The doorknob jiggled behind her and she jumped forward in surprise. Reaching out, she fumbled with the lock in an attempt to latch it before he could open the door. But it was too late. Mark shoved through the narrow opening, his jaw hard and his eyes intent on her. She backed away from him, her heart racing. She knew that look all too well. It was the same one he would get when the rival football team came to town. But this was no game, and Lacey was nobody’s prize.
“I told you to leave me alone,” she said, thankful her voice had come out steady. “I’m done talking to you.”
He shut the door behind him. “Well, I’m not done talking. If you don’t want to say another word, then don’t. But I’ll talk anyway. I’ve never been one to give up easily, and I’m not about to do so now.”
He walked toward her, slow and steady, but she backed up more. When her legs hit the bed, she sank down on it and clutched the bedspread in her fists. Stubbornly, she refused to say anything.
He stopped when he reached the bed, his feet squared off with hers. “I do love you. I’m even willing to wait until you feel the same about me.”
She rolled her eyes. “Gee, how thoughtful of you.”
“I don’t think it will take very long, because no one can hide their feelings from me. I’m like a human lie detector, and I know you have feelings for me.” She opened her mouth to deny feeling anything but anger for him, but he continued on. “I also know you know I wouldn’t sleep with you if I was with someone else. You know I’m telling the truth, but you won’t let yourself believe me. You know what I think? I think you’re punishing me for not writing to you like I said I would. Punishing the stupid boy I was, instead of accepting me here and now.”
“I didn’t realize you earned a psychology degree while you were away,” she muttered, staring at her lap.
“Do you deny that, despite your doubts at first, you realize I’m not with her?”
She opened her mouth ready to deny the truth. To lie through her teeth. But instead she said, “I don’t even know anymore.”
He dropped to his knees, looking up at her from the floor wearing nothing more than a pair of black pants. “I love you, Lacey. I’ve always loved you, but didn’t want to be tied down to anyone or anything. I didn’t want a relationship getting in the way of my career, competing with it. It wouldn’t have been fair to you, and I knew it. Even when I got here tonight, I tried to remind myself how selfish it is to want you. To have you.”
She finally looked at him reluctantly. His eyes were clear and earnest, and she could hear the sincerity in his voice. Was he right? Was she refusing to believe him because she was scared of what would happen to them when he went back to Hollywood? Of course she was.
But how could a relationship between them work?
He extracted her hands from the death grip she had on the comforter and kissed her fingers. “I know it’s scary to think about dating someone in the public eye, and I know I’m asking a lot. But selfishly …” He paused, and for a minute Lacey thought he was going to take it all back. She held her breath. “I can’t resist asking you anymore. Having had you, and tasted you, I can’t possibly walk away. I love you, and I want to be with you. I want to let everyone in the entire world know I’m taken, and it’s real.”
She clung to his hands, unable to believe the words coming out of his mouth. Only one week ago, she’d seen him making eyes at and exchanging sweet nothings with the actress on the screen in his latest film. All the women in the theater melted, and the men rolled their eyes. She had clutched her heart. But this declaration? This blew the other speech out of the water and decimated it.
“Mark.”
“Sh. Let me finish before you say no. I have to tell you how much I’ve always cared about you. I wrote you a dozen letters in the first month after I left, each one begging you to come visit me over Christmas vacation. Each one begging you to move to California, be my roommate.” He paused again, seeming to search for the right words. “I-I ripped them all up and threw them away. You had your own life here. You were normal, and fun, and free. Already, within my first year in California, my time was not my own. My time was planned and plotted and calculated. It still is.
“And I was okay with it. I really was. But being with you for such a short time reminded me what it felt like to be alive. To live life, and laugh, and feel something in here.” He pressed her hands to his chest. “I feel so much when I’m with you, and it’s something I’ve never forgotten. Something I was too scared to examine, even when we were kids.
“I knew it wouldn’t be fair to start anything because I wasn’t ready to commit to you. I knew if I had held you in my arms, I wouldn’t have wanted to leave.”
She hesitated, her mind spinning. Was he saying what she thought he was saying? That he wanted to be with her? Actually make a go of an impossible relationship? “And now? Now you’re ready?”
“Yes.” He dropped her hands and cupped her cheeks, pressing a light kiss to her lips. Pulling back, he stroked her jaw with his thumbs. “I’m here, and I can’t imagine wanting to leave your side ever again. I’m ready to commit myself wholly to you, and you’ll never doubt my dedication. Never doubt my feelings. I was not, I repeat, not in a relationship with Sylvia. Nor have I ever been. I’ve been single ever since I walked away from you.”
She blinked at him. “Wait, what? But Angie—”
“Fake.”
“Sandy?”
“Fake.”
“Wow.” She bit her bottom lip and looked up at him, unable to believe this was happening. Unable to let herself hope it could work. “But I know how busy you are, and I know you can’t move here with me. And I can’t move to California. My parents are here. My life is here. It can’t work.”
He shook his head, his jaw tight. “None of it matters. Not if you want to be with me. If you’ll let me show you how happy I could make you be, I promise you’ll want for nothing. I don’t have to live in California. Plenty of celebrities live in different states. Yeah, I’ll have to leave to film movies and go on publicity tours around the world, but I can live here. I can be here, if you want me to be.”
“You would move here? For me?”
His lips twitched, and he slid his hands into her hair. “Honey, I would do anything for you. All you have to do is say yes.”