The Stars Trilogy (62 page)

“Miss Celine...”

“Yes, Cruz?”

“Sometimes you have to read slower.”

“Huh?”

“The pages. Sometimes you need to read slower and understand the words for their deeper meanings before you proceed to the next page. Maybe you’re missing some important details in your eagerness to reach the happy ending.”

Cruz tipped his head at her and boarded the sedan again.

She was deeply puzzled by Cruz’ words.

Pretty deep for a man of action.

Chapter Twenty-six

“I heard you broke up with Naiomi. Okay, your love life is an open book, sort of, so I see it on TV and the internet all the time. Are you okay? I know that what the tabloids say are often lies. I don’t believe them. Just hang in there. Know that in your times of sorrow, somebody here is wishing upon stars every night for your happiness. I love you, Dare.

HUGS. HUGS. HUGS.”

ROCKY BARGED INTO THE LIVING ROOM. Cruz  was right behind him.

“Dare!”

Dare lowered the volume of the TV. “What?”

“Are you watching cartoons?” Rocky observed, his eyes on the giant flat TV screen.

“It’s Mulan,” he replied irritably.

“Mulan...” Cruz said with a smirk. “I was wondering what it was for. Didn’t know you were into such films.”

“Dare, something happened!” Rocky said.

“What...?” He stood up from the sofa to face them.

“Jordan called me just now. Celine was taken to the hospital this morning.”

“What?! Why?”

“She suddenly came down with very high fever and had convulsions.”

His heart lurched so hard in his chest he felt like having a cardiac arrest. “Let’s go!”

Celine was diagnosed with Malaria, a disease she most likely got from the jungle.

Dare was just so grateful that the symptoms appeared early so the parasites weren’t able to cause severe damage to her internal organs. Malaria was a killer disease that had no known vaccine yet. Once bitten by the Malaria-carrying mosquito which proliferated in the tropical jungles, the parasites would incubate within the bloodstream and manifest symptoms within a week of infection. God, If they had stayed longer in the jungle, he would have lost Celine. It did not bear thinking. He would not know what to do then.

Celine was sleeping now and he had not left her side even for a minute. He braved the presence of her father and brother who were both giving him the hostile look reserved for their mortal enemies. It was ridiculous. Granted that he took Celine’s virginity, she was hardly a minor. Whatever happened between them was consensual.This was the twenty-first century, not the Victorian era!

Since their rescue, he had not exchanged any decent conversation with Celine’s family. They had left Thailand right away, depriving them of any opportunity to get to know each other. It was obvious that the Lavegas were angry at him that Celine was with him in his plane when it crashed. They probably blamed him for putting Celine in grave jeopardy. They were right to feel that way, too. He’d already castigated himself a thousand times for his recklessness but it was over and done with. They survived and that was what mattered most in the grand scheme of things.

He was thankful Mrs. Lavega was at least civil to him and was not openly visually murdering him.

“Dare...” Mrs. Lavega addressed him. They were both sitting on the sofa while Mr. Lavega and Jordan occupied another sofa on the other side of the suite.

“Yes, Ma’am?” he responded respectfully.

“How...how did Celine end up with you  in Thailand?”

“I suppose Rocky did not tell you?”

She shook her head. “He said he’d wait for Celine to tell us. Well, she can’t talk right now so if you can enlighten us...”

“She was working as Ben’s secretary. Ben...you probably met him?”

“Yes, Mr. Speedman, Celine’s neighbor in LA.”

“That’s him. Ben was working on a script for me and Celine came with Ben to a meeting at my house one time. Ben lent her to me as my temporary secretary.”

“Secretary?!” Jordan exclaimed and cursed under his breath. “She can’t even take decent notes!”

“I assure you, she’s quite great at taking notes,” he defended Celine.

“Really? I just bet she is,” Jordan replied sarcastically.

He was puzzled by the mockery. Was Jordan pissed that Celine was working for him as a lowly secretary when her baby sister was an heiress?

“And then?” Mrs. Lavega prodded.

“Celine has been a great help, so far. I couldn’t ask for a better secretary. I also hired her friend Rocky to be one of my unit directors. You see, I’m producing and directing a movie and we were there looking for possible locations for the shoots and to audition actors from Asia. We were having an aerial inspection of Thailand’s terrain when the engine of my plane malfunctioned.”

“Ahh,” Mrs. Lavega said, nodding repeatedly and glanced at her husband who remained silent and was now sporting a more antagonistic expression.

When Mr. Lavega finally spoke to him, it was not to his liking. “You were up there for a week...”

He merely nodded.

“Did you touch her?”

“For God’s sake, Dad... I am twenty-five years old... not a minor. You’re embarrassing me…!”

They all jumped in surprise when Celine suddenly spoke.

Unanimously, they rushed to her side.

Dare moved back a bit to let Celine’s family  have a moment with her first. This was the first time she’d spoken coherently since she’d been brought from the ICU last night. They had all sat through the other night waiting for her to get past her high fever that didn’t subside until this morning. They only heaved a collective sigh of relief when the doctors attending to her proclaimed her out of danger.

“Darling, are you alright?” Mrs. Lavega anxiously asked her daughter while holding her hand.

“Yes, Mom...I’m fine...What happened?”

“You contracted, Malaria! My goodness, I didn’t know it’s that life-threatening! Who still gets Malaria nowadays?”

“Me, obviously,” Celine said with a wince and then smiled at her mother. She looked at her father. “Hey Dad. Don’t look so morose. Ruins your Clark Gable look.”

Mr. Lavega’s face was soft now, his eyes full of concern. “Only you can joke at a time like this, Celine.”

“Come on, Dad, me dying of Malaria? I survived a plane crash, for crying out loud.”

“Speaking of that plane crash, I will ask you this now before you attempt to croak on us again. What in hell were you doing working for him?” came Jordan’s stern voice.

“Oh, I see now that I’m alive again, you’re going to finally interrogate me, Jordy,” Celine responded teasingly to her brother. “Will you relax for a bit? Aren’t you happy you still have me around to cheer you up when you’re being a grouch? You’re thirty-three going on sixty, you know.”

Jordan made an exasperated sound and sighed. He shook his head. “You’re not getting away with this,” he said but lost the bite in his voice.

Dare’s throat constricted in a mixture of anxiety and longing when her eyes finally rested on him.

She smiled that sweet smile that he had missed the past few days. “Hi, boss.”

He smiled back, controlling the urge to take her in his arms. “Feeling better?”

“Uh-huh. Thought you left already.”

“Why would I do that? We’re leaving for LA together.”

There was a collective gasp of surprise in the room.

Then all at once, the Lavega death squad descended on him.

“You can’t be serious! Over my dead body!” Teddy Lavega sure looked ready to kill and die for his princess.

Dare swallowed. “We don’t have to come to that, Sir.” He tried to sound as respectful as he could.

“Who the hell do you think you are?!” This, from Jordan. “That is my only sister, not one of your groupies!”

She can certainly beat three dozens of my most rabid groupies when it comes to fanaticism,
he was tempted to respond. But he didn’t want to engage Jordan in a fight. He’d rather be on amicable terms with Celine’s brother. After all, he’d be banging his little sister a lot in the next months and until God knows when. He cleared his throat. “Celine and I...we have an understanding.”

Jordan looked at Celine. “Is that right?”

Celine looked at him, her face poker cool. “Do we now?”

Dare swallowed. “We certainly do.”

She touched her temple. “I had a high fever. I forgot. Let me remember...our understanding...”

He glared at her. The little witch was getting back at him for their last serious conversation in the jungle. Well hell, how things had changed since then. After watching her in the ICU, feeling helpless and powerless to help her while the deadly bacteria ravaged her body from inside out, he had realized something. She could have died. Again.

Life could really end, in a snap.

“She is coming home with us to the Philippines! I will not let her go anywhere else ever again without me!” Mrs. Lavega declared like a lioness out to shred to pieces anyone who’d dare take her precious cub away.

“With all due respect, Ma’am, I think Celine is old enough to decide for herself,” he retorted calmly. He exchanged a highly charged eye contact with Celine. God, he was so thankful she was strong enough to stare him down again. Her will won’t ever bend, and he won’t want her any other way.

“Mom, Dad, bro, may I have a moment with him alone?”

“No!” was Jordan’s immediate reply.

“Please?” She gave her parents and brother a pleading look.

Jordan angrily went out. Her parents left the room with great reluctance.

The moment they were alone, Dare felt more vulnerable than he’d ever been before. Celine was looking at him with astute eyes and he felt naked to the soul. Could she read his mind?

“So...tell me again. What is our understanding?”

He combed his hair with his fingers. She would really make him beg. She was down with a deadly disease, barely able to talk and move and she was overpowering him with such force he felt like bolting from the room. Only, he couldn’t.

Bolting would mean losing her, too. And that was not an option. “I...after everything that happened between us in the mountains...of course, it means something...”
Fuck.

“Does it?”

“Of course!”

“I remember a passionate speech about expectations, or the lack of it.”

“Okay...I’m sorry for that. I was...I am...” he said, thinking of the right words to express his regret over his callousness.

“A cynical bastard.”

He couldn’t help but smile ruefully at that. “I suppose I was.”

“Hmmm. So what are you saying?”

He caught the amusement in her eyes. “You’re enjoying this. You really want me to spell it out.”

“Sure. I want to have a clear picture of what I’m getting into.”

He sighed. Shit, he’d never been at this point before. “I want you to be my girlfriend,” he stated before he lost his nerve.

Silence.

“Define girlfriend.”

His jaw dropped. It wasn’t what he was expecting from her. Shouldn’t she be trying to jump him by now, shouting her “yes” to the rafters?! “Aren’t we playing hard to get here? You loved sucking my cock in the mountains.”

“Don’t be crude, Shrek. Yes, I gave you my body but I’m not sure I’d want to risk anything else with you. You’re hard to the core, Dare. You’ll break my heart. I’ve seen how you did it first hand.”

He stared at her and for the first time in his life, he was in a place where he badly needed someone to be in his life. To actually ask a woman to be part of his life in the real sense of the word was totally alien to him. But he had never felt this kind of need to do so. He cannot let her go. Not now. Not yet.

He went to sit beside her bed and took her hand. He gently kissed it and brought her palm to his cheek. “I’m not a talker...This is not one of my strengths and I didn’t care before.  But since I met you...Celine...I started feeling something...something new. I don’t know how it started...but I found myself missing you....”