Page 27 of Hollywood King
I let my phone slide out of my hand gently onto the carpet and stared at the ceiling. My head hurt, and I had no idea how I was going to separate Heath from his money without giving myself away. He’d always known I had no interest in money at all.
I lay that way until someone knocked on my door. The driver who had been in the car…when—I didn’t meet his eyes, and I followed him down the stairs so he wouldn’t see the blush burning my ears.
He drove me to Heath’s house, and I had to say, seeing it the second time out of a medication haze and lack of sleep, it was impressive. I approached the door, and Heath opened it from the other side. His bare feet caught my attention first. Then the jeans and t-shirt which barely fell over the top button of the denim.
I didn’t speak, because I was sure I’d make some kind of noise at the sight of him. He stepped back, opening the door wide, and I entered the lion’s den voluntarily this time.
He led me into the kitchen, and I remembered the cookies from last time. Why were we standing in the kitchen? He sat on a stool on the bar side of his vast granite countertop. I stood awkwardly.
This middle space we occupied confused me. There was a palpable tension floating in the air, and we knew how we both felt. And yet he didn’t seem to want to push, and I was happy for it.
After a minute of silence, him staring, me looking anywhere but at him, I sat on one of the other stools. He spun on his to face me, leaning in. I caught the spicy citrus scent of him and tried not to let it drag me back in time.
“Is this how it’s always going to be between us?” he asked.
“How’s that?” I fidgeted with the hole in the knee of my jeans, still refusing to glance his way.
“Fire or ice. We either burn each other up or freeze each other out. I understand if you don’t want to be with me. I hurt you by not returning when you thought I would.”
That caught my attention, and I hiked up my chin. “You didn’t hurt me.”
“Well then, why are you adamant about keeping so much distance between us?”
“Were you in the same car as well? Barely a few hours together, and you’re right, we burn each other up. Bring out the savage in both of us. It’s not a healthy relationship. We’ve never had a healthy anything.”
“And passion? Does that have a place in your world?”
“Passion is well and good, but it doesn’t pay bills or take—” I stopped and met his eyes deliberately now. Putting on the doctor face I’d perfected over years of informing families their loved ones had died. It never hurt any less, but at the very least, they didn’t have to see their grief reflected back at them. And in this moment, I was happy I could use it.
“Take what?”
“Nothing. What did you want to talk about? You brought me here to discuss something, and it’s not us.”
It was his turn to fidget and pull away. I wondered if he could identify my tells as well as I could his.
“I’ll just come out and be honest. Your brother sold me the majority shares of Earnshaw Pictures. I basically own it, except for what you hold in your trust.”
“A trust that is bankrupt, as he showed us.”
He leaned a little back, pressing his absurdly bare feet into the rungs of the stool. “Well, with me owning it and combining it with my own empire, it won’t be nothing.”
Hope burst to bloom in my chest, but I couldn’t let him find out the truth. I had to play it cool. Too bad he could see through me easier than I could see my own emotions in myself. “So what does that mean? I’m no longer poor if I choose not to be? Are you trying to buy my shares to hold ownership over everything?”
“Do you want me to buy them?”
“Could you?”
A smile curved at the corner of his mouth, something small and sinful, enough to make my insides melt a little. “I can buy anything I want.”
I can buy youis what I heard.
And why did something flutter in my belly at the idea. I squared my shoulders and continued with my mission. “Well, if you can buy anything, I guess we need to set up a business meeting. I’m not as easily bought as my brother is.”
He licked his lip, and I watched his wet tongue slide down, as if it were in slow motion.Good lord, woman, get your shit together. You can’t discuss business in this state.
“What did you have in mind?”
“Dinner, tomorrow? You can pick the place if you like. I prefer it to be as private as we are able to get. No paparazzi.”
