then grins at us. “You two should come out to the pool. It’s gorgeous out there.”

  “I agree,” says Jess. “Let’s put on our swimsuits, Whitney.”

  “Maybe later,” I say. I’ve been purposely avoiding being out by the pool. It’s just too tempting seeing Leo half-naked.

  Jess groans. “No. Not later. We’re going out there now.” She grabs my hand and starts pulling me toward the stairs that lead up to our room. And as much as I want to struggle and yank my hand out of her grasp, I don’t want to cause a scene. I give in and follow her.

  Up in our room, I begrudgingly change into my swimsuit.

  “Oh, stop being such a grump,” says Jess.

  I sigh. Okay, fine. I know I really should just chill out and enjoy this time while we’re here. I’ve been so focused on staying on everyone’s good side to avoid getting voted off and not spending too much time with Leo to avoid being tempted by him that I haven’t even been enjoying myself.

  The least I can do is relax in the pool.

  In our swimsuits—Jess is in a pink-and-gold bikini and I’m in a dark navy one—we head back downstairs and step out of the open French doors into the pool area. A bunch of people are out there, some hanging out in the pool while others lounge in the sun. Leo is lying back on one of the lounge chairs, sunglasses on, hands behind his head, soaking up the sun. All his muscles are taut and glimmering.

  Why couldn’t he have grown up to be ugly?

  It would make this so much simpler.

  Jess and I both jump into the pool. The water feels wonderful—cool and relaxing. I swim around a little, then hang out by the edge, laughing as Jess attempts to do a handstand underwater.

  “Shit!” she yells, coming to the surface again. “I almost had it.”

  But then our attention is diverted to yelling coming from across the yard. One of the girls is yelling at her partner about not taking the game seriously. I look over just in time to see her throw her drink in his face.

  “Draaaaama,” says Jess, swimming up to join me at the edge of the pool. “I bet you a million bucks they’ll be up for elimination this week.”

  “Yeah, I’m not taking that bet,” I say. I look around the yard at all the other contestants. Everybody’s watching the fighting couple, too. Everyone except for Leo and Noah, Jess’s partner, that is. They’re just sitting over there laughing about something else.

  Jess catches me looking over at them.

  “Come on,” she says, pulling herself up out of the pool. “Let’s go say hi to our boys.”

  I follow her over, looking down to make sure my swimsuit is still covering everything up. When Leo and Noah see us approaching, they both give us smiles.

  “Hey, cuties,” says Noah. As it turns out, Noah is actually the perfect match for Jess. I can totally see them together after the show. And Jess is nuts about him. She’s even gone so far as to sneak off with him in the middle of the night to have sex.

  Jess takes a seat on Noah’s lap, giggling and giving him a kiss as she does. I look around for an empty lounge chair, but there’s none. My eyes meet Leo’s.

  He gives me a little shrug to say, Go ahead, it’s fine.

  So, trying to act as casual as possible, I sit down on Leo’s lap. I lean in and give him a quick peck on the cheek.

  “Really? That’s all he gets?” says Jess.

  I give her a warning look.

  But then Noah pipes up. “Yeah, you two can do better than that,” he says. “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen you two kiss on the lips at all.”

  And that’s because we haven’t. Leo and I have stuck to hugs and cheek pecks—and it’s worked well for us so far.

  “That’s true, Noah,” says Jess, slinging her arms around his neck. “Maybe they’re faking their relationship.”

  A cameraman approaches, suddenly more interested in our little conversation than the fighting still going on across the yard.

  I could strangle Jess right now.

  I turn to Leo, lean forward, and quickly press my lips to his. It’s a brief kiss, the kind of kiss you’d give a family member. But it’s all I can allow myself. It happens so fast that Leo looks shocked when I pull away.

  “There,” I say, turning back to Jess and Noah. “Now you’ve seen us kiss on the lips.”

  “That was hardly a kiss,” says Jess.

  “Yeah, I think I blinked and missed it,” says Noah.

  I grit my teeth. I consider all the ways to get myself out of this moment.

  But then I feel Leo’s hand on my chin, turning my face back to him. And then both of his hands pulling me toward him. Before I realize what’s happening, our lips are pressed together, and then our lips are open, his tongue sweeping into my mouth.

  And all the feelings I’ve ever felt for him crash together inside my chest.

  Both Jess and Noah are cheering
when Leo and I finally pull apart. As I stare, dazed, at Leo, I hear Jess say, “Now that was a kiss.”

  My whole body is on fire. Oh my God. Even my nipples are hard. And I’m pretty sure I can feel Leo’s erection press against my hip. Leo grins at me, his face both apologetic and not sorry in the least.

  And the worst part is, I want him to do it again.

  Chapter Six

  Leo

  “Why did you kiss me like that?” Whitney hisses. We’re back inside the house and she’s pulled me aside. Shit. She looks like she might cry.

  “I was just trying to get them off our backs,” I say. “It didn’t mean anything, Whit. If I wanted to kiss you and mean it, I’d do it when no one’s around.”

  I know it makes me sound like an asshole, saying that. But honestly? I’m freaked out about our kiss, too. I broke the promise I made to myself, that I’d wait to kiss Whitney until I knew for sure that she wanted me without hesitation.

  But out there by the pool, with her half-naked body filling up my vision, and those incredible hips of hers settled down on my thighs…fuck. I just couldn’t take it anymore.

  And now the thing I was afraid of—Whitney pushing me away—is happening.

  “Let’s just forget it ever happened,” I mumble. “Trust me. It won’t happen again. It was a mistake.”

  Whitney covers her face with her hands and groans. Then she drops her hands and looks up into my eyes again. “I can’t.”

  “You can’t what?”

  “Forget that kiss.”

  I heave out a sigh. “So where does that leave us, then? Do you want to find new partners? Do you want to go home?”

  Whitney swallows. “I want you, Leo.”

  And this time, when she says it, there’s not an ounce of doubt in her voice. It’s pure, genuine desire. There’s no I want you, but…Nope. It’s just I want you.

  “For the last three weeks,” says Whitney, “I’ve been denying my feelings. I’ve been convincing myself that we can’t be together again. But with every day that goes by, I just want you more, Leo. And my reasons for resisting are sounding stupider and stupider.”