Page 56 of His Girl Hollywood

Arlene wanted to feel that way. To let every naysayer or narrow-minded remark roll right off her back. To know that her partner would be there with her every step of the way. Through the highs and lows of this ridiculous business that treated you like a genius one day and chopped liver the next for reasons that seemed completely arbitrary.

“What are they doing out here?” Don asked. It startled her, his uncanny ability to seemingly read her mind.

“Alice and Oscar?” He nodded. “Same as us, I suppose. Having a night out where they can be alone in a crowded room. Where no one begrudges their mere existence. Where they can be themselves and not worry who’s watching them.” Her words set Don on edge. She studied him as he clenched his jaw tightly and tugged at his tie, as if it was suddenly suffocating. There was a stain on it now. One that hadn’t been there before she’d gone to the powder room. Was it Eleanor’s lipstick? To hell with it. She needed to know what was going on, and if he wasn’t going to tell her, shewould ask. “Though it looked like maybe you weren’t so ‘alone’ out here after all.”

He coughed and had the decency to look abashed. “You saw that then?”

She nodded. “Mm-hmmm.” She stayed calm, ever the pragmatist. Her heart could be breaking and her face would still remain a serene mask. Joan called it her superpower. But right now, she wished she wasn’t so damnably even-keeled.

“It wasn’t what it looked like.”

“Then what was it exactly?” Her voice held nothing accusatory. She merely asked him for the truth.

“I can’t tell you.”

She dropped his hand and put space between them. She scoffed. “You can’t expect me to accept that, can you?”

He grabbed her hands and pulled them to his chest. Against her better judgment, she let him. “Please, Lena. I promise it was me helping an old friend. Nothing more. I need you to believe me. But I can’t explain right now. It’s too risky.”

He seemed truly, deeply frightened now. She’d never seen him this way. Even when his father had been in one of his moods. That stark look of urgency in his eyes was so genuine that she couldn’t help but believe him.

“Are you in danger?” She leaned close and took in every inch of him. This boy she’d once loved, now a man. A man she could love more deeply, more wholly, with all the maturity and knowledge of the world that she’d gained since she’d put him on a train that had carried away a piece of her heart.

She noted the appearance of two lines between his eyebrows. Since he was a boy, that had been a sign that he was anxious about something. He nodded, and she gulped at the grave look on his face. “I am in danger…”

“Oh, Don.” She pressed her head to his chest, wanting to be his shield.

“Of getting carried away by the influence of the moonlight.” He had not just done that. Used a terrible line on her when she was afraid something was deeply wrong? She lifted her head and looked at him, irritated in the extreme.

“If I wrote that in a script, Harry would make me cut it for being too on the nose.”

“Not if I delivered it right.” He winked at her and brushed a kiss to her cheek. Her body betrayed her and leaned in to the touch of his lips against her skin. Pressing his cheek to hers, he held her tight and whispered in her ear. “Please understand that when I can tell you more, I will. The situation is not ideal. That’s all I can say. But I promise you that no harm will come to you. I care for you too much for that.”

Her heart raced at the words. It wasn’tI love you. But it was something. Did he care for her? Or was it merely a line? As empty and tawdry as the joke about falling for her? Something he tossed off as easily as a two-step.

She bit her lip, throwing her head back and looking up at the night sky. Itwaslate and many of the lights in the distance along the shore had gone out, throwing the stars into even starker relief against the night sky. Another line fromRomeo and Julietcame to mind: “I defy you, stars.” She chuckled, a sad, humorless laugh. Look how that worked out for Romeo.

She had a choice. She could believe Don. Take him at his word and continue with…whatever this was. Love? Dare she let herself believe that possible?

Or she could cut her losses now, refuse to let him hurt her again. She was sure her heart still had cracks in it from the first time. But it was those cracks that made her want to try, to believe that he wasas good a man as she’d always thought he was. That made her want to believe he’d finally found his way back to her.

“Do you trust me?” he asked.

She took a breath, met his eyes, and said, “Yes.” A broad smile spread across his face, brighter even than the moon. She reached forward and caressed the dimple that divided the scar on his cheek into two parts. He placed his hand over hers and drew her to him with the other, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her forward until there was no air between them. He kissed her gently and tenderly, his lips grazing hers as lightly as a summer breeze. She deepened it, moving her hand behind his head and tangling her fingers in his dark hair. She pulled him down toward her to get better purchase on his mouth and kissed him until she saw stars.

Apparently, he’d had a similar experience because when she broke away, he looked vaguely stunned, absentmindedly rubbing at his jaw where she’d grazed him with her teeth.

She giggled, a little hysterical after the ricochet of emotions she’d experienced. The late hour weighed on her. “What time is it, anyway?” She felt dazed.

He looked at this watch. “Good God, it’s two thirty in the morning. I didn’t realize we’d been here that long.”

No wonder he wanted to go home. The hours had slipped away while they’d tried their hands at the different tables, sipped drinks at the bar, and danced to the band. It scared her how easy it was to not notice time passing when she was with him. She looked up at him from under her eyelashes, feeling a bit ridiculous as she played at giving him her come-hither look. “Take me home?”

As an answer, he kissed her full on the mouth, sucking her bottom lip between his teeth until a little moan of pleasure escaped from her unbidden. He curled his arm around her bare arms, still dotted with goose bumps in the cold sea air, and steered her towardthe bow of the ship, where the water taxi waited to take guests back to shore.

***

Once they were back at the pier, they made their way to the street to find a taxi. After three cabs drove past them without even slowing down, Don finally managed to flag one. He opened the door and extended his hand, helping her climb into the back seat as she maneuvered the long, glittering skirt of her dress, careful not to drag it in the street. He tucked the hem of the skirt onto the seat beside her and kissed her on the cheek. “Get home safe, my love.”