Page 21 of Kiss Me Forever

"I have no doubt about that," he said dryly. "We should go downstairs and dry off. You're going to freeze up here.

"I'll take the cold over the nausea any day, but you go ahead."

He shook his head. "We'll stay close, keep each other warm."

She sighed as he moved closer. Maybe the universe wasn't on her side after all.

Chapter Four

An hour later, Andrea jumped off the yacht with overwhelming relief. She was so happy she almost kissed the ground, but she'd already embarrassed herself enough as it was. She muttered some quick goodbyes to Alex's friends, who seemed even more curious about her relationship with Alex after seeing them both descend from the upper deck in wet clothes. But at this moment, she didn't care what anyone thought. She'd dried off since the ocean had given them both a cold shower, but she was still cold and a little queasy. She just wanted to get dry and warm and hope her stomach would settle down.

After getting in the car, Alex turned the heat on high and sent her a quick look. "Feeling better?"

"Immensely."

"You're getting the color back in your face."

She pulled down the visor and was horrified at the way her tangled, damp hair was falling out of her ponytail. She pulled out her hairband and ran her hand through her hair, which didn't do much to improve her appearance. There was more pink in her cheeks now, but the little makeup she'd had on was completely gone. She did not look at all like any of the other women who'd left the party in the same condition in which they'd arrived.

"Checking the damage?" Alex asked. "You don't look that bad."

"The mirror says otherwise. But I am happy that at least I didn't throw up on you."

"I'm happy about that, too."

She put the visor back up and settled in her seat as the heat finally began to stop her shivers. "Are we going back to your house?"

"Yeah. I'll drop you off at your car."

"I was hoping we might have time to talk or that you could give me a tour of your home."

"Sorry, but I have an appointment. We'll talk later at the cocktail reception for the mayor."

"Another party?"

"You wanted to see how I live. This is what I do on the weekends," he said with a shrug.

"Actually, I want to get to know you, not just follow you around. Is there any way you can postpone what you're doing this afternoon?"

"I'm afraid not."

Frustration ran through her. "You can pretend that letting me tag along at parties is doing an interview, but we both know it isn't. If you didn't want to tell your story, you shouldn't have agreed to be the cover story."

"I've certainly had second thoughts about that in the past twenty-four hours."

"Do you want to pull out? If you do, you better say so now, because the magazine is up against a tight deadline."

"No, I honor my commitments," he said, shooting her a look as he stopped the car at a light.

"Great. Then let's set up a time to talk, to have a real conversation, either before tonight's party or after. Or we skip the party and meet tomorrow," she said, trying to get their relationship back on a more professional level.

Alex didn't answer right away. In fact, he seemed to be pondering something fairly serious, then he said, "All right. You can come with me now."

"Where are we going?"

"To hell and back."

"What?"

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