LILY
I honestly had planned on waiting right where Declan had asked me to until he came back and finished what we’d started. There was nothing I wanted more. But then Colton Adams was crooking a finger at me and calling me downstairs for some reason. And in some strange twist of fate, I’d found myself doing exactly that … leaving the balcony and moving through the crowd toward the direction I hoped Colton was in.
I felt a sharp tug on my arm, stopping me short in between a group of large men I didn’t know and couldn’t place. I gasped in shock at first, violently shaking my arm to release it from the hold before looking up to see who was manhandling me. Colton Adams’s crystal-blue eyes were staring at me, his mouth twisted up in an amused smile.
“Did I hurt you?” he asked as he leaned toward me, his voice thick and rich and utterly recognizable from all the blockbuster movies he’d been in. If I closed my eyes, I’d still know exactly who was speaking.
“No, you just startled me, was all,” I said, feeling a little bit starstruck.
Colton Adams was downright gorgeous and not stick thin or short, like most of the other celebrities I’d seen on the lot.
“I shouldn’t have just grabbed you like that, but you were walking so fast, and I didn’t want you to get away after I asked you to come down here,” he explained like it all made perfect sense when it made none.
I stared at him, listening to the way he spoke. It was an odd thing—to be around someone you’d only seen in movies in real life. They talked and moved the same way they did in their box-office hits. I forgot for a second that I was having a conversation with Colton Adams and not a character he played.
“Do we know each other or something?”
Maybe he had me confused with someone else. It happened to me a lot. Apparently, I had one of those faces that people always said looked like someone they knew. There was no other logical explanation for what was currently happening or why he’d summoned me to his side.
He smiled again, his eyes looking me up and down. “We don’t know each other, but I wanted to change that.” He extended his perfectly manicured hand in my direction. “I’m Colton,” he said as though I was possibly the only person on earth who didn’t know his name.
I smiled in return, my hand reaching out for his. Soft. His hands were so soft. Probably softer than mine, and that was all kinds of wrong. He might not be the version of pretty like the other actors were but supple hands meant that he most likely didn’t like to get dirty.
I bet Declan gets all kinds of dirty, I thought to myself before remembering that Colton was waiting for me to tell him my name.
“Lily,” I said, noting the fact that not a single spark had ignited with our touch.
I’d assumed that coming into contact with this gorgeous specimen of a man, I’d at least feel something resembling lust. But no chills raced through me, no bolts of lightning zipped, and no erratic heartbeats. The only thing I had felt was general attraction, but anyone with the gift of sight would be attracted to this man. He was simply that good-looking. Almost too good-looking, if you asked me. He was like a freaking work of art, and I found myself staring, wondering how it was possible that someone could be made this perfectly.
“A beautiful name for a beautiful woman,” Colton said before kissing the top of my hand, exactly where Declan had kissed it earlier. The exact same spot!
Sadness ripped through me when I realized that Declan’s lips weren’t the last to touch this particular piece of my skin. Skin I hadn’t planned on washing and now wanted to wash clean. Shaking my head to rid myself of such juvenile thoughts, I grinned at Colton and thanked him for the compliment as I pulled my hand away and rubbed it with my thumb. Angry. I was angry that he’d stolen Declan’s kiss from my hand. Angry that he’d taken something that didn’t belong to him. I was being silly, and I knew it, but I still couldn’t help it.
“So, what do you do, Lily?” Colton asked, his chiseled body still angled toward my own as he reached for my arm and placed it in his.
I briefly considered pulling it away but didn’t want to cause a scene, so I kept it there as I leaned toward him, so we could actually hear each other over the noise of the party.
“I work for the studio,” I shouted as pride filled me.
Even though I didn’t love my actual job position, I adored working for this company. I knew how lucky I was to be part of such a coveted studio. It seemed like everyone in the entertainment industry wanted to work here at some point in their career, and I was one of the ones who actually got to.
“Do you enjoy it?”
“I love it,” I said before glancing around, looking for any signs of Declan but failing to see him. There was no way I’d be able to find him in this madness. Not only wasn’t I tall enough to see over people’s heads, but there were also waytoo many here to find one in particular. I resigned myself to the notion that I’d most likely never see Declan again until we were back at the office on Monday morning. I wondered what that would mean for us.
Would he still want to finish what he started, or would we pretend it never happened?
“I bet it’s a great place to work,” Colton added, bringing my thoughts from Declan back to the heartthrob standing near me, who should be eliciting far more of my attention.
“It is. What about you? Do you love being an actor?” I asked before feeling rather stupid. Who the hell wouldn’t enjoy acting? But I didn’t know what to say to someone like him. It wasn’t like we had anything in common.
“I do actually.” He lowered his lips toward my ear, and I found myself leaning away slightly with his nearness. “I get to meet beautiful women like you every day and come to really great parties like this one,” he said with a wide smile, and instead of finding his response charming, I found it somewhat off-putting.
Thats what he loves about his job?
“You really are stunning,” he said once more, and I let out an uncomfortable breath.
If I had been a little enamored by Colton Adams when he first called me down here, it was quickly losing its luster. Cheesy pickup lines didn’t do anything for me. Neither did compliments about my looks, which I had little to no control over. That type of flattery meant nothing. This guy didn’t know me. Saying that I was beautiful was superficial, surface level, easy. Call me crazy, but I’d rather be complimented on my brains or my witty personality.
My grandmother always reminded me that looks faded with time, but who you were on the inside never truly went away. It was one of those things I always held on to … and valued when it came to men.
Glancing around the party once more, I realized again how futile of an effort it was to look for Declan, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself. I wanted to find him. It was him I wanted to be standing next to, not this movie star who meant nothing to me.
“Am I boring you?” Colton asked, and I laughed.
His question hadn’t even been that funny, but for whatever reason, I couldn’t stop myself from tossing my head back and laughing like it was the funniest thing I’d heard all night. Colton’s arm wrapped around my back, and instead of moving out of his grasp, I stayed put, my arm gripping on to his shoulder for balance.
“You’re not boring me. I was just …” I thought about lying to him but realized that I owed this guy nothing, no matter who he was. “I was looking for someone.”
“And that someone isn’t me?” He batted his eyelashes, and I rolled my eyes to stop myself from groaning.
“I didn’t even know you before ten minutes ago,” I said, and he nodded.
“But you know me now. We could get to know each other better.” He raised his eyebrows, indicating that he was serious and asking me. When I didn’t immediately respond, he phrased the question differently. “Lily, do you want to get out of here?”