Chapter 61
I look behind us again as we continue down the dimly lit path leading to the pool, hoping to see Dom coming down after me. I don’t mind pitching Quinton in front of Dom, but I’d rather not troop off into the garden alone with a drunk man I hardly know.
“I hear you’ve been spending a lot of time here in my garden.” Quinton lowers his arm from my shoulder to my waist. I stoop to pick up a plumeria from the path, taking it as an opportunity to gracefully wriggle out of his reach. “It must be a great spot to write if you’re here so often.” His eyes travel down my body as we’re stopped on the path. “And swim.” He gently takes my elbow, leading me further from the house.
I seize the opportunity now that he’s mentioned my writing.
I muster up every bit of confidence I have left in me. “I’ve finished a full-length film script.” This is it. “I’d like to tell you more about it.”
I picture him spinning around, telling me he’d love to, but he doesn’t even falter. His feet keep moving us toward the clearing where the pool is, as if he hasn’t heard me at all.
“It’s just through here.” He pushes back the same palm branches Dom shoved aside on our first trip to the pool. A crippling sting of regret whips through me. I should have insisted more strongly that Dom come with us.
What am I doing? Forging through the garden in the dark with a very drunk, very powerful man. His status in Hollywood blinded me to the fact that I really have no idea who he is as a person. No idea of what he’s capable of. And my stupidity has left me completely at his mercy out here, where no one else can hear us.
My heart starts thumping a warning sign when I register how far we are from the house. Dom won’t know whether I left with Quinton or took a ride back home. He’ll probably assume Quinton went to bed if I’ve left. I spin around, looking behind us again as we bounce down the path together, willing Dom’s silhouette to appear along the gravel inlay behind us.
But the path is empty.
Quinton walks a bit faster. “Just a little farther.” He seems to be sobering up as we close the space between us and the pool.