by Diana Nixon
Stella and I arrived at Molly’s at around seven at night, and immediately I regretted the moment I agreed to join the party.
“Oh, my freaking Goodness . . . James Collins in the flesh . . . And in my house!” Stella’s grandmother said, opening the door to greet us. She gave her a hug and then turned to me. “Welcome, Mr. Charming! I hope you are not afraid of a bunch of old ladies trying to seduce you, are you?”
“Grandma!”
Stella was obviously embarrassed for Molly’s frivolous behavior, which only humored me. Now I knew whom Dillon took his ‘spadish’ nature from.
“Don’t worry, Mrs. Nevil, I can handle them,” I said, hoping I would be able to make it through the party alive.
“Good! Then come in and make yourself at home. Georgia, Tia, come show Mr. Collins around.”
Two ladies about Molly’s age came to the door, smiling pleasantly at me.
“We are so happy to have you,” one of them said, taking me by the hand and pulling me away from Stella and her grandmother. Stella giggled, wishing me luck as I was being dragged toward the inside of the house.
I rolled my eyes and followed the ladies into the spacious living room. It was full of guests, each of which thought it was their job to greet me and say something about my books. For the first time ever, I felt a little embarrassed about being an erotic writer, especially after one of the men said his wife wouldn’t let him fall asleep without reenacting one of my sex scenes first. And considering the couple was older than the world itself, I suddenly felt like my writing was something to be ashamed of.
But the worst thing about everything going on around me was that I was missing Stella. I didn’t see her, even though I could swear I could feel her eyes following my every move.
“And you must be the famous writer?” Someone said behind me.
I turned around and met a pair of green eyes watching me curiously.
“I’m Stefanie, Stella’s mother,” the woman said, smiling at me. She looked a lot like her daughter, the only difference was that she was older.
“Nice to meet you, I’m James,” I said, shaking her outstretched hand.
“What have you done to my girl? She can’t stop talking about you!” She laughed.
“Really? And what exactly did she tell you about me?”
“Many things actually…” Stefanie looked at me thoughtfully, as if she knew something I did not. “I have never seen my daughter’s eyes shining so brightly, Mr. Collins. Please try to keep that in mind when you leave.”
She smiled once again and left, making me feel like the scum of the earth. I should have left right after the book signing was over. I shouldn’t have stayed . . . I shouldn’t have allowed myself to get involved with Stella . . . I shouldn’t have made her believe that there could be something more than just sex between us. I shouldn’t have had sex with her in the first place. Ugh, why couldn’t I have just left her alone?
She entered the room, holding a glass of champagne in one hand. A guy with strawberry-blond hair followed her, saying something to her and making her laugh. He was probably around her age and judging by how easy he felt around Stella, she knew him well. My fists doubled in my pockets.
Who the hell is that? I thought irritably to myself.
“There you are, James!” Dillon yelled in a deep voice, distracting me from the couple that I did not want to let out of my sight. Stella never told me she had male friends in Braiwood. Why would she be telling me about them? After all, it was supposed to be all about sex, with no personal details disclosed.
It took all of my self-control to not run across the room and smash that smile off of the stranger’s face who was openly flirting with my Stella. “So . . .” I said, turning to Dillon, “Excited about the party?”
“Not even fucking close,” he muttered, swallowing the liquid of his glass in one gulp. “My mother wants my death, no doubt.”
“Aren’t you happy to see your family and friends?”
“I don’t have to come here to see them. Don’t get me wrong, I love my mother, but I love her even more when she’s not around. I think I’m just too old to listen to her ramblings about my personal life, or to be exact about the absence of it, and keep calm.”
“Can I ask you something, Dillon?”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“Why have you never been married?”
He laughed. “You, of all people, should know how little people nowadays care about that kind of obligations. I could never imagine myself dedicating my life to a woman. They are so complicated. You never know what they want. I bet they don’t even know what they want, but whatever it is they want it now even though no one knows what the thing is. Besides, I’m sure my career and wife wouldn’t be able to tolerate each other, let alone live under the same roof together. My editorial office has always felt like home to me, and having a wife would just ruin it all.”
“Yeah, I can understand that,” I said, watching Stella again. I used to be one of those men who shared Dillon’s point of view, but now I wasn’t sure I was that man anymore. Obligations didn’t seem so scary anymore. I just didn’t know if I was ready to say that aloud.
Dillon suddenly asked, “Is everything all right between you and Stella?”
“Everything’s good, why?”
“She asked me to give her a few days off, and I thought it had something to do with you. She has never taken even a single day off, even though I bet she wanted to. But today . . . Well, something was off about her today. She wasn’t acting like the Stella I know; she was more like a ghost of her old self.”
I cleared my throat, taking time to form my response. I didn’t know what to say actually. But one thing I knew for sure – Dillon was right, something was off about Stella tonight. Even before we arrived at the party, she was acting a little distant. It was like she had something on her mind, but didn’t want to talk about it or for me to notice her change in behavior. Was she thinking about the time we were about to spend together? Or was there something else that was bothering her?
“She and Milton would make a great couple,” Dillon said, nodding to the stranger that I was beginning to despise. At least now, I knew the name of the moron I was going to pound into the ground.
“Who is he?” I asked, through clenched teeth. The bastard even dared to wrap one arm around Stella’s waist and lean closer to say something into her ear. The only thing I could think about now was breaking that arm of his and pulling Stella away from him.
“They have been friends since childhood. Stella used to spend every summer here, in Braiwood. Then she went to college, and didn’t have the time to visit. But I’m sure Milton has always been secretly in love with her.”
No, shit? I glared at the asshole and my hatred for him made my blood boil. So much for my self-control and no-jealousy rule.
“He’s a good guy. Smart and hard-working. Stella would be happy with someone like Milton.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. So I nodded absently, as if I didn’t really care about Stella and the man she would want to spend the rest of her life with. When in fact, my head was full of thoughts of all the ways I could kill Milton and bury his body somewhere in the woods, or Dillon’s back yard.
“It’s time for her to start a new life,” Dillon continued. “She’s been hiding here for too long. She’s too young to give up on her future. She deserves so much more than this.”
“That’s what I told her,” I said, recalling my first day in Braiwood and my conversation with Stella. “Did she ever tell you why she moved here? I mean she clearly doesn’t belong to Braiwood.” Not that I was going to gossip about Stella’s past behind her back, but I knew she would never tell me about it voluntarily, and Dillon felt like the right person to ask questions if you were seeking information about Stella. He would give it all away without giving it a second thought.
“Uh, that’s a sad story. She had been dating one of her groupmates for a few years, and then she found him chea
ting on her, with her best friend, of all people! Can you imagine that? The son of a bitch didn’t deserve a single tear she cried over him.”
Well, at least now Stella’s sudden escape from Ney York made sense. I was right when I said she had been hiding in Braiwood. I just didn’t know it was a man she had been hiding from, until this very moment. I suddenly felt like embracing her, just pulling her into my arms and holding her like that for as long as she needed to make her forget the bastard that dared to cheat on her.
“Excuse me,” I said, leaving my drink on the coffee table and heading to Stella. It was time to man up and do something, anything to stop my anger for Milton, who was still openly flirting with her grow. There was no way in hell that I would just keep standing and watching his hands travel up and down her back. The son of a bitch better keep his hands off her! For as long as I am here, she is mine. Period.
Tonight Stella was wearing a simple pale-pink dress, with a flared shirt that made her look younger and fragile, but somehow, even more desirable. The dress stopped right above her knees, showing just enough of her long legs that I couldn’t wait to run my palms up and down and then feel them wrapped tightly around me. Our eyes met across the room, her gloss-covered lips twisted into a smile that looked more like a challenge than just a smile, both angelic and daring as hell.
She knows . . . Again, I felt like Stella could see through me. She knew I wouldn’t approve of anyone flirting with her, and I would like a man touching her, right in front of my eyes even less.
“Stella, why don’t you introduce me to your friend?” I said, smiling as fucking pleasantly at the guy as I was capable at the moment.
“Milton Barrow,” he said for her, one hand still wrapped around her waist.
“James Collins,” I all but barked in response, giving Stella a hard look that said it all.
Her angelic smile became wider. She knew exactly what was going on with me, and enjoyed my pissed expression a lot.
“Milton owns a grocery store down the road,” she said.
Well, and I don’t fucking care!
“Good for him,” I said aloud. “Can I have a word with you? In private.” I gave Milton another careful look and pulled Stella to the hall.
“How rude, Mr. Collins,” she said, laughing quietly. “You were supposed to be a nice guy tonight, remember?”
“And you were not supposed to flirt with anyone, but me.”
I opened the first door that I saw in the hall, and literary dragged Stella into the room that turned out to be a guest bedroom. I shut the door behind us and pulled Stella into my embrace, covering her lips with mine in a breathless kiss.
“You can’t tell me who to flirt or not to flirt with,” she said, breaking the kiss and trying to take a step back. Not that I was going to let her, of course.
“I thought we had already discussed that,” I said in a harsh voice. More than anything I wanted to rip that lovely dress of hers off of her and show her just how badly I wanted her to belong to me only.
“Don’t be a selfish pig, Mr. Collins. Sharing is caring, remember?”
“Not in this particular case. I’m not ready to share you with anyone.” Ever, I said mentally to myself. “I hope I’m making myself clear.”
“Crystal.” She met my eyes without hesitation and something told me that she would use my words against me, very soon. “We’d better go back to the guests. You don’t want anyone to think that you have kidnapped me, or worse – locked me in one of my grandma’s guest rooms to take advantage of me, do you?”
She stepped around me, making her way to the door. “Are you coming?”
I cursed mentally. “I wouldn’t mind coming, with you,” I said, following her out into the hall.
“Hold that thought, Mr. Collins. We will get back to it later.” She winked at me, turned on her heel and went down the hall, leaving me alone, pissed and aroused. Perfect combination.
***
Stella
“Come help me with snacks, Sweetie,” mom said from the kitchen. She and grandma were there, taking care of dinner. It was about to be served on a terrace.
“Why didn’t Nikki come?” I asked, joining them.
“She has a night shift,” mom replied. “How long is James going to stay here?” The sudden change of the subject seemed suspicious. My mother was obviously after something that I was missing.
“He’s leaving tonight, after the party,” I lied. Neither James nor I wanted anyone to know about our secret trip to the lake house.
“He’s really handsome,” mom said, watching me carefully.
“He sure is.” I smiled nervously. Was my attraction to James Collins obvious to everyone? Is that what she was getting at?
Molly spoke, “Men are like coffee – they are good when they are hot, strong, and keep you awake all night long.”
Mom and I laughed. “Too bad grandpa can’t hear you now,” I said. “I’m sure he would love your words.”
“For the record, your grandfather was the kind of a man I just described.”
“Mother, please, neither Stella nor I need to know about your and dad’s personal life.”
“I bet Mr. Collins is really good at keeping women awake, right Stella?”
Uh, for God’s sake . . . Sometimes I shared Dillon’s hate for staying at grandma’s. The woman was blunt and always got straight to the point.
“How would I know that?” I said, feeling my cheeks reddening. No doubt, Molly could feel my lies. She used to say that whenever I was lying my ears turned red. Not that I ever noticed it myself. But who would lie to oneself looking into a mirror, right?
Molly spoke, “One look at you and James is enough to see it all.”
“I have no idea what you are talking about.” I took a plate with roasted chicken and vegetables and went to the terrace, hoping mom wouldn’t ask anything about Molly’s assumptions. Though something was telling me that it was not the first time that she and mom had discussed this topic.
When dinner finally began, it became apparent that sitting with James and my family at the same table and keep calm was hardly possible. Our gazes keep meeting across the table, exchanging thousands of silent messages that only he and I could understand. For a second, I regretted leaving the guest room so quickly. What if we didn’t stop at kissing only? Would I dare to sleep with James right in the middle of Dillon’s birthday party, in a house full of my relatives and people who knew me since I was a kid? Well, the chances were high I would. The mere thought of being with James again, with nothing but the sound of our heartbeats separating our bodies was too alluring to take it out of my head and stop thinking about the possible ways of spending the rest of the damn party locked in one room with him.
“So tell us, Stella, did you enjoy interviewing the famous James Collins?” My father’s voice interrupted my dirty thoughts, bringing me back to reality.
My eyes traveled to James again. He smiled across the table and said, “I sure enjoyed answering Stella’s questions.”
I could swear Molly was watching me now. Probably thinking that her assumptions about James and me were very close to the truth, or maybe even closer than she originally thought.
“It wasn’t easy to make Mr. Collins speak . . .” I said, pausing. “But I think I have finally found the key to the closed doors in his life. You will read all about them in my article.”
“Can’t wait,” James said. “Stella wouldn’t let me see it before it is published.”
“You will love it.” I smiled at him, taking a sip of my drink. The article turned out to be even better than I expected, regardless of how much effort it took to get the information I needed. And by the effort I don’t mean just sex. There were things about James’ life that not even sex would help me figure out. I still didn’t know anything about the woman that he once said he was obsessed with. No doubt, she meant a lot to him.
“I could have never imagined myself answering so many questions for a single interview,” James sa
id. “But Stella is really good at her job. I wouldn’t mind having another interview with her one day.” He took a sip of his drink, staring at me from above the glass.
“Write another great book and maybe I will want to ask a few questions about it,” I said in response.
The look in his eyes told me that under any other circumstances, I would already be naked with me on top of him, or pinned to the shower wall, with him deep and hard inside me.
“Actually, I think I already have an idea for a new book that I’m going to let Stella read as soon as it is written. Maybe I will even turn her into one of the characters. . .”
I choked on my drink, mentally calling James all the names in the book. The sexy smartass was obviously enjoying pushing my buttons.
“You okay, Sweetheart?” My father asked, patting my back.
“Am good. I just imagined being one of the characters in one of Mr. Collin’s books . . . I hope I’ll be a decent one?”
He smirked. “Of course.”
I put my glass on the table and excused myself, saying I needed to make a call. James’ eyes followed me.
The conversation at the table was getting dangerously close to things that I preferred to be left unspoken. I sure as hell didn’t want the entirety of Braiwood to start gossiping about me and James sleeping together, and considering how curious the ladies of the town were about everything that put James Collins and women in one sentence, chances were high that the next morning would start with conversations about tonight’s party. I only hoped they wouldn’t include me and the word game that James and I were so good at playing.