“Drew.”

“We don’t have to tell your father yet. But taking more time to get comfortable with telling him doesn’t mean my feelings are going to change.” He shifted her so that she was straddling him on the bed. “I’m still going to be in love with you. And I’m still going to hope that you’ll let yourself fall in love with me, too.”

After watching his father and mother together over the years, he knew when it made sense to back off. Ashley was a very strong woman. One who would never let anyone tell her what to feel, who would never let anyone bully her into saying or doing anything she didn’t want to.

So he wouldn’t push her more tonight. Not with words, anyway.

* * *

Moments after telling her just how much he loved her—again!—Drew’s delicious mouth was on hers, and his big hands were holding Ashley captive on his lap.

But that was a lie, and she knew it. She was the one holding herself captive. Utterly ensnared by a man whose life—whose entire world—was so big, and so fast-rising, that it was taking every last bit of energy she had just to keep her head above water.

She couldn’t think straight when he was kissing her, when her hands were instinctively reaching for him, when he was saying her name in that raw voice, when she was opening herself up to him again and taking him deeper than she’d ever known it was possible to be with anyone else.

She closed her eyes as she held on tight and pleasure stormed her system again. She couldn’t breathe anymore. And yet, for a few precious moments, nothing else mattered but the way Drew was saying her name over and over and over against her lips as she rose in a blaze of light and color, then fell fast and hard. And then she shattered into so many pieces against him that when the lights finally faded, she didn’t have the strength to do anything but burrow into his strong, warm arms around her as both physical and mental exhaustion finally pulled her all the way in.

Chapter Thirty

Miami, Florida

The next day was by far the craziest of any on the tour so far. Ashley had never been to Miami before—her mother had always come to California to visit her rather than the other way around—but as soon as they got off the bus that morning and stepped out onto the beach, she could see exactly how well the sun-and-energy-filled city fit her mother.

Camila had been born and raised in Miami, but when her parents passed away and she’d met Ashley’s father in her early twenties, she’d left her tropical home behind and settled in Palo Alto with him. Ashley knew her mother had always craved the hottest days and constantly wanted to take day trips to the ocean. Only, it turned out that the cool and cliffy northern California coastline was nothing like Miami’s endless stretches of hot white sand and blue water.

What’s more, the crowds of Drew’s fans were not only bigger and louder here—they were extremely passionate, too. More than one group of girls started to cry when they caught glimpses of him as the TV cameras moved around him and his interviewers on the beach.

Ashley hadn’t inherited her mother’s dark skin or hair—her father’s pale genes had won, hands down—and when she felt as though she was both overheating and burning, she told James, “I’m going to see if the owners of that slushie stand will let me hide out in their building for a while.”

James nodded, but he didn’t take his eyes off Drew or the fans who were pushing really hard against the barriers that the local police had set up a short while ago to deal with the rapidly growing crowd.

She’d nearly reached the small building when she suddenly heard something crash and break. Turning, she watched as hundreds of girls and women began to stampede toward Drew and the cameras. While the local security crew and police moved as quickly as possible to block their progress, James sprinted toward Drew, doing something that looked like sign language. Drew started running, but still couldn’t escape a few overzealous fans who grabbed him and nearly tackled him to the sand before the security guards could pull them away.

She was still standing frozen on the sand when Drew ran up to her. “James wants us to wait it out in here.” He pulled her inside the pink building filled with slushie machines. All of the employees were out front by then to see what the commotion was on the beach, so no one saw them slip into the back storeroom.

“Are you okay?” she said, stunned by how fast things had fallen apart.

“I’m fine. I just hope everyone else is all right. I wouldn’t have agreed to do the interviews on the beach if I’d known this was going to happen.”

“Is Miami always like this?”

“The fans are always excited, but this is the sort of thing we’ve only ever had to watch out for in New York and Chicago.”