Page 17 of A Summer of Stars

I shoved my foot in the same hole, and she somehow was already speaking again.

“We need to discuss boundaries. Guidelines.”

“You want to talk about guidelines while I hop a fence?” I asked, already up and over in two steps. I landed in the grass and quickly picked up and tossed every ball in my vicinity back over.

“I know you’re an actor—”

“Award-winning actor,” I corrected.

“—but I’m not acting out some full-fledged relationship. The planned appearances, the fake dates—fine. But no—no kissing or—”

“No kissing? Do you hear yourself? We’re adults in a relationship, not schoolkids testing the waters before prom. I want to get this over with just as much as you, but it won’t happen by letting peopleguess.”

“Kissing me isn’t going to prove anything to the press,” she argued.

“Haven’t seen me kiss then.”

“I’m not doing anything with you that involves us being intimate.” Her words were like twigs twisted in a bird’s nest: messy, sharp, and sporadic.

I waited for her joke to land.Mierda, she was being serious. No attitude or tone of humor.

I’d never push her. I may hate her, but that didn’t mean I’d cross a line that was hers to draw. But something was off. We were in a contractual relationship for the next four months. Being… intimate… to a surface level was insinuated, wasn’t it?

“Don’t tell me you have a boyfriend or something?” I asked.

“God, no, I’m not looking for a relationship.”

“Do you not want to be seen by the press in a… private capacity?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I just don’t want to kiss you.”

Of course.

I jumped back over, stopping in front of her. I may have been theone who hopped the fence, but she was the flushed one. I glanced at her lips solely to watch the muscle tic in her jaw. It was as satisfying as running a sharpened blade through a row of rosemary. Her fist was balled up at her side with no choice but to remain still.

“If you try something, I’ll vomit,” she seethed. Quiet and contained. But nothing less than furious.

“Promise?” I smirked.

“I’m really not a violent person.”

“I don’t believe that at all.”

“Of course you don’t—you’re the exception.”

She spun on her heel, and I caught her wrist before she could fully turn.

Nari was right, as much as I hated to admit it. This needed to look real. Aldridge making eye contact with a camera would make this look anything but. So I shelved my pride and caught her chin, angling my body to cover the furious look on her face.

It was like catching a wild animal; the way she gritted her teeth. She hated me. It was right there in her blown-out pupils. I thought maybe this was some pitiful annoyance. But no, it was pure loathing.

I pulled her in close to whisper, “Camera at twelve o’clock was about to catch the violent look on your face. Maybe not the best idea.”

“Do you think they’ll catch me at this angle kicking you?”

“Do you speak to all of your boyfriends like this?”

“Pretending to like someone like you will be the hardest thing I ever do.”