Page 6 of Hollywood Fairytale

Now we were like two teenagers who couldn’t get enough of each other.

“How are we going to work out?” She asked out of nowhere.

Where the fuck had that come from?

“What?” I choked out unsure if I hid the hysteria that was rising inside of me.

Her fingers tangled with the hair at the nape of my neck calming me some, but not enough to take me off edge. “Someday I want to live on the beach and you want to live in Antarctica.” Her grip on me loosened as she yawned.

“My beautiful girl, I don’t want to live in Antarctica.” I couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped at her crazy statement. “I simply want to spend time in my homeland and visit a place or two that are not beaches and are mildly cold. If one day you want to live on the beach, then one day we will live on a beach, and maybe one day you’ll agree to vacation somewhere that’s not tropical.”

“You’re too good to me and of course I’d go wherever you wanted to go. Within reason.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. One of the reasons I loved her was how often Alex made me laugh. “Of course, within reason.”

Alex responded, but her voice faded out when I caught sight of a flash of light in the bushes that surrounded the outer edge of the pool area. Had it been a camera?

I moved so that my back was to the wall of the infinity pool that way Alex could look out at the ocean and I could keep my eye on those around us. We were in the big pool area so that we could take advantage of the bar that was in the pool itself. Alex thought it was fun and who was I to deny her. But it meant we were not alone, and anyone could be watching us or taking pictures.

I didn’t want to alarm Alex if I didn’t have to. She knew that there was always a possibility that our picture could be taken, but she was always in the now. Always acting as if it was only her and I, and I loved that about her. I didn’t think she minded the pictures, but I didn’t want the world to scrutinize our relationship.

Alex was the first person that I’d dated that didn’t care that I was an actor. In all truth, being an actor probably didn’t help, and I worried that one day something would happen that would make her think twice about being with me and possibly leave.

The bushes moved by where we’d laid our towels out on a couple of loungers. A hand snaked out to the table only to then withdraw quickly back into the shrubbery.

What the hell! Had someone took something of ours?

It wouldn’t be the first or probably the last time if someone had stolen something from me. That was why I usually never left anything out in the open, making me wonder what the hand I’d spotted had been doing?

Alex’s worried face popped into my vision. Her hand rested on my cheek as her eyes took me in.

“What’s wrong?” Her mouth turned down as I shook my head and let my eyes sweep the area once more. Her hand pressed against my chest making me stop and look down at her. She had been sleepy, but now she was worried and for some reason sad. “Luke don’t lie to me. If you want me to trust you, you have to trust me. It’s a two-way street.”

My throat dried up so much that I could feel my Adam’s Apple bob with each swallow. Turning away I looked down at her and saw that she was hurt. I’d done that to her by trying to protect her, and I knew that I needed to tell her the truth or eventually I’d lose her.

“I do trust you. I only wanted to protect you.”

Her brows knit together as she looked over my shoulder. “From?”

“I thought I saw a flash from a camera.”

“Oh,” her mouth stayed in the ‘O’ as she looked around and then started to squirm out of my grasp. “I didn’t know that we were still hiding what we are.” She swallowed what looked like a rock in her throat before she placed her hands on my chest and started to push. Tears welled up in her eyes.

“Alex, baby. No,” I shook my head. How had she mistaken me so badly? “We are not hiding anything. Never again will I hide who you are to me and what you mean to me.”

“I don’t understand then.”

“I wasn’t trying to hide that we’re together. I… I don’t know if I saw anything or not, but I worry that one day it’s all going to be too much for you and you’re going to leave me.”

Her arms tightened around me, her face warring with emotion before she closed her eyes for a brief moment. When she opened them again, they were clear and resolved.

“I trust you. That should be no surprise to you with all the shit that Ashlyn Jade has been spewing about you.” She sputtered but continued with fire in her eyes. “Never once did I think what she said was true.” With her voice rising, she vehemently cried. “Not once. Do you understand me, Luke Sandström?”

“Yes.” I didn’t get another word in before she kept going.

“You’ve got to have faith in me that I know whether or not I can live your life with you. You are worth whatever stands in our way unlessyoudo something to fuck this up. If I thought for one minute that I wouldn’t be able to handle the stress of being with you then I wouldn’t be here. I would never lead you on like that. I would never have let Mason meet and become attached to you.”

She meant every last word, and it rocked me to my core.

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