He nodded but his eyes remained focused on my hair. “Does it hurt? It looks painful.”
Now that he mentioned it, the heat from the curlers had seemed to ramp up. “Yeah, actually it does. It feels like it’s burning,” I said, touching a spot on my ear that felt particularly hot.
“Come here,” he said, motioning with his hands.
I didn’t listen, choosing to undo one of the offending curlers instead. That was what I tried to do, but it would not unlatch for some reason.
“Gigi, I’ll help,” Beau called to me. All I wanted to do was get this damn steaming piece of garbage out of my hair.
Water swished around me as Beau moved over to help. “Move your hand, I’ll do it,” he said, pushing my fingers away. In no time flat, he had it out of my hair. “Jesus, it burned your ear.”
“Gah, I’m going to kick Jilly’s ass for this. They’re all burning now,” I shrieked, trying to rip them off my head.
“Hold your breath,” he said, then the bastard dunked me under the water.
Sputtering and furious, I surfaced. “Why did you do that?”
“Your head was practically on fire,” Beau said as his hands quickly dove onto a curler. “See? It’s not as hot anymore.”
Huh, he was right. I attempted to take another one out, but instead ended up pulling my hair.
“Stop, let me do it,” he scolded, so I halted my useless efforts. I sat there, mortified, as he adeptly opened up each and every single roller.
This was not exactly how I’d wanted him to think of me—as the crazy girl with her hair on fire. I felt an embarrassing heat flow through my body, and it had nothing at all to do with the curlers or the temperature of the water.
In no time, Beau had all the damn, torturous curlers out and dumped over the side of the hot tub. “You’re going to need some aloe on your ear. Jesus, it did a number on your skin there.”
I touched my ear and tenderly felt the wound. “Did you know that the skin on your ears is extremely thin? Plus, it’s only covering cartilage. There’s really no fat whatsoever to protect or act as a barrier. That’s why frostbite can happen so quickly.”
He looked at me with a curious expression on his face. “Thanks for the health lesson.”
My hands wandered up to my hair to feel it in a tangled mess. I bent my knees and tossed my head back into the water to try and fix it as best as I could. Jillian owed me a nice bottle of conditioner for whatever damage this did.
When I had it reasonably tamed, I turned to Beau. “You dunked me, Moreau. You know what that means,” I said, slowly stepping closer to him.
His eyes gazed down to my breasts, then back to my face. “I really don’t.”
“Where I come from, it’s eye for an eye. Prepare for retribution,” I said, reaching for his head unsuccessfully as he dove to the side. The jerk had moved quicker than I’d expected and splashed me in the process.
“Scared?” I asked, wiping the water from my face.
“I did it to save your life. You should be grateful,” he said, laughing at me.
“I’ll be forever grateful that you saved my life. But you’re going down, Captain,” I said, trying for a sneak attack. Again, I failed, flopping into the water instead.
“Don’t fight it. That only makes it harder,” I said, then we both started laughing at how dumb my words sounded.
He moved to the other side of the hot tub and leaned back, clearly done with our game for now. “Those things were frying your skin. Where did Jillian get them from?”
I shrugged, gave up and sat beside him. When I found a jet for my back, I laid back into it. “All over the world. It’s crazy the stuff she gets. I have a three hundred dollar hairbrush that a company sent to her.”
“Hairbrushes cost three hundred dollars?”
“Some do. It’s really nice but I’d never buy something extravagant like that for myself.”
He nodded in agreement. “She looks familiar. I’m not big on lifestyle blogs so I have no idea where I might have seen her before.”
“Have you ever watched, Single Girl before? She was on there for one season.” Single Girl was a well-known reality TV show that consisted of one single girl—and many wannabe suitors.