Falling Into You (43 page)

There are still so many words that are unspoken between us. The past
day has
been like falling back into
a
dream, but it won’t last forever and she knows it and I know it. The city stretched beneath us, I groan a little bit and pull back.

“We need to talk about some things.” I say it
but
it’s absolutely the last thing I want to do.

“
We do
.”

“I destroyed the trust between us.” My voice is flat. It’s a statement and not a question.

A sigh. “I had a hand in that, too.” I know she’s referring to the night in the hotel room and I bite back the words on my tongue.

She looks me dead in the eye then. “Things happen. You can’t have perfection all the time.
” I want to tell her that she’s wrong, that if
she can find a way to trust me again
, that we can have perfection all the time.

“
It hurt. It hurt so much that I
never wanted to see you again
.
” She bites her lip.
“
But then you were st
anding there, at my door and
there wasn’t a
choice
.”

I yank her to m
e. “Thank G
od. I hadn’t really gotten past that part of my plan in my head.”

Her
voice is low, serious. “I
f you ever pull anything like that again, I will never forgive you. Ever. Room service be damned.”

“If I ever pull anything like that again, I’ll kill myself,” I say, meaning it.

She shakes her head. “Nope. I’ve already thought up some creative plans
and you’re not going to take that away from me
.
I don’t want to waste
the
thousands of hours
I’ve spent
watching bad cop shows and spy movies
.
They’ve made me a criminal mastermind.
”

After a long deep breath, she looks at me. “Why, Chris?”

“When I saw you and
Ben
on the roof
, I just went crazy.
The thought of you with someone else…”

She
interrupts
me. “
Sophia
called. For some reason, I decided to listen to her.
She also said that she seduced you, and I know
Sophia
well enough to know that she probably pulled out all the stops to make that happen.”

Her eyes question me. “She told me that she lied to you, that she told you that
Ben
and I
were together.
I’m sorry that you believed that. I’m sorry that you believed I could do something like that.”

“I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t, but I saw the two of you and something in me snapped. When you walked in on us, I was stopping it. She was never going to be a substitute for you.”

I
can tell that she believes
me, but it isn’t enough
. T
he damage that I’ve caused isn’t going away
that easily
, despite the magic of the l
ast day that we’ve spent in each other’s arms.

“I didn’t have to imagine you being with someone else,” she says. “I saw it with my own eyes.”

“Tha
t’s never going to happen again.
”

Her eyes are on mine for long minutes and I don’t say anything because she’s making a final decision now and I know it. Her face relaxes finally, and she nods. “I know.” She laces our fingers together and I wrap her in for a long hug, only drawing back when she starts to speak again. “Again, I watch a lot of spy movies. I’m pretty sure I could get in and out without anyone ever knowing that I was there. Speaking of
movies
…”

I groan. “Don’t remind me.”

She pokes me, squealing. “Chris Jensen! Chris Jensen! He’s so sexy.”

“
I’m now a tragic hero.
I should thank
Ben
for that. That punch made Marcus extremely happy
.”

She giggles. “He would totally hate that. I’m pretty sure he would try to rip your head off if he ever saw you again.”

I stay silent. I don’t tell her about his call,
his
words that I can’t entirely remove from my brain.

“
You’re going to be a movie star.
”
She
thinks it over before speaking again. “You are a movie star.”

James Ross and Hollywood and
Prague
and movie sets
seem far away now
. I’m not sure what else to say.

“It’s a job.
”
Those
words aren’t quite right, either, and she knows it.

“It’s a lifestyle,” she counters.

“Maybe.” I sigh.

“Have paparazzi been
following you?”

I don’
t tell her what it’s been like, that
I’ve been barraged by lights and people and cameras
and it feels like normal is something of the past
.
I don’t really believe the next words I say, although I hope for them. “Maybe they’ll leave me alone now that my dad’s funeral is over.”

“I’m
sorry I wasn’t there.”

“You were. The finger
paint
.”

I’m begging her with my eyes to drop it, and she gets the message, like she always does. It’s one of a million things that I love about her.
“I hope you’re keeping that
card
. It’s going to be worth a million dollars so
meday
. It’s an original, you know.”

“It’s being framed as we speak.”

She looks just the same as when I met her then, beautiful a
nd laughing and open and honest.
I kiss her a hundred times, a thousand times.

T
here’s one question let unanswered. “I have to know—why did you run from me that night? What happened? I thought it was that you
were with him, but
…”
The memory of
Ben
saying “to hell and back” and the pain in her eyes in the hotel flits across my memory.

“It
wasn’t you.”
She’s still hiding something and the fact that she won’t share it pains me. “Some things are better left alone.”

“No secrets, right?”

She sighs. “Everybody has a sad story, Chris. Everybody. Even me. But it’s an old sad story and I don’t want to tell it. I want to think about tomorrow and the next tomorrow and I can’t do that if I tell you a long, old, sad story right now.”

I’m not satisfied and she can tell, so she spins me to face her and continues.
“I was broken a long time ago. That night in the hotel room, I remembered something that I didn’t want to remember and running seemed like the only feasible option at the time. Hey. Hey.”

I realize that I’ve been turning away from her but she pulls me back so that we’re looking at each other in the eye. “I want to…I need to move on with my life. It’s been a long time coming. And you know everything about me that’s worth knowing and I love you. I love you so much.”

I breathe into her hair. “I love you, too.” She’s locked whatever it is up and away. I can’t get the thought of it festering between us out of me, but
her eyes are focused on me, big and blue, and
she is so beautiful
that I push it away
.
It’s enough for now. And I still haven’t asked the most important question. I don’t phrase it that way, because I want to make absolutely sure that she doesn’t say no.
“I want to be with you forever.”

She takes a long breath. “Forever’s a really long time.”

“Not long enough.
Be with me. Now. Always.” My voice is softer, and I’m asking.

“I’m pretty sure that’s not a James Ross-approved statement,” she teases.

“I’m pretty sure I’m not James Ross.
”

“Yes.” She’s looking deep into me and a smile is creeping slowly across her face and her whole body is radiating warmth.

“Yes to what?”

“I want to be with you. Now. Always.
I want to come to LA and Prague and I want to
be with you.
”

I grasp her to me. “You won’t regret it.”

“I better not. Spy movies, remember?”

I kiss her over our laughter and
I remember her words that I’ve never been quite able to understand. “I think I could get used to this whole perfectly happy thing.”

She smiles,
but
there’s a flicker of a shadow in her eye that I try desperately to ignore.

“Perfectly happy sounds pretty damn good.”

Read on for a sneak peek of the sequel to
Falling Into You
.

New York

7
Years Later

Hallie

I rush down the sidewalk, clutching my bag and tucking away a few loose strands of hair that won’t stay in place.
I’m late, because I spent the last hour deciding whether or not I would be able to leave the hotel room.

Eventually, through sheer hope that this meeting wouldn’t be as bad as I knew it was going to be and knowing that it couldn’t be avoided, I put on my shoes and walked out the door.
I glance up at the cool gray façade and let out a long sigh.
I look down to see the
flash of a diamond catch
the
light
.

This is for him. It’s what he wanted. Not for you, I remind myself.

An impossibly beautiful girl with black hair greets me. “Can I help you?”

“I have a meeting at noon with Mr. Rivers.”

“Name, please.”

“
It’s probably under
Hallie
Caldwell.”

She pages through the list, checking it and then smiles up at me. “Right away, Miss Caldwell. I’ll tell him that you’re here and he should be down shortly. Is there anything that I can get for you while you’re waiting?”

“I’m fine. T
hank you very much.”

My hands dance i
n my lap and I try to calm them. T
he feeling of dread that’s fallen over me
ever since I got off the plane
is heavy now.
I twist the ring around my finger in endless circle
s
, trying to remember why I had ever agreed to this in the first place.

“The elusive Miss Caldwell,” a booming voice announces
. I look up to see a bear of a man hulking
into the lobby.

I stand up, stumbling on my feet a little bit. Stupid heels.

“Hello.” I’m trying to be profe
ssional, grown up, but my voice and hands and body are all trembling uncontrollably
. He doesn’t seem to notice,
instead taking
both
of my hands into
one of
his
and placing the other at the small of my back.

“
I’m Jeff, head of production for FFG Studios. It’s nice to meet you in the flesh.”

He eyes me, his tongue running over his lips. “
Come this way.” He ushers me into an elevator and presses 47. “How’s the trip to New York? The hotel treating you all right? If there’s anything you need, just tell me and I’ll put someone on it. How long are you here for?” His questions all run together, like he’s used to doing the talking and not so much used to asking.

I open my mouth to say something in response, but he
continues. “
I’m not supposed to tell you this, but we love the script. We’re basically willing to sell our souls to get it,” he whispers conspiratorially.

My
lips curl involuntarily into a smile. “You were definitely not supposed to tell me that.”

“She speaks! You should keep doing that, honey. It looks good on you.”

I try
to smile but I’m pretty sure I come
off as disgust
ed
. He shakes his head and clucks, and I see
Ben
’s
agent
(my
agent
—I correct
myself
) sitting in a chair outside of a conference room with a long table.

Jeff
looks at her and then back at me. “You two probably need a minute to talk. Don’
t take too long.
”
The flash of his smile reveals even rows of
too-white teeth.

Eva’s dressed in a red suit and her hair is tied up in an elegant chignon
. He
r
face lights up when she sees me; she knew my trepidations about this silly meeting and probably figured I wouldn’t show up
.