Page 20 of Captivated By You
CHAPTER
EIGHT
CLAUDIA
I despise talking about myself. I hated it before when everyone I was around already knew anything and everything about me. And I hated it more now that there was a truckload full of trash Liam could find out about me with a whip of his fingers on a keyboard.
I curled my hands around the white metal railing and squeezed my eyes closed. I needed to tell him.
It was the last thing I wanted to talk about.
Infidelity had a PR team that could disperse information regarding their more famous couples slowly and cautiously, or they could rip it off like a Band-Aid. When it came time, Liam and I needed to come out to the world on our terms, not the paparazzi.
Between his public relations people and Infidelity’s, there had to be a way to get out who he was connected to without causing a further shitstorm for us.
Because for some damn reason, I actually liked the mega superstar. When he wasn’t acting like a jerk, insinuating he could take my body whenever he wanted, and when he wasn’t ignoring me, he sounded like he had his shit together.
Lucky man.
I’d been lost long before I was alone.
Pushing and pulling against the railing, I moved in a semi-push up motion and tipped my head back. The sun soaked into my skin, heating me instantly while the breeze provided enough cool air I wasn’t a sweaty, humid mess.
In the distance, birds chirped and the waves swooshed as they curled into the beach. Even with my eyes closed, I could picture the scene in front of me. Large, exotic plants and palm trees. Teal waters and white-capped waves rolling and brushing against white sandy beaches.
If there was a word to describe how beautiful Liam’s house was, I didn’t know it. And I was a Lit major. Words were my thing.
The gentle swoosh of the glass door echoed behind me and footsteps followed. Of course he’d follow me.
“Where in Georgia are you from?”
I laughed softly and forced my eyes open. Yep, the view was as beautiful. Exotic, romantic…so relaxing I wanted to settle into the wicker chaise lounge and never leave.
“Savannah,” I all but whispered. “Why?”
His shadow fell over my arms and then he was next to me at the railing. Arms crossed over his chest, I was inches from his arm. From him. From his ink that made me want to slide my tongue all over it.
Hot damn. The man was too magnetic for safety.
“Is it wrong to want to get to know the woman I’m spending the next year with?”
A muscle jumped in his jaw and his eyes were narrowed, focused on the sea.
He had a point. “No.”
His arms loosened, and he placed them on the railing, matching my stance. Our hands brushed against each other and he didn’t move to separate them. A current swam beneath my flesh where we touched. From my pinkie finger up my forearm to where the heat of his skin barely grazing mine disappeared under his T-shirt.
“What do you want to know?” I asked.
“For starters,” he turned to me and grinned. That mouth-watering grin I’d seen plastered on magazine covers all over the world for the last several years. “I think I should know your name.”
“It’s Claudia.” Two black brows arched, lines rippled on his forehead and I cringed.
“Is it that hard?”
Yeah, it was that hard. “Townsend,” I bit out, grinding my teeth together.
“Is there something I need to know?” he asked, turning to face me. One of his hands flew to his hips and the other gripped the railing. LOUD popped on his whitening fingers from his grip.
