She willed herself to focus. ‘Perhaps you should explain to Wesley too? Just so he understands?’
‘I dunno. That feels like I’m trying to make excuses for being a crap actor.’
‘You don’t really believe that do you? Wesley’s always singing your praises you know. He thinks you’ve been seriously underrated in your other films.’
‘Really? He said that to you?’
‘Nottome.’ She blushed. ‘But in front of me. I’m like wallpaper. People don’t even realise I’m there.’
He flicked a look up at her away from his phone, his gaze steady. ‘Lila, you’re the farthest thing from wallpaper I can think of.’
Lila drew in a short breath. What a compliment. She didn’t know what to do with it – like someone had passed her a Fabergé egg to decorate her studio apartment. ‘Well…you had everyone riveted earlier you know.’
He bit his lip for a second and then laughed. ‘And all I had to do was to have a mental breakdown. I’ll talk to Wesley if it becomes a problem again. Thank you for sacrificing your lunch break to sort me out. The cast and crew will be very grateful too, I’m sure.’
‘I didn’t do it for them,’ she told him honestly.
‘I know,’ he said quietly and smiled at her again. Whenever he smiled, his mouth pulled down at the corners first before widening out to show his teeth. It lit something up inside of her.
And now she was staring at his mouth.
She drew in another quick breath and tore her gaze away, heat climbing her cheeks as she met his eyes instead. Warm brown embers and golden flickers with a depth that, for some reason, reminded her of the way she’d felt when she looked at Sicily for the first time out of the airplane window. How she’d seen all the colours and textures, the shapes and vibrancy, which made up a fascinating island, like nothing she’d ever experienced before, and she wanted to explore it with every fibre of her soul. As though she knew there would be something here she would find that would nourish her and make her feel alive. She’d wanted to dive into that sea.
She wanted to get lost in him.
To let all those feelings she had when she was with him take over: the excitement, desire, security, and curiosity. She wanted to be able to wallow in the seductiveness of how she could be herself around him and not have to care how obvious it was that she was falling for him in a massive way.
‘Lila,’ he said with a touch of warning in his voice, and she cringed at the thought she’d been doing it again. Staring at him like an infatuated teenager. What she wanted and what was reality were massively different things weren’t they?You were probably too clingy,her mom had said when Milo broke up with her.You’re like an abandoned puppy, latching on to the first stranger who pets you.
‘I s-should go.’ She turned her head away and pushed her hands down against the seat to lever herself across the bench, but Rowan reached out for her again, like he had when she’d gone to leave the first time. Only this time he didn’t take hold of her hand. He fitted his palm around her cheek, coaxing her to face him and before she could wonder what was even happening, dipped his head down to kiss her.
She froze for a moment, a gasp catching in her throat, before a flush of heat rushed through her, like his lips had lit a touch paper. And then she closed her eyes and caught hold of the braces of his costume, everything receding apart from the fresh salty smell of his skin, alongside the citrus scent of his shampoo and the sensation of his mouth against hers.
So soft.
He kissed her once, then again and again in that same sweet way, just the tender heat of his lips greeting hers, so careful, as though he was allowing her to grow familiar with his proximity. As though she hadn’t already memorised every decadent curve of those lips. As though she hadn’t been dreaming of this since he accidentally locked them in the storeroom.
That moment on the beach – the tension between them – she hadn’t been imagining it. Ithadn’tall been in her head.
She met each of his kisses like he was passing something precious across to her and she was handing it straight back to him. They were two sides of the same coin. Heads, I like you; tails, I like you too. And like drips slowly filling a water barrel, suddenly she was overflowing with a need for more.
She followed the braces up to his shoulders, the elastic of them taut as they stretched across his body, and then she moved her hands into his hair, brushing the short hairs the opposite way with her palm, before sifting her fingers through the thick layers on top. It felt even better than she’d imagined. He drew in an audibly shaky breath and slid his other arm around her waist, pulling her even closer. But he kept that steady pace, exploring over her top lip and then along the bottom with warmth and delicacy, to each corner, over and over, until she groaned and arched her back.
He paused, gasping and pressed his forehead to hers. ‘Is this okay?’ he asked, voice thick and rough enough to make goose bumps erupt over her scalp.
‘You really need to ask?’ she breathed and tightened her grip on his hair, hardly recognising herself, feeling drunk like she had been on the beach when she ogled him freely without embarrassment. She was going to take this moment for all it offered. Let all the worries wait for a change. She kissed him again, growing bolder, and when he mirrored her fervour, the sweet anticipation ofmoremade her breath grow short.
She licked lightly at the centre of his bottom lip when he slanted his next kiss across her mouth. His tongue flicked out immediately to find hers and she melted, one hand sliding down to his neck, holding tight as her body went weak at the taste of him. He broke away but before she could protest, he’d shifted up onto one knee and he was easing her down to lie on the sofa. Her legs were twisted awkwardly, pulling on her back, but that was because he hadn’t presumed he could get between them. She was the one who nudged his side, guided him up a couple of inches with her hands on his chest so she get her leg on the other side of his body, and all the while there were caressing lips and mind-liquifying brushes of his tongue against hers.
He rested on his elbows either side of her head, keeping his weight off her, and he was still tender, but it was also oh so hot. He nipped her lower lip, and she tugged his back in return and they both deepened the kiss at the same moment, moving together with synchronous timing, liquid heat sliding through her body. Her other leg was still half on the sofa, half on the floor because the sofa was so narrow and it was awkward, and she shifted restlessly until he wrapped his hand around her thigh and raised it up against his hip. She grew molten needing him to press down against her, remembering his hands there before in the storeroom, so many nights she’d remembered that innocent touch and now her heart and stomach turned somersaults with each other as his lips moved down her neck and she tipped her head back—
And a knock sounded at the door. ‘Fifteen-minute warning, Rowan.’
They both froze. Lila’s heart banged against her ribcage, caught between her raging lust and the recollection that they were at the unit base, in Rowan’s trailer, where the PA could walk straight in, if he thought Rowan hadn’t heard him. Lila hadn’t even locked the door when she arrived. She met Rowan’s eyes, which were dazed, pupils blown up, with her own widened ones as she tried to telepathically tell him about the door.
‘Rowan?’
He cleared his throat. ‘Okay. Got it. Thanks,’ he called back, still not looking away from her.
