Page 51 of A Star is Scorned
He frowned at that. “I don’t like thinking about you living somewhere that’s not safe.”
She waved it off, even as her tummy flipped at the concern in his voice. “It’s fine, just not the best place for a priceless first edition.”
“Then you should come here and read it whenever you like. Or any other book. My library is open to you anytime you wish to visit. I’ll have the staff make you a key.”
She almost fainted at that. This room was full of untold treasures. More books than she could likely read in a lifetime—and he was offering her unfettered access. “Flynn, I don’t know what to say. That’s too kind.”
“It’s truly the least I can do in exchange for your pretending to be madly in love with me and saving my hide with the studio.”
She blushed and searched for a sufficient way to say thank you, hugging the precious book to her chest. She was certain he was just being nice; this room was proof that even if he did lose his job, he’d still have his family’s money. But there was no way to express that without sounding rude. Ironic really. She was surrounded by words but unable to come up with a single one that could convey what this meant to her. Before her parents had died and she’d put all her energy into looking after Judy, books had been her refuge. The stories they held. The worlds they opened. The adventures they promised. But the public library in her small town had been meager compared to the riches here.
“Thank you,” she murmured, finding that nothing else would do. She nodded in the direction of his comfortable armchair. “I see you’re readingTreasure Islandagain.”
“I’ve read it twice since the night we met.” He grinned. “It helps me when I’m having trouble sleeping. Getting lost in the world of Jim and Long John Silver. It’s more effective than a nightcap lately.”
Her eyes darted to the bottle of whiskey enclosed in the globe.
He followed her line of sight and chuckled. “I didn’t say I was reading in place of a nightcap, mind you.”
She shook her head. “I’m glad that it still captures your imagination the way it used to.” She inched toward him, again drawn by the invisible force she couldn’t name. She was standing so close she could touch him now. “Books have always been my salvation. When everything else goes askew, my favorite stories are there to comfort me.”
He nodded and reached for her, gently stroking a finger down the back of her hand that still clutched the book. His touch was light as a feather, and yet it set her on fire. “You reminded me,” he murmured, gazing at her with what looked an awful lot likeadoration, “how much I love stories. And the reason why I had all these books shipped here from England in the first place. I hadn’t spent much time here the last few years. But you made me want to read again. If only to prove to myself I wasn’t the dunderhead actor you pegged me as.”
She scrunched up her nose and closed her eyes. “I was such an ass that night. I was terrified when you jumped in my car. You do have a bit of a reputation, you know.” He grinned, looking positively wolfish, and she tingled in response. “I acted that way because it was the only thing that I could think of to protect myself. After years of mooning over you on-screen, suddenly, there you were, flesh and blood in my car. I didn’t want to lose my head, so instead I tried to fool you into thinking I was a worldly creature slumming it in Hollywood.”
“Oh, you are.” His voice was so quiet now that she knew she wouldn’t be able to hear him if she wasn’t standing so close. He gripped the book in her hands and withdrew it, gently setting it on the chair behind him without even turning around. “You’re much too good for any of us. Me in particular.”
He held both her hands now, and she was struck by how much taller he was than her. The way that the top of her head barely grazed his chin. She tilted her head up to him. “Was that why you challenged me to a duel in front of all your friends, knowing full well you would lose?”
He smiled, his eyes crinkling as he held in a laugh. “You see, you’re far too smart for me. You know you’re better than me, and you’re not afraid to tell me so.”
“It’s a defense mechanism, that’s all.” She swallowed, suddenly parched. But she didn’t want to break this moment. This spell. Whatever it was. He wrapped his hands around her wrists and pulled her toward him, closing the gap between them. Throughthe thin suede of her costume, she could feel the muscled contours of his body. She wished to run her fingers over every stern line and rippling inch. To study him like one of the books in this room.
“Be that as it may, it’s irresistible.” He leaned down and ghosted the lightest kiss to her lips, pulling back a hairsbreadth to look in her eyes, searching for a signal that this was all right.
“There aren’t any photographers here,” she murmured, thinking of the kiss they had staged last week on the steps of El Cholo.
“Good,” he growled. “That means I can kiss you the way you deserve.”
She nearly swooned at that and pressed her lips fiercely to his, clinging to him to keep herself upright. He started in surprise at her initiative before wrapping his arms tightly around her and holding her closer than she thought was possible. He deepened the kiss, teasing at her mouth with his tongue until she opened for him. She moaned as he tangled his tongue with hers. In Flynn’s arms, she felt like an oasis happened upon by a man dying of thirst. It was better than anything she’d imagined as a teenager watching him at the movies. He devoured her as if he couldn’t get enough. She saw stars as he tugged at her bottom lip.
They broke apart, and he nuzzled at her ear with his nose, sucking on her neck. She whimpered and pressed into his mouth, letting him suck and swirl his tongue across the sensitive spot right below her ear. A sensation of pure liquid heat shot through her and pooled between her legs. Was this what it felt like to want a man so desperately you would do anything?
She clung to him, and he stopped for a moment, pressing his cheek to hers. “Livvy, I don’t want this to be just a game, a charade for people who don’t know better.”
She had to be dreaming. Was Flynn saying that he wanted her? As more than a patsy for the Legion of Decency? More thana friend? She didn’t know what to do with that. The idea frightened and thrilled her in equal measure. She hadn’t let herself want something, yearn for something in so long. But what good was it when she knew she couldn’t have it? But oh, how she wanted Flynn. Was it possible to let herself give in to it? She needed it to be. If only just for tonight. So she turned toward his lips and kissed him again.
All she wanted right now was not to think. To live in this moment where he plundered her mouth as if she were one of the ships he pillaged in a film. He eagerly responded to her, and she thought she might explode into stardust from the pure sensation of it all. Every nerve ending in her body was alight with desire. Every other kiss she’d experienced—and the list was not long—was a pale shadow of this one.
This was a proper embrace from a man who not only knew what he was doing but took immense pleasure in doing it. Maybe there was something to being with a notorious scoundrel after all, if it meant they would kiss you like this.
He pushed her up against one of the bookshelves and tangled his hands in her hair. She giggled as a book near her head fell from its spot, knocked out of place by his vigorous ministrations.
He kissed the tip of her nose. “I love hearing you laugh.”
She sighed in happiness.
His hand fumbled with the bottom of her blouse. “Is this all right?” he asked, a hungry look in his eyes. She bit her lip and pondered it, before kissing him in answer. Her skin pebbled as he reached under her thin green blouse, finding the line of her cotton bra. He found her left nipple and brushed it gently with his hand, while he continued to dot her jawline with kisses, taking her earlobe in between his teeth and nibbling at it ever so gently. She arched in to him as he plucked at her breast, feeling him stiffen ather movement as she tried to find a place on the shelf to rest her weight without tipping it over.
