Home Bound (17 page)

“What? But why?”

“It’s none of your concern,” I said firmly. “Let’s go.”

“But—”

“Now, Clementine,” I added snarkily.

Her eyes narrowed at me as she stood up. “We’re back to that?”

“We never should have left it.” Then I called Seb to find out where the car was and had the guard walk with us to escort her there.

The drive back was spent in silence. Well, she was silent. I was on the phone with Sebastian and then Levi and Declan to go over who the new team was that was coming in and what high-tech devices we were finally going to bring in to plant around the set. The movie studio and the director were not on board with us putting up surveillance equipment in the beginning. They thought it would somehow leak to the media, and they didn’t want any scenes getting out.

They were singing a different tune now.

By the time we arrived back at the house, I was pretty sure that Evangeline was a little more relaxed, but I was still on edge. We went inside, and I secured every room and made sure that every window was covered.

“We’re clear,” I said to her when I was done.

“Cole...I...I wanted to...I need...”

“Go to bed, Angelina,” I murmured. “Just...go.”

“Can’t we at least talk? I mean, this is my life we’re dealing with. I have the right to know what’s going on!”

She had a point, but at the moment, I was all talked out. “You heard me on the phone while we were driving here. What more do you want?”

“How about a little kindness? A little sympathy?”

“Sorry, Princess, I’m fresh out of that crap.” I stalked to the kitchen and began to make myself a sandwich. I knew she had followed me in, but I was serious. I didn’t want to talk, and sympathy was the last thing on my mind.

I didn’t offer to make her something to eat. I didn’t pour her a drink when I got one for myself. I acted as if I was in the room completely by myself.

Yeah, I was a piece of crap. What else is new?

“Why are you being like this?” she finally asked, her voice cracking with emotion.

“Just here to do my job, Your Highness. That’s all.” I put all the food away and turned and gave her a mock salute. “Sebastian will be here later. I’m sure you’ll wait up for him.” I grabbed my plate and glass and left the room.

It was too much to hope that she’d just let me go. I was halfway to my room when she called my name. I stopped, but I didn’t turn around.

“What am I supposed to do?” she asked quietly.

“Go to your room. Grab a sandwich. Hell, watch some TV. You’re safe in here. No one’s getting in. Just don’t open the curtains or the blinds.” And then I continued to walk away.

“Aren’t you supposed to stay with me?”

“I’m entitled to a fucking break,” I snapped. And then I was done listening. I was done talking.

I was done caring.

As soon as I got to my room, I stepped in and slammed the door.

And cursed Evangeline to hell for making me feel like this.

Evangeline

I
really wished Sebastian was staying with me tonight, instead of Cole.

I didn’t feel safer with him—nothing felt as safe to me as Cole’s rough, hard presence—but things were easier with Sebastian.

He felt familiar, calm, easy. He didn’t stir up all these feelings and emotions like Cole did.

Right now, anger was the primary emotion that had been stirred up toward Cole.

He’d always been unpredictable, swinging from cold rudeness to hot tenderness with the turn of a moment. But he seemed to have suddenly jumped back in time to the beginning of our relationship, when he didn’t know or like me at all.

He
did
know me. He
did
like me. I was absolutely sure of it. Which made his behavior this afternoon all the more maddening.

I was scared enough after seeing those photos. I didn’t need to deal with this too.

Thick-skulled, insensitive ass.

I’d been soaking in a bubble bath for twenty minutes, sipping a glass of red wine and thinking angsty thoughts. About the stalker, who seemed to be getting closer to me by the day.

And about Cole.

Finally, when my attempt to relax and clear my head was obviously a failed effort, I stepped out of the tub, drained the water, and toweled off.

If Cole hadn’t crawled out of his hole when I came out of my bedroom, I was going to call up Sebastian and demand I get a bodyguard who was willing to do his job.

I could be getting killed in here, for all Cole knew or cared.

Simmering with righteous resentment, I threw on a little satin robe and walked out of my bedroom to the sitting room outside my door where Cole was normally stationed.

He was there. Staring out the window into the night. Brooding.

“If I’d known I was getting Heathcliff as a bodyguard,” I snapped, “I would have reconsidered.”

He turned slowly, unsurprised. He’d obviously known I was standing behind him. It was really hard to catch a man like Cole unaware. “And I guess you think I don’t even know who fucking Heathcliff is.”

He sounded so bitter it stung, and I took a step backward. “I don’t care if you know who Heathcliff is. I’m saying you’re
acting
like him—that kind of selfish, vindictive, irrational brooding that accomplishes nothing. So tell me what the hell is wrong with you! What happened today?”

“Nothing happened.”

I was so angry now at his obstinacy that I stepped forward until I was right in front of him, close enough to touch. But I didn’t. “Don’t lie to me. We made love a few days ago, and now you’re acting like we’re worse than strangers. What the hell is wrong?”

As soon as I’d said the words, I wished I could pull them back. I couldn’t believe I’d said “made love” like that. It sounded silly, sentimental, melodramatic—when nothing about a serious relationship had ever been spoken between us.

I knew he’d take the words wrong, and he did. His head snapped up with a cold glare. “We had a couple of good fucks. That doesn’t mean we’re anything but strangers.”

And that was painful too. Very painful. Because I knew we weren’t strangers. I knew the times we’d spent together meant more than just empty sex. “You don’t meant that,” I said, the words strangling a little in my throat. “You’re angry for some reason and trying to push me away, but you don’t mean that.”

He gave his head a little shake. “I’m sorry if you thought there was more, but all we had going for us is sex. And now we don’t even have that.”

The words were like blows, and I turned away from him in the brunt of them. I started to leave, so he wouldn’t see me cry, but then I thought about how he’d looked at me when we’d been having sex the other night.

He was lying to me now. Lying right to my face.

I sucked in a breath and whirled around. “You can say that as much as you want, but I don’t believe you. I don’t know what happened or why you think we can’t be together, but I’m not prepared to accept that. We have something good. Something better than I’ve had in...” The words trailed off as I was hit with a revelation that left me breathless. “Ever.”

That got a reaction from him. He sucked in a sharp, audible breath, and he glanced away. His big body was tense with some sort of coiled energy.

I reached out—unable to resist—and put a hand on his chest.

He took a quick step back, his face growing cold again. “You got it all wrong,” he gritted out. “But at least we had a couple of hot fucks. Thanks for that.”

It felt like he slapped me. “Damn it, Cole, why are you—“

“Enough!” His rough tone immediately silenced me. “I’m here to do my job, and that’s all. I’d suggest you go back to your room, unless you came out here wearing practically nothing for another quick fuck. I’m happy to oblige. It’s as good a way as any to pass the time.”

The words were cold, heartless, and the worst thing was I knew they weren’t sincere.

I wasn’t convinced by this cold, cruel asshole he was trying to be.

But I knew enough to know he wasn’t going to budge on this. Not now anyway.

Maybe never.

I might have to resign myself to never getting what I wanted from him.

To never getting
him
.

It was a brutal thought, and I was fighting tears as I returned to my bedroom without another word.

I made sure not to let him see, though.

A girl’s got to have her pride, even when her heart’s been broken.

***

I
didn’t get much sleep that night, but it was more from stewing about Cole than from worries about the stalker.

While I was in the Maxwell house with all its security and with Cole right outside my door, I felt safe.

As soon as I left the house the next morning, though, my fear kicked up into overdrive.

I was chilled with anxiety as the driver took us to the studio. It felt like there was a threat around every corner, lurking at every stoplight.

Cole was tense and silent, but I was too distracted to really focus on him.

I was used to being in the public eye. I’d lived that way most of my life. But being hunted like this was different. I felt exposed in a way I never had before.

I hated the feeling. Hated it. Desperately wanted it to end.

I made a mess of my morning scenes at the park. I performed the lines and stood in the right places and did all of the correct actions, but even I could tell there was no heart to my acting. I was as wooden as I’d ever been.

I was a professional. I’d done my job when I was going through break-ups, when a friend died, when I was dealing with a flurry of negative publicity. I’d always been able to put it aside and focus on the scene at hand, though.

Not today.

I was mortified and upset when the director finally called a break, saying we’d try again in an hour.

I knew Cole had been watching the whole time, and I didn’t want to know what he’d been thinking about me.

He walked me back to my trailer, making me wait outside while he carefully searched the interior—even though a big, rough-looking guy had been standing guard at the door the whole time.

When he’d determined it was clear, he waved me in.

I sat down on the couch and hugged myself, telling myself to get it together.

So someone was stalking me. So Cole didn’t want me.

It didn’t mean my life was over.

“I’m going to catch him,” Cole murmured after a minute.

He’d been watching me some more. Probably felt sorry for me. Evidently my pitifulness had broken through even his thick, stubborn exterior.

“I know.”

“We’ve made progress. We’re closing in. I know it doesn’t seem like we’re getting anywhere, but we are.”

I wasn’t looking at him. “I know.”

I was shaking now and trying to hold the trembling back by tightening my arms around my middle.

I hated being like this. I wished the last month could just start over.

Cole made a rough sound in his throat and sat down beside me, pulling me into the protection of his arms.

I broke down a little, shaking against him, taking comfort in who he was—even though he was part of the reason I was such a mess.

I could feel emotion in his embrace. I could sense real, deep feeling. He was holding me like I was precious, like he needed me, like he wanted nothing more in the world.

And suddenly I knew it was true.

I pulled back just enough to look up in his face. “Cole, I need you,” I admitted.

His face twisted briefly. “I know. I’m going to keep you safe. I promise.”

“I mean more than that. I need all of you. Even after the stalker is caught.”

He jerked his face to the side. “Evangeline, I can’t—“

“Yes, you can. I don’t know why you’ve gotten it into your head that we can’t be together. I don’t know why you’re so convinced that you’re somehow not good enough for me. But it’s nonsense. It’s lies that you’re telling yourself. I really think we belong together.”

The words came spilling out, the deepest expression of my heart, but I didn’t regret them. I knew they were true. I knew they were right.

But Cole released his arms and stood up, slightly awkwardly. He wasn’t looking me in the eyes. “I don’t think so. It’s a different man you want, and a different man you need.”

And those words were final. I knew it. And the hope I’d been holding onto died a sudden death.

I was numb with it. Had no idea what to say, what to do. I stared up at him blankly and hoped the world would turn enough to make sense again, not hurt this way.

He stared back at me for a long, thick moment and then turned his back to me with a guttural sound.

He was reaching for the door when there was a tap on it.

Matt was standing outside the door, a sheath of papers in his hand. “I have some notes on the scene from the director.”

“Well, you’re not getting into her trailer. I’ll take them.” Cole blocked the entrance and grabbed the papers from the younger man.

“But...” Matt began.

Cole handed me the papers and then stepped outside, keeping Matt from coming in.

I wondered again if Matt was the stalker. He was kind of strange and quiet. He seemed to have a weird crush on me.

It was possible. It would make sense.

I just wished Cole would get proof so this whole thing could be over.

There was another tap on the door, before I could start to read the notes. Cole stuck his head in. “Janelle is coming in here with a message from Pete. I’m not letting Matt in.”

“Okay.”

I could well imagine what the director wanted to tell me. Get it together, or he’d have to find another star for his film.

Janelle came in with a friendly smile. “Sorry to bother you.”

“It’s fine.” I smiled back at her politely and relaxed against the back of the couch.

“Everyone is all suspicious of Matt all of a sudden, but I think he seems pretty harmless. He just has the hots for you, is all.”

“Sometimes people seem harmless when they aren’t.”

“I guess so. Anyway, the director was kind of concerned this morning, but I told him you were dealing with a lot, so he should give you a little time.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I’m sure I can get it together soon.” It was nice that Janelle was being sympathetic, but I really wanted to get the message and then be alone for a little while so I could have a good cry.