by Lark O'Neal
Is this something big? Something real? It feels like it. Which means I’m going to have to let Tyler go completely, and for some reason that makes my throat hurt. In a way, he needs me more than Kaleb does.
“You’re thinking again.” Kaleb settles behind me, another blanket around his shoulders.
“Maybe,” I admit.
“Quite a view.”
“Yeah.” I can’t think of what else to say. I love the feeling of him behind me. I love the chemistry between us—very, very powerful chemistry—and I love the way he makes me feel safe.
“‘Water let stand becomes clear,’” he says in my ear. “You don’t have to make any decisions tonight. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. And Tyler is a long, long way away.”
I turn to look at him. “How did you know what I was thinking about?”
He tucks my hair around my ear. “Lucky guess.”
There’s something sad around his mouth, and I take his hand urgently into mine and bring it to my lips. “I’m not feeling any regret, Kaleb, if that’s what you think.”
“No. I’m not sure what I’m feeling, either, Dolphin Girl. I don’t want to get wrecked on all this, but every minute I spend with you is another tie, and the fact is, it’s happening for you, too.” He traces the edge of my ear. “Maybe just let it, huh?
Suddenly, it hits me. “I think I’m scared.”
He tilts his head. “Why?”
“I really opened up to Tyler. Let down my guard. And he let me down in a big way. It’s hard to trust anything sometimes.”
His chin rests on my shoulder. “Yeah. What’d he do?”
“I thought you didn’t like talking about my history.”
Even in the dark, I can feel his smile. “I want to know everything about you.”
But I don’t really want to talk about Tyler, not with Kaleb. It would be just as weird in reverse. Even if I’m all lost in a triangle, at least I can keep the two worlds separated. “I’ll tell you about my first lover if you want.”
“No, changed my mind.” His hands find my breasts, and his lips find the back of my neck. “I just want to shag you again. Want to?”
“Shag me?” I laugh. “So elegant.”
“Make love, then.” He stands. “One more time.”
And this time, that’s what it is. He makes love to me slowly, sweetly, gently, as if knowing how sore I am all over, and the emotions that rise in me are pure and deep and wide.
When we’re joined, he says, “Look at me, Jess.”
I raise my eyes to his, and he says, “This.”
Tears trickle from the sides of my eyes. I touch his face, his hair. “This.”
The next minute we’re tumbling over into easy waves of pleasure and then falling into sleep, still joined. I think I hear him whisper, I love you, Jess, but it’s so quiet I can’t tell for sure, and the words are on my lips, too, but I can’t tell if I’ve said them, either.
What I think as I drift off to sleep is, I choose Kaleb.
Chapter TWENTY ONE
We’re back on the bus at five am, and everyone is sleepy and grouchy and ready to have a day off for real. It’s my turn to put my head in Kaleb’s lap, and he leans against the back of the seat and crashes, too. When we get back to Queenstown, it’s another “magic segment,” and after that we’re both so tired that we crash the minute we get back to the lodge.
The next day is the last one, and we film at a winery, though it seems weird to me to do it in the winter when the vines are all dull. Darcy is looking daggers at me the whole time, and I roll my eyes when she knocks my shoulder as she passes me and doesn’t apologize.
“Darce!” Kaleb says. “‘Sup?”
She gives him a haughty, nasty look and keeps walking.
“What’s with Queen Bee?” he asks.
I shrug, putting my backpack on. God, I’m tired of this thing. My shoulders have raw marks from the straps. “She doesn’t like me hanging out with you. Anything more, you have to ask her.”
He heads for the tent where Darcy disappeared, and I look at the script. It’s pretty easy, and the weather is decent today, no wind and a warm sun. The mountaintops are sharply white against a vivid blue sky.
Since no one is ready, I wander around the perimeter of the vines, curiously looking at everything and peeking into the greenhouse, which is much like my dad’s.
“Can I help you?” says a guy in overalls.
“No, thanks. Just looking.” Then I think better of it. “What kind of grapes do you grow here? My dad has a winery up near Blenheim.”
“We’ve got mostly pinot.”
“Jess!” someone calls. “Where are you?”
“Gotta go.”
I hurry over to the set, but it’s Ian who takes me aside. “I want to talk to you.”
“Okay. Am I in trouble?”
He laughs. “No. Why do you always think that?”
“I don’t know.”
“It’s actually pretty interesting. I’ve sent some of the clips to a friend of mine. He’s making a movie, a romantic comedy, and I thought you might be good for it. He got back to me this morning and would like to meet you.”
“What?” I grab onto the straps of my backpack. “I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“You don’t think so, but you do. I wanted to see if you could work without Kaleb, which is why I sent him up to Wanaka, and you were fine, but it turns out my friend also wants to screen test him.”
“Wow.” I absorb this for a minute, and then it’s hard to keep the smile off my face. “Really?”
“Really.” He claps me on the shoulder. “Give it some thought, talk to your dad. It would be a lot of money if you get the part. And you might want to start thinking about an agent.”
“An agent?”
Now he grins, too. “Yes. I’ll help you.”
* * *
Once we’re finished, finally finished, we all jam into the Bardeaux for a celebration. It’s only the middle of the afternoon, but we’ve lined up shots and taken over a corner, and the mood is high.
I haven’t had a chance to tell Kaleb what Ian said, but once everyone is settled in, I tug him away from the group, into a little alcove. Because Darcy is sitting there, glowering at me, I just lean against the wall and look up at him, just that much. “Another director wants to audition us both.”
“You’re kidding. For what?”
“A movie.”
He laughs, those big white teeth flashing, making me think of the way he nips me sometimes, so sharp and hot, and a softness moves in me.
“That’s amazing,” he says. “When?”
“I don’t know. He’s going to tell me more later, but kinda cool, right?”
“It is. Not sure I want to do any more of this, though. Do you?”
“I’m not sure, either, but it’s not like I have a lot going on in my life. You could pay for school. I could have some security.” My eyes widen. “I don’t even know what that would be like.”
He raises an eyebrow. “It would be good to pay for uni. Get my degree.”
“Maybe you’d become famous. Women would start stalking you, throwing themselves at you.”
“Would you be one of them?”
I give him a long look. “Of course.”
“Whatever it is, though, let’s have a few days off before it happens, yeah?”
I smile up at him, then lean forward and press my forehead into his chest. His hand falls on my shoulder. For a minute I rest there, but I’m suddenly aware of the oddest prickling along the side of my neck and shoulder, a sense of being stared at. Before I can even turn my head, I know exactly who it will be.
Tyler.
The air leaves me. He’s standing right there with the woman from the photo, wearing a loose gray stocking cap that hides his bright hair and makes him look a lot less formal and more hip than I’ve ever seen. The goatee suits him, and in person, he’s knock-down, heart-stoppingly gorgeous. He’s staring at me with those bl
ue-green eyes, but his expression reveals nothing. Nothing at all.
For a long second we’re connected. I’m pulled into Jess and Tyler world, and there’s a roaring in my ears and I’m furious with him for just showing up, but I also feel myself burn with something I can’t identify.
He stalks out, and I suck in a breath, reaching for Kaleb to steady myself. “That was Tyler,” I say in a squashed voice.
“What?”
“Tyler,” I say again. “He was just here.”
“You all right?”
“What is he doing here?” I look up at Kaleb, scowling.
“That’s pretty obvious.”
“He can’t just show up like that! I told him I needed time to think.”
“When?”
I spread my fingers on his chest, my palm over his heart. “While you were in Wanaka.”
The barest smile touches his lips, the very same smile that snared me after the earthquake, when he realized that I was attracted to him. It captures me again now. “You didn’t tell me.”
“No, I—”
“He’s back.” Kaleb gestures with one hand toward the door, settles a hand on my arm, protective but not possessive.
I turn, and Tyler is striding toward us, purpose in his steps. He’s so tall, and I can see that he’s been training hard. He’s always moved fluidly, but now there’s a kind of ease and grace that suggests his talent, and I see he’s lost weight around the middle.
“Tyler,” I say in a warning voice, my heart pounding suddenly. I’m afraid he’s going to start a fight and he’s crazy when he loses his temper. “Don’t—”
“No worries,” he says, and gives Kaleb a respectful nod. “‘Scuse me.”
And before I realize what he’s going to do, he’s swept his hand around the back of my neck and pulled me to his lips, and it’s one of those moments when time stretches to the slowest possible crawl. I feel Kaleb’s hand on my arm and Tyler’s around the back of my neck, Kaleb’s heat along my side and Tyler’s mouth against mine, aggressive and thrilling. It rockets through me that I still love him, and I respond before I can stop myself.
Then he’s striding away, back out into the cold twilight, and I’m standing as still as a stone, feeling myself tear exactly in two, half to Kaleb, half to Tyler.
Kaleb takes my hand, laces his fingers through mine, and presses my hand over his warrior heart.
“What?”
His extravagant lashes sweep down and half-hide the glow in his tiger eyes. “May the best man win.”
###
Love this book?
Look for more of Jess and Tyler in
Book Four of Going the Distance, BRILLIANT.
Available December 2014.
If you missed the previous books in the Going the Distance series,
catch up
RANDOM, Book One
STOKED, Book Two.
Join my newsletter for sneak peeks, news, exact dates, and more!
www.larkoneal.com/join-the-email-list
Leave a review—good or bad, I like to know what readers think!
Visit Lark on the Web at
Facebook.com/LarkONealAuthor
Twitter.com/LarkONeal
GoodReads.com/LarkONeal
LarkONeal.com
ABOUT LARK O’NEAL
Lark O’Neal has waited tables, dispensed drugs to schizophrenics, loaded trucks, answered phones in a call center and tended bar, but the only thing she ever really wanted was to write novels. She has won many awards for her books, and writes full time from Colorado.
Table of Contents
Beginning
Chapter TWO
Chapter THREE
Chapter FOUR
Chapter FIVE
Chapter SIX
Chapter SEVEN
Chapter EIGHT
Chapter NINE
Chapter TEN
Chapter ELEVEN
Chapter TWELVE
Chapter THIRTEEN
Chapter FOURTEEN
Chapter FIFTEEN
Chapter SIXTEEN
Chapter SEVENTEEN
Chapter EIGHTEEN
Chapter NINETEEN
Chapter TWENTY
Chapter TWENTY ONE
About Lark