Page 27 of Dream (Fighting Fate)

I gave her a withering look. “I don’t think so. I can hardly stand to watch myself when I’m forced to go to the premiers.”

She laughed lightly, pulling her hoodie off to reveal a pale pink tank. The full swell of her breasts where the shirt pulled taut drew my gaze. Fuck me. Why’d she have to make this so fucking hard?

“But I wanted to see how good you were,” she said, a teasing glint in her eyes.

I narrowed my eyes at her, but my lips were still curled into a smile. “I’ve already shown you my best looks.”

“So you say. But what if they’re much better onscreen? I want to see the bad guy run away when he sees your angry face, and the pretty girl swoon when you look at her like you want to eat her for dessert.”

I could eat her for dessert. Right now. Oh God! Did I really have no control? She was still looking at me with that sexy, teasing smirk on her lips. Well, if she wanted teasing, she was going to get teasing. “Or we could just act out how the pretty girl swoons as I’m about to eat her for dessert.”

I took a step toward her, watching her eyes widen. Oh no. Wrong look. She was supposed to laugh, not look like she wanted to be eaten. I forced a smirk onto my lips with a twinkle in my eye that translated into play time. My intention was clear. I was going to pounce, and she should run.

She read me well. The second I darted forward, she squealed and dashed around my bed. I didn’t stop. And neither did she. She continued around the room and through the two-way closet, darting around the chair and side table as she went. I kept her just out of arm’s reach, prolonging the moment she would end up in my arms.

Wait. What? In my arms? I frowned internally. I thought this exercise was to prevent her ending up in my arms, not merely delaying it. What was I doing?

As she made a dash for the other side of the room again, I instinctively rushed after her, catching her by the bed. As my arms closed around her, she let out a high-pitched squeal and let her weight fall against me.

“Okay! You win!” she cried, her chest rising and falling heavily against my arms. “We won’t watch any of your movies if you don’t want to!”

Standing, she turned in my arms to look up at me, and it was like we were right back in the water again. Fuck my life. Her hands clung to my biceps, and her breath came in those adorable little pants she made when I kissed her, sending that same tingling need rushing through me again.

I looked down to see her suck that damn bottom lip of hers with a dazed but immensely sexy look in her eyes. “God. Why are you so irresistible?” I muttered. Stepping back, I grabbed her hand and moved toward the chaise lounge—away from the bed. “Come on. We need to talk.”

She blinked at me as I gently guided her down onto the chaise. Taking a seat on the coffee table in front of her, I tried to find the words that would put this whole situation into some form of comprehensive simplicity for her. And me.

“Liv, I’m really sorry I kissed you down on the beach. I shouldn’t have done that,” I said, hoping she would understand where I was coming from. “You’re just so damned adorable and gorgeous, I seem to forget myself whenever you’re around.”

Her eyes narrowed as she took in my words. She didn’t look surprised, or even upset, really. She was mostly unreadable.

I sighed. “Nothing can happen between us, Liv. I’m only here for the next four weeks, and then I’m gone. And I really don’t want to hurt you like that.”

Holding my breath, I watched a wariness creep into her gaze as she assessed me. As each second passed, her expression grew more and more clos

ed off, until she drew in a slow, deep breath and pushed herself to her feet.

I sat back, unsure of what she was doing, but then she was striding for the door. Blinking, I tried to get my head to focus and work out what she was doing, and more importantly, what I should be doing in response.

It wasn’t until I heard her footfalls on the stairs that I finally came to the conclusion that I had most likely just fucked up. And most probably in a major way.

Fuck. Jumping to my feet, I dashed after her.

Chapter 19

Olivia

Emotions were battling inside me like they were fighting out freaking World War III as I darted down the stairs from Josh’s room. Embarrassment swam somewhere amongst them, but anger was the one I was mostly comfortable with right now. It felt plausible and easy to work with.

As I breezed through the living room, I felt Josh’s friends pause, most likely watching me with confused expressions, but I didn’t take the time to acknowledge them in the slightest. I just needed to get out of there.

Bursting through the door to the deck, I made for the stairs down to the sand, and started along the beach, back home to Aunt Jenny’s. I made it as far as the other side of his house before he caught me.

“Liv, wait!”

I exhaled so heavily it was probably a borderline huff, and spun, trying to keep my cool.

“Jesus,” he said, running his hand through his hair. He looked completely uncomfortable. “I’m sorry, Liv. I really didn’t mean to upset you. Honestly. I’m trying to do the opposite. I obviously suck at it, though.”

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