Captivated by You (6 page)

“There’s nothing to fix.”

“The hell there isn’t.” Mark stood up and clutched the phone so tight it should’ve snapped in two. “I just spent the last hour in the arms of the perfect woman for me, and I’m not about to see it get ruined because of some story running in the tabloids.”

“Well, maybe you should’ve thought of the repercussions of your actions
before
climbing into bed with her.”

Mark clenched his jaw. “You need to come up with a suitable story to make the Cabo thing look false, or outdated, or whatever. I don’t care what the fuck you do, but get together with Pam to find a way to make it go away.”

“Are you sure you want me to tell your publicist about this? She worked hard on this deal.” Gary hesitated, and Mark could practically feel his frustration through the phone. “Hell, we all worked a long time to come up with this one. Sylvia’s PR firm won’t be happy with us, either.”

Of course they wouldn’t. She’d hoped to use him to launch herself to fame. Though he hadn’t minded before, he wasn’t about to lose Lacey over a bogus relationship. They’d have to come up with a new plan that didn’t include him. “She can rebound with another hot star. They can say we were dating for a few months, but broke up recently. She can still get attention out of the deal. But word can’t get out we’re together, or I’ll lose—”

“Lose what, Mark?”

Mark froze; dread forming a hard knot in his stomach at the sound of Lacey’s voice. He turned around slowly, even though he knew he hadn’t imagined the soft words, or the accusation behind them. He hung up on Gary without saying another word, his eyes locked on Lacey’s pale face. She’d put on some sweats and a tank top, and wrapped her arms around her stomach. Pressing her lips tight together, she eyed him from across the room.

The way she was looking at him hurt more than anything she could say and made him feel ill. That look was what he had been trying to avoid. That look was why he should never have let things go as far as they had, despite his feelings for her. Or maybe
because
of his feelings for her.

“It’s not what you think,” Mark said. How pathetic did those simple words sound coming out of his lips? Guilt tinged his words, making his excuse sound lame and ineffective. “I can explain everything.”

She shook her head. “I don’t want your explanations. I saw you on TV, with that woman’s arms around your neck, your lips on hers. How dare you tell me you’re single when you’re not? I can’t believe you lied to me.”

“I’m not with her. It’s all a publicity stunt.” He held his hands out and approached her. “My PR firm likes to keep the paparazzi buzzing with news about me, so if I’m boring for too long, they create stories to make me more interesting. It’s all an attempt to drum up interest in the upcoming movie release.”

“Don’t come another step closer to me.” She glowered at him, waiting for him to stop approaching her. “I heard you talking to your agent about her. About how you had to hide the relationship from me.”

“The fake relationship.” His heart hurt with the knowledge that he was about to lose her, when he’d just figured out how much she meant to him. “It’s all fake, like a role I was playing. It didn’t mean anything. She doesn’t mean anything.”

She shook her head, her eyes filled with tears. “I’m not listening to another word. It’s your job to lie well enough to make people believe you. Why would I believe a single word that comes out of your mouth? I should have known it was all a lie.”

“I’m not lying,” he said. His voice cracked on the last word, and he swallowed past his throbbing throat. “I wouldn’t do something so horrible to you.”

“But you did. You’ve turned me into the type of person I hate most.” She lifted her chin, looking down her nose at him. “You had sex with me when you knew you were taken by someone else. I’ve been cheated on enough to know how it feels, and I would never knowingly hurt another person like that. Not after what Joe did to me.”

“Damn it, I know that. She’s not my girlfriend,” he snapped. His whole world was about to crumble at his feet, a world he never thought he could’ve ever had, and he couldn’t do a damn thing to stop it. “She’s one of the women in my life I mentioned who want to use my success to further their career. Nothing more.”

“I saw the two of you together on the beach,” she cried out, her face turning red. After taking a deep breath, she continued on in a calmer manner, “I saw you kissing her. There’s no faking that.”

“It was all for the cameras.”

“Did you play a role tonight? The hero comes back to his small town, looking to screw the girl who used to be so obviously in love with him? I was okay with our arrangement, really. But not this.”

Love? She loved him? “With you, there has never been, nor will there ever be, a need to act. Everything I said and did. I would never lie to you.”

His voice broke on the last word, sounding pathetic. He might be able to say all the lines in his movies without breaking, but this wasn’t just a role. This was real life, and he was about to lose the best thing he’d ever known. What was he doing? Why had he gone and selfishly taken advantage of the situation? Taken advantage of her?

“You’re right. There won’t be a time you’ll need to act around me ever again.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “After tomorrow, I’m never going to see you again. Thanks for the night of sex—now leave me the hell alone.”

He stumbled after her, his heart breaking in two. He grabbed a hold of her arm, stopping her retreat. “You have to believe me. I’m not seeing Sylvia. I haven’t been seeing anyone for years.”

“Yeah, I know. You just sleep with them.” She shook free of his hold, her eyes shining with unshed tears. Grabbing her keys off the table, she unclasped the keychain he gave her and threw it in the fireplace. For a second, they both stood there watching the memento burn. She clenched her fists and turned back to him. “I’m finally done with you. Now, you’re free to go back to your girlfriend—fake or real.”

He ripped his attention from the last sign of her affection for him, burning into ashes in the fire. There would be time to grieve later—but that time was not now. “You can burn everything I’ve ever given you, but it won’t change a damn thing. I don’t want to be with her. I don’t want to be with anyone except you. All this time, and I only want you.”

“I don’t believe you.”

He growled low in his throat, red tinting his vision. How could he make her see that it was her he wanted? Her, and no one else? “I’m yours, Lacey. Hell, I’ve always been yours. I didn’t want to be with anyone until the second I saw you tonight.” He shoved his hands into his pockets because it was the only way he’d be able to stop himself from touching her. “Something led me here tonight, led me to you. I don’t know if it was fate, or luck. But now that I’m here, now that we’ve reconnected, it’s all I want. I don’t want to lose you.”

“I’ve been in this town the whole time. You didn’t need to search for me. All you needed to do was come home,” she snapped. “You didn’t want to find me, but now I’m supposed to believe you can’t let go of me? That you want me to stay with you?”

He dragged a hand through his hair. “When you say it like that, of course it doesn’t make any sense. Nothing that’s happened since I walked through that door makes any sense. Neither does love.”

“Love?” Her eyes went wide, and she yanked free. She shoved his shoulders hard, and he stumbled backward. “Now you’re taking this too far. You don’t love me. How
dare
you stoop so low? Are you trying to play on my emotions so I’ll go easy on you? If so, Hollywood really has changed you. I don’t even know you anymore.”

He ran his hands down his face and let out a harsh breath. “I don’t have another word for it. I saw you, and I knew nothing would be the same again. All these years, you’ve never been far from my mind. Never. And I never wanted to hurt you. It’s the last thing I would ever want to do. Eve told me how you were living in a shell ever since Joe. How you wouldn’t let anyone close to you—but you let me in. That has to be for a reason. It can’t mean nothing.”

“Yeah, well, a lot of good that did for me. I should’ve slammed the door shut in your face.” She swiped a tear away, and his heart twisted. He’d made her cry. “I’m going to my room. I want you to call the tow truck first thing in the morning, and then I want you the hell out of this house.”

She headed up the stairs, her back straight and her head high. If not for the way she gripped the banister, her knuckles white from the force, he wouldn’t have guessed she was upset at all. He strode to the bottom of the stairs and watched her walk away from him. Watched her leave him.

He had to try at least one more time. Had to make her see he wasn’t with Sylvia, and his heart belonged to her alone. “I do love you. I don’t have a doubt in my mind. I might be an actor that is good at faking things, and therefore an asshole in your eyes, but I know what I feel. And I know you care about me, too. I know you’re scared to believe me, but I’m telling the truth. I’m not with her. I want to be with you.”

She stopped at the top of the stairs. “Give me one good reason to trust you.”

“Have I ever lied to you before?”

“Yes.” She turned around and met his eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks. “You told me you would write to me, and you never did.”

And just like that, his last shred of hope unraveled and fell to the floor. He couldn’t say anything to that. Nothing that would change her mind. “I’m sorry,” he said, knowing he’d lost. Knowing he had already broken her trust. “I really am.”

She bit her lip. “It doesn’t change anything.”

“What can I do to prove myself? Please. Tell me what I can do.”

“Short of broadcasting it on national television? Not a damn thing.”

He shook his head. He couldn’t do that. “I can’t say it was a publicity stunt. They’d eat both of us alive, and both of our PR firms would flip.”

“We couldn’t have anything so horrible happen, now could we?” she asked softly, her hands rolled into fists. “Just go away, and go back to Hollywood where you belong, Mark. You sure as hell don’t belong here anymore.”

His shoulders drooped as he helplessly watched her stalk down the hallway and into her room. The echo of the door slamming behind her shook him out of his regret and pain. Her words couldn’t be truer. He lived in a world where no one ever told the truth, and every move was calculated and designed for the best possible publicity. The only time he’d ever broken from tradition and did something for the sheer pleasure of it was tonight, in Lacey’s arms. He hadn’t felt so alive in years. Eight long, long years. And now he was supposed to just let her walk away? Now he should go back to living the life of a zombie, as good as dead, with nothing inside of him but schedules, appearances, and movie dates?

He couldn’t. Wouldn’t.

Chapter Six

Lacey leaned against the door, closed her eyes and listened to the sound of her heart hammering in her ears. At least it drowned out the small voice whispering, “He’s telling the truth. Don’t screw this up now.” But when she’d seen him on TV, making out with a perfect blonde, something inside her broke. Some small part of her had been hoping when he returned to bed he’d tell her he loved her, or wanted to try to make their relationship into something real.

Something more than the fling it was.

Foolish? Yes. But she couldn’t deny she would’ve been happy to hear him say the words. But instead, she got a cold, hard dose of reality thrown in her face. It was more effective than a bucket of ice water could have been in reminding her how unrealistic her dreams were. Even if they did become a couple, how long until he traded her in for a better, prettier, more famous person? Why would he tie himself down to one boring schoolteacher from Colorado, no matter how close they had been in the past?

When he dared to mention love to her, she wanted to slam her hands over her ears and shut him out before he broke what little part of her heart she still owned. She’d been sure it couldn’t fracture more than it already had, but he’d proven her wrong. Apparently, when it came to Mark, she had plenty of heart to go around. Why had he said he loved her? Why did he bother to try and convince her of his love, when he so obviously wasn’t looking to stay in her life?

Even if he told her the truth about being single, he would still have to return to California. He would still return to the parties, booze, and women. How long would it be before he was naked in someone else’s bed? Hours? Weeks? Months? No, she wasn’t going to put herself through the heartache.

The doorknob jiggled behind her and she jumped forward in surprise. Reaching out, she fumbled with the lock in an attempt to latch it before he could open the door. But it was too late. Mark shoved through the narrow opening, his jaw hard and his eyes intent on her. She backed away from him, her heart racing. She knew that look all too well. It was the same one he would get when the rival football team came to town. But this was no game, and Lacey was nobody’s prize.

“I told you to leave me alone,” she said, thankful her voice had come out steady. “I’m done talking to you.”

He shut the door behind him. “Well,
I’m
not done talking. If you don’t want to say another word, then don’t. But I’ll talk anyway. I’ve never been one to give up easily, and I’m not about to do so now.”

He walked toward her, slow and steady, but she backed up more. When her legs hit the bed, she sank down on it and clutched the bedspread in her fists. Stubbornly, she refused to say anything.

He stopped when he reached the bed, his feet squared off with hers. “I do love you. I’m even willing to wait until you feel the same about me.”

She rolled her eyes. “Gee, how thoughtful of you.”

“I don’t think it will take very long, because no one can hide their feelings from me. I’m like a human lie detector, and I know you have feelings for me.” She opened her mouth to deny feeling anything but anger for him, but he continued on. “I also know
you
know I wouldn’t sleep with you if I was with someone else. You know I’m telling the truth, but you won’t let yourself believe me. You know what I think? I think you’re punishing me for not writing to you like I said I would. Punishing the stupid boy I was, instead of accepting me here and now.”