“I love my sister. She’s fragile and perfect and if I told her what I really think she’d believe me and be crushed. And who am I to make her believe that? Maybe this is love to her? Maybe we just all love in different ways?”
I shrug my shoulders at him. “Oh,” is all I manage. “I’m sorry.”
“Would you have second thoughts?” he asks me in a soft and solemn voice. “On your wedding night?”
I shake my head and he smiles for all the wrong reasons. “No,” I say decisively. “I wouldn’t. Because I’m never getting married so the opportunity for second thoughts would never occur.”
His smile fades. “Well, I guess you’re not a romantic.” It’s not a question.
I’m not sure what to think of this conversation. I’m standing on a tropical beach with Vaughn Asher, the movie star, and we’re talking about true love and romance. “I am,” I insist. “I am romantic, but in a very…” I shrug. “Fairy tale way, that’s all. It’s not real, it’s all fake. I don’t mind the fake as long as I keep the fairy tale where it belongs. My fantasy.”
“So why did you meet me tonight?” He takes a few steps towards me. “If you weren’t daydreaming about a real-life romantic encounter—” He’s close enough to see the color of his eyes now. And then his hand reaches out and takes mine. I want to pull away. In fact, I try to pull away, but he’s got that grip on me again. “Then what other reason is there to come?”
I huff out a breath and the laugh comes out along with it. “You’re a movie star. I’m starstuck. Can you blame me?”
“Did you think I wanted to f**k you?”
“Do you?”
“I asked you first.”
“I don’t pretend to read minds but I know your public persona well enough to say, yeah. I think you asked me out so you could f**k me. Am I wrong?”
“No,” he says quickly. “You’re not wrong.” He grabs a hold of my shoes and tries to take them, but I pull back. “I’ll hold them for you. And walk you back to the bungalows by way of the beach.”
“This beach goes to the bungalows?” I flash him a raised eyebrow. “They’re not beachfront. I know that for sure.”
“No, but this beach winds around to the other side of them. We can get there from here. And I can replace my public reputation with my private one as we walk.”
Well. I have to admit, I was not expecting him to be so… honest. “Will I want to know you privately?”
“Are you interested in a relationship?”
“What?” I laugh. “Oh, shit. Do you think I’m some kind of idiot? You’re a movie star. I’m an event planner from Denver. I’m not that stupid.”
“I know who you are and where you’re from. Everyone at this resort has been background-checked, including you. So no, I do not think you’re stupid. I just wanted a date with you.”
“A date that ends with me being shown the door in the morning?”
He shakes his head as he laughs. “Grace, you’re sending me mixed signals. Do you want to be shown the door the morning after or not? I’m confused. One second you’re all swoony and the next you’re hostile. I told you that was my sister. Do you want to go talk to her and see if I’m lying? You were obviously on your way to meet me when you wandered by the party and saw us. So what I want to know is how did I become some ass**le in your mind in the span of a few minutes if what you saw was a misunderstanding?”
He’s right. I’m being a total bitch right now. I’m angry and defensive and I don’t even know why. And my surrender must show in my body language because he stops holding my hand and drags the back of his knuckles down my cheek. “Just relax,” he whispers. “Come for a walk on the beach with me. It’s the long way, sure. But I promise, I’ll get you home and you can see part of this island not many people have access to.”
I bite my lip and nod. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m just… moody. My friend ditched me today and I’m being a jealous bitch in more ways than one. I misunderstood and I apologize. I’d love to see your beach.”
I say the words and I really do mean them, but there’s this instant when I watch his smile that I feel I’ve crossed a boundary. I’m not sure what kind of boundary it is, but I know it’s going to change me. For better or worse, I think from this moment forward I will divide my adult life up into two parts. Everything that came before I met the movie star on the beach. And everything that came after.
Chapter Nine
UnavailableToYouAsshole
“I GREW up here,” Vaughn says as we walk along the beach.
I look around at all the natural beauty and try to imagine this kind of childhood. “It must’ve been like a dream.”
“Where’d you grow up? Your background check had no childhood information on you. It was weird really—”
“Denver,” I say, cutting him off. “Born and raised.”
“Was it”—he looks over at me but I’m trying to avoid his stare, so I bend down and pick up a rock to skip into the waves—“a struggle?”
I really hate talking about myself, but I don’t want him to think I’m evading. I don’t want to give him any reason to go looking for my past. So I tell all the safe stuff. “My younger years were not bad. They were close to middle-class perfect, in fact. We were never rich, but we owned a house. A small one in the Highlands area of Denver. It’s not a great neighborhood, it’s still Denver and that comes with certain truths about crime and public schools. But it’s nice. And quaint with all the whimsically painted Victorian houses and the small shopping district. A trendy place these days, where young professionals want to live because it’s close to downtown and yet secluded from it at the same time.