“I don’t think that’s exactly true,” Kim said.
“You don’t? It was pretty clear at the time.”
“You need to look at the facts.”
“What facts?”
Kim sat up and counted off the points on her fingers. “Here’s what we know. Alex came here to research a lifeguard movie. He got busted on live TV so that all fell through. Next, he showed you some secret cave only he and his brother knew about. You had some kind of disagreement in there and fell out with each other. You came all the way back to shore in silence then just walked off without looking back. You haven’t seen him since.”
Maddy shrugged. “That sounds about right.”
“So you need to ask yourself one question, Honey.”
“What question?”
“If his research project is over, why is he still in Sunnystone Bay? Why didn’t he go back to Hollywood by now?”
“He might have gone back for all I know.” She assumed he had gone back home. As Kim said there was nothing to keep him in Sunnystone Bay anymore.
Kim said, “He was on TV this morning talking with Tammy Jones. He said he’s going to stick around until the end of the Shark Festival.”
“What? Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“Does it matter? You told me you never wanted to see him again. I assumed those tears meant he upset you.”
“Still, I like to know what’s going on.”
Kim shook her head in disbelief. “Honey, do you have any idea what’s going on?”
“Yes... of course... what do you mean?”
Kim removed her sunglasses and looked at Maddy directly with her deep brown eyes. “There’s a lot more going on between you and Alex Stone than you think.”
“Nonsense.”
“Is it? You should see it from where I’m sitting. You’re the kind of girl who avoids men and wears the least flattering clothing she can find. But when you’re around Alex Stone, you wear a micro-bikini and get your sexy on. He has a reputation for being an out of control womanizer but when he’s around you he resists sex with a curvy woman wearing the aforementioned micro-bikini. Can’t you see what’s happening?”
“Yes, I fancy him but he doesn’t fancy me. End of story.”
“That isn’t even half the story, Honey. You live your life all straight-laced and demure but underneath you’re a woman seething with passion. He lives his life the way he thinks the media expects and dates all those bimbos but underneath he probably wants a more real relationship, something more than just sex.
“When you two get together, you bring out the real person in each other. That part of you that is hidden away but is who you really are. You and Alex Stone have a connection. A big connection. You make each other true to yourselves.”
“This is all sounding a bit hippy trippy,” Maddy said. She already knew Alex brought out her passionate inner self but could it be true that she had a similar effect on him? She made him put away his shallow self and become more deep? It wasn’t possible. Why would an overweight magazine layout girl and a famous Hollywood actor have such a connection? It couldn’t be true.
Could it?
“This isn’t mumbo jumbo,” Kim said, putting her sunglasses back on, “I’ve been investigating human nature for a long time. You just can’t see what’s happening right in front of your eyes yet. You want to come for a walk to the stage?”
“Maddy shook her head. “I’ll stay here and read my book.”
“While you’re reading that romance novel, try and learn something from it.” Kim stood up and brushed sand from her butt. “See you later. Unless Alex Stone finds you first.”
“Don’t be silly. He’s not...”
Kim gave her a knowing smile and walked off toward the stage.
Maddy tried to concentrate on her book but after twenty minutes of reading the same page over and over, she put it down and lay on the lounger watching the people in the sea. They all seemed so carefree and happy.
“Mind if I join you?”
She shielded her eyes from the sun’s glare and looked up at the lifeguard standing above her. He wore a red baseball cap pulled low and sunglasses. His lifeguard t-shirt and shorts were loose enough to hide the muscles beneath. Alex!
She sat up. “Hi... yes, of course. If you want to.”
He sat on Kim’s lounger and smiled at Maddy. “I was hoping I’d see you again.”
“I thought you’d gone home.”
No. Didn’t you see the interview on TV this morning?”
“Kim did. So are you staying for the festival or is your research project back on?” She indicated his lifeguard uniform.
“This? No, my friends in the hut loaned me these so I can come on the beach incognito. The research is being rearranged by my agent. Probably going to happen in Long Beach, California. They were going to shoot some of the movie on location here but I think it’s being moved to the States.”
She asked him the question she had been dying to ask since Kim put a seed of hope into her mind. “So why are you sticking around here? The Shark Festival isn’t exactly Woodstock.”
“I feel like I have some unfinished business here.”
“Oh? What’s that?” she asked, trying to sound uninterested.
“Us, Maddy. I don’t want to leave things as they are between us.”
“So what do you suggest?” She tried to be cold toward him but she found it impossible. Kim was right about one thing: Alex affected Maddy deeply.
“Come out on the boat with me. We won’t go swimming or visit the cave, we’ll just spend some time together. I want to get to know you. And I have two steaks in the fridge and a bottle of red wine. Let me cook for you and make up for the dinner we should have had at the Cliff Cottage. Only this time I’d like to drink the wine and not wear it.” He smiled at her with his perfect Hollywood smile and she felt herself melting inside.
She knew she should send him on his way and tell him he was the last person on earth she wanted to spend time with but instead she nodded and said, “OK. Just let me tell Kim where I’m going.” She dug her phone out of the beach bag and texted to Kim, “He found me first.”
As she got up and slung the bag over her shoulder, her phone buzzed. Kim had sent back a smiley face and the words, “Good luck!” before adding a string of kisses.
Maddy smiled and turned to Alex. “OK, Mister Movie Star... entertain me.”
He laughed and she let him take her hand and lead her along the beach to the marina.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Alex took the Swan out past Stone Island and into the deep open water beyond. Maddy watched the beach get smaller and smaller until she could no longer hear the shouts of the tourists or the music coming from the stage. Out here the world became quiet save for the soft rumble of the Swan’s engines and the distant cry of gulls.
Alex killed the engines and the isolated sea world Maddy found herself seemed to become silent, almost surreal. The boat bobbed up and down on the water beneath the sun and the vivid blue sky. The sea was calm and still as a piece of mysterious dark blue glass.
The silence and the distance between the boat and the noisy beach she had just left made Maddy feel calm, almost serene. The sun was warm on her skin, the slightly-salty breeze gentle as it caressed her hair.
Alex came down the ladder and asked, “Drink?”
She nodded, not wanting to spoil the quiet calm she felt by speaking.
Alex returned with two glasses of red wine. He handed one to Maddy and said, “I would like to propose a toast. To drinking our wine and not letting a drop of it spill on each other.”
She smiled. “Worried I might give you another Shiraz shower?”
He grinned and drank.
Maddy followed suit. The wine tasted amazing. She was sure it would be well out of her price range.
“It’s beautiful out here,” she said.
He sat on the seat that ran along the stern. She noticed he kept a respectful distance. “So
tell me more about yourself,” he said.
She shrugged. “There’s not much to tell really. I work for London Eye - the magazine, not the tourist attraction - as a layout artist. I’d rather be doing something else. I work long hours and when I get home I kick off my shoes and veg out in front of the TV. Sometimes I fall asleep on the sofa. Then it’s back to work the next day for more work.”
“There must be more to it than that. What about weekends?”
“I work Saturdays. I usually spend Sundays in bed until lunchtime. Sometimes I go out with the girls from work and sometimes I visit my parents and my mom cooks a roast. There’s not really much more to tell.”
He took a sip of wine. “Boyfriends?”
She took a gulp of her own drink. It heated her throat as it went down. “None since last year.”
“Wow,” he said, “I’m surprised.”
“Really.” She tried to sound sarcastic but he did seem genuinely surprised.
“Yes, really. I would have thought you’d be fighting the men off.”
“Yeah, right.”
“So who was the last lucky man?”
“His name was Eric. We went out for a while then he dumped me on my twenty-fifth birthday.”
“Ouch.”
“By text.”
“Double ouch.”
She shrugged. “Whatever. It wasn’t exactly a great relationship anyway.”
“Tell me more.”
She looked at him and narrowed her eyes. “Are you actually interested in this?”
“Yes.” He nodded vigorously. “I said I wanted to get to know you, remember?”
“My love life is hardly worth knowing about. I think Eric was disgusted by me, really. He probably didn’t want to end up with a fat girl but he didn’t have many options. So he ended up with me. I’ve never really minded my weight or my shape but Eric kept on about it all the time. Eventually he gave me a complex about it. Every time we... you know... we had to have the lights off. He wanted that just as much as I did.”
Alex was frowning.
“What are you frowning at?”
He shrugged. “It just seems so... I don’t get it. You’re amazingly attractive, Maddy.”
“Says the man who only dates size zero models.”
He looked out across the glassy water. He looked almost embarrassed. “Yeah, well that was probably a mistake.”
“It didn’t do you any favors with the press.”
“I didn’t mean that. I don’t know what I was looking for in all those women but I never found it. I was never happy. I was trying to be what others wanted me to be. I never used to be like that. It was only when I became famous that I fell into a pattern of self-destruction.” He looked into his wine glass as if searching for an answer in the dark red liquid.
“I was hurt once. When I was nineteen, a year before I got my break in the movies. There was a girl named Bonny. She was a big girl but unlike Eric, I wasn’t dating her because I didn’t have any other options. I’ve always had my looks and I could have had almost any girl I wanted. I wanted Bonny.
“We dated for nine months and I was sure I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her but she was insecure. There were other girls telling her she wasn’t worthy of dating me. They told her I was only doing it as a joke. No matter how much I tried to reassure her, she didn’t believe that I wanted her for who she was, exactly as she was.
“One day I thought I came on the answer to our problems; I would ask her to marry me. That way she would know how serious I was about her and feel more secure in our relationship. I bought a ring with a single diamond. I didn’t have much money then and I had to use all my savings to get it. When I asked Bonny to marry me, she burst into tears and said she couldn’t. She said it wouldn’t be fair on me to be tethered to her for the rest of my life. That’s the word she used, “tethered”. I was heartbroken. She broke up with me that day. A year later I got a role in American Identity and moved to America.”
Maddy felt terrible for Alex. She had never been in the same mental space as Bonny but she knew women who were. The unfortunate men who loved them could not convince those girls that their feelings were genuine and the relationships usually ended badly.
“Did you ever hear from Bonny again?” she asked.
“I looked her up online. She’s married now, probably to a guy she feels is more her type. I suppose she knows what happened to me. In her mind, it probably validates her decision to cut me loose.”
“I’m sorry,” Maddy said. “It sounds like you had a terrible time.”
“Yeah, well I drowned my sorrows in the beds of a string of models and actresses. Most men would be jealous. I know a lot of them hate me for it.”
“They don’t know the whole story. You’ve never told the media about Bonny have you?”
He shook his head. “No, I’d like to keep some things to myself.”
“Anyway,” he said trying to lighten the atmosphere, “how about dinner?”
“Sure. What can I do to help?”
He stood up. “Aha, that’s something else I keep to myself; I love to cook. Most people probably think I have my own chef or something but I do everything myself. You can come into the kitchen and watch if you like but the cooking duty is all mine.”
“Sounds good.” She followed him inside to the kitchen and sat on a bar stool at the counter while Alex prepared the frying pans, saucepans and utensils he would need to cook a steak dinner. Maddy had been let through the gate Alex closed to the media and she liked the man who lived behind it. In stark contrast to the Alex Stone known to the world through movies and gossip columns, the real Alex was genuine and sensitive and thoughtful.
Maddy was falling for him hard.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The meal was amazing. As Maddy pushed her empty plate away, she was more than satisfied with Alex’s secret culinary skills. The steak had been cooked to perfection and the vegetables, mushrooms and potatoes had been mixed with chopped fresh herbs and tasted delicious.
They had chatted about the food and Alex told her stories about Hollywood and the various places he travelled for shoots. Maddy enjoyed every second she spent with him and when she saw the sky outside growing dark she felt disappointed that the night would end.
Alex followed her gaze out of the windows and got up from the table. “I guess I should get you home.”
“I won’t turn into a pumpkin at midnight,” Maddy said.
“No but still...”
She stood up and faced him. Her body felt relaxed and warm with an underlying current of sexual electricity that had been building since sitting down to eat with Alex. “Take me to the Master Cabin,” she whispered.
He looked at her closely. “Maddy, are you sure?”
She nodded.
Something had changed between them since their argument in the cave. They had a deeper understanding of each other, a glimpse of the person beneath the disguise that was shown to the world.
“Follow me,” he said, taking her hand and leading her back through the boat to a small wooden door. He opened it and they stepped into a large bedroom dominated by a king size bed. The walls were paneled with dark wood and a single porthole let in a sliver of silver moonlight. Plush rugs covered the floor and a painting of a man and woman in an embrace hung on the wall above the bed.
Alex turned to her and put his arms around her waist. Maddy felt the familiar excited heat in her belly and leaned forward to kiss him. The contact was urgent, both of them needing the other and expressing emotions that had been building all day until they threatened to explode. Alex pressed himself against Maddy and she felt his hardness against her thigh. She reached down and slid her hand under the waistband of his shorts, her fingers contacting throbbing flesh. Alex groaned and pressed himself into her hand. She stroked and fondled his manhood, feeling it grow in her hand.
Alex broke the kiss and nibbled at her neck, sending shivers of pleasure through Maddy’s body. His hands went under
the linen top she wore, moving up over her belly to her breasts. Her bra felt too constricting to Maddy as Alex’s hands traced over the cups.
“Take it off,” she whispered.
He slid his hands around her back and unhooked it. She let go of him for a moment and removed the linen top and the bra, dropping them onto the floor.
Alex looked at her with lust in his gleaming eyes. “Get on the bed,” he said, his voice husky with desire.
Maddy climbed onto the bed and he joined her, his mouth on her nipples, tongue flicking the hard buds. She moaned and stroked the back of his head with one hand while she sent the other in search of the prize she had held earlier. His breathing quickened when she found it and her fingers went to work on him.
He was so hard, so ready. She pulled his shorts down to release him and slid her fingers along the hot throbbing flesh from tip to base, making Alex groan with pleasure at her touch. She found his tight balls and lightly traced her fingernails over them. His shaft twitched against her forearm and she brought her hand back up along it, stroking him with gentle pressure.
With his mouth and fingers, he played with her nipples and sent delicious waves of tingling pleasure through her nerve endings. She felt a hand at the waistband of her pants and lifted her hips so he could slide them off. He hooked his fingers into her panties and pulled them down with the pants. Now she was naked.
Once upon a time this would have panicked her but Alex’s appreciative gaze as his eyes roamed her body made Maddy feel safe and confident. For the first time in her life, the overriding emotion she felt at being naked before a man’s gaze was desire.
He lost his t-shirt and shorts, joining her in absolute nakedness. He stretched his body against hers, his hard muscles pressing against her soft female flesh. His lips found hers and they kissed deeply as Alex positioned himself above Maddy.
She opened her legs and ran her hands down his strong back to his tight buttocks, helping him push forward into her. With a powerful thrust of his hips he entered her and she cried out at the feeling of being filled with him. Alex grunted his pleasure and delved deeper into her body.
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