Page 71 of Nothing to No One

“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 hislips 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.

TWENTY-FIVE

YES, SHE GOT to watch stunt filming, but there wasn’t much time for talk. And every time Struan’s eyes met hers, she looked away, fearful the truth of her feelings would show.

In the car with Mieux that evening, she couldn’t stop thinking about him. The authority in his voice, guiding others, stopping and starting, patient, composed, taking the time to ensure everyone’s comfort and safety. He made it look so easy to get the needed shots without the usual tension or anger.

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