against the horizon, and a flock of gulls cried overhead.
Georgie stood alone near the water’s edge, the wind whipping her dark hair. The same purple bikini bottom she’d worn in Mexico clung to her bottom, and her skimpy white T-shirt ended well above her waist. When had she grown so beautiful? He wanted to drag her into the house, pull off that little purple bikini bottom, and bury himself inside her.
She spotted him, but she didn’t exactly throw her arms around him as he came up next to her. He missed her oversize enthusiasm more than he could ever have imagined. “Is your heart leaping at the sight of me,” he said, “or have you wised up?”
“Some mild skittering. Nothing I can’t handle.”
“Glad to hear it.” But he wasn’t glad. He wanted her to laugh and kiss him. “Let’s go for a walk.” He grabbed her hand before she could protest.
Famous faces were a dime a dozen on this stretch of sand, and no one did more than nod as they passed. One of the best parts of his relationship with Georgie was never feeling as if he needed to make conversation, but today that ease had disappeared. “Guess who’s taking cake-decorating lessons?”
“No idea.”
He told her about Chaz and Rory but didn’t mention the real reason for Rory’s visit. He stalled a little longer by going after a Frisbee that had gotten away from a couple of kids. When he returned, Georgie was sitting in the sand, her arms clasped around her knees.
He sank next to her and watched the whitecapped waves boom toward the shore. “It’s going to storm. Let’s head over to the Chart House for lunch.”
She gripped her knees tighter. “I don’t think I can stomach a cozy meal with the man who fed me to the wolves.”
He dug his heels into the sand. “I’ll take that as a positive sign that you’ve wised up about me, and this craziness is behind us.”
She snagged a strand of her hair. “Unfortunately, what they say is true. There’s a thin line between love and hate.”
Something unpleasant twisted in the pit of his stomach. “You don’t hate me, Scoot. You’ve just lost what little respect you’d started to develop.” He braced an elbow on his knee and studied the dark clouds skidding across the sky. “We made small-screen magic when you couldn’t stand me. No reason we can’t transfer that to the big screen.”
She tilted her head toward him, her funny green eyes somber. “The deadline’s passed. Jade has Helene locked up now.”
He picked up a beach stone and rubbed it between his fingers. “She’s not doing it.”
“Oh? And why’s that?”
He couldn’t postpone this any longer. “Because she was never under consideration.”
Georgie sat up straighter. He pitched the stone into the waves. “I lied to you.”
She curled her hands into fists.
He couldn’t look at her. “I had all kinds of good reasons at the time.”
Her mouth twisted bitterly. “You really are a bastard, aren’t you?”
“Exactly! I told you I was!”
Flying sand stung his bare calves as she jumped up. He shot to his feet and went after her. “Think about it, Georgie. Now that I’ve shown my true colors, nothing is standing in your way. The part is yours, and after what I’ve done, you can take it without worrying about any messy emotional crap getting in your way. You should be glad I lied.”
Even as he spoke, he didn’t believe a word of it. And neither did she. “I’m going in.” She picked up her stride.
He matched her steps. “I’m…pretty sure that guy over there has a camera. We need to make out first.”
“Make out with yourself.” Her heels kicked up pinwheels of sand. He slid his arm around her shoulder, forcing her to a slower pace.
He might as well have been hugging a cactus.
The picture would get made without her. They’d find another actress, maybe not as good, but adequate. Except everyone wanted Georgie, and his job as a producer was to make the impossible happen. He couldn’t let any of them-Rory, Hank, the lowliest crew member-see that he wasn’t up to that job.
They reached the house as a crack of lightning broke over the surf. He snagged her wrist, pulling her to a stop just as she was about to climb up to the deck. “Georgie…” He had trouble getting enough air into his lungs. “I’m not quite sure how to tell you this…”
The wind blew another lock of hair over her face. She pushed it back and cocked her head. He released her wrist. “I’ve…missed you these past few weeks. More than I ever thought.” Acid churned in his stomach as she continued to stand there, patiently waiting. “Help me out here.”
“I don’t know what you’re trying to say.”
“That…I didn’t realize how much I’d gotten used to being with you until you left. The two of us…I thought it was just a great friendship, but-I don’t know how to say this.” An awning cracked in the wind. “I might be…falling for you.”
She stared at him.
“Ironic, isn’t it. Just when you’ve gotten over me, now here I am…wishing you hadn’t.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“That lie about Jade. There was something a little desperate about it, right? I guess I didn’t want to…admit what I was really feeling.”
“What are you really feeling, Bram? You’re going to have to spell it out because I’m not getting it.”
“You know what I’m saying.”
Apparently she’d had enough of his hedging because she turned away and headed up the short flight of stairs.
“It started right here, you know,” he called after her. “Not fifteen or sixteen years ago during
“It’s sex.”
He felt a flash of anger. “Sure, it’s sex, but that’s not all. We don’t have to put on false faces for each other. We…understand each other.” He rushed on, forcing out the next part even as he hated himself for what he was about to say. “I’ve even been thinking-Just thinking. Your idea about”-a giant fist squeezed his chest-“about having a baby.” She made a soft, indecipherable sound. He plowed on. “I’m a long way from saying let’s go for it. I’m just saying that…Just that I’m ready to at least talk about it.”
She was swallowing his face with her eyes, and he wanted to yell at her, to tell her he was a liar and not to be so damned gullible. Instead, he set aside whatever shreds of honor he had left and went for the big fucking finish. “I’m…falling in love with you, Georgie. For real.”
She pressed her fingertips to her lips. A boom of thunder shook the deck. “For real?” she whispered.
Pebble-sharp raindrops stung his face, and he nodded.
She didn’t do anything. She simply stood there. And then she said his name. “Bram…” Opening her arms, she threw herself at him. She wrapped herself around his chest, slid her legs between his, and he wanted to howl at the harm he’d done…right until the moment she jerked up her knee and slammed him in the nuts. Through his agonizing wheeze of pain, he heard two words.
“You bastard.”
The roar of the wind…The stomp of bare feet across the deck…The slam of the door as she disappeared inside…And the sound of his own wrenching gasps. He clutched the edge of a stone and tried not to pass out. The door opened again and his car keys flew by, over the deck rail and into the sand.
The storm broke.
Georgie stood inside the locked door, clutching herself to keep her insides from boiling through her skin. The rain slashed at the windows, slashed at her. Bram hadn’t changed. He was a user, as
