TWENTY-FOUR
SHE OBSESSED ABOUT it, about him, about them. They needed more time to communicate, which was why she snuck into his trailer not long before he called lunch on the stunt rehearsals.
The stunt crew would be shooting that afternoon.
Roman liked as few people on set as possible, to maintain the illusion, she supposed. So she wouldn’t be allowed to watch.
In the trailer, she sat there, waiting. Her fingers tucked beneath her thighs before they touched her neck and ran through her hair. With a thud, her head fell back against the wall behind the couch.
If Struan walked in with anyone else. What possible reason could she have for being there? He’d come up with something. He was better at this than her.
When the door opened, she held her breath until the door closed behind him. Alone. They were alone. She exhaled.
“What’s wrong?” he asked concern immediately etching his brow.
“Nothing.”
“No? I saw you sneak off.” Had he expected her to be there? “Are you okay? Did something happen last night?”
“Nothing, Roxie and Tripp took good care of me. I didn’t see much of the house, but it seems like a beautiful place.”
“I’ve been there.” Struan stomped over to sit next to her, that groove still worrying his features. “I didn’t want to send you off. I didn’t want it to be like that. Like I didn’t want you around. I thought after everything that happened with Roman, you’d be calmer, happier, there.”
“Calmer, maybe, but happier? I missed you.”
When she tried to take his hand, he curled his fingers into a fist, away from her touch. “I can’t stand the way you’re tossed around,” he admitted. And the pain of his rejection ebbed when that same hand cupped her jaw. The pad of his thumb moved slowly back and forth on her cheek; with that simple connection the world was safer, brighter. “You shouldn’t be enduring any of this. I’m sorry.”
He’d apologized before. Didn’t take then and it wouldn’t take now.
“You’re tired.” She lay her hand over his. “You didn’t sleep.”
The corner of his mouth reacted. “You were too far away.”
“What happened after we left?”
“Took Ro a while to calm down but he ran out of steam eventually.”
“It’s so complicated, I don’t understand it.”
“Understand what?”
“You and Roman. The dynamic between you. You’re so calm and together. He’s the complete opposite. I see the strain. How the threads of your sanity are stretching. Mine would too. Anyone’s would.”
“Let’s not talk about that. Let’s not talk about him. You look beautiful today.”
Flattered, her grin was automatic. “You’re gorgeous every day. How do you feel? About this afternoon. Are you ready?”
“Piece of cake. We’ve been going through the motions. We’ve got it down. I trust my guys.”
“Set seems a lot quieter today. There’s less tension in the air.”
“Roman’s off set. He did a couple of hours this morning.”
That might mean… “Can I watch?”
“Yeah, come check it out. Set’s mine. When it’s up to me, you’re always welcome. Might throw me off my game though.”
“You?” she said, leaning in, hand trailing up his thigh. “Didn’t peg you for the performance anxiety type.”
“Don’t jinx me, baby. Hasn’t happened yet. But if there’s one woman I’m terrified to disappoint, it’s you.”
“Not possible. I’m impressed. Always impressed. Have been since the minute we met.”
“Yeah?” he asked, relaxing when she climbed over to straddle his lap.
“Yeah. I don’t worry about the physical with us.” Her fingertips met his cheeks as she bowed forward to breathe him in. “I just wish we had more time to be ourselves. Talk about all the things I want to do with you. All the places I want to take you. What we could be.”
“Take me? Around the world?”
“No.” She laughed. “I’ve barely left this coast for more than a minute. I want you to see my home one day. You welcomed me into your life.” Against his will or not, she was definitely in deep. “I want you to know where I came from, to introduce you to everyone, to show you off.”
“I’m the one who’d be showing you off. Long as you stay mine, the rest of them can look.”
Her nose brushed across his before their lips met for the scarcest of moments.
“Take you to Elda’s for cake. All the way up to the summit of the Crest, if it’s warm enough, I always wanted to make love in Lover’s Crag, I never did that. Never wanted to before you. Now it’s all I think about. Being alone in there with you, completely alone, just us, where no one else can find us.”
“Never did it with an ex?”
“God, no, I’d never… You bring it out in me, I guess, my wild side.” She laughed. “I say that until we get caught and shame my family forever.”
“Let the town come watch, they can drag me away, long as you finish.”
“Me?” she exclaimed. “We!”
“You. If I got that chance, there’s no way I’d leave you unsatisfied.”
“Am I crazy?”
“Not crazy, Fawn, it would be my honor. Then where would we go?”
“I don’t have my apartment anymore, thank God. It was so tiny, you would never fit. But I’m not sure my dad would be wild about us sharing my childhood bedroom either.”
“In case I sully his little girl?”
“You could try.” Oh, it was so easy to be happy with him. “The walls are paper thin, we’d corrupt the whole block.
“I accept that challenge.” She kissed him again, then he rested his head on hers. “What is it, baby?” he murmured, stroking from her hips to her waist up to her shoulder blades and down her spine. “What you thinking about?”
“How I want you to always think of me like this. I want us to remember each other like this. Like in the basement, and in my room in, and here. When it’s just us alone. The things we do to each other, the way we feel… However it turns out, it’s real. Please don’t ever hate me.”
“Hey, Fawn,” he soothed. “How could I hate you?”
“Because we don’t know what long-term damage this could do to your relationship with Roman.”
“It’s just us here.” He pulled her mouth to his. “Just us, baby. Be just us.”
Permission? Excuse? Whichever it was, she gave in and did just that. Oh, to be nothing but his. The sweet texture of his lips moving on hers and the cool touch of his tongue suggested they had all the time in the world. They had to live like that. In a fantasy bubble, believing nothing else existed, because that was when everything was okay. When they kissed and touched and lived in each other, nothing about them was wrong.
She didn’t hear the door open. Just Magnus’s exclamation. “Jesus!” Tearing herself away her attention flew around to him. “How the fuck can you two—” He stopped himself and got away from the door to nod toward it. “Out!”
“Hey! Who do you think you’re—”
“Out! Now, Bambi. Go. Struan and me need to have a talk.”
Despite his annoyance, Struan nodded. She fixed her skirt, climbing off his lap, and trailed out of the trailer like a scolded schoolgirl. It wasn’t fair that Struan would face all of Magnus’s wrath, but she’d got between him and too many of his relationships. She had to let him handle this one alone.