“What?” She blinked wide-eyed at me with a frozen expression on her face. “What do you mean…ever?”
“Forget it.” I shook my head. “And if you say anything I’ll hate you forever.”
“Whoa.” She slumped down into her seat. “Either he’s lying to you, or…”
I leaned against her, the coffee shop was mostly abandoned. It used to be my favorite place to go in Seaside when it was rainy out; something about it felt warm and comforting, but right now? It just felt empty without him.
“I like him,” I whispered. “A lot.”
“A lot a lot or just a lot?”
“A lot a lot.” I groaned. “And I walked away from him.”
Mags smacked me on the back of the head. “Why the hell would you do that?”
“Because.” I removed my glasses and shakily put them back on, only to have her frown and pull them off my face then drop them onto the ground and literally crunch them to pieces beneath her boot.
“Oops.”
“MAGS!” I yelled. “THAT WAS MY LAST PAIR!”
“Nope.” She stood and grabbed my arm, pulling me to my feet. “You know my dad’s your eye doctor, and I happen to know he has a pretty empty schedule this morning. We’re going to get you contacts.”
“But—”
“Not for all the time, because I know it’s still hard for you to touch your own eye, but we’re going to do a mini makeover. Who knows? Maybe it will make you brave.”
“I need more than new contacts to make me brave.”
“I know.” Mags grinned smugly. “What are best friends for?”
“You had that same look in your eyes before you pushed me off the boardwalk.”
“Exactly.” She nodded. “So trust me.”
“I trusted you then, and ended up in a tabloid.”
“I don’t see the problem here.” She giggled and shoved me toward the blurry door. “After the contacts, we’re texting him to meet you on the beach. At the bonfire.”
“What bonfire?”
“Keep up!” She cackled, and I had no choice but to either follow or get hit by oncoming traffic.
I KNEW I SHOULDN’T have listened to her.
But listen I did.
All it took was five hours for Mags to lose her mind and mine right along with it because I was actually starting to feel better.
And all she did was crunch my glasses, give me a trendier pair and contacts to go with.
The hardest part was getting the contacts in, but once my eyes stopped watering, I liked what I saw.
And the fact that I could actually see was a huge plus as well.
“You have huge eyes.” Mags wrapped an arm around me as we walked out of one of the shops. “I never knew until now, but it’s a totally good thing, they’re really pretty.”
“Thanks.” I smiled up at her and then rolled my eyes. “You’re waiting for me to say you were right, aren’t you?”
“Eh, I don’t need you to say it, I know in here.” She pounded her chest and then gave me a playful shove. “Now go put on that cute little black sundress and ankle boots.”
“It’s forty degrees,” I pointed out. “And raining.”
“It’s always forty degrees and raining. That’s our winter.” She rolled her eyes. “That’s why we got the sweater to go with.” I hesitated, the bag still in hand. We were at her beach house right next to the Prom, which just so happened to be next to the bonfire we were apparently having later that night.
“Do it.” She clapped her hands.
I slipped the dress over my head, it wasn’t like it was out of my comfort zone to wear a dress, I mean I wore dresses, just not often, so it wasn’t makeover the frumpy girl day. Dresses just seemed inconvenient.
But boots, I loved boots.
Those were an easy buy for me.
And makeup? Eh, I added some lip-gloss and mascara and just went with it.
Finally, finishing my outfit with a black and white striped beanie to cover my unruly wavy brown hair.
“Chic.” She winked. “Okay, now run along, catch your man.”
“You’re not coming?”
“The bonfire is already set up, I told my brother I’d do the dishes for a month if he made the fire extra big and got the giant bag of marshmallows.”
“A MONTH? You hate doing dishes.”
“I crossed my fingers behind my back.” She winked again. “Now go!”
I took a deep breath and walked out the front door, ready to apologize, ready to accept anything, even if it was just friendship.
With high hopes that the dress would at least be a distraction from the norm so he’d be more likely to say yes.
Nerves attacked me when I thought about how I’d lied to my parents about staying the night with Mags.
Well, technically it was true. I was going to stay with her after I hung out with Zane—but if he offered—if he wanted to hang out all night and watch the waves, I wasn’t going to say no. Not to him. Not anymore.
And I think a part of my mom realized that, when I walked out the door that afternoon and told her my plans, she was quiet for a few minutes before finally nodding and telling me to be safe.
Well.
Here went nothing!
Chapter Twenty-Five
Zane
I TOOK A BREAK from her, not because I was still angry or even upset, but because suddenly the music wouldn’t stop coming. I turned to music, as I always did, only this time, it wasn’t my savior.
It was my sanity.
The more I sang, the more grounded I felt.
The more grounded I felt, the more I thought about things from her perspective.
And I felt like a dick.
Because what did I expect? To sweep her off her feet and tell her that despite what millions of people around the world said about me—it wasn’t true.
I wanted her.
Yet, look at any Google search of my name.
And I was at the Grammys with supermodels.
Supermodels who thought a full meal was an ounce of almonds and a bite of cheese.
I was asking a lot for someone who was normal. And after Alec sat me down and basically told me I was inhuman after all the songs I managed to record, I realized, maybe, I wasn’t as normal as I’d like to think I was.
And then when Will said the last song I dropped today was the best track he’d heard from me ever—well, it sunk in.
Regardless of the role I played, Saint or Zane, I was still a musician, a famous musician.
And she was a college student with a fear of ants and glasses that managed to slip off her nose no matter how many times she tried to push them back up.
I checked my watch and sat back against the sand.
There was a bonfire.
A giant ass bag of marshmallows.
But no girl.
And since the girl was the reason I was out there, by myself, when I could get mauled any minute—I was a bit disappointed.
At least I had enough marshmallows to keep some of the anxiety at bay, not all of it, but some.
And I was too emotionally exhausted to be anxious about people touching me, or staring, or wanting a picture.
“Hey.” A nervous voice that sounded a bit too insecure to be Fallon cut through the stress of my day. I quickly turned and nearly pulled a muscle doing a double then triple take.
“That’s a dress,” I said dumbly.
She pulled at the short black dress and shrugged. “These are also legs.”
“They are.” Throat dry, I had to wonder, what was it about this girl that set me on fire, that made me want to take her and refuse to let the world have her. Beautiful women had always surrounded me, thrown themselves at me, and now…now I was struggling to speak.
I was too busy staring at her sexy legs to register the other change, the one that had me jumping to my feet and kicking up sand in an effort to make it over to her. When I reached Fallon, I cupped her face and grinned. “No retirement home
glasses?”
“No.” She grinned. “Thanks in part to Mags purposely crunching my glasses under her giant foot.”
“I sense a story here.”
“You won’t get it,” she fired back with a smirk.
“Hmm, that’s new, I typically get whatever I want…but when it comes to you, lots of doors slam in my face, windows.” Her smile faltered. “Do sliding doors slam?”
“I’m sorry.” She looked down then up again, and her giant brown eyes locked on mine again. “I feel like that’s me in this friendship. Always apologizing.”
“At this point, we’re even.” I offered my hand, mainly to see if she would shake it or get disappointed that I wasn’t kissing her instead.
Slowly she reached out and grasped my hand. The minute we touched, I pulled her into my arms and kissed her hard across the mouth. “I’m sorry too.”
“I like your sorry better.” She whispered against my lips.
“Funny, I was just thinking I’ve really got this apology thing nailed down, yeah?”
“You’re super good at it.” She wrapped her arms around my neck, standing up on her tiptoes to angle her head differently. “Amazing.”
“I know.”
“Humble.”
“Very.”
“Zane?”
We broke apart. “Yeah?”
“Why are you sorry?”
“For not getting it.” I pulled back more and kissed her hands. “But first, we mallow.”
She burst out laughing. “We mallow, huh?”
“It’s the only way to stay friends, Fallon. And you do want to be my friend. Don’t you?” I grinned wickedly. “Because I’m a really good friend.”
“Stop saying friend.”
“Friend, friend, friend.” I chanted and tossed her a marshmallow. “Hey, I have a thought…” She caught the marshmallow in midair and stuffed the whole thing in her mouth. I groaned. “Just kidding, no thoughts, no thoughts at all, can you do that again?”
She frowned, then picked up the marshmallow and slowly licked the outside.
My mouth dropped open.
She bit into it and then licked again.
I quickly looked around, like she was doing something illegal instead of molesting the marshmallow and making it painfully hard to keep my hands off of her. I suddenly cursed the fact that I was wearing tight jeans because I was ready to explode.
From her licking a marshmallow.
Great, I’d be an awesome sexual partner.
Are you there yet? Because it’s been five seconds and I can’t keep myself from combusting.
Just fantastic.
“This feels dirty.” She chomped the rest of the marshmallow and slowly licked each finger.
“Eh, I would just go with it,” I encouraged in a hoarse voice. “Can you lick your fingers slower? I want to memorize this moment.”
“No!” She giggled. “You’re being weird, and I’m not taking advantage of a third marshmallow, poor thing.”
“Poor me,” I grumbled. “I had to watch.”
She tossed one at my head.
I popped it in my mouth then held the bag over the fire.
“What are you doing!” She jumped to her feet.
“Volunteering as tribute, of course.”
“Zane!” She reached for the bag, but I pulled it back out of her reach. “You’re being crazy, you need them.”
“What if I need you more?”
“Don’t harm any mallows.”
“Ahh, say it again.”
“Don’t harm any—”
“The other part.”
“Mallows.” She grumbled, crossing her arms.
“If I burn them, you have to lick me, that’s how this game works right? I mean, if you have no object to lick, you’ll resort to the closest tasting thing.” I snapped my fingers and then grabbed a marshmallow and rubbed it down my chest. “See? I’m like a mallow, just bigger. Friendlier. Manlier.” I captured her in my gaze. “Harder.”
Her eyes heated.
“Much harder.”
She pressed her hand against her forehead and laughed softly. “You’re impossible to say no to on even your worse days.”
“And yet you do. How do you think that makes me feel?” I grinned wolfishly then slowly made my way around the fire. “Now, lick.”
Her breath hitched. “Licking leads to more licking.”
“Thank God.” My smile grew.
“And…”
“What? Are you nervous? Isn’t that my line?”
“Zane…”
“Rules are rules, Fallon.” I pulled off her beanie and tossed it in the sand. “And since I’m the new volunteer and the marshmallows are out of reach…” I shrugged. “You better get to work.”
“It’s not work.”
“It better not be.”
Eyes wide, she shocked the hell out of me by reaching for the front of my jeans and tugging me toward her with a jerk. “It’s pleasure.”
Muscles tense, I stopped breathing the minute her fingers grazed my flexed stomach, her cold knuckles barely connecting with my skin before she pulled back and slowly sunk down to her knees.
“Um, Fallon.” Voice uncertain I wasn’t sure if I should be terrified that her hands were swiftly moving to the front of my jeans or relieved. I’d been aching for her for weeks.
But we were in public.
And it was just starting to get dark.
“Hmm?” She blinked up at me with wide innocent, eyes. “I’m just taking orders.”
“Oh?” Was that my voice? The insecure thing escaping between my lips as her fingers fumbled across the metal button of my jeans, and then with a grin, she winked.
I froze.
“Gotcha.” She burst out laughing. “You should have seen your face!”
“THE HELL!” I roared lunging for her and pinning her to the sand. “That wasn’t very nice.”
“I never told you I was nice.”
“What did I do to deserve such teasing?”
“Ants.” She shrugged, shoving my hair away from my forehead as I crawled up her body and trapped her arms on the ground.
“Struggling just makes me want to keep you here longer. Resistance is futile.” I brushed a kiss against her neck then licked. “Mmm, you taste good.”
“Zane!” She squirmed beneath me. I ignored her little yelps of protest as I continued kissing down her neck. “You…” Her breath came out in a little gasp. “Have a gift.”
“Oh?” Another hot kiss just below her ear, why did she taste like cotton candy all the damn time?
“Kissing.” She blurted. “It’s not fair. Suck at something.”
“Would that make you feel better?” I pulled back. “Me sucking?”
Her eyes narrowed. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
With a wicked grin, I danced my fingertips across her chest then pulled some of the fabric of her dress aside, lowering my lips to her breast.
“So. Not. Appropriate.” She gasped each word.
“I was just following orders,” I said innocently, covering her and trying like hell to ignore the desire screaming through me. Like waves of heat, my blood boiled, surged, demanded I do something about that look on her face, the way that her lips curved into a sensual smile, I wanted it all.
All of her.
Us together.
“Zane?”
“What?” Our eyes locked.
“Take me home.”
It was like having ice water thrown on my body, I didn’t know what to say, was that it? She wanted to go home? After everything? The apologies, the understanding? How much hell could she put me through?
“Your home.” She clarified, wrapping her arms around my neck. “Please?”
“Kinda homeless at the moment.” I joked.
“Then take me where you feel at home.”
Our foreheads touched. “I’m looking at it.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Fallon
MY EYES FILLED WITH tears.
Four weeks.
It took four weeks for Zane Andrews to own me.
Then again, he’d had me with the first marshmallow, with the first arrogant smirk as he walked around the house completely naked, except for a weird scarf that wrapped around his neck.
God help me, I might not even make it to week five without asking if I could carry his firstborn.
At nineteen.
Was it obsession? Or something more.
Something deeper.
He stood and held out his hand.
I took it.
I realized then, I would always take it, wouldn’t I?
He kicked sand onto the fire, grabbed the rest of the marshmallows, and kissed me on the forehead as we walked in silence down the boardwalk.
My heart thumped against my chest in hammer-like fashion, only to pick up the minute Zane held open the door to The Seaside Resort.
Where I worked.
He didn’t go to the front desk.
Then again, you had to be an actual member to stay at the Resort, so I was more than a little confused as we made our way to the top floor.
My breathing went into overdrive.
It was night.
We were at a hotel.
Together.
Hands suddenly clammy, I tried to at least wipe the one that wasn’t touching him on my dress, but it did nothing to alleviate the nervousness as we finally rounded the corner and stopped in front of the penthouse suite.
It was over sixteen hundred square feet with floor-to-ceiling windows facing the ocean.
And it was breath taking.
“So either, you paid someone off, or stole a key card?”
Zane laughed. “Would you believe me if I told you this is where I’ve been staying the past few days? We’ve been recording so late into the night that I finally just grabbed a room for me and my agent.”
“You’re agent?” This was the first I was hearing about the agent being here. Then again, I’d been ignoring him for a week, or he’d been ignoring me.
My stomach clenched.
Did that mean he was almost done recording?
Going home.
I tried to keep my body language from revealing my feelings, but I was wound up too tight to do anything except offer him a curious smile, one he didn’t even acknowledge since he was looking out at the ocean, hands in pockets.
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