“June fourth.”
“Oh, right.I knew that.Well, I’ll have to come to the opening.I already bought my dress for the big opening of Joel’s movieCerebralnext week.”
She felt like she’d been punched in the gut.He was taking his ex-wife as his date to the opening of one of his movies?What the hell?
She’d been foolish to even pretend she had a relationship with him.She hardly knew the guy.He had an ex-wife, with years and years of history, a woman he was obviously on friendly enough terms with to let her keep a key to his house and drop in unannounced at any time of day.
Why the hell would she imagine, even for a second, she had any place in his life?They had an arrangement until the filming was over.Nothing more.And the sooner she got that through her pining heart, the better.
Joel carried allthe grocery bags into the house in one trip.He’d stopped to buy steak and staple items, planning to make a nice dinner for Marissa that night.He wanted to reward her for her submission the night before.
Just thinking about the way she’d looked on her knees at his feet had him hard again.He opened the door from the garage and headed in.
Marissa sat at the kitchen table, the earbuds to her mp3 player in her ears.She was bent over the script, which was odd, since she knew it inside and out by now.
“Hey sweetheart,” he called out.
She looked up, her face devoid of any expression.
A spike of concern shot through him.Something was off.
He set the grocery bags down and walked over to drop a kiss on the top of her head.“What’s up?How was your morning?”
She pulled the earbuds out of her ears and stood up, nodding.“Yeah.Good.I’m going to go for a walk on the beach now.I’ll see you in a little bit, okay?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.Hang on just a minute.”He bit off the “little girl” he almost tacked onto the end.Some instinct told him this wasn’t the moment to bring out the dominance.Still, he couldn’t help his take charge personality.“I’ll go with you,” he said.“I just need to put the groceries away.”
“No, that’s okay.I kinda feel like being alone.”She pushed past him.
“Marissa—” He caught her around the waist but she pried his hand away and stepped back.
“I just need some space right now, okay?”
A blast of cold went through his limbs.“Yeah, okay.We’ll talk when you get back,” he said.
She left without answering.
He stood frozen for a moment, digesting the scene.What had happened to make Marissa shut down?Something with her mom or sister?Maybe they had shamed her for the deal she’d made with him.He grimaced, hating that he might have made a whore out of her in some people’s eyes.He rubbed his chest, which suddenly ached, and not from his workout.Whatever had happened, he wanted to fix it.But he had no clues to help him decode Marissa when she had her walls up.
He put the groceries away, all the joy he’d imagined in cooking for her gone.He paced through the house, looking for clues.He even crossed the line and violated Marissa’s privacy by checking her cell phone, but she hadn’t received or made any calls or texts that day.
He settled in the living room, opening the drapes to look out at the ocean.How long would she be gone?What if she didn’t come back?His heart constricted.No, she had to come back, she’d left her purse here.But what if she packed her things and walked out?
He stood up and began to pace again.An hour and a half passed before he saw Marissa walking up the beach toward the house.Relief rushed through him.He started to head out to meet her, but held himself back.She’d asked for space, he needed to give it to her.His domineering personality would only smother her if she was feeling skittish about their arrangement.
His cell phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket.Damn.His ex-wife.
He answered it, his eyes following Marissa’s path to the back door.“Hey, Allie.What’s up?”
“So, Marissa Sparks, huh?”
He sighed and rubbed his forehead.He had no idea how she’d heard when it hadn’t even hit the tabloids yet, but it wasn’t really her business.
“Was she mad about me stopping by?”
He went still.Downstairs, he heard the back door open and close.“Yeah,” he said.“You could say that.”
“Sorry.I didn’t know she’d be running around naked.I didn’t mean to startle her.”
