AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The opposite, actually. I can’t date anyone without dragging her into the spotlight, and completely changing her life in the process.”
“If she agrees to date you, then I’d have to assume she’s prepared for that.”
“Maybe too much so. A lot of the women I meet want to date one of the characters I’ve played—not the real me. Or they want my money.” He stopped pacing and looked at her, his jaw hard. “Or, in some cases, they wanna use me to get famous. I’ve stopped dating because of this. None of them really know me. Or want to know me.”
She pursed her lips. She’d never thought of the hardships of being a star before. To her, it seemed all glamour and money. “Oh.”
“Sometimes, I long for normal. Boring.”
She put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you calling my life boring?”
“No, of course not. I’d never associate you with the word boring in a million years.” He sighed and rubbed his jaw. “And I’m not unhappy with my career choices, or anything. But sometimes I wish …”
“For love?” she asked softly, unable to believe he was telling her this. “Anonymity? Happiness?”
When they were kids, they would spend hours sharing their deepest thoughts and wishes, but their long conversations had taken place lifetimes ago. Eons ago. Never would she expect him to be so open now, with so much lost time between them.
He flushed. “Yeah. Maybe.”
“I get that. I’ve never thought of the other side of the business before.” She lifted her hands then dropped them back in her lap. “I mean … I’m sure women are always throwing themselves at you. It can’t be that lonely.”
“Oh, they do throw themselves at me. But not the right kind,’” he murmured, his eyes on her. “Not the right one.”
She nibbled on her lip and turned away. “It can’t be easy for a regular woman to attract your attention. I would imagine a normal woman would be scared you wouldn’t even see her mixed in with all of those actresses and models.”
“Well, then …” He stepped closer to her by an inch or so, yet she felt his heat urging her to lean in. To sway toward him. “She would be wrong. I’m not into actresses.”
He couldn’t possibly mean that she was the right type of person, or that she should let him know she wanted him. The champagne was messing with her head. And yet … right now, it looked as if he wanted her. Wanted to kiss her.
“I’m sure the right woman will come along someday,” she managed to say.
“What if she already came along?” He kneeled down at her feet. “Do you ever worry maybe the one you were meant to spend your life with is already gone? Like maybe you missed your chance because you weren’t ready then?”
“Sometimes, yes,” she admitted, picturing him laughing at her across the lunch table at school. She looked down at her lap, clasping her hands together. “But for now, I’m content as I am.”
“I want you to be happy, not to settle for some asshole because he seems good enough. You deserve more.”
She would not swoon at his words, nor would she read more into them than she should. “What about you? Don’t you have some young, hot actress expecting your arm for the red carpet tomorrow night?”
“I do have an event, yes, but I’m kind of stuck here at the moment.”
There it was again. The painful reminder that he was only here because he needed a tow. “Right.”
He plucked her glass out of her hand. “Are you sure you’re not seeing anyone?”
She squared her jaw. “Are you?”
“No. It gets too messy, remember?”
He let go of her legs and tucked her hair behind her ear. The touch seemed more intimate than before, and her body begged for more with a steady tensing of her muscles. What was he doing? “Right.”
How many times in the past three minutes had she said right?
“Now answer my question.”
“I already did, you idiot.” She tilted her chin up, meeting his eyes defiantly. “No, I’m not seeing anyone.”
“Good. Because I’ve wanted to do this since you opened the door.”
